I'm thinking of buying LED low beams vs. HID low beams. Does anyone have experience with both?

I just ordered this, anyone have any experience with this?

EDIT: It seems I can't link the address on amazon...

Anyways it was LED and it was $89 so I took the gamble.
New Brights LED Headlight Conversion Kit - All Bulb Sizes - 50W 3600LM Cree LED - Replaces Halogen & HID Bulbs - H11

 

Yes it is. I'm just worry that it's a cheap knock off and it won't last.

 

Be careful, I tried one of these LED bulbs with fan, passenger side was bit difficult to get in, had to remove the coolant tank and bend the stubby holder where coolant bolts which is exactly behind bulb,

 

Thanks for the heads up. I checked the passenger side and it looks like there's plenty of room. It should be here later today.

 

HIDs actually run a little cooler than halogen. More energy is transmitted as light than heat, hence greater efficiency.

 

Just put them on and it's going back. I am very disappointed in it. I even go as far as saying the ad was misleading as the output on it is less then my OEM. You can read my review here.

Amazon.com: D. Yang's review of New Brights LED Headlight Conversion Kit -...

 

So you ignored all the 1 and 2 star reviews? Then came away disappointed?

SCH-I535

 

I bought it base on this review. I figured since he has a Prius it would be a close match.

Amazon.com: coolasbluefire's review of New Brights LED Headlight Conversion Kit -...


The problem from what I can tell is that the aim is very low. I can only see just a little bit in front of me, it's white and bright. The other spots that the OEM covers, the side and further up the road, these will not reach. I almost hit some people on the road because the lights didn't go far enough upwards the road.

 

I have the OEM JDM LED headlights that come on the Aqua. I am going to be selling them because I just bought a Prius v ( lowercase v). I will be reinstalling the original headlights that came with my C. The LED lights look great, and provide a very clear light. They are not cheap, but are the best option if you want LED on a Prius C
I ha

 

How much are you asking? What is the condition? (Rock damage etc) do they have the blacked out interior? Let me know!

 

I've heard the added heat and UV produced by cheap HID bulbs can blister or damage the reflective backing on some OEM headlight housings in the 55 watt HID kit range. Don't know about Prius, this discussion originated with the Honda Goldwing riders forum, cycle riders are always looking for more lumens but there was at least on guy who had trouble with the 55 watt kits out there and had a photo of the damage it caused the housing.

 

It's not an issue in our cars. I've been driving with a 55w for the last (almost) two years.

 

I just bought the 5K version and so far so good. It's alot better then that crap LED kit I bought a few months ago. I installed one right away to compare to the stock version and it overwhelmed the stock. It was overlapping the stock like it wasn't even there. It also went further download versus the stock.

I can actually see the road now, it's very bright. I did go and look at the front from about 50 feet to see if there's any annoying glare. It's just little more then my stock but not annoying. I've only have these for a few days so I'm not sure if it's gonna annoying anyone yet.

I test drove it through a park where there were no lights and it was very bright. I could barely tell if the high beams were even on because it's so bright. I'm gonna have to replace the high beam as it was mostly useless to me and it's not very bright. I'm debating wether to go with HID for them or just something like Silverstar since I rarely use them.


I do however have a question if anyone can answer it, I bought the anti flickering kit with it and I'm wondering if I even need it since I don't see any flicking.

 

I just got the super bright LED kit. it is new gen 3000 lumen LED 35W each bulb.

 

Not HID, LED. They're H11 bulb replacements that have LEDs on them.

Yes, they are bright, but they also have poor beam patterns due to the panels the LEDs are mounted on, and the fact that there is more light thrown out to the sides than forward out of the projector, or back into the reflector bowls which then get properly focused by the lenses. The panels (circuitboards) the LEDs are mounted on get in the way as well for proper light focusing.

Projectors are designed for a single point light source at a specific distance and angle from the reflectors, cutoff shields, and lenses. Aftermarket LEDs are far from ideal at duplicating single point light output, therefore the poor beam focusing and patterns.

 

You meant LED, right?

With HID 55W you can have up to 5000 lumens.

 

Any feedback on these?? I have HIDs on the low beams and I'm happy with them (after some trials and tribuiations, see below), but want to replace the high beams with LED (for the instant-on capabililty vs. HIDs which have to warm up)..

Anyways, for those still considering HIDs, it's a worthwhile investment, but there are some caveats, even when you buy from so called "reputable" dealers: When I put an HID retrofit in the low beams of my C2, initially they were very poor.. Nothing wrong with the ballasts, it was the bulbs..

Firstly, 6000k is still too blue and really does not illuminate that well.. Secondly, if you line up the HID bulb beside the filament bulb, you'll see that in 99% of the cases, no matter where and what brand you buy, the space between the HID electrodes does not line up with the filament (HIDs were out too far by about 4mm).. While this may not sound like a lot, when in a projector or even a reflector, the light output is highly depedendent on having the source at the optics' focal point.. 4mm defocuses the beam and you get a lot more "spill" and glare (this, and color, are often when people have to put in 55W or even higher powered HID kits to get adequate road illumination).. You can easily see the difference by parking your vehicle in front of a wall at the specified focus distance and installing the halogen bulbs and seeing the distinct stairstep pattern with fairly even illumination below and comparatively little above, and then swapping in the HIDs and noting that now, the pattern still has steps, but they are not as distinct; there's now a lot more light spillage and "hot spots" in the middle vs. the even illumination.. This tells you that the bulbs are misaligned..

My solution was to modify the HID lamps by removing the tubes, drilling out the plastic sockets so that the tubes can be installed lower down so that the arc point matches the filament location, then gluing everything back down with high temp RTV. This dramatically improved the pattern (nice sharp stairsteps again) and light output on the road, but it still wasn't as good as the halogens.. So I ordered a set of 5000K bulbs (which also came with misaligned tubes, which I had to modify; I do have a photo step-by-step if anyone is interested), and these were the ticket: 35W HID that is as good/better than the 55W halogen bulbs..

So, now that I have the low beam situation resolved, I want to replace the 9005 high beams with LEDs.. I've tried some of the early versions of LED retrofits and have found them pretty disappointing in terms of light output, due to several factors, but key among these was, like the HID kits, a misalignment between the LED position and the filament position: most were too short (vs. the HID, which were too long), and even when they matched, the LEDs were mounted about 3/8" apart on that central stalk and did not product the "point source" of the filament, so the pattern was ultimately pretty poor; secondly, most of these LED kits way overstate the light output.. They are bright, but at least for these early versions, not HID bright... The only good thing about the LEDs was that if you picked a set that had 12V minimum voltages on the ballasts (many claim to operate down as low as 6V, which normally might be a good thing, but not in the case of the Prius, where the high beams double as daytime running lights). The idea is that you want the LEDs to dim when in DRL mode, but be full power when the high beams are turned on.. If you pick a ballast that works down to 6V, what happen is that when in DRL mode, when the car is sending less voltage to the bulbs, the ballast simply pulls more current to allow the LEDs to light up to full brightness, but if you pick a set with a 12V minimum voltage, when operating in DRL mode, the LEDs effectively dim vs being on at full power. Now they may flicker somewhat on the reduced voltage, but that's not an issue during the daytime when they are just there to alert other drivers of your presence vs. illuminating the road. I did keep a set in there for a while, but since I started doing more highway driving, I found the high beam output from the LEDs pretty poor (a tiny bit more light up top, so I could see the road signs a bit earlier, but no real difference vs. the HID low beams as far as road illumination went), so I've put back the halogens in the highs for now, but I've been keeping an eye on the newest generation of LED kits, which feature more efficient, smaller emitters (which should behave closer to the point source, although alignment vs. filament is still a question) and would be prepared to try them again..