Any Known After Market HID or LED Headlight Upgrades that are Good as OEM ?

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I've no doubt there are after market options for LED or HID's but just how good are they, in general? Is there a particular brand name after market that is high quality and equivalent in function to factory equipped OEM setups?
 
If a car is factory setup with halogen projector beams (e.g. Ford Fusion SE for example) will the factory projector lens work for an LED bulb behind it or is that lens geometry made for the light spectrum of halogen only?
 
I've put plenty of LED bulbs behind halogen projectors. Never an issue.

I have found Beamtech LED bulbs to be the best after using plenty of different brands. Brightness and durability are flawless.
 
Originally Posted by madRiver
What is the goal changing them out?


I'm looking at buying a vehicle that is equipped with halogen projector beam headlights and I want to upgrade it to LED or HID, preferably using the OEM reflector assembly.
 
Originally Posted by LoneRanger
Originally Posted by madRiver
What is the goal changing them out?


I'm looking at buying a vehicle that is equipped with halogen projector beam headlights and I want to upgrade it to LED or HID, preferably using the OEM reflector assembly.

I just bought osram Nightbreaker Unlimited headlights for my 2015 cx5 and it did awesome. Massive upgrade. Try that first and see what you think, imo

On the right is the OEM Phillips. On the left is the Osram. This photo is accurate to my in person observation.

 
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Originally Posted by KrisZ
A lot of OEM led lights are terrible, so aftermarket will most likely not be any better.

My LED headlights are awesome in my opinion. What aspect of them do you find horrible on other vehicles?
 
Originally Posted by Ws6
Originally Posted by KrisZ
A lot of OEM led lights are terrible, so aftermarket will most likely not be any better.

My LED headlights are awesome in my opinion. What aspect of them do you find horrible on other vehicles?


Same here. I highly recommend the Diode Dynamics SL1 LED's, I love mine. If it's a reflector style headlight I would not put HID's in them, they'll just glare other people.
 
Originally Posted by Skippy722
Originally Posted by Ws6
Originally Posted by KrisZ
A lot of OEM led lights are terrible, so aftermarket will most likely not be any better.

My LED headlights are awesome in my opinion. What aspect of them do you find horrible on other vehicles?


Same here. I highly recommend the Diode Dynamics SL1 LED's, I love mine. If it's a reflector style headlight I would not put HID's in them, they'll just glare other people.


They might be awesome to you as you sit behind them, but the glare a lot of them produce is simply mind boggling when compared to halogens or HIDs. I used to be able to drive at night without dimming my rear view mirror, I no longer can do that. It's like having someone with the high beams on behind you.
 
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Originally Posted by KrisZ


They might be awesome to you as you sit behind them, but the glare a lot of them produce is simply mind boggling when compared to halogens or HIDs. I used to be able to drive at night without dimming my rear view mirror, I no longer can do that. It's like having someone with the high beams on behind you.


If they're glaring, so we're the factory 9005 and upgraded 9011 halogen bulbs since they have identical beam patterns. Then again, mine are also in projectors. Plus the SL1's have been proven time and time again to work great in reflector or projector headlights, producing identical beam patterns in almost all factory halogens, just with a whiter light.

A2F58EB4-E306-4393-A66C-315B5338F474.jpeg
 
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Projector retrofit is about the only thing I have seen to give consistent results, though projectors vary and many don't quite get the foreground-distance distribution correct. The best I've used is the morimoto mini D2S setup found on theretrofitsource.com. The also sell OEM units, which is probably even better. I have actually *removed* HID projectors due to poor distribution, even though I really wanted to like them (morimoto mini H1 - great in a fog lamp, poor distance distribution in a headlamp). Any drop in HID will be very poor for you and ugly to traffic. I've seen a few oem projectors that have worked well with LED drop-ins, but it varies with each car. Not all end up working well, and let's face it, it's hard to spend money on something and then send it back or throw it away if it doesn't work out well.

I read an interesting article last week pointing out that if you are just looking for a bulb upgrade there were a couple of things I didn't know.

1) Long Life (LL) bulbs have a thicker filament, but that reduces the crispness and focus of the beam. Getting non-LL bulbs will improve the focus and intensity of the light on the ground, with the only expense being lifespan.

2) the bulbs with the clear ring around the filament and the blue top and bottom in some brands actually do put out more usable lumens on the road surface - lumen testing is checked in a spherical measurement sensor, so by masking non-useful parts of the bulb and thereby reducing the overall output, they can boost the filament a little for the same net result, and you get more useful light on the road. They choose blue strictly for marketing BS. IIRC there were two brands using brighter filaments for this, but I don't recall which ones they were as I'm not a fan for blue gimmicks and won't support it.

Honorable mention, and perhaps much more suitable - a lot of credence was given to installing aftermarket headlamp wiring harness, if the vehicle doesn't have a DRL circuit which would buzz the relays to a short life. The new vehicle they quoted showed a 1V ground loss and 2V (+) loss, making for a total of 3V power drop at the bulbs. I can't remember the scale but it was logarithmic, meaning that those last 2V accounted for something like a double in actual light output.
 
Originally Posted by LoneRanger
If a car is factory setup with halogen projector beams (e.g. Ford Fusion SE for example) will the factory projector lens work for an LED bulb behind it or is that lens geometry made for the light spectrum of halogen only?


It is very unlikely that you will produce a LEGAL light distribution pattern with an LED bulb in a halogen headlight. A halogen projector is optically designed around a filament geometry.

Here is a SAE Abstract of a recent professional test of aftermarket LED bulbs, performed at the Lighting Research Center of Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute:

https://www.lrc.rpi.edu/programs/transportation/index.asp

https://www.sae.org/publications/technical-papers/content/2019-01-0850/

Quote
Evaluation of After-Market Light Emitting Diode Headlight Bulbs
2019-01-0850

Taking advantage of growing consumer interest in light emitting diode (LED) headlights, an increasing number of after-market LED replacement bulbs is available on the market. They are designed to have similar socket shapes and sizes as halogen bulbs, in order to fit into existing headlight housings. Although none of these LED replacement bulbs conform to present federal headlighting regulations, and some are labeled for "off road use" only, others claim to meet current regulations. Regardless, many different LED bulbs can be easily purchased and installed by vehicle owners, who may or may not be aware of their regulatory status. Several different LED replacement bulb kits, each designed to replace a conventional 55-W H11 halogen bulb, were purchased and tested in three different low-beam headlight units. Photometric measurements at several critical test points for headlight performance revealed that none of the resulting distributions met all of the test point photometric requirements. Some intensity values were lower than allowed minima while others exceeded allowed maxima. Photographs of the resulting beam patterns for each combination of LED bulb and headlight unit, when compared to the patterns with the halogen bulb, revealed stark differences in performance between the halogen and LED bulbs. Even though some bulbs more closely matched halogen performance, performance for different headlights using the same LED bulb could vary widely. These findings suggest that using after-market LEDs to replace halogen bulbs can compromise headlighting performance.
 
I am exremely satisfied with the Philips Xtreme Ultinon Gen 2 H4 bulbs I have installed half a year ago in my car reflector headlights.Was quite pricey but the beam pattern and lumens output is superb.Have used HID kit in the same headlights and it was a dissaster.Huge glare,bad beam pattern,everything wrong.
 
Originally Posted by LoneRanger
I've no doubt there are after market options for LED or HID's but just how good are they, in general? Is there a particular brand name after market that is high quality and equivalent in function to factory equipped OEM setups?


LED retrofit bulbs on the market range anywhere from complete disasters to acceptable.

HID retrofit bulbs/kits are federally illegal and not recommended at all. An HID kit cannot ever work well in a halogen headlamp.

https://isearch.nhtsa.gov/files/deetz.ztv.html

Sticking with the OEM setup but with upgraded halogen bulbs is usually the best.

Originally Posted by Skippy722
If they're glaring, so we're the factory 9005 and upgraded 9011 halogen bulbs since they have identical beam patterns. Then again, mine are also in projectors. Plus the SL1's have been proven time and time again to work great in reflector or projector headlights, producing identical beam patterns in almost all factory halogens, just with a whiter light.


SL1's have not been proven to perform well in all housings, and even the guy who created them (Paul McCain) has admitted this. See the discussion below: Paul has made modifications to some SL1's, but is still trying to figure things out with the guy who found that the SL1's have a poor beam pattern in many lamps. Not exactly confidence-inspiring for the guy selling supposed "upgrades" to be discussing product improvement ideas with a forum poster, and definitely not "proven time and time again to work great."

https://www.hidplanet.com/forums/fo...e-bad-and-the-ugly?p=1462441#post1462441

Originally Posted by Panos
I am exremely satisfied with the Philips Xtreme Ultinon Gen 2 H4 bulbs I have installed half a year ago in my car reflector headlights.Was quite pricey but the beam pattern and lumens output is superb.Have used HID kit in the same headlights and it was a dissaster.Huge glare,bad beam pattern,everything wrong.


The Philips H4's aren't bad, as they actually work acceptably in some headlamps (not all). However, judging glare with your eyes alone is very, very difficult if not impossible.

Glare is not the result of any and all light found above the horizontal with respect to the headlamps. Yes, an oncoming driver's eyes are above the horizontal with regard to the headlamps on cars. But everyone's eyes is contained in a 3" by 1" "box." The main cause of glare is light being projected directly into this 3" by 1" area.

People like to compare "wall-shots" of beam patterns, and people like to think that if a LED bulb's beam pattern matches that of a halogen bulb's beam pattern, then there can't be glare. That's deeply flawed. First, people don't know where to look on the garage wall for that (small) box that represent's an oncoming driver's eyes. Second, even if you can find that exact area, can you tell whether the glare thresholds of 1000 candela and 700 candela have been exceeded?

The reasoning is below:

https://www.facebook.com/AutomotiveLEDResearch/posts/597766327324783
 
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Thanks Deontologist for a well written post.

I do find the general acceptance of aftermarket LED retrofit bulbs as acceptable or even an upgrade from factory halogens quite puzzling. Especially since the HID retrofit kits are generally accepted as being bad.

It's quite a puzzling phenomenon.


I know that at night it is usually LED headlights that I notice are bothering my eyes. I don't know if it's the color, the glare or a combination of those plus some other factors. But I know I didn't have that problem just few years ago, before the hole LED fad took off.


Another pointer that something isn't right with the LED systems is that IIHS started testing them and rating some of these OEM implementations very poorly. They didn't really do that prior to LEDs becoming popular.

So why do the LEDs get a free pass it seems?
 
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