REVIEW: budget LEDs low beam and reverse lights

[jeff]

Just to confirm and close the circle with a picture, yes 75mm is the one to get. I only put one on the passenger side as the driver side OEM cap fit fine and didn't need the new one.

And remember...MADE IN MEXICO!!!

 

[danbfree]

Noooooo! Not another LED headlight bulb thread! Holy glare batman!

https://www.danielsternlighting.com/

That guy is like an extreme political talk show host of lighting, he refuses to even look at modern designs that have improved significantly for use in reflectors the last few years... OP said he never read up but I put a LOT of effort into TONS of research into my LED thread and it's kind of funny how he picked the one set that we have found to be the perfect combination of proper design, not too bright that it overwhelms the housing with excessive glare and is a great deal! Take a look at the pic in his garage of the halogen on the right and LED on the left, notice you don't see any extra glare/stray light on the wall above the bulbs? That means the glare is well in check, this set is awesome for the money and non glaring, and can be aimed down juuuust a tiny bit if need be.

 

[danbfree]

Meh, thanks for the link.....I haven't read anything on LED headlights before so if this is overkill I apologize, didn't realize the market was saturated.

These are not the evil glaring headlight LEDs that some people are rocking. They get great reviews and are very well-made...I drove around tonight and they are fantastic, a great upgrade, drove toward hundreds of oncoming drivers in my outing and not one flashed their lights at me.

No glare, no blinding others, plug and play, excellent visibility. It can be done for less money.

I haven't looked at our car but I think they can be adjusted as such in this video, I remember reading that it was possible elsewhere on this forum with a Phillips screwdriver, I'm gonna look tomorrow as one is a tiny bit lower than the other:

[video=youtube;Sp3McTgj4ck]

]View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sp3McTgj4ck[/video]

Looks like many of you guys missed my stickied thread at the top of this section, it would have answered a lot of these questions, TechMax for perfect brightness that is not too excessive for our reflectors with a proper design and 75mm dome caps for the rear caps if you want to run them... I've since graduated to Euro projectors since I had a sponsor from the bulb testing site owner offer to help pay some of the actually excellent Depo aftermarket Euro projectors... if you guys want to see real unbiased LED reviews I invite you to check out his chart for use in reflectors HERE just keep in mind that after a LOT of research and trying about a half dozen sets myself, these TechMax ended up being the best for our reflectors, we can't go too bright with expensive ones either, trust me on that one, you can read through the stickied LED thread at the top of this section and see yourself all the crap I went through, LOL.

 

[jeff]

That guy is like an extreme political talk show host of lighting, he refuses to even look at modern designs that have improved significantly for use in reflectors the last few years... OP said he never read up but I put a LOT of effort into TONS of research into my LED thread and it's kind of funny how he picked the one set that we have found to be the perfect combination of not too bright that it overwhelms the housing with excessive glare and is a great deal! Take a look at the pic in his garage of the halogen on the right and LED on the left, notice you don't see any extra glare/stray light on the wall above the bulbs? That means the glare is well in check, this set is awesome for the money and non glaring, and can be aimed down juuuust a tiny bit if need be.

Yeah I’ll admit I’ve never cared much for lighting upgrades and the only reason I stumbled upon these ones is because a friend recommended them. But hats off to you for your research these are indeed fantastic lights!!!

 

[danbfree]

So for those wondering about GLARE, compare the circle on the left that is LED and the circle to the right that is halogen... Notice how that circle on the left is barely brighter than the circle on the right? That means glare is well in check... now because of the more blue color output too, there IS a little more overall potential distracting glare for oncoming drivers over stock but definitely not excessive. I ran these TechMax for a good 6 months and was flashed only ONCE in 10k miles because it was SUPER foggy and the light scattered too much.

 

[danbfree]

Yeah I’ll admit I’ve never cared much for lighting upgrades and the only reason I stumbled upon these ones is because a friend recommended them. But hats off to you for your research these are indeed fantastic lights!!!

Right on, your friend is obviously quite knowledgeable and I'm happy to have helped spread the news about these new LED designs and I'm happy for you man! I also did the bright reverse lights as part of a settlement from a premium bulb seller that their stuff was WAY too bright for our housings to help cover my return shipping twice to them so they sent me 3 of the LED's, the 3rd I used for the one trunk light, in case you didn't know, that's another excellent place for the same size LED... I also just did the flashing red brake lights for $20 and those are awesome too... I'm just not going to worry about turn blinkers as who cares if they are super bright or not and those need resistors to work right, and my Euro's have a separate LED for markers anyway and not the blinker/marker combo we have on OEM reflectors here...

 

[PepsiAddict]

First post here, but thanks to danbfree’s guide (yes, I read through every page 😳) and this thread, will be going with the items in my attached pic 👍🏻

 

[danbfree]

First post here, but thanks to danbfree’s guide (yes, I read through every page 😳) and this thread, will be going with the items in my attached pic 👍🏻

So, I also went with flashing brake light LED's, interested in those too?

 

[PepsiAddict]

So, I also went with flashing brake light LED's, interested in those too?

Nope 😁

 

[danbfree]

Nope 😁

Since as you can see I have that color combo, I went with some tail light smoke out for the middle white section and blackout for the lower rear reflectors and headlight corners. Nice and bright red brake lights (not necessarily flashing) and white reverse LED's were needed on mine and look great and don't cause any errors. If you don't have the rear camera those bright white reverse lights REALLY help... just some thoughts man, I appreciate you found my headlight bulb info useful!

 

[PepsiAddict]

Since as you can see I have that color combo, I went with some tail light smoke out for the middle white section and blackout for the lower rear reflectors and headlight corners. Nice and bright red brake lights (not necessarily flashing) and white reverse LED's were needed on mine and look great and don't cause any errors. If you don't have the rear camera those bright white reverse lights REALLY help... just some thoughts man, I appreciate you found my headlight bulb info useful!

I do not have a rear camera, so those bright whites will be nice. 👍🏻
I’m interested in your euro headlights, and what exactly you did with your taillights. Did you create threads for either?

 

[danbfree]

I do not have a rear camera, so those bright whites will be nice. 👍🏻
I’m interested in your euro headlights, and what exactly you did with your taillights. Did you create threads for either?

Here is my headlight thread: https://www.fiestastforum.com/threa...ds-ongoing-info-discussion-and-results.20065/

And for the taillights I used Premium Auto Styling precut smoke-outs. Not impressed at all for a taillight with such sharp angles to use a single piece cutout with the big butterfly wing like to work around the sharp angle of the upper and lower piece. I ended up having to do the hair dryer, stretch and X-acto knife the excess and they just didn't turn out that great. But I DO like the headlight corner blackouts but the passenger side was a little too small and not quite right, apparently the Euro's are slightly different size somehow. But now instead of a bunch of chrome it matches the dark look of the car much better.

 

[PepsiAddict]

Here is my headlight thread: https://www.fiestastforum.com/threa...ds-ongoing-info-discussion-and-results.20065/

And for the taillights I used Premium Auto Styling precut smoke-outs. Not impressed at all for a taillight with such sharp angles to use a single piece cutout with the big butterfly wing like to work around the sharp angle of the upper and lower piece. I ended up having to do the hair dryer, stretch and X-acto knife the excess and they just didn't turn out that great. But I DO like the headlight corner blackouts but the passenger side was a little too small and not quite right, apparently the Euro's are slightly different size somehow. But now instead of a bunch of chrome it matches the dark look of the car much better.

Those do look good and match your car. 👍🏻

 

[PepsiAddict]

Knowing I could avoid moving her today, I parked it last night at 25’, took a picture. Installed the leds today, waited til moments ago to take the after picture.
I had to remove the housings to replace the bulbs and put the new covers on. Took more time but worked out well. One thing to note: make sure the installed led has the skinny side facing up. The tabs are not exact and I managed to install/seat the led on the driver’s side wrong (the skinny side was at a 33 degree angle from center). Luckily I caught it before reinstalling the housing.

Overall I am extremely pleased!
Cutoff is not perfect, but close: if halogen an A+, I give these an A-.
Brightness is awesome and I can’t wait to drive with them.
Bleed is....nonexistent, outside of the fuzzy cutoff.
Color is a nice crisp white with no hint of blue.
I’m replacing my wife’s headlight housings soon in her Forester, and she is excited to be getting these (that vehicle too suffers from poor headlights).

Regarding the reverse lights: Before replacement I thought the reverse bulbs were good enough. And they are! But I replaced them anyways and - wow you all are right - these reverse leds are friggin bright! No reason for anyone in a parking lot to not know I’m in reverse, day or night. 😂

 

[danbfree]

Knowing I could avoid moving her today, I parked it last night at 25’, took a picture. Installed the leds today, waited til moments ago to take the after picture.
I had to remove the housings to replace the bulbs and put the new covers on. Took more time but worked out well. One thing to note: make sure the installed led has the skinny side facing up. The tabs are not exact and I managed to install/seat the led on the driver’s side wrong (the skinny side was at a 33 degree angle from center). Luckily I caught it before reinstalling the housing.

Overall I am extremely pleased!
Cutoff is not perfect, but close: if halogen an A+, I give these an A-.
Brightness is awesome and I can’t wait to drive with them.
Bleed is....nonexistent, outside of the fuzzy cutoff.
Color is a nice crisp white with no hint of blue.
I’m replacing my wife’s headlight housings soon in her Forester, and she is excited to be getting these (that vehicle too suffers from poor headlights).

Regarding the reverse lights: Before replacement I thought the reverse bulbs were good enough. And they are! But I replaced them anyways and - wow you all are right - these reverse leds are friggin bright! No reason for anyone in a parking lot to not know I’m in reverse, day or night. 😂

Looks great! Those TechMax LED's really are good huh? And yeah, having bright white reverse lights is amazing to have, long story short I ended up with 3 and used the 3rd for inside the hatch, another great place for one!

 

[igtufit]

Ordered the headlights & taillights in this thread - are the caps a mandatory part of the install? Just need to know if I need to fire up the ol' Amazon Prime again!

 

[danbfree]

Ordered the headlights & taillights in this thread - are the caps a mandatory part of the install? Just need to know if I need to fire up the ol' Amazon Prime again!

Not at all, our headlights aren't air tight anyway and it's really hard for water to work it's way in there as well. I also like knowing they are staying as cool as possible for most output and longevity. You can also find those domed 75mm ones on eBay probably pretty cheap too if you want without paying for extra shipping on Amazon if you don't have Prime.

 

[PepsiAddict]

I only got the cheap caps to keep myself from dropping stuff in there 😂

 

[igtufit]

Awesome. Thanks. New lighting arrives tomorrow!

 

[PepsiAddict]

I’m thinking I should aim the lights down an inch or two (@25’). No, I haven’t been flashed yet....maybe I’m just paranoid. These things are ridiculously bright compared to stock.