LED's the new HID upgrade?
Discussion
Purely from a technical and light output point of view, are LED upgrades now as good if not better than HIDs?
Maybe last year this wasn't the case...but from what I'm seeing, aftermarket LED bulbs are now seriously bright and I suspect the bad boyz upgrade of choice?!
Just wondering if anyone has any experience...do they produce lots of annoying light scatter like HID's do in an open reflector bowl, non-projector style housing?
Who will be the first to post the DfT report. Who will be the first to tell us they're illegal. Don't forget to mention E marked lenses...
(secretly hoping for sensible real life experience rather than the usual childish slagging match)
Maybe last year this wasn't the case...but from what I'm seeing, aftermarket LED bulbs are now seriously bright and I suspect the bad boyz upgrade of choice?!
Just wondering if anyone has any experience...do they produce lots of annoying light scatter like HID's do in an open reflector bowl, non-projector style housing?
Who will be the first to post the DfT report. Who will be the first to tell us they're illegal. Don't forget to mention E marked lenses...
(secretly hoping for sensible real life experience rather than the usual childish slagging match)
Yeah that's what I'm talking about...eBay is now awash with LED bulbs for around £20. These are the high power headlight bulbs by the way...you wouldn't want these as sidelight bulbs 
People used to froth at the mouth when HID kits were mentioned, but LED's seem to have slipped under the radar.
...anyone else mentioning fog lights is banned from this discussion henceforth!
People used to froth at the mouth when HID kits were mentioned, but LED's seem to have slipped under the radar.
...anyone else mentioning fog lights is banned from this discussion henceforth!
shakotan said:
I have a generic Chinese set for my Main/Dip headlamps and they are really good.
You need the units similar to the Philips ones above, with additional cooling heatsinks and fans, and the additional ballast resistor.
The uber cheap bulbs that just have LED chips instead of the filament won't output anywhere near enough light.
Bingo - thanks. This is the sort of reply I was hoping for...You need the units similar to the Philips ones above, with additional cooling heatsinks and fans, and the additional ballast resistor.
The uber cheap bulbs that just have LED chips instead of the filament won't output anywhere near enough light.
So are they brighter, do they cause much glare or light scatter etc?
I have fitted HID's in the past and wasn't happy with the scatter and muzzy low beam cutoff etc.
The problem with fitting a brighter light source into a reflector bowl type housing is best answered by this little analogy I just came up with...
Imagine a funnel in the top of a bucket. Now imagine pouring water into the bucket via the funnel...the funnel outlet is just big enough to let all the water safely into the bucket. Now imagine two people trying to pour water into the bucket...now the funnel outlet isn't big enough, and the excess water spills over the top of the funnel.
It's the same with fitting HID's to a normal reflector - there is too much light to focus and it spills out as glare and scatter (the sharp cutoff becomes fuzzy). The chap above said reflective objects show up better...I suspect this is caused by light scatter?
The only real answer is to fit a projector style unit (£10 on eBay) which I did a while ago on my bike... https://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=0&...
Imagine a funnel in the top of a bucket. Now imagine pouring water into the bucket via the funnel...the funnel outlet is just big enough to let all the water safely into the bucket. Now imagine two people trying to pour water into the bucket...now the funnel outlet isn't big enough, and the excess water spills over the top of the funnel.
It's the same with fitting HID's to a normal reflector - there is too much light to focus and it spills out as glare and scatter (the sharp cutoff becomes fuzzy). The chap above said reflective objects show up better...I suspect this is caused by light scatter?
The only real answer is to fit a projector style unit (£10 on eBay) which I did a while ago on my bike... https://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=0&...
untakenname said:
Due to the light source of the LED's being more like normal filaments size wise than the long filaments of HID's they don't seem to have as many issues when used with older housings, I got my dad an LED replacement bulb on his 1970's motorbike (electrical system was being overloaded by the 35w halogen) and there's surprisingly little light scatter even in fluted lenses.
I have LED's as my main beam and they project further down the road than the 55w halogens that it replaced, as it's main beam the beam pattern doesn't matter as much as I dip them for oncoming traffic.
There's a shoot out here of 15 different LED's which is worth a watch if you're considering buying a pair as price doesn't always correspond to output or beam pattern https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SQF5ESBHLrw
I think you'll find the source of the light is actually in the same spot more or less. There is no filament in HID's of course, it's a spark gap. The LED offerings emit light on two sides of a rectangular pillar, so they are in fact vastly different to filament and HID bulbs. LED upgrades seem to work better in traditional reflectors as opposed to projector style lights because the pillar that the LED's are mounted on casts an unwanted shadow in the beam (apparently).I have LED's as my main beam and they project further down the road than the 55w halogens that it replaced, as it's main beam the beam pattern doesn't matter as much as I dip them for oncoming traffic.
There's a shoot out here of 15 different LED's which is worth a watch if you're considering buying a pair as price doesn't always correspond to output or beam pattern https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SQF5ESBHLrw
Having watched lots of different YouTube video's, it seems they all emit unwanted light scatter and/or muzzy low beam cutoffs just like HID's, so I won't be bothering.
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