Safe aftermarket LED headlight bulb info, finds and discussion

[alexrex20]

Just get LED Jeep headlights and mount them in your grille.

 

[danbfree]

Has anyone found an oem-style LED array (like porsches) that could be utilized on our cars? If we could get a bare-bucket headlight module it shouldn't be too tough to 3d print a prototype frame for it.

They're bound to throw light a lot more efficiently than making an LED try to emulate the emission pattern of a halogen so it'll work in a reflective housing.


In summary, I want headlights that are LASERS

With Audi and others doing lasers now i'm sure some options will become available soon, but honestly with even the cheap MAXGTRS and the Hikari at triple the price giving s great clean cutoff, I am seeing LED's come a LONG ways in just a few years to the point they are perfectly acceptable as long as you do your research and get the right ones.

 

[KKaWing]

Has anyone found an oem-style LED array (like porsches) that could be utilized on our cars? If we could get a bare-bucket headlight module it shouldn't be too tough to 3d print a prototype frame for it.

They're bound to throw light a lot more efficiently than making an LED try to emulate the emission pattern of a halogen so it'll work in a reflective housing.


In summary, I want headlights that are LASERS

Closest thing is Morimoto M-LEDs (or try the Chinese equivalents but unbranded lenses are notoriously bad). Crack open headlight, take off the glare shield then just slot the back through the hole and sandwich it with the screw thing in the back. Pop in a lens shroud, reseal head light and blammo, adjust and good to go.

http://www.morimotohid.com/projectors/bi-led-morimoto-m-led-headlight-projectors.html

 

[danbfree]

Closest thing is Morimoto M-LEDs (or try the Chinese equivalents but unbranded lenses are notoriously bad). Crack open headlight, take off the glare shield then just slot the back through the hole and sandwich it with the screw thing in the back. Pop in a lens shroud, reseal head light and blammo, adjust and good to go.

http://www.morimotohid.com/projectors/bi-led-morimoto-m-led-headlight-projectors.html

Whoa, this is like retro-fitting, very cool.. Morimoto is Chinese too, made there anyway, but under quality control of a US based company... maybe the founders were Japanese-American, but they aren't located in Japan at all, LOL... Anyway, again those look cool, but I'd have to see how H11 has to be modded to work and they are of course very expensive.

 

[KKaWing]

Whoa, this is like retro-fitting, very cool.. Morimoto is Chinese too, made there anyway, but under quality control of a US based company... maybe the founders were Japanese-American, but they aren't located in Japan at all, LOL... Anyway, again those look cool, but I'd have to see how H11 has to be modded to work and they are of course very expensive.

Thing with lenses, it's hard to tell until you actually light it up, it is also the place to cut the most corners on / reuse rejects. Maybe here would be the place to spend a bit more money so you don't have to go and swap for another lens as this is one of those test before install and never take it apart again things.

 

[danbfree]

Still impressed with the MAXGTRS, but they twist too easily and may not stay with the stalk at 12/6 and LED's at 3/9. Recommended list has been tweaked and also have removed recommendation of pass-through rear covers... With the rear covers, if the back of the bulb's fan heatsink is too long to fit inside the housing completely, then unfortunately there isn't enough side clearance to really fit them well at all. Personally I leave them off completely, but for those who insist on rear covers I'd stick to the short ones like the Hikari or the SEALIGHT and use the factory rear cover.

 

[KKaWing]

Counter intuitive, but back the screw out a bit on the socket. It's a bit too far in for the plastic ring to catch.

 

[danbfree]

Counter intuitive, but back the screw out a bit on the socket. It's a bit too far in for the plastic ring to catch.

So you mean the screw on the base of the LED bulb itself? I'm trying to visualize this...

 

[KKaWing]

The black ring part where it locks into the socket? There should be a really tiny hole with an eaually tiny screw at the side.

 

[danbfree]

The black ring part where it locks into the socket? There should be a really tiny hole with an eaually tiny screw at the side.

Thanks! I'll definitely take a look at that tonight and try backing that screw off a tiny bit...

 

[KKaWing]

Thanks! I'll definitely take a look at that tonight and try backing that screw off a tiny bit...

The little silver screw right in the middle of the left bulb in the middle.

 

[danbfree]

The little silver screw right in the middle of the left bulb in the middle.

Yeah, I found the little round hole in the black base then spun it until I found the screw... On one it kept spinning and spinning and could feel something in the stalk change but barely made the spinning stiffer, while on the other one, it took just a little turning of the screw to make the spinning a lot stiffer, so they are definitely better now... thanks man!

I just wish we didn't have to order them directly from China just to get affordable ones with known clean cut off, there needs to be more LED in reflector reviews on the regular so the average person can get ones that are good and not glaring... Adding coupon code for 10% off the Hikari's I found on BulbFacts.com to first post. They are still the best under $100, probably just as good as the boutique brands that are ~$150.

 

[Blinkie]

I just picked up a set of the Hikaris with the Philips Lumileds and I'm impressed with a small complaint about fitment.
For the $118 Canadian that I paid, I'm pretty pleased.

A regular trip I drive includes a stretch of utterly black highway with several reflective signs about 1/2 mile down from the entrance to the road; with the factory halogens you'd never know there were signs until you were nearly on top of them, with the Hikari LEDs I can just barely see the signs start reflecting as soon as I get on the road. Not enough to see what they indicate but enough to know they're there, full visibility is a pretty comfortable distance out and probably more than double the distance you get with the halogens.

I did not adjust the lights as they measured at identical height on my garage door and so far I have not had anyone flash, I also tested them by sitting in a friend's car facing in the parking lot and there is no glare that I can perceive, head on or offset. The LED light looks a bit fractured or clumpy on the ground or against a wall but doesn't seem to throw out any glare so I'm not letting it stress me. There is a fair amount of light leakage to the sides which I hadn't noticed on the halogens but admittedly I never thought to look.

The driver's side LED fit fine and mounted easily but the passenger side was a very tight squeeze and I ended up carving about 1/16" of plastic from the inner lip of the headlight opening. I think getting them out would be very challenging but hopefully that's a problem for the distant future.

 

[ROCKYFiestta]

i had no issue like you stated and cut nothing both of mine went in very easily i removed the headlight completely and did it on my kitchen table. also mine fit perfectly but i do have a 2014 so dont know if they did change the lights or maybe in canada they use different headlight housing.[8

 

[danbfree]

I just picked up a set of the Hikaris with the Philips Lumileds and I'm impressed with a small complaint about fitment.
For the $118 Canadian that I paid, I'm pretty pleased.

A regular trip I drive includes a stretch of utterly black highway with several reflective signs about 1/2 mile down from the entrance to the road; with the factory halogens you'd never know there were signs until you were nearly on top of them, with the Hikari LEDs I can just barely see the signs start reflecting as soon as I get on the road. Not enough to see what they indicate but enough to know they're there, full visibility is a pretty comfortable distance out and probably more than double the distance you get with the halogens.

I did not adjust the lights as they measured at identical height on my garage door and so far I have not had anyone flash, I also tested them by sitting in a friend's car facing in the parking lot and there is no glare that I can perceive, head on or offset. The LED light looks a bit fractured or clumpy on the ground or against a wall but doesn't seem to throw out any glare so I'm not letting it stress me. There is a fair amount of light leakage to the sides which I hadn't noticed on the halogens but admittedly I never thought to look.

The driver's side LED fit fine and mounted easily but the passenger side was a very tight squeeze and I ended up carving about 1/16" of plastic from the inner lip of the headlight opening. I think getting them out would be very challenging but hopefully that's a problem for the distant future.

I think some of the housing may be different,, but indeed there is some scatter from the reflectors themselves, no matter what bulbs you use including halogen and more light leaks out the sides with brighter LED's for sure, I know I'm considering some headlight brows personally.

 

[danbfree]

i had no issue like you stated and cut nothing both of mine went in very easily i removed the headlight completely and did it on my kitchen table. also mine fit perfectly but i do have a 2014 so dont know if they did change the lights or maybe in canada they use different headlight housing.[8

I totally agree that the headlights should be removed, it is SUPER easy to do, I just wonder if the housing rear openings were changed or Canada received different ones, he was the first person to say he could barely fit them, hmmm...

 

[Blinkie]

I had removed the headlights from their mounting points but no need to drag them in the house

My car is a 2017 so it's entirely possible that the headlight housing may have changed, I had noticed when installing my intercooler that compared to the how-to videos there were a couple small differences in the bumper so I feel it's likely that other small changes have been made over the years, I just felt it was important to mention that it IS possible to fit them if there is a slight interference.
Canada is such a miniscule market that I doubt Ford would bother tooling up molds for a different headlight housing. It could happen but new/exclusive molds would cost anywhere from a couple hundred thousand to millions of dollars so the expense and effort seems unlikely to me.

 

[danbfree]

I had removed the headlights from their mounting points but no need to drag them in the house

My car is a 2017 so it's entirely possible that the headlight housing may have changed, I had noticed when installing my intercooler that compared to the how-to videos there were a couple small differences in the bumper so I feel it's likely that other small changes have been made over the years, I just felt it was important to mention that it IS possible to fit them if there is a slight interference.
Canada is such a miniscule market that I doubt Ford would bother tooling up molds for a different headlight housing. It could happen but new/exclusive molds would cost anywhere from a couple hundred thousand to millions of dollars so the expense and effort seems unlikely to me.

Good points, but also if there are some inherent differences between DOT and the Canadian equivalent then they would have no choice, but other than Daytime Running Lights being required in Canada and not the US, I don't believe there any further differences at all... I had a '13 Focus SE and it was a former rental and did indeed have DRL's, so they must have used them for all fleet sales as a volume thing, but as far as cutoffs being different like in Europe, don't think that's the case between US and Canada, but a change/tweak from '14 to later years is always possible too... Thanks for the feedback everyone!

 

[bustervic]

Just got some Auxbeam F16s in my 2015 ST.
Had to make point them down a few turns to match the Osrams that came out.

Sent from my SM-G960W using Tapatalk

 

[danbfree]

Just got some Auxbeam F16s in my 2015 ST.
Had to make point them down a few turns to match the Osrams that came out.

Sorry, but unfortunately those are rated really low, but look decent man... I suggest everyone check out the reviews HERE before buying. Those Auxbean F-16's are only 19% brighter than average halogens and rated only a 2.6. Click on the "Load all kits tested" to see them all... Nothing personal, just trying to help others so they can be more informed.