Safe aftermarket LED headlight bulb info, finds and discussion

[Fistpoundin]

ill have to check later, and i dont have the rear covers on... but i am still just super happy about how the lighting panned out for me, i have done HID, LED, 55W HID, retrofit, you name it. best 35 spent on lights in a very long time. would recommend. great post OP. great info.

fst bmp, if you get a chance, dry it out with a blow dryer and see if it does it again. try cap on, cap off, and maybe that might make a difference? perhaps its where you park? the angle of the car when it sits? trying to help. good luck with that, let us know.

 

[FST BMP]

ill have to check later, and i dont have the rear covers on... but i am still just super happy about how the lighting panned out for me, i have done HID, LED, 55W HID, retrofit, you name it. best 35 spent on lights in a very long time. would recommend. great post OP. great info.

fst bmp, if you get a chance, dry it out with a blow dryer and see if it does it again. try cap on, cap off, and maybe that might make a difference? perhaps its where you park? the angle of the car when it sits? trying to help. good luck with that, let us know.

The car was sitting in my garage on a flat surface and I just noticed it this morning. I figured maybe driving to work with the lights on would dry it out but it didn't do the trick then again it was like a 5 min drive lol. The fogs don't have covers. My headlights have the caps on and didn't have any condensation issues.

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[Intuit]

After all of this rain, I just saw condensation in my fog housing. I think this just started happening when I installed the LED bulbs. They're pretty snug. Anyone else have this issue?

The bad side is the water leaves behind deposits, slowly fogging up the inside lense. Suspect that opening them up in a low humidity environment is necessary to prevent this. Also, many lights have pin-hole drains for pressure equalization. Provided you have the tooling to fish them out, may try dropping a desiccant pack in there.

 

[danbfree]

After all of this rain, I just saw condensation in my fog housing. I think this just started happening when I installed the LED bulbs. They're pretty snug. Anyone else have this issue?

I have not, I just bought my car 13 months and less than 19k ago, it could be the seal from the rest of the housing was compromised somewhere if the bulbs seem really well sealed. Honestly, they are terrible housing assemblies, I've seen better ones for under $40 on eBay and AliExpress.

 

[Intuit]

I have not, I just bought my car 13 months and less than 19k ago, it could be the seal from the rest of the housing was compromised somewhere if the bulbs seem really well sealed. Honestly, they are terrible housing assemblies, I've seen better ones for under $40 on eBay and AliExpress.

Try cracking them open for a time on a day with warmer temps and higher relative humidity. Then see whether the insides fog up as the cool air hits the warm lenses during the following weeks. https://www.quora.com/How-does-air-pressure-relate-to-humidity I suspect this is why some folks have only observed the problem, after having installed replacement lights. Unlike the main headlamps, I think the fogs are open. IF that's the case, a desiccant pack may be dropped in, and later removed; in a dry air environment of course.

 

[TyphoonFiST]

Well I finally got around to installing the Techmax.....after my Xenondepot fizzled out after 2 years. I will say the Tech max are at 9 & 3 and are brighter than the Xenonsdepots....now comes the longevity test!

 

[FST BMP]

The bad side is the water leaves behind deposits, slowly fogging up the inside lense. Suspect that opening them up in a low humidity environment is necessary to prevent this. Also, many lights have pin-hole drains for pressure equalization. Provided you have the tooling to fish them out, may try dropping a desiccant pack in there.

Thanks for the heads up! So I removed the LED fogs and dried out the lens. Although it was a long, tedious, and VERY inefficient process, I got it done lol. I just stuck some paper in there and dried out the moisture and reinstalled the LEDs. When I got home yesterday night, it looks like the same thing happened. I might try the drying process again and reinstall the OEM halogens. Previously I don't recall the fogs doing this with the OEM Halogens. I'll see if it does it with the halogens. At the end of the day I might just keep the LEDs in there and let the housing fog up. When they get bad/nasty, I'll just replace them with the DD/Morimotos perhaps.

 

[danbfree]

Well I finally got around to installing the Techmax.....after my Xenondepot fizzled out after 2 years. I will say the Tech max are at 9 & 3 and are brighter than the Xenonsdepots....now comes the longevity test!

Huh, interesting that you had premium LED's fail after 2 years, they really should last much longer... I have a good feeling about the TechMax, they run so cool I have a good feeling about them, love how Blaise added temps to to the BulbFacts.com LED charts!

 

[FST BMP]

Pulled the trigger on the Nineo bulbs and got them installed last night. My enclosures did require some trimming in order to fit the bulbs, the passenger side is pictured below.

View attachment 19322

And the beam pattern. The tape marks the stock cutoff from about 10 feet back.

View attachment 19323

Good cutoff, barely different than stock bulbs and no aiming needed. There is a spot directly beside the car as seems common with LEDs, but it's minimal. I've got switchback turn signals from Diode Dynamics that are 6000k and these bulbs are just slightly cooler in color than they are but it's a good match overall. I'm impressed and happy to finally have some upgraded lighting on this car!

Just bought these. Curious, were you able to line them up with the stalk perfectly vertical? (LED chips at 9/3)

Also, my fog LEDs don't ever lineup perfectly at 9/3. One of the does and the passenger is little off at 8/2

 

[danbfree]

These are the switchbacks I've got:

https://www.diodedynamics.com/3157-hp24-switchback-dual-color-led.html

I think they used to offer them in different color temps but by the time I ordered them they only offered 6000k. They should all be the same brightness no matter when they were made. I'll get you a pic of the front of the car when I get off work.

Yes, I trimmed the inner ring off around where the bulbs sits. The passenger side is a few mm tighter than the driver's so I had to keep shaving until the bulb fit. The plastic is somewhat soft so it wasn't too difficult to do. I'm probably going to modify the stock protective caps to allow for airflow, right now I've got them off completely.

Edit: here's a picture of the lights and switchbacks together

Couple of quick questions to followup: For the low beams, are they the Nineo Gen 2 as shown here? https://www.amazon.com/NINEO-Headlight-Extremely-Conversion-Adjustable/dp/B01MDOWGY3/

Also, I'm very interested in doing switchbacks, did you have to use resistors or is there an LED fix relay module available that you know of?

TIA!

 

[THE COOP]

Is this the correct link for the TECHMAX?

https://www.amazon.com/TECHMAX-Head...ulbs&qid=1552406113&s=gateway&sr=8-7-fkmrnull

I had the GTRX and one of them failed so going to replace them with the TECHMAX. Thanks, COOP

 

[FST BMP]

Is this the correct link for the TECHMAX?

https://www.amazon.com/TECHMAX-Head...ulbs&qid=1552406113&s=gateway&sr=8-7-fkmrnull

I had the GTRX and one of them failed so going to replace them with the TECHMAX. Thanks, COOP

Yup! That's the one. I think OP put the link on the first page also

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[THE COOP]

I clicked on the link on the first page but it just takes me to Amazon and not the bulbs. Thanks, COOP

 

[danbfree]

I clicked on the link on the first page but it just takes me to Amazon and not the bulbs. Thanks, COOP

Thanks for pointing that out, I fixed it to THIS LINK that should work now! The link and description changed, I notice they actually say 60w and this is actually accurate, 30w of LED per side, but some that are only 23-24w can be even brighter, so it's not important anyway. Just stupid numbers people get confused on, like lumens, these aren't 10,000, but 8200 total as low beams but people who don't know what to look for search by stupid terms and end up ordering shitty ones like the Cougar, just because of marketing terms and reviews, sigh... and THAT is why I started this thread to begin with!

 

[THE COOP]

Thanks for the reply and I'll get these ordered tonight. COOP

 

[ROCKYFiestta]

techmax are pretty solid choice for the $$ I got them in both my st and se fiestas love them and thanks for the thread I would love to see some nineo pics if anybody has them for reference.

 

[danbfree]

techmax are pretty solid choice for the $$ I got them in both my st and se fiestas love them and thanks for the thread I would love to see some nineo pics if anybody has them for reference.

Yeah, would love to see Nineo Gen 2 road pics, I'm curious if they have kaleidoscope effect or not... Like I've mentioned, it seems like there is a max brightness our housings can handle which makes the bright and expensive LED's not worth it, but also I noticed it on the Morimoto that are only like 200 lumens brighter than the TechMax so design has a lot to do with it... Notice how the MaxGTRS and TechMax have the identical cut out design on the stalk? Heck, how they are nearly identical period? And before we all found out about the TechMax we were all raving over the MaxGTRS which is the same design if not same period... Anyway, the Nineo Gen 2 have a simiar kind of cutout on the stalk, I'm really interested in how they perform in our exact housing. I'll have to try those sometime if I can.

 

[ROCKYFiestta]

hey while we are on the subject of leds I did my interior with leds 10 pack off amazon but the led's I got for the turn signals up front did not work (they did light up but it gave both my cars the errors with the blinkers and they blinked all ricey fast) any solid recommendations for turn signal and brake light led ???

 

[ROCKYFiestta]

I did the rear license plates, will post up pics of interior later when it gets dark, also one ten pack did all my interior bulbs and the license plates

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00JRE38EA/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o09_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

I used these

as far as the turn signals I used and they didn't work out
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B079HTPJF2/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o09_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

 

[Woods247]

Yeah, would love to see Nineo Gen 2 road pics, I'm curious if they have kaleidoscope effect or not... Like I've mentioned, it seems like there is a max brightness our housings can handle which makes the bright and expensive LED's not worth it, but also I noticed it on the Morimoto that are only like 200 lumens brighter than the TechMax so design has a lot to do with it... Notice how the MaxGTRS and TechMax have the identical cut out design on the stalk? Heck, how they are nearly identical period? And before we all found out about the TechMax we were all raving over the MaxGTRS which is the same design if not same period... Anyway, the Nineo Gen 2 have a simiar kind of cutout on the stalk, I'm really interested in how they perform in our exact housing. I'll have to try those sometime if I can.

Is the TechMax the best option for our reflector housings? I’ve had issues with the kalidescope effect from other expensive LED brands and even 35W HIDs. I’d love to find a LED that’s as good as the H9 mod.