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I was wondering what is the best way to go. I want to upgrade my headlights so they are brighter. I have two options.
I can either get a CREE LED headlight kit for about $80.
I can get a 9007/HB5 6000K WHITE BI-XENON DUAL BEAM HIGH/LOW HID kit for $40.Being that Projector Headlights or aftermarket Headlight housings simply DO NOT exist for my car i have to use the OEM housing. Which is the best option that WONT requre aiming of the headlights as i have no clue how to do that?
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I would say it depends on what you want. In my experience the HiD upgrades are superior in brightness, hence visibility, but tend to be a bit more complicated to Install properly. LEDs offer a good brightness improvement but are easier to install assuming they are direct fit to your halogen bulb’s specs.
So If you only want a reasonable brightness upgrade without much hassle, Go for the LEDs.
if you are after max brightness and don’t mind a bit more work installing go HIDs, but make sure they are a good brand kit ($40 seems way too cheap to me :s ) and since you don’t have projectors on your car I would recommend bulbs like those in the ETCG HID video above where the bulb has a shield which blocks about half the light emitted so you don’t blind other drivers when you install them in your reflector headlight housing.
If the LED driver is designed correctly and if thermal design is also done properly, LED should last a long long time. But, if not, they will fail a lot sooner than claimed. The problem is that LEDs do not emit infrared-red light (basically heat), so all of that heat is concentrated in the little PN junction and it is difficult to cool.
HID is self-cooling, since it emits heat away from itself, but it is sensitive to ON/OFF cycles (unlike LEDs).
I drive a car that came with HID headlights. Other than the look I can’t say they are any different than standard filament bulbs. They’re probably brighter but the eye doesn’t see the light as well. The eye is most sensitive to green and then progressively less sensitive as you move the color towards blue. In other words, the eye is more sensitive to the yellow light of a standard bulb than the white light of my HIDs.
Older cars had undersized headlight wiring. If you jumpered directly from the battery to the headlamp you’d see a significant increase in output. With underhood relays in the headlight system I doubt rewiring would make much difference anymore.
Hi Eric,
I’ve heard that LED lights are brighter but more dispersed and thus not as effective as HID lights. I’m looking to convert my halogen lights on my 2006 Odyssey but I’m still torn between HID and LEDs. Since you now have both types, which do you like best?[quote=”jmlarios13″ post=181502]Hi Eric,
I’ve heard that LED lights are brighter but more dispersed and thus not as effective as HID lights. I’m looking to convert my halogen lights on my 2006 Odyssey but I’m still torn between HID and LEDs. Since you now have both types, which do you like best?[/quote]I had both and did not like the beam pattern of the led. so hid all the way.
if you have fog light/driving lights led is good. Not for head lights.[quote=”jmlarios13″ post=181933]Thanks for the input. I think I will go with the HID conversion.
:-)[/quote]
Ok cool. keep us posted on your progress. Be careful buying the cheap ebay stuff.
[quote=”college man” post=181516][quote=”jmlarios13″ post=181502]Hi Eric,
I’ve heard that LED lights are brighter but more dispersed and thus not as effective as HID lights. I’m looking to convert my halogen lights on my 2006 Odyssey but I’m still torn between HID and LEDs. Since you now have both types, which do you like best?[/quote]I had both and did not like the beam pattern of the led. so hid all the way.
if you have fog light/driving lights led is good. Not for head lights.[/quote]+1 on this. I had aftermarket LED and HID.. While the LED was much more simple to install, the way it output light was very substandard (it had a flat bar with 3 diodes on the bottom for low beam and 2 diodes on the top of the bar for high beam). and highbeam really made no difference.
The LEDs were a very brilliant white and while they were a huge upgrade over the standard halogens, they were extremely bright (i had to re-aim my headlamps after the install due to blinding other drivers). Also i had one of them fail on me (the LED started strobing very quickly.. not a good thing on a dark road around other drivers.) They were under warranty, so i returned them and replaced them with HIDs. Im so glad i did!
The HIDs on the other hand, took more effort to install. (on my particular car i chose to remove the front bumper to run the wiring and ballasts), but the difference in light output was amazing. Even without projector lenses, the beam pattern is very crisp and ‘refined’. Plus i really like the blue tinge that the HIDs have.
And as college man said, stay away from the cheap Ebay kits. You will regret it. The ballasts are bad, the bulbs do not last and the wiring is very cheap. A good HID conversion set is going to run you $150-$200 dollars.
Will do, which for you use? I was thinking of motorfiend.com, they seemed lower price but are they like the eBay options you warn about?
[quote=”jmlarios13″ post=182005]Thanks for the input, which one did you buy? And are you satisfied with it?[/quote]
Here is the source I used. Been going on I believe two years no problems at all.
I tried motor fiend 2-3 times first hid then led and all kits made it almost 7-8 months.
Not bashing anyone here. If the retrofit source offers a hid relay kit get it with the kit
if you do buy from them. It makes a difference to bring solid power to those hid starters
at all times. You should not encounter any flickering or outages. Just a tip I learned.
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