Had a very close call with a deer tonight. Has me kinda rattled seeing as im still fixing stuff from the first hit.
I could really use a better set of headlamps and foglamps. I know i can get different foglamp assemblies. But for headlamps options seem slim.
Is it possible to have a road legal-ish led low and high beam bulb setup thats quality?
Or should i look at an HID retrofit to get the lighting i want. I really dont want to bust up the car with another deer strike again. Because insurance will total it.
Technically speaking, any modification to the headlamps is, by definition and on the books as illegal.
However, a properly done retrofit will not draw any negative attention and will be less likely to cause an accident as opposed to the LED lights you put sun your halogen projector. This is especially true with the newer technologies and headlamp advancements in newer cars. They probably won't even notice.
However, LEDs in a reflector housing is more dangerous than you running your lights.
A rough and dirty reason why:
1) Halogen projectors have a cap, or a a painted tip if you will that helps develop a particular beam pattern and scatter when placed in the reflector bowl, if you look in all halogen setups, there is a reflector and then there is a reflector bowl. The light disperses into the reflector and then back onto the bowl and that is what you see on the road. Hence reflector.
2) LEDs are in no way shape or form meant, nor should they ever go into a reflector setup. You will a vasty majority of differing opinions one way to the other and somewhere in between. Having come from the retrofitting world, my opinion is a firm no.
3) You are actually getting less usable light then you were before. Your brain perceived the color change in light, from the yellow to the white as increased visibility when in fact, your beam is scattered everywhere and not controlled and this the amount of light you have is not controlled. Your hotspot is no longer controlled in front and is really all over the place. This equates to reduced distance and width visibility. Just because drivers are not beaming you does not mean you are not blinding them and risking you hitting more than a deer.
This brings me to my next and final point.
4) A proper projector retrofit, not an LED or an HID in a halogen projector, but an actual HID projector which was purpose built is the best and only safe option. This is because the intense beam pattern is controlled and there is a clear cut off so you get all the usable light. The difference is a night and day. Your low beam is easily better than then the low and high beam combo you had before.
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