I am thinking of upgrading my headlight buld to something brighter so the question is HID or LED bulbs? also will this hurt my mpg?
Really? It's like day and night to me. Go with DDM 55w 4500 higher end version and you won't look back.
H11b, make sure the ground wire is opposite the largest tab on the base of the bulb. Getting the wrong type of H11 bulb will result in ground wire shadows in front of the vehicle.
HIDs = brightest option and no humanly noticeable effect on MPG However, I don't think brightness is a problem with the H11 oem bulbs of the prius C...it's more the height of the projectors/car (heck most trucks/suvs have higher positioned fogs than the prius C's lowbeams). IMO, no matter how bright the bulb/HID you put in you'll never improve the cutoff (barely 20 or so feet ahead before the projectors cutoff), unless you go and adjust your projectors. If you don't change the position of the projectors, you're just going to create a bright foreground against a dark background (I'm sure everyone has walked into a dark room from a bright room...takes your eyes to adjust) and if you change your projectors..you'll probably just piss off other drivers. But to each their own...Some people I know put in HIDs, but complain about driving in inclement weather because they can't see due to their brightness/temperature color, I just put in modified fogs and aim them a little bit higher than my lowbeams cutoff (to eliminate the cutoff a little bit, maybe look a little cooler with a lot of bling lights, and piss others off, but they still can't say because it's my fogs...and I can still actually see quite nicely & widely in inclement/good weather), but fogs could be illegal in your locality (depending on inclement weather), but I don't think most cops care anyways (and I'm sure everyone's seen those police SUV headlights...man they are bright and probably the light that you want...it for the most part lets me know that a cop is approaching in front at night).
I cant imagine MPG being affected much by either LED or HID. I went with LED for peace of mind, once installed I don't have to worry about them going bad for the life of the vehicle.
i also prefer LEDs and this coming from someone who's had HIDs in all his previous cars. Had aftermarket HIDs in my wife's car, too many possible points of failure (relay, ballast, bulb, etc) to troubleshoot the once or twice things wouldn't work with her automatic headlights. Switched to LEDs and never looked back. Still have HIDs (55W) on my C and I very much would rather have the LEDs. Brighter and better beam pattern with our projectors, tho I'm not as enthused about the limited color range of quality LEDs... either way, as soon as something fails on my HIDs I'm switching.
I too went with LEDs for both low & fog (they've come a long way compared to what people thought of them a few years or so ago) and have gotten complaint/compliments that they are too bright. My only untested scenario right now would be if the heat generated by the LEDs can melt snow/frost on the headlights or not Also both my C and Odyssey have the same lowbeam & fog light aftermarket LED bulbs AND night visibility is pretty much better on the Odyssey, due to higher ride height/projectors
I know that some northern cities were having issues with traffic lights when they switched to LEDS because they no longer melted the snow... so that is a real concern.
I've driven in snow for a road trip, and left the car parked outside in the snow. I didn't have any issues with having snow buildup on the headlights. In fairness, I was just driving to the Grand Canyon, stayed a few nights, and drove back to San Diego.
are the LED bulb replacements plug-n-play or are there mods you have to do. also what bulbs and where do you buy them?
I got the H11 xenon depot xtremes. I got mine 2nd hand on eBay and on the private sales on this forum, but here is their site: LED Headlight Lights | Philips LED Headlight bulbs For whatever reason I can't find them on the site right now but I had the regular H11 LEDs when I went to the Grand Canyon. To install them it wasn't too much different from installing any other bulb. Only difference is once installed you have to fan out the heat sinking ribbons and find a place to zip tie the LED drivers to they don't move around. Not hard at all.
Summer is ending and I finally got a little outback night driving in They are plug and play Just there's different types of LEDs, along with different ways for cooling system (either fan at the back of bulb or heatsink strip thingies) and if the bulb has the chip built into the back of the bulb housing or external housing (so you'll have to find somewhere to mount/ziptie it like you would a hid relay) With summer ending, I finally got some nice dark night driving in, I guess let it sway or not sway you led headlights led headlights+led foglights (lights up wide)
Your foglights have a lot of glare. How do I know? The side of the house is lit up yellow, which is above the cutoffs for your lowbeam headlights. Stray light above the cutoffs = glare to oncoming drivers and drivers in front of you. If you are going to put really bright lights in your foglights, then you need foglights with proper cutoffs that limit glare. Posted via the PriusChat mobile app.
I'm looking at doing a led conversion as well and boy do they make way to many different kinds of bulbs lol. So for low beams which are in the projectors was reading should use a bulb with 360° light output to mimic the stock H11 instead of a 2 sided 180° led bulb. Anyone know if this is true? Or does it really make a difference or not? Or has anyone seen the 2 types used in the projector style.
I've tried super expensive ones, cheap ones, and in between ones and come to the conclusion that they all are similar in nature (and my human eyes can't really discern much other than the hurt on the wallet). So I've just settled on decently priced ones that have 4+ stars and more than 200 reviewers (amazon)...I don't get why people have to buy lights from a light source webstore (they are much more expensive and have lingo that pretty much all LED bulbs have, not to mention they're probably more of a hassle to return if you don't like them). Currently my fog LED and lowbeam LED are two different brands (I think lasfit and simdevenma)...I chose them because of reviews and they didn't break my bank and they're currently working out great. I tell myself that I don't feel too bad about the glare, when compared to all the trucks, suv, vans, higher positioned car lights...those lowbeams probably cause more visual impairment than my low oem positioned LED foglights with some glare. And no one's flashed me yet, so the "glare" is minimal if any
