LED headlights

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I have a 2006 Chevy Cobalt, I put led headlights in, I can use low beams but it wont switch to high beams. Do I need something??? thanks
 
Originally Posted By: 901Memphis
Yes you need to replace all the oem parts back where they go and throw those cheap illegal dangerous Chinese toys in the trash.




Agreed. If you read the fine print, most of those "conversions" admit in there somewhere or other that you won't get low/high beam switching anymore.
 
Originally Posted By: 440Magnum
Agreed. If you read the fine print, most of those "conversions" admit in there somewhere or other that you won't get low/high beam switching anymore.


The other thing you lose, which doesn't get printed on the box, is a legal and effective beam pattern.

jonnycat, welcome to BITOG...but please, put your original bulbs back in your headlamps.
 
Originally Posted By: Hokiefyd


The other thing you lose, which doesn't get printed on the box, is a legal and effective beam pattern.



Absolutely true. You can't take a filament-shaped light source out of a reflector and insert a flat chip light source in the same reflector and expect anything close to a legal beam. Its just physics.

That said, there are good/effective (albeit expensive) LED options for older vehicles with standard round and rectangular format headlamps now, because in that case you're replacing the source and reflector together. Trucklite makes some, and I hear their current beams are better than their earliest ones which (to paraphrase Dan Stern) 'looked like someone implemented the DOT/FMVSS rulebook to the very letter, with no understanding of the finesse that it takes to fit in the rulebook and make lights that are appealing to the driver.' The ones I tried had a lot of sharp lines and edges in the beam instead of blending smoothly. J.W. Speaker also makes some really nice ones. The thing most people have a problem with is that they look 'weird' (some say 'ugly') when the lights are off, and the color temperature isn't the best.

http://www.truck-lite.com/webapp/wcs/sto...7&langId=-1
 
Originally Posted By: hansj3
For your consideration:

http://forum.miata.net/vb/showthread.php?t=521070

He seemed to have good luck with them. That said its not a filament illumination and the light dispersal isn't the same


The side-by-side picture shows EVERYTHING that is wrong with trying to do a "conversion." Emitter in a different spot than the filament, there's no high-beam emitter at all, and the LED emitter is physically far larger than the filament so that the beam-pattern is a bunch of mush and not well-controlled.
 
Originally Posted By: hansj3
For your consideration:

http://forum.miata.net/vb/showthread.php?t=521070

He seemed to have good luck with them. That said its not a filament illumination and the light dispersal isn't the same


I think it's funny -- the first photo he shows of the beam pattern against his garage wall demonstrates the significant departure from "correct" that the LEDs have done (and he declares "so far so good"). Instead of the cutoff being sharper on the left, allowing an upsweep to the right (which is what we need in a right-hand traffic country), the LEDs produce a concerning upsweep to the left. At least he later on recognized that the LEDs put too much light down in the foreground.

His street view is really telling, and demonstrates the fallacy of being able to "eye ball" what an effective light pattern is. His picture looks great to a lot of people. "Look at all that light on the road -- I can see great!!" To the contrary, it has a tremendous hot spot just in front of the vehicle, and this is hugely detrimental to night vision. Any light that's not far down the road competes for your eyes' attention. This is why fog lamps should not be used in most situations, and certainly not at speeds above about 25-35 mph -- you're going way too fast to be able to use them effectively, and all of the side light is fighting the light down the road for your eyes' focus.

The most effective things you can do to improve your night vision, and this applies to every vehicle, and costs little:

  • Ensure your lamp housings are clean.
  • Ensure your bulbs are new or fairly new, and of the proper type.
  • Ensure your lamps are aimed properly.
  • Turn the dashboard dimmer down all the way.


You'll be amazed at what turning the dash lights off can do to your night vision. Modern dashboards are WAY too bright for most situations. Turn it down all the way, so that the light fades softly into your peripheral vision, and you'll find it much easier to see distances at night.
 
The biggest issue I have with my night vision these days is constricted pupils brought about by overbright headlights on other vehicles. A lot of them are not due to aftermarket "upgrades." There are a lot of poor systems from the OEM's as well. Add that to the increasing number of drivers leaving high beams on all the time. I wonder if they just decide that since they can't see with their low beams (due to poor factory systems) that it's OK to just leave the high beams on.
 
Originally Posted By: DBMaster
I wonder if they just decide that since they can't see with their low beams (due to poor factory systems) that it's OK to just leave the high beams on.


I think a lot of drivers today are completely ignorant of high/low beam operation having never driven outside a city, at least not off the freeway on a 2-lane. Combine that with cars that have automatic headlights (if the switch is in the right position), and dash lights that are always on when the ignition is on regardless of exterior lighting (a stupid idea that my wife's WK2 has for example), a lot of drivers get away without ever interacting with any vehicle lighting control at all, let alone the dimmer switch. If a switch gets bumped to the wrong position, they're clueless and drive around either with NO headlights, just DRLs and no tail-lights, high-beams on, or other unsafe configurations. You're right, its become absolutely rampant in the last 10 years or so. And don't get me started on the twits that turn on their fogs every time they turn on the lights, or the bigger twits that turn on their hazards in the rain...
 
Originally Posted By: 440Magnum
Combine that with cars that have automatic headlights (if the switch is in the right position), and dash lights that are always on when the ignition is on regardless of exterior lighting (a stupid idea that my wife's WK2 has for example), a lot of drivers get away without ever interacting with any vehicle lighting control at all, let alone the dimmer switch. If a switch gets bumped to the wrong position, they're clueless and drive around either with NO headlights, just DRLs and no tail-lights, high-beams on, or other unsafe configurations. You're right, its become absolutely rampant in the last 10 years or so. And don't get me started on the twits that turn on their fogs every time they turn on the lights, or the bigger twits that turn on their hazards in the rain...

The 2006 Volvo V70 DRL use low beam with full brightness, also the instrument light is on at any light switch position. It is very easy to have no tail light at night because the driver saw instrument light on and saw low beam on the road with light switch at the off position.
 
Originally Posted By: HTSS_TR

The 2006 Volvo V70 DRL use low beam with full brightness, also the instrument light is on at any light switch position. It is very easy to have no tail light at night because the driver saw instrument light on and saw low beam on the road with light switch at the off position.


Most new cars have this problem if not equipped with automatic lights.
 
Originally Posted By: SirTanon
LED bulbs have absolutely NO place in modern automotive projector headlights. If you must upgrade, do a proper upgrade to HIDs..


You must have meant reflector, because the ones in my projectors duplicate the OEM pattern to a T, but brighter.
 
Originally Posted By: jonnycat
I have a 2006 Chevy Cobalt, I put led headlights in, I can use low beams but it wont switch to high beams. Do I need something??? thanks


A different kit that has the ability, or drop them entirely.

There are kits that have both a low and high beam emitter, but the high beam emitter is usually perfectly worthless. Off so far that it makes no sense.
 
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