Safe aftermarket LED headlight bulb info, finds and discussion

[CSM]

Oh yeah, plenty of good LED's now, start with the chart specially for LED's in halogens at bulbfacts.com, and for $50 or less set one of those top ones.. You'll see a solid selection with great beam pattern. It's nice to see more good ones that work just great in reflectors, and for fog lights just about any two sided works well. But sounds like you went another route while LEDs have come a long ways!

I looked into it a few years back. The mantra back then was that any LED in a FiST OEM housing would be stupid, and retrofit is only way to properly run LED. Assuming that was still the case I did the H9 conversion recently. Kind of kicking myself for not trying one of these new LED bulbs.

 

[FLORIDAST]

I bought a set of Sealight brand LED bulbs but they're blinding people for sure. I get flashed at least once a night.

I'm going to have to find a new set or do it right and get retros.

 

[danbfree]

I looked into it a few years back. The mantra back then was that any LED in a FiST OEM housing would be stupid, and retrofit is only way to properly run LED. Assuming that was still the case I did the H9 conversion recently. Kind of kicking myself for not trying one of these new LED bulbs.

Well, you definitely still went the preferable route, but yes, LED design finally came around to actually mimicking the halogen filament location, and even sets for $35 work well, and the very highest rated, the Nineo Gen 2, are under $50 and the highest rated you can get outside of spending over $100... And to fill you in so you don't have to read through all of this, the set that is well over $100 and highest rated out of all of them were too bright and overwhelmed the housing design causing crazy scatter... Now I am running the $35 ones that are still Best Value on bulbfacts.com, but the Nineo are under $50 and beat the $80-90 ones on Amazon! It seems to get better every day!

 

[Flaco]

I bought a set of Sealight brand LED bulbs but they're blinding people for sure. I get flashed at least once a night.

I'm going to have to find a new set or do it right and get retros.

I've been driving the Sealights for 5 months, flashed only once. Made sure they were aligned per the owners manual. They certainly are not the best, but for the money I got a good set.

 

[FLORIDAST]

I've been driving the Sealights for 5 months, flashed only once. Made sure they were aligned per the owners manual. They certainly are not the best, but for the money I got a good set.

I'll try that, I just popped them in and kept on keeping on.

 

[danbfree]

I bought a set of Sealight brand LED bulbs but they're blinding people for sure. I get flashed at least once a night.

I'm going to have to find a new set or do it right and get retros.

You already aimed them down? Or do they just have too much glare outside of cutoff overall?

 

[danbfree]

I'll try that, I just popped them in and kept on keeping on.

Sorry, just saw this... the LED's should be on the sides, not facing up/down and there is one screw on headlight housing to adjust them down, drive up to a wall or garage door and try adjusting them down a little on each side.

 

[ROCKYFiestta]

hikari released new cheap adjustable led i purchased a pair with the intent on putting it into my regular fiesta sedan (sadly the sedan uses h11b not h11) so they didnt fit. I ended up returning them since i already have the hikari on my fist.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07GKPR45...&pd_rd_r=1bec931a-0395-11e9-976d-331c5380a38c

 

[danbfree]

hikari released new cheap adjustable led i purchased a pair with the intent on putting it into my regular fiesta sedan (sadly the sedan uses h11b not h11) so they didnt fit. I ended up returning them since i already have the hikari on my fist.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07GKPR45...&pd_rd_r=1bec931a-0395-11e9-976d-331c5380a38c

Thanks for posting... honestly they look like a re-brand of real cheap ones you can get for $12 from AliExpress, notice no air flow slots on the fan bottom. This doesn't mean they are "bad", at all, just actually shows how even cheap ones are getting to be SO much better! Honestly I am surprised that H11B actually fits different, I'll have to look in into that more...

So, for everyone, I recently I have been emailing back and forth with Blaise, the owner of BulbFacts.com... he is constantly adding more Amazon sets and has some deals in the works with companies carrying more premium stuff like Diode Dynamics and SuperNova, so I recommend checking out his site and use his links to buy product, he's the only real LED review site I've seen and is a good dude!

 

[danbfree]

So, can any of our Canadian friends here tell me if you guys still have those always on low beams at a lower brightness for DRL's? If so, Blaise of BulbFacts.com has just found the best that works at the lower voltage properly for DRL's, they are the Kilakila on Amazon for under $50... They finish number 13 out over 30 total tested overall but actually work for low voltage DRL's... I'm assuming the others just don't come on, so if you want to stay "legal" up there, they are the best found so far.

 

[danbfree]

So, our friend Blaise, owner of BulbFacts.com is sending me some Morimoto 2stroke 2.0's to check out! I'll have to post some pics and review once they arrive! In the mean time, for those wondering what are good and are actually reading this, you can't go wrong with his picks on his LED Chart just remember that the his top Premium pick for the DeAuto LED's are WAY too bright for our housing to handle sadly, otherwise any of his other top picks will work great!

 

[averyislost]

Thank you for putting together this thread!

Before reading through this (and joining the forum of course) I had purchased the Sealight LEDs that another member mentioned running as well. They work okay, but don't seem to be much better than the stock halogens. Glare is not great either, so I will be relegating those to fog light use. I haven't noticed anyone mention running the Nineo LEDs that are the new top pick on BulbFacts. It was mentioned on here they would fit, but does anyone happen to know if they will require aftermarket rear headlight covers, or do they fit similar to the Hikari? Thanks!

 

[ROCKYFiestta]

Thanks for posting... honestly they look like a re-brand of real cheap ones you can get for $12 from AliExpress, notice no air flow slots on the fan bottom. This doesn't mean they are "bad", at all, just actually shows how even cheap ones are getting to be SO much better! Honestly I am surprised that H11B actually fits different, I'll have to look in into that more...

So, for everyone, I recently I have been emailing back and forth with Blaise, the owner of BulbFacts.com... he is constantly adding more Amazon sets and has some deals in the works with companies carrying more premium stuff like Diode Dynamics and SuperNova, so I recommend checking out his site and use his links to buy product, he's the only real LED review site I've seen and is a good dude!

they actually did have a lot of little holes on the underside like a microphone but i didn't test them just tossing it out there they where easily adjustable as well

 

[ROCKYFiestta]

also any thoughts on this here i was considering it but i really don't want to cut up a factory harness to add stuff but still tempting.

https://www.amazon.com/Daytime-Runn...d=1545359033&sr=8-16&keywords=ford+fiesta+led

 

[danbfree]

Thank you for putting together this thread!

Before reading through this (and joining the forum of course) I had purchased the Sealight LEDs that another member mentioned running as well. They work okay, but don't seem to be much better than the stock halogens. Glare is not great either, so I will be relegating those to fog light use. I haven't noticed anyone mention running the Nineo LEDs that are the new top pick on BulbFacts. It was mentioned on here they would fit, but does anyone happen to know if they will require aftermarket rear headlight covers, or do they fit similar to the Hikari? Thanks!

They do look really short and their temps are fair so if you insisted you could use the stock covers.. but none are "required", in fact I'm more in the "air flow at all costs" camp as even in very heavy rain I've never seen water get up in there so I don't bother with rear covers.

 

[danbfree]

also any thoughts on this here i was considering it but i really don't want to cut up a factory harness to add stuff but still tempting.

https://www.amazon.com/Daytime-Runn...d=1545359033&sr=8-16&keywords=ford+fiesta+led

Identical units with the same shipping time (because they are both shipped from China anyway) are $75 (plus 3% eBates cash back w/chrome plugin) on AliExpress HERE and they look decent quality... If you like that style go for it! BUT, keep in mind you have to add 2" foglights, as in complete assemblies to make it complete.

 

[ROCKYFiestta]

Identical units with the same shipping time (because they are both shipped from China anyway) are $75 (plus 3% eBates cash back w/chrome plugin) on AliExpress HERE and they look decent quality... If you like that style go for it! BUT, keep in mind you have to add 2" foglights, as in complete assemblies to make it complete.

ah thanks for the info i definitely would not be getting rid of my diode fogs for this.

 

[danbfree]

ah thanks for the info i definitely would not be getting rid of my diode fogs for this.

Oh yeah, if you have DD's then you are doing well, I wouldn't mess with it personally.

 

[danbfree]

Well, got the Morimoto 2Stroke 2.0's in, they arrived on Christmas Eve. Again, thanks to Blaise, owner of BulbFacts.com for literally gifting them to me. I love the color temp, which is rated at 5500k but tested out at 5150k, which is a nice pure white. I don't notice any brightness differences from the TechMax so far, but the color temp makes a big difference between looking a little blue and looking more pure white. I'll try to grab a photo shot tonight. These definitely live up to their high ratings and are probably one of the brightest sets we can use with the North America reflector housings before they generate the crazy scattered beam pattern like I saw with the DeAutoLED's... Speaking of housings, I found a site where we can order Euro projectors for under $315 a pair shipped, I think I'm going to definitely consider those in the future, having projectors lens will make a big difference in low beam performance!

Edit: Sadly, I'm seeing "kaleidoscope effect" from the Morimoto too, just not as bad as other brighter sets, since they are 4350 lux, it's looking like 4100 or very close is the max lux output our housings can take before starting to deteriorate the road output and end up being a little distracting.

 

[jfv302]

Well, got the Morimoto 2Stroke 2.0's in, they arrived on Christmas Eve. Again, thanks to Blaise, owner of BulbFacts.com for literally gifting them to me. I love the color temp, which is rated at 5500k but tested out at 5150k, which is a nice pure white. I don't notice any brightness differences from the TechMax so far, but the color temp makes a big difference between looking a little blue and looking more pure white. I'll try to grab a photo shot tonight. These definitely live up to their high ratings and are probably one of the brightest sets we can use with the North America reflector housings before they generate the crazy scattered beam pattern like I saw with the DeAutoLED's... Speaking of housings, I found a site where we can order Euro projectors for under $315 a pair shipped, I think I'm going to definitely consider those in the future, having projectors lens will make a big difference in low beam performance!

so the 2stroke 2.0s get a thumbs up from you? anything special with the install? i was waiting to see what your experience with them were before i pulled the trigger.