LED Headlights?

[sketchman]

Anybody tried them? Looks good. Might do it when my Silverstars burn out.

9004 LED Kit

[ryanprins13]

I cant believe i didn't think of looking that up... My 9004 HID kit just came in the mail and i have to pay extra shipping for more bulbs because the ones it came with were defective...
Do you have a stock airbox? If you do i think the bulb will hit it, your link didnt work for me but the LED kit i looked at on ebay looks like the bulb bases stick out a ways and would hit your airbox. I put 9007's in mine and had to modify stuff because they hit the airbox.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[r34king]

Don't do it. The light output is very sub-par in a reflector housing. It will be worse than the halogens

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I717 using Tapatalk

[sketchman]

Hmm. OK.

[SWRT]

I think ryan is referring to HID ballasts, which are freakin insanely long sometimes.
Either way, yeah...not sure the LED headlights are the best route. I'm waiting for
them to mature a few years before I decide to go in on some. Also, Silverstars
tend to burn out more quickly than other headlights in my opinion. To quote a
line from Bladerunner...or an old Chinese guy probably:
"The candle that burns twice as bright burns half as long."

Also, going off-road takes them out much faster. I've had standard bulbs last for
years off-road in my Legacy. Had the Silverstars on there for maybe 8 months and
one went out. Replaced the bulb that went out with a standard bulb and a week later
the other one went out when I was going through bumps. I cant say 100% that's what
caused it, but that's my guess since the ones on my WRX lasted the two years that I
had the car. Too expensive for what they are. I'd just stick with the $8 bulbs and get
a good set of fog lights if you dont have any. You can always put the 100w bulbs in your
fog lights if you dont feel they're bright enough. Tried it once and it didnt seem to hurt
anything. I do know next to nothing about electrical stuff though.

[jaketlong11]

I hate led headlights they don't project like any other ones. but or marker, brake, turning, reverse lights they are a good option

[ryanprins13]

I think ryan is referring to HID ballasts, which are freakin insanely long sometimes.
Either way, yeah...not sure the LED headlights are the best route. I'm waiting for
them to mature a few years before I decide to go in on some. Also, Silverstars
tend to burn out more quickly than other headlights in my opinion. To quote a
line from Bladerunner...or an old Chinese guy probably:
"The candle that burns twice as bright burns half as long."

Also, going off-road takes them out much faster. I've had standard bulbs last for
years off-road in my Legacy. Had the Silverstars on there for maybe 8 months and
one went out. Replaced the bulb that went out with a standard bulb and a week later
the other one went out when I was going through bumps. I cant say 100% that's what
caused it, but that's my guess since the ones on my WRX lasted the two years that I
had the car. Too expensive for what they are. I'd just stick with the $8 bulbs and get
a good set of fog lights if you dont have any. You can always put the 100w bulbs in your
fog lights if you dont feel they're bright enough. Tried it once and it didnt seem to hurt
anything. I do know next to nothing about electrical stuff though.

Nope, the only kit i looked at had a big fan on the base of the bulb to cool the LED. Not that that would do anything in a sealed headlamp, but thats what it had.
And yes, halogens vs halogens the brighter bulbs always have a shorter life and usually explode rather than just dying when their done i find. I bought some super duper amazingly bright halogens off eBay once that lasted one month...


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[SWRT]

Nope, the only kit i looked at had a big fan on the base of the bulb to cool the LED. Not that that would do anything in a sealed headlamp, but thats what it had.
And yes, halogens vs halogens the brighter bulbs always have a shorter life and usually explode rather than just dying when their done i find. I bought some super duper amazingly bright halogens off eBay once that lasted one month...


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Cooling an LED, huh? New to me. I'm hoping in the future LED headlights will
improve a lot though. I could use them on the Insight to reduce power draw.

[NTRCOOL]

The Fan on those lights cool the the electronics inside that step down the power since Leds require less power to run. I bought a set for my 90 Pontiac Turbo Grand Prix and they are amazing 3000lumens are better than any 1000lumen halogen, BUT if your housing's reflective coating is all peeled off they won't seem all that great. I would buy a set for my Festiva if my Housings were in better shape.

Here is the link for my review/ test drive with LED head lights in my TGP https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jLQInpgeynY

[gergorian]

Cooling an LED, huh? New to me. I'm hoping in the future LED headlights will
improve a lot though. I could use them on the Insight to reduce power draw.

High power LED's require cooling to extend the life of the LED die. If you look at the link Sketchman posted ( specifically this picture https://d114hh0cykhyb0.cloudfront.ne...connection.jpg ) you can see that the LED dies are mounted to an aluminum column, and that unit is threaded on the end to accommodate the fan/ heatsink unit. Most people know of the "LED's put out alot of light, but they never get hot" and that is true up to a certain point. If you look at most high end LED flashlights, you'll notice that the head of the flashlight is heavily finned to dissipate the heat being produced by the LED. When you get to a certain wattage level with LED's you have to start cooling it (whether is be passive or active) or the lifespan of the LED will be drastically reduced.

The Fan on those lights cool the the electronics inside that step down the power since Leds require less power to run.

I'm sorry but neither of those statements are valid. The fan on the lights that were linked is to cool the LED unit not the electronics. The fan is mounted in the heatsink unit that screws on to the back of the LED unit. Also, if the electronics do anything to the power, they up the voltage going to the LED die as well as possibly ( if it is a quality unit) being pwm. But LED's generally do use less power per lumen than halogen.

[NTRCOOL]

Your right gergorian I wasn't thinking straight on the cooling set up. Been a long day at work. I posted the wrong link in the last post.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UtNMbAQNxhg

[ryanprins13]

LED Headlights?

I only said the fan was useless because i thought it was trying to blow air into the headlamp to cool the LED. Which wouldn't work. Looking at it again i see that its only cooling electronics outside the headlamp.
Anyway, who cares as long as it works, my only concern was that that fan might hit the airbox on a EFI festiva, you would have to measure and check your clearance before ordering.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[r34king]

The fans cool the heat sink not the led directly. The heat sink brings heat away from the led and the fan cools that. My previous post still holds true. Hid and led bulbs as headlights in a reflector housing is going to be bad for the driver by way of no light control and for others around you by way of glare(no light control)

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I717 using Tapatalk

[ryanprins13]

The fans cool the heat sink not the led directly. The heat sink brings heat away from the led and the fan cools that. My previous post still holds true. Hid and led bulbs as headlights in a reflector housing is going to be bad for the driver by way of no light control and for others around you by way of glare(no light control)

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I717 using Tapatalk

Yup, like i said, i realize that now, that was my mistake. Im still going to try my HID's anyway just to see what they do since i bought them already, but i probably wont be able to offer any feedback on that until closer to winter when i drive at night again. The festiva headlamp is basically a square box with reflective tape inside- lol. When i switched to 9007's instead of the light shining horizontally and lighting up the whole road and both ditches i got prettymuch 2 vertical beams of light that didn't light up the ditches much, just a narrow path right in front of the headlamps. But i could see waaay farther so i just aimed the left one to where the white line would be and the right one i pointed far left. They dont seem to bug anyone. Nobody flashes their lights unless im pulling a 'heavy' trailer or have 700pounds of sheep wool in the back...
Point being that 9004's are terrible and anything else will be terrible too but maybe slightly better than the 9004's. Or maybe im just trying to keep my hopes up that i didn't waste my money on this HID kit


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[sketchman]

Well now I want to again. Think I will eventually.