Informal LED Headlight Review

Discussion in 'Modifications & DIY how-to' started by TURBOH4, Jun 30, 2015.

  1. TURBOH4

    TURBOH4 Member

    I decided that I wanted to replace the DLR/High-beam halogens with something a little brighter and a bit higher on the kelvin scale (color temp). Like many, I did not care for the overly amber color of the DRLs. In addition, using halogens as DRLs greatly reduces the life of the bulb. See these two pics of the stock bulbs after only 3k miles - the deposits are a result of the bulbs being run at a lower wattage (DRL mode):

    http://i.imgur.com/GEVrsLc.jpg
    http://i.imgur.com/wdhkAhb.jpg

    At first I was considering buying Subispeed's "OLM DRL LED" bulbs, but they seemed awfully expensive so I took a look on Amazon. Sure enough, I found some that looked exactly like Subispeed's. They claim to be 4000 Lumen (2K lumen a piece):

    Sirius LED All-in-one 9005 Hb3 LED: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00K6197VG (There's also several other variants of the same design available on Amazon and eBay.)

    First off, the installation was an absolute pain; the bulbs simply do not want to fit correctly. Where a normal 9005 bulb can be installed with 1-2 finger pressure, I had to use both hands - one on the back of the bulb and one on the front of the headlight cover. This was the only way to apply sufficient force to push the bulb far enough in to rotate.

    On top of the excessive force needed to properly seat the bulbs, the way the tabs are designed (on the bulb) leaves only one position for the bulb. And I'll tell you now - it's the wrong position:

    Bulb Installed & On: http://i.imgur.com/bpLKTey.jpg

    As you can see, one LED is facing right at the corner of the reflector, and the other down and away from the bulk of the reflector's surface. This is not ideal, and it is reflected (no pun intended) in the beam profile:

    LED/High only: http://i.imgur.com/nuJYBCK.jpg
    HID lows + LED/High: http://i.imgur.com/RA3fVfI.jpg

    In the LED/High only shot, notice how thin the beams are. At first glance it looks like the LEDs are throwing a beam a reasonable distance, but if you look at the second shot you'll see the HIDs easily overpower the LEDs and reach nearly as far. Not only that, but the idea of behind "high" beams is to provide distance and flood.

    Also, it's worth noting that the seller claims 6500K for those bulbs; yet they are easily 7500K - much bluer than I wanted.

    Next up, we have an even more expensive model that claims 6400 lumens - 3400 lumens per bulb. For those of you who may not be familiar with "lumens", this is a LOT to claim from a single LED. Nevertheless, it seemed promising since it's a single LED instead of two:

    New Brights LED Headlight Conversion Kit: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00MOR4CII

    I would imagine these are drawing a bit more power since they have their own separate power supply. It does seem like they are a bit brighter:

    HID lows + LED/High: http://i.imgur.com/YHr3BqW.jpg

    The problem now, oddly enough, is the complete opposite. Instead of having any discernible beam pattern, it's 100% flood. EVERYTHING gets lit up in front of the car, even the tops of trees:

    Beam Profile at 5 Feet: http://i.imgur.com/57vl7IF.jpg
    Glare at 15° Off-center & 20 feet (LED only): http://i.imgur.com/t3rJ5Vm.jpg

    I still had the same installation issues as well. The bulbs were more difficult to install than they should have been but ultimately I was able to shoehorn them in. Does this bulb position look familiar?:

    Bulb Installed & On: http://i.imgur.com/Zl5U3RK.jpg

    The nice thing, I will say, is that they do actually match the color temperature of the HIDs, and look really good as DRLs:

    Off-center Glare at 5 feet: http://i.imgur.com/DPqkpsK.jpg

    When everything is all said and done, I think that the second 6400 lumen set is the best bet for our cars. If people were having as much trouble as I did getting these installed in other 9005 sockets, they would all have 1 star reviews on Amazon.

    Ultimately I'm going to disable the DRLs and replace the LEDs with HIR bulbs. For my taste, and what I'm looking for in a high-beam, I think it's best that I stick with a halogen bulb. Plus, from what I understand, the HIR bulbs are a bit higher on the kelvin scale than normal halogens; maybe they'll even somewhat match the HIDs.

    I'm posting the second, 6400 Lumen, set for sale in the Garage Sale section if anyone wants them.
     
    Last edited: Jun 30, 2015
  2. TURBOH4

    TURBOH4 Member

    Update: I found out that these bulbs (the housings and their power supplies) get EXTRAORDINARILY hot. It's normal for LEDs and power supplies to get warm, but this is abnormal. They got so hot that the labels/decals on them started melting/falling off. I'm just going to return them. This shouldn't be happening.
     
  3. TURBOH4

    TURBOH4 Member

    One more update to this review - my final setup consisted of disabling the DRLs and installing a set of Philips HIR1 9011C1 bulbs (http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B007XMLPTI).

    These HIR bulbs are vastly superior to the stock Sylvania bulbs that come with the WRX/STi and because they are halogens, perform much better in the reflector than the LED sets.
     

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