HID vs. LED headlight kits

Better lighting is always best, but depends on what you want and at what cost. Most can easily live with the halogen lighting that came from the factory. I prefer either a factory LED or HID system than a retrofit. I have the factory LEDs on my Prius Plug In Advance. They're the latest in lighting technology. I love the look and the bright, white light they provide. A retrofit, especially for HIDs are common place and it's a inexpensive mod. Not sure what available if you want to go LED aftermarket. You could simply upgrade your factory halogen bulbs with something better like the Sylvania Ultras that sell for under $50 per pair. Others will offer opinions.

 

Lots of people (here and any other car forum), will refer you to The Retrofit Source for the Morimoto 35W HID kits. They're about $150, I think?

I went a slightly cheaper route using a DDM 35W HID kit, but with Morimoto bulbs (about $80 altogether). However, DDM's quality is usually a hotly debated topic, even though they have a lifetime warranty. I will say I've been using my DDM (ballasts only) for 2 years without any issue (and whole kit in another car for 3 years).

I dont think you can find an aftermarket LED headlight kit that is priced anywhere near a decent HID kit, but I could be wrong since I havent looked in a while.

Installing an HID kit is just plug-and-play. Most of your "install time" will be spent trying to hide/tuck wiring and mounting the ballast somewhere.

 

Replacing your halogen headlights with LED headlights on the Prius will run you between $1200-$2000, and it's not a simple plug-N-play upgrade.

Replacing your halogen headlights with HID headlights on the Prius will run you between $60-$200, and it's a pretty simple plug-N-play upgrade.

 

I replaced my stock halogens with slyvania ultras about 42 dollars and 5 mins a lite. Better than stock, but not as good as Led which cost at lest 200 dollars and you must add extra wiring and a transform box.

 

Are the ultras much brighter than stock?

 

potorap : they are brighter and wider beam, how much I'm finding it hard to tell!

 

Lou,

Thanks, I drive home at night with deer and burros on my route, couldn't hurt having more light.

 

Had Sylvania Silverstar zXe bulbs in both our cars. Have since installed modified 65w H9 halogen bulbs in both cars. The H9 are definitely an upgrade worth considering.

Good quality German made H9 like Osram and Philips are less than $10 per bulb and outperform the "premium" H11 bulbs which cost much more for less light.

SCH-I535

 

LED's are much brighter and slightly whiter than the stock halogens in the Prius.

HID bulb wattage denotes how much current the bulb will nominally draw. Typically- the higher the wattage the brighter the HID bulb. Of course if you purchase 50 watt HID bulbs- you need to get 50 watt HID ballasts too.

 

I think, generally speaking, LEDs should consume less power for the same amount of light as HIDs. And HIDs consume less power for the same amount of light as halogens.

Your stock halogen bulbs are 55W. The "standard" HID kit is 35W and will be produce more light than your stock bulbs. The bulb wattage is just how much electricity the bulbs consume (or operate at). So switching from 2x55W halogen bulbs to 2x35W HID bulbs, should save some energy, although you're not talking a whole lot.

However, since halogen < HID < LED, comparing wattages between the different technologies isnt really helpful in determining true light output

I kind of recall someone here posting that the stock Advanced LED headlights are 20W a side, but I cant seem to find that now.

I just googled for Prius LED headlights and I found this link. I dont know of anyone who's ever used a kit like this nor have I read any reviews, I'm just posting it here so you can see such a kit exists:

Rakuten: Toyota Prius ★ H21.5 ~ H23.11 ZVW30 ★ ヘッドライトフォグ lamps ★ H11 ★ launches new 23 wLED 6000 k (white) SAMSUNG &amp;CREE, headlights &amp;amp; fog lights ◆ ◆ ◆- Shopping Japanese products from Japan

But that appears to be a plug-and-play kit that uses 23W LED bulbs. I cant read Japanese though.

If you're looking for more light, xliderider's suggestion sounds like an easy and cheap upgrade (although, I believe you need to modify the base of the H9 bulb a tiny bit to fit an H11 opening?). If you're a bit more "adventurous", then I'd just go with an HID kit.

If you pop into the Gen3 Mods & Accessories forum, you'll see this topic comes up a lot and there are many, many Prius owners who are using HID kits.

 

H11 5K CXA 2000LM | 1 PAIR (BACKORDERED MID MARCH) B/O - LED Headlights

The above LED kit looks promising, although not out yet.

 

The biggest problem with LEDs like this is that the light source isn't a point source, which the halogen projector is designed for (single filament glowing white hot). The HIDs come close with an intense arc of plasma/electricity, but even then, the arc may not be located in the proper location as the oem incandescent bulb's filament. In these retrofit LED bulbs, the light is coming out the front, the sides, etc. and the circuit boards themselves get in the way of the reflected light paths. The reflector bowl and lens isn't designed for this. The beams will be poorly focused, and will have a cr@ppy pattern.

 

you can purchase led headlights for aroud $450 a peice (brand new) but i did compare my 55watt ddm tuning kit to leds (factory) on my Lexus IS and the prius is much brighter, more illumination and a bit whiter, ill post comparison pics when it gets dark. id recommend going with a full retrofit from the retro fit source
Bi-xenon Morimoto Mini Stage III Kit (D2S) - Complete Retrofit Kits from The Retrofit Source Inc

its half the price and twice as bright (on paper)

 

At the rate LED technology is evolving, I'm going to wait until it stabilizes. I just bought a 6000 lumen pocket-sized flashlight.

Holy Cow.

 

I agree. I bet in a couple of years there will be LED swap in bulbs that will totally beat HIDs, run cooler and take even less power.

 

I disagree. There will still be the focusing problem, unless the whole light assembly is designed around the LED light source, like the OEM LED systems. The drop-ins will not be acceptable in projectors and reflectors designed for bulbs with a point source filament or discharge arc.

 

This will depend on what your level of acceptability is. I know you don't accept drop-in HIDs in the Prius either, many do though, and believe the light output with those to be just fine. The same will go for a drop in LED bulb.

 

An LED emitter is a flat surface. An HID is a tube of gas. A halogen is a piece of wire. Each has different optical qualities, therefore the lens and reflector are important. I think the LED holds the most promise, as it has a very long service life, very efficient, isn't affected much by ambient temperature, and the costs are plummeting.

P.S. an acetylene lamp is an open flame, but we don't use those much for headlights anymore.