LED Headlights: Which Would You Choose?

[danbfree]

lol dunno why it rotated the pics sorry


upper left is just the fogs on their own
upper right is both fogs and techmax lights
bttm left is just the techmax only and
last one is just fogs any input on the aim I feel they are to low but let me know on that

sorry about the neck strain it may cause you lol

hehe, i was straining my neck reading each line description, then saw your apology in the last line, how funny! Anyway, those look great, I'm just wondering about the low beams though, they do look aimed a bit high... did you ever post some pics in my thread? But those fogs are really impressive, shows how the factory fog housings are just mainly decoration!

 

[danbfree]

I don't blind other drivers and get better visibility than halogen. They seem to work fine to me. Good enough to take a canyon road to work at 3 am anyways

He's trying to compare it to projectors, which isn't fair or applicable to a reflector housing upgrade. You did good, probably spent more than you needed to but got good clean and white output for it too. I know they are about $135 and they look better than the $120 Morimoto and the $145 DEAuto LED's in our housings for sure, I'd consider this to be the best "premium" option for our reflector housings for sure!

 

[TyphoonFiST]

I don't blind other drivers and get better visibility than halogen. They seem to work fine to me. Good enough to take a canyon road to work at 3 am anyways

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Agreed....Alot of LEDs are made to mimic the design of halogen to Avoid the Blinding effect that Some of HID kits still do and people buy. They are a great improvement over stock ! Christ anything is better than stock!

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[KKaWing]

Now. Note all of the light above that square. This is the glare. The hotspot should be right at the cutoff with minimal bleed above it. These are just facts that you can't get around. Because the hotspot is so low you can never aim them correctly because if you use the cutoff to aim youose all of your intensity and they are a huge reduction is usable light. These are facts.

^ I why I haven't run anything other than my H9 bulbs when I need more light (even those push light a bit over the hotspot but for the sake of not running over Bambi...). The only set that keeps the hotspot at the cutoff is the weak 800 lumen fog bubs I have. I'm still waiting for a manufacturer that will do a (true) 2000-2500 lumen bulb that doesn't overpower the reflectors.

 

[danbfree]

Not for $220 that's for dam sure...I'd roll Xenon depot again over those Philips Leds.... at least they have the Luxeon Phillips LED chips. Anywho....if you do bite...let us know how they work.

That's the packaging I've gotten the last 3 sets I've bought. 2 h11's and a set of H4. I don't believe I have any comparison shots or anything, but I've installed in my wife's 18 Colorado zr2 with projector housings, my 12 street triple with reflector housing and the 18 ST, they closely follow halogen spread, just much brighter. The Xtreme Ultinon stuff I believe is primarily marketed towards EU and China/Japan

I'm seeing the same ones, after sorting through ones that are slightly different, at about $145 ordering from Japan on eBay, HERE is one listing for $138 shipped... Also, with the link from BulbFacts, I'm referring to THESE as having different packaging from the UK, which come out to only $123 shipped with promo code... At these prices they seem like a MUCH better deal, but you do have to wait on overseas shipping.

 

[Von]

I'm seeing the same ones, after sorting through ones that are slightly different, at about $145 ordering from Japan on eBay, HERE is one listing for $138 shipped... Also, with the link from BulbFacts, I'm referring to THESE as having different packaging from the UK, which come out to only $123 shipped with promo code... At these prices they seem like a MUCH better deal, but you do have to wait on overseas shipping.

Nice. That is a killer price. The thing you need to watch for, at least with Amazon, is they sell fog specific. They end up pointing down I believe

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[danbfree]

Why so defensive? Just because I have retrofitted projectors? I chose to improve these "shitty" reflectors, but do you know what? I did an h9 and it was actually really good. That is the best upgrade before a retrofit on these because it FACTUALLY maintains the correct oem beam.

There still isn't ANY led that has a proper design to mimic the halogen filament correctly. All of these bulbs could work if they build a reflector around them, but they don't, and they will never be as good overall because of that fact.


Note the actual hotspot in the red square

Now. Note all of the light above that square. This is the glare. The hotspot should be right at the cutoff with minimal bleed above it. These are just facts that you can't get around. Because the hotspot is so low you can never aim them correctly because if you use the cutoff to aim youose all of your intensity and they are a huge reduction is usable light. These are facts.

OK, I appreciate you trying to explain and I see what you're saying, but I just don't see halogens working any differently? They also have a hotspot that is also lower than the very top of the cutoff. I've done a lot of research and never seen that the hot spot HAS to be at the exact same level as the cutoff line? I can tell you 100% for sure, that as long as there is no scatter above the stock halogen cutoff line AND you can see just as far or more down the road, that amount is going to light the road better than using halogen and that's what we're seeing. So bottom-line: Yes the hotpot may be lower than halogen, but the clean cutoff line keeps from any scatter at least, AND we are seeing projection distance just as good or even better with far more detail using the modern LED's we've found. So yes, they may work a little different with the hotspot being lower, but they (good LED's) don't scatter like they used to and also project down the road far better than they used to.

 

[danbfree]

Nice. That is a killer price. The thing you need to watch for, at least with Amazon, is they sell fog specific. They end up pointing down I believe

Yeah, those ones you pictured are the ones I ignored... now the ones I listed from the UK say for off-road use only, but that is because of UK laws, they look identical in design to the ones you bought and are the Gen 2 with that ultra clean cutoff.

 

[Von]

I'm seeing the same ones, after sorting through ones that are slightly different, at about $145 ordering from Japan on eBay, HERE is one listing for $138 shipped... Also, with the link from BulbFacts, I'm referring to THESE as having different packaging from the UK, which come out to only $123 shipped with promo code... At these prices they seem like a MUCH better deal, but you do have to wait on overseas shipping.

I looked at the ones you showed. The Japan style is what I got. The straight blade, the bulb facts ones are the fog light style where it gets big again at the end. I don't know if that makes any difference, but I would probably do the Japanese for headlights. You could try the other and if they don't emit correctly, they'll fit in your fog light housing at least

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[danbfree]

I looked at the ones you showed. The Japan style is what I got. The straight blade, the bulb facts ones are the fog light style where it gets big again at the end. I don't know if that makes any difference, but I would probably do the Japanese for headlights. You could try the other and if they don't emit correctly, they'll fit in your fog light housing at least

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OK, that makes sense on which ones, and since we do have a built in glare cap to our housings, I could try the Japanese ones since I know they look great seeing your results...

 

[Von]

OK, that makes sense on which ones, and since we do have a built in glare cap to our housings, I could try the Japanese ones since I know they look great seeing your results...

I really enjoy the Xtreme Ultinon line from Philips. Like I said initially though, the downer is the passive heat sink is big and the hole for the light doesn't line up with the dust cover and modifying is required. Dust cap still goes on but you can see in the photo where it bulges out a bit

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[danbfree]

Thanks man, great pics, definitely familiar with the dust covers. In my LED thread, we explore fitment and all that and recommend a domed rear cover, but especially with only passive cooling, you will need all the air you can in there and I wouldn't bother with those rear covers at all.

 

[Von]

Thanks man, great pics, definitely familiar with the dust covers. In my LED thread, we explore fitment and all that and recommend a domed rear cover, but especially with only passive cooling, you will need all the air you can in there and I wouldn't bother with those rear covers at all.

Moisture won't come into the housing? I work offshore and humidity is a constant here. I wouldn't mind checking into the domed rear. I started reading into your thread, and yeah this one is just a tad long/wide, it fit in there when I took the heat sink off, but then couldn't thread it on... I had to shave just that one edge where it bulges out the cover to the outermost lip to get it in there, but I figured screw it, already bought them, and was determined to get them in. If you do, just go slow and don't shave off more than you need to

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[TyphoonFiST]

Moisture won't come into the housing? I work offshore and humidity is a constant here. I wouldn't mind checking into the domed rear. I started reading into your thread, and yeah this one is just a tad long/wide, it fit in there when I took the heat sink off, but then couldn't thread it on... I had to shave just that one edge where it bulges out the cover to the outermost lip to get it in there, but I figured screw it, already bought them, and was determined to get them in. If you do, just go slow and don't shave off more than you need to

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Mine are just like that on the passengerside....I've ran 3 Sets of LED bulbs with no problems. It stays pretty dry under the hood of most vehicles BTW. There are some people who run bulbs without the Covers also.

 

[Von]

Mine are just like that on the passengerside....I've ran 3 Sets of LED bulbs with no problems. It stays pretty dry under the hood of most vehicles BTW. There are some people who run bulbs without the Covers also.

My wife's zr2 has hard covers that screw on for the projector housing, but I never put them back on because it's isolated from the others and there is a seal on these. I might check with a temp gun what the heat is on the heat sink when I get home, and try with them off and check the delta to see if it makes a significant difference

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[danbfree]

Moisture won't come into the housing? I work offshore and humidity is a constant here. I wouldn't mind checking into the domed rear. I started reading into your thread, and yeah this one is just a tad long/wide, it fit in there when I took the heat sink off, but then couldn't thread it on... I had to shave just that one edge where it bulges out the cover to the outermost lip to get it in there, but I figured screw it, already bought them, and was determined to get them in. If you do, just go slow and don't shave off more than you need to

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Yep, I've already trimmed my passenger side to fit a set before. Keep in mind I've used a good half dozen sets trying different ones. Our housings are not air tight anyway and the bulb seals against the inner housing nearly water tight. Any tiny bit of moisture that has ever got in there evaporated right out, dirty spotting water doesn't make it in. These passive ones are not tested by BulbFacts so don't know the temp but other passive sets run quite warm, which can leading to dimming and possible premature failure with excessive heat. With how hot our cars run it kind of makes me wonder if I should go passive at all.

 

[danbfree]

So looks like the plan now is to go Depo Euro replica projector headlights with DDM Tuning Premium HID's, all for $400 delivered.... I've got a sponsor that's gonna pay half, so can't resist!

 

[Von]

So looks like the plan now is to go Depo Euro replica projector headlights with DDM Tuning Premium HID's, all for $400 delivered.... I've got a sponsor that's gonna pay half, so can't resist!

Nice!! Link or is it a hookup?

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[danbfree]

Nice!! Link or is it a hookup?

The $141 ones HERE Come out to $337 shipped. Then DDM Tuning Premium HID's HERE for $60 that are very highly rated.

 

[Von]

The $141 ones HERE Come out to $337 shipped. Then DDM Tuning Premium HID's HERE for $60 that are very highly rated.

Nice! And installing the aftermarket projectors negates the motor issues people have had?

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