Safe aftermarket LED headlight bulb info, finds and discussion

[Phishy]

I bought the Techmax low beams for mine on this threads recommendation, had them for about 6 weeks now and couldn't be happier. I got the rear covers on without much hassle. I did not adjust my lights at all after install, and have not been flashed at all, and have seen many oncoming cops. They must not be offensive. I know I can see a hell of a lot better. I just ordered the high beams today as I will be on a trip with a lot of rural night driving in a couple weeks. Hopefully the H1's are as good as the H11's.

Anybody on the fence on LED's I would give these a try, only $37 shipped with Prime. If I had to pay $100+ for this kind of performance improvement I would. Its a pretty massive quality of life improvement.

 

[danbfree]

OK guys, some news on the budget LED for reflector front: The Cougar X-Small have had a a regular price cut and are now $2 less than the TechMax and appear to have a more narrow beam pattern for those concerned about side output.

Output with Cougar X-Small:




TechMax output:



So while the TechMax appear to put out more light overall, the Cougar X-Small are actually a touch brighter at the bright spot and have less light on the sides as well as less overall glare. Notice how much more black there is above the Cougar while the TechMax has more scatter with less black from having more glare.... It would definitely be interesting to try these but I think we havea new budget champ!

 

[DaveZtoA]

OK guys, some news on the budget LED for reflector front: The Cougar X-Small have had a a regular price cut and are now $2 less than the TechMax and appear to have a more narrow beam pattern for those concerned about side output.

Output with Cougar X-Small:

View attachment 23802


TechMax output:

View attachment 23803

So while the TechMax appear to put out more light overall, the Cougar X-Small are actually a touch brighter at the bright spot and have less light on the sides as well as less overall glare. Notice how much more black there is above the Cougar while the TechMax has more scatter with less black from having more glare.... It would definitely be interesting to try these but I think we havea new budget champ!

Would the Cougar X-small fit and work for our headlight low beams? As far plug and play and reusing the OEM rear dust cover? Also plug and play and good for our fog lights?

 

[danbfree]

Would the Cougar X-small fit and work for our headlight low beams? As far plug and play and reusing the OEM rear dust cover? Also plug and play and good for our fog lights?

It's actually only 1mm wider and 1mm shorter than the TechMax, should be fine... But I don't use rear covers, they don't do much at all and just seal hot air in, the TechMax does run at a lower temp but I'm impressed with how much less glare the Cougar has.

 

[Hypergram]

Hi. So I upgraded my high beams a few months ago to the Aukee H1s, and I noticed that the output of the right was always a bit lacking, but upon closer inspection (by driving towards a wall with them on) I can see that the center of the "beam" of the right highbeam is empty so to speak. At this point, I might as well get new ones and pray Amazon takes my return. Any suggestions? Nice and white with a good range are my priorities here.

 

[danbfree]

Hi. So I upgraded my high beams a few months ago to the Aukee H1s, and I noticed that the output of the right was always a bit lacking, but upon closer inspection (by driving towards a wall with them on) I can see that the center of the "beam" of the right highbeam is empty so to speak. At this point, I might as well get new ones and pray Amazon takes my return. Any suggestions? Nice and white with a good range are my priorities here.

So, not sure what you mean, if you have defective bulbs, warranty them through Aukee.. There aren't many good H1 LED, at all, for our high beams, Aukee are still the best available.

 

[Hypergram]

So, not sure what you mean, if you have defective bulbs, warranty them through Aukee.. There aren't many good H1 LED, at all, for our high beams, Aukee are still the best available.

In that case I'll try and get the same ones again. Imagine that your lights are on and you're up close to a wall, on the right side, there's just a black hole where light should be, but isn't. I'll try and snap a pic later.

 

[danbfree]

In that case I'll try and get the same ones again. Imagine that your lights are on and you're up close to a wall, on the right side, there's just a black hole where light should be, but isn't. I'll try and snap a pic later.

Sounds like one side died early, that sucks, but yeah should be covered under warranty at least... and the on the positive, Aukee is still one of the best H1's out there for us, so not being able to return for something else isn't bad...

 

[Jensen567]

Sounds like a defective bulb, I would just warranty through Aukee or Amazon for the same thing. They are good LEDs in general.

I have euro lights, but I use Aukee in all positions, even fogs, and havent had a failure yet. Only been running them about a month though. The Aukee are the only ones I found that fit behind the stock euro dust covers and the driver/ballast fits inside the housing.

 

[danbfree]

Sounds like a defective bulb, I would just warranty through Aukee or Amazon for the same thing. They are good LEDs in general.

I have euro lights, but I use Aukee in all positions, even fogs, and havent had a failure yet. Only been running them about a month though. The Aukee are the only ones I found that fit behind the stock euro dust covers and the driver/ballast fits inside the housing.

For the H7 projector low beam you can't beat the Katana, actually, but for H1 high beam the Aukee is easily the best choice.

 

[Msxpredators]

Anybody have good led fog lights?

 

[Jensen567]

I put Aukee LEDs in my stock housings which seems to work pretty well as long as they are rotated so the LEDs point sideways. I have seen a fair number of LED fog light assemblies on aliexpress and ebay, but I havent tried any yet.

 

[Jensen567]

For the H7 projector low beam you can't beat the Katana, actually, but for H1 high beam the Aukee is easily the best choice.

I've only tried Aukee so can't comment on anything else, but they are pretty good, mostly uniform beam, certainly better than stock by a ton. I'm sure it could be even better with different LEDs though. Main reason i went with them is that the fan assembly and driver all fit within the stock housing using the stock dust cover boots, which i couldnt find another brand with a fan low profile enough to do.

 

[danbfree]

I've only tried Aukee so can't comment on anything else, but they are pretty good, mostly uniform beam, certainly better than stock by a ton. I'm sure it could be even better with different LEDs though. Main reason i went with them is that the fan assembly and driver all fit within the stock housing using the stock dust cover boots, which i couldnt find another brand with a fan low profile enough to do.

I wanted actual yellow for fogs so I used what was supposed to be 4300k neutral white LED bulbs along with yellow Lamin-X covers but they still came out slightly green so the bulbs are more like 5500k, hehe... I'm considering getting $60 projector fog housings off AliExpress, there are a ton of choices then you just pick your own bulbs. Since we have a common size fog housing that's shared with other Fords, Subaru and Honda's so there is a good selection out there. It's just not widely discussed for some reason, it's like the $170+ name brand ones made specific for our cars are the only ones that exist...

But, for fogs, I'd personally stick with any bulb that doen't have the external driver module, then there are no limits to the size at all and no driver module to mount. So either the yellow bulbs off Amazon or if you don't mind white/blue'ish output then TechMax or one without the external module is best.

 

[Jensen567]

I just left my driver modules to dangle behind the bumper. Fine so far. Yeah, our fogs are a pretty common Valeo housing, there are a TON of aftermarket options, both reflector and projector, LED, HID, Halogen, can find all of them.

 

[danbfree]

So I looked around more and cross shopped models for the fog lights and we literally have the most common design out there used by by Ford, Honda, Toyota, Subaru and more... So I simply searched for Honda LED fog lights and found THESE that look promising... in fact I'm about to pull the trigger. I love the projector cutoff and dual color option, at less than half the price of the brand name full LED replacement sets.

 

[Blindeye_03]

So I looked arounf more and cross shopped models for the fog lights and we literally ave the most common design out there used by by Ford, Honda, Toyota, Subaru and more... So I simply searched for Honda LED fog lights and found THESE that look promising... in fact I'm about to pull the trigger. I love the projector cutoff and dual color option, at half the price of the brand name full LED replacement sets.

View attachment 24563

Why dont these exist that are just yellow and not yellow/white?

Are the ones you found on AliBaba that one day just yellow?

 

[danbfree]

Why dont these exist that are just yellow and not yellow/white?

Are the ones you found on AliBaba that one day just yellow?

I'm not worried about the dual color, I think it's good to have for different conditions, I would just choose white or yellow by using the fog on/off pull switch before leaving the garage and then leaving the lights on... AliExpress seems to have ones that have extra wiring for high/ow beam switching where it actually changes the angles of the cutoff, but I'm more interested in a semi-name brand than those other features... BUT, to add, I went ahead and ordered them, and since this is technically a headlight thread I'll create a new thread to review them.

 

[Hypergram]

So I wanted to attempt to return/exchange these for new ones with their warranty, but I can't figure out how to contact them to even start the process. Any ideas?
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07L8C65YJ/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o01_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

 

[danbfree]

So I wanted to attempt to return/exchange these for new ones with their warranty, but I can't figure out how to contact them to even start the process. Any ideas?
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07L8C65YJ/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o01_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

Click on Au-kee right under Buy Now and then there is a button for "contact seller" and include your order number and date when telling them that one side of one bulb has gone out...