DD SL1 led headlights

[Skippy722]

My 2016 300S came from the factory with 9005 projector headlights. I immediately upgraded them to 9011 HIR1 bulbs and ran those for 11 months. I was never a fan of the halogen yellow color, and I know you can't just go swapping any old led or even hid in there and expecting miracles.

Well, enter the Diode Dynamics SL1. They promised factory beam pattern with a decent upgrade over stock in light output. Being a Mopar, antiflicker modules were a no brainer. Everything fit within the headlight assembly with the factory dust covers, no drilling holes or running wiring harnesses required.

Came in Wednesday and immediately installed them, then left for work. Coming home I was rather disappointed, they weren't as good as I was hoping... fast forward to Sunday night I decided I'd try clocking the bulbs. The factory bulbs are in there at a 4-10 or 5-11 position, okay for a halogen bulb but not so much for an led. Got them so the chips fired out at a 9-3 position and took it for a drive.

WOW! Huge improvement! Identical beam pattern to the 9011's, lighting on the road is identical to the 9011's, and IMO much better color. And no glare!

 

[PumpPusher]

Nice. I want to do mine, but the whole having to clock them scares me off. I'd have to disassemble the front end to make adjustments.

 

[Skippy722]

Originally Posted by PumpPusher
Nice. I want to do mine, but the whole having to clock them scares me off. I'd have to disassemble the front end to make adjustments.


If I was smart, I would have compared them and clocked them the first time. But because Chrysler, we can't just be normal and put the bulbs in the right way lol. First car I've ever come across where the connector wasn't straight up and down when the bulb was seated.

 

[meep]

Measuring the change in light pattern with a ruler on my monitor, the top of the beam at the hotspot has moved from 5/16" to 10/16" off the ground. This is a significant change in cutoff at the hotspot.

Measuring at about 4' in from the edge of the wall at the left, where traffic is approaching, the cutoff has changed from 11/32" to 19/32"

Chances are, an approaching sedan is now being glared, and your beam is a little hot in someones rearview. The beam height has doubled from the ground, and may be over horizontal. To make this work, you need to lower the aim to get the light back on the ground. Hopefully that looks even better.

Write back after you do that - we'd probably like to know since the LEDs have a lot of potential going for them - better than HID drop-ins.... When you lower the beam, does the lighting remain smooth from close to far? or does the ground 30' from you become too bright while the horizon doesn't keep up? I'd really like to, and I'll bet most viewers here, would like to know.

it kinda goes like this--

1. is output good?
2. is the cutoff out of everyone's eyes?
3. is the foreground/distance distribution correct?

I've yet to find a drop-in that gets #3.

Thank you for putting out a well-thought and photographed post.

-m

 

[Skippy722]

Originally Posted by meep
Measuring the change in light pattern with a ruler on my monitor, the top of the beam at the hotspot has moved from 5/16" to 10/16" off the ground. This is a significant change in cutoff at the hotspot.

Measuring at about 4' in from the edge of the wall at the left, where traffic is approaching, the cutoff has changed from 11/32" to 19/32"

Chances are, an approaching sedan is now being glared, and your beam is a little hot in someones rearview. The beam height has doubled from the ground, and may be over horizontal. To make this work, you need to lower the aim to get the light back on the ground. Hopefully that looks even better.

Write back after you do that - we'd probably like to know since the LEDs have a lot of potential going for them - better than HID drop-ins.... When you lower the beam, does the lighting remain smooth from close to far? or does the ground 30' from you become too bright while the horizon doesn't keep up? I'd really like to, and I'll bet most viewers here, would like to know.

it kinda goes like this--

1. is output good?
2. is the cutoff out of everyone's eyes?
3. is the foreground/distance distribution correct?

I've yet to find a drop-in that gets #3.

Thank you for putting out a well-thought and photographed post.

-m


Both pictures are of the LED's, the top one is low beam while the bottom is high beam.

I feel as though the beam pattern is identical to the halogens, while being just a tad bit brighter but it has a color I'm more comfortable with.

 

[Skippy722]

First, something I should have added into my first post. All headlights are different, so you will get different performance out of different ones. The headlights on my 300 were always very narrow, even with the halogens. The LED's DID NOT make the beam pattern any wider or narrower.

Low beam on the top. High beam on the bottom. Phone held on top of the steering wheel.

Pictures taken quickly with a phone, didn't want a car to come up and wonder why I'm sitting at an otherwise deserted 4 way stop flicking my lights around at 4am!

The high beam picture is a more accurate representation of foreground light, it's about the same whether in low or high. The low beam shot is a bit overexposed.

 

[meep]

I gotta admit. that's pretty good. the stock housings really seem to hold it together well. to me the foreground seems a little hot but the distance beam is /impressive/ in the photo and it's really hard to know for certain with a camera... LED. Either way, it's far better than either of my vehicles, and the low beam cutoff does seem very sharp, which is definitely something you want. I naturally expect most HL mods to be worse than oem, but this one is one of the best I've seen.

 

[Skippy722]

Thank you meep! I will eventually do a proper HID projector retrofit, but that's going to a few years down the road still.