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LED Headlights

Hey all,

What does everyone think of LED headlamps? I've always loved LEDs and the technology is taking off lately.
They require a ballast like HIDs, but I think they would work better in reflector housings, since they seem to focus their light a bit better.
http://www.ebay.ca/itm/New-72w-6400...Parts_Accessories&hash=item2a45b2d24a&vxp=mtr

Anyone try them yet? I would, but for $100, I rather wait until they drop in price a bit. HID kits go for $50 now.
 



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If you’re looking for the best light, then a projector retrofit is the way to go. It’s expensive and takes time but the results are way better than led/hid bulbs in reflectors.

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Join the Elite Explorers for $20 each year.
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If you’re looking for the best light, then a projector retrofit is the way to go. It’s expensive and takes time but the results are way better than led/hid bulbs in reflectors.

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Precisely! It’s the best option for proper lighting. There are budget retrofits that can be done but for the best performance, it’s best to spend the money the right way the first time with quality products that you don’t have to worry about.
 






Another vote for retrofit. I recommend theretrofitsource for quality kits.
 






Another vote for retrofit. I recommend theretrofitsource for quality kits.

That’s where I bought my Stage III kit from. I’ve also purchased switchback drl’s and xb led fog light assemblies from them too.
 






The X is looking good these days.
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Precisoin LED

Purchased a set of LED headlights for my Explorer after reading all the post above. Cost was $139 for the set from Precision LED company. Lights have the ballast and a connector that fits into the existing wire harness. You can not put the dust covers back over the light casing. Lumen rating was 3200 for the LED bulbs vs about 900 lumen for original halogen bulbs.
Results are better lighting, whiter lighting, as well as better lighting on the sides of the vehicle. Distance of lighting is better also.
I appreciate the concerns about physics and optics of LED bulbs, but my point is that halogen lights are not satisfactory at night, replaced with LED bulbs, and I can see much better now and feel safer accordingly. I agree that I am taking some risk, but for now I have a solution to the problem.
Will follow up down the road on how reliable these LEDs are as well as any impact of not being able to put on the dust covers over the rear housing.


Just throwing this out there and I know it will not sit well with many but numerous studies have been done that are used in court which have come to the conclusion that you actually do not get any improvement in what you see when comparing hid vs led vs halogen.......

I put leds in my projector headlights so trust me I am all for the brighter light however the studies were conducted for accident reconstruction purposes and have no bias so I believe the results......
 






Sticking gimmick HID bulbs in a projector housing designed for halogen bulbs gives the illusion of being "awesome" because projectors have a sharper cutoff than regular reflector housings (especially those with fluted lenses). While they might be slightly less terrible, they are still poor compared to sticking the proper bulb into the proper housing designed for it.

The thing really worth noting is that it is against the law to put on an HID kit and stick HID bulbs into a housing that is designed for halogen bulbs.


I've looked at the "HID" bulb, it doesn't matter how the LED is aimed - it's not a point source. The LED is a large dot of light, many, many times larger than the tiny, tiny, tiny point source of a filament. This may not seem like a big deal, but it is. The much, much larger source of light acting as a source for the reflector might give a beam of light, but it will be unfocused, and probably closer to an uneven blob of light in front of the vehicle, rather than a bright, focused, clear beam of light that is aimed on the ground.

That's pretty cool if the LED mount rotates so it can aim at different parts of the reflector, but it doesn't get around the basic problem, that the LED isn't small enough to be a point source and work with the reflector as designed.

As for "The placement of the LED seems about right" - the placement of a halogen filament has to be just about perfect with respect to the reflector to get an even, focused beam that the reflector is designed for, with the correct amount of throw to the sides and out in front. Merely being off by a millimeter can change the beam from being perfectly focused, to being off more than enough to cause glare or just shift the beam in the opposite direction.

To have a big, large LED the size of 25-50+ filaments in place of a single filament be "about the right size" is like saying a tree is "about the right size" to hit a target instead of an arrow. It'll hit it all right, but it ignores the precision inherent in the design and the desired precision in the outcome. You can get a big, giant blob of unfocused light by sticking a bulb in front of a reflector, sure, if you want to just have light go everywhere and use them off-road. The whole point of automotive headlights is to have a precise, focused beam that aims down on the road in front of the vehicle, both because it's the most efficient use of the available light, and so they can be used without blinding other drivers.

Those LED "bulbs", just like the "HID" bulbs, are total crap, just junk made in China to be sold to idiots all over the world who don't understand basic physics and optics and think automotive lighting works on wishful thinking.
Although 7 years since the posting, I wish to commend the Author for the most thorough and explanatory post. I never thought the whole LED Saga on older vehicles through.
This post should be in every Auto Parts store in America!!
 






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