LED headlights vs HID's

[Pentalab]

Ok, so what is the correct housing for LED's for mustangs...or do they even exist ?

On another note, I don't think you can paint the.. "don't put hids /leds in oem halogen reflector housings " with the same brush. Results can vary widely. Some hid kits in oem halogen housings throw out too much extraneous light, no matter how much you adjust them. Others fare a lot better. Some of that might be from the different styles of oem halogen housings, and some of it might be from the height above ground. Trucks, jacked up trucks, etc are a real mess.

Also note in the link, that it was done in Saskatchewan. The roads were covered in snow, which may have contributed to the hids being worse. They are correct though about seeing light out of the corners of your eyes, that can't be seen by viewing directly. It's called 'averted vision'. An example of that is viewing the Pleiades ( aka 7 sisters) star formation of 7 stars packed in close. You can't see them with the naked eye, but they are plane as day when you cast your glance over to the right a bit.

 

[SNKPWR]

The problem is that halogen housings use a parabolic arc to focus the light, which works because a halogen bulb'S filament is brightest at a single pointin the middle. The hid bulbs strikes a plasma arc which is brightest at the ends IIRC, neither of which are at the focal point of the parabolic arc(s) of the halogen housing. This results in gross light scatter, and maybe some hid bulbs, depending on how they function or their design, have a bright part of their light near the parabolic focal point and thus cast a decent amount of light down-road, but in general it will not light the road more effectively than the halogen bulb that the housing was designed for. Ultimately the hid seems "brighter ", well, because it is. It is not, however, more effective at casting it's brighter light in this scenario. Most of the reason it seems more effective is because it makes EVERYTHING near the front of the car be lit up, but that doesn't mean you can see the road better.

 

[KonaBlueBryar]

The problem is that halogen housings use a parabolic arc to focus the light, which works because a halogen bulb'S filament is brightest at a single pointin the middle. The hid bulbs strikes a plasma arc which is brightest at the ends IIRC, neither of which are at the focal point of the parabolic arc(s) of the halogen housing. This results in gross light scatter, and maybe some hid bulbs, depending on how they function or their design, have a bright part of their light near the parabolic focal point and thus cast a decent amount of light down-road, but in general it will not light the road more effectively than the halogen bulb that the housing was designed for. Ultimately the hid seems "brighter ", well, because it is. It is not, however, more effective at casting it's brighter light in this scenario. Most of the reason it seems more effective is because it makes EVERYTHING near the front of the car be lit up, but that doesn't mean you can see the road better.

I agree with this^ I honestly like things being closer to me, brighter. I have a problem seeing at night as it is, and when i had my old HIDs in my housings and say it was raining and dark outside.. it lit the road right in front of me better and i could actually see the middle of the road and keep in my lane. But with these halogens in my housings and the same situation I cant see anything right in front of my car and down the road is usless also lol. id rather take good vision at one point than crappy vision at both.. Its just a preferance thing i think. I would love to have projector lenses in my housings but i just dont think they look good. and cant justify the price

 

[KonaBlueBryar]

That's pretty true to an extent. I ran drop in HID bulbs in my stock reflectors for a couple years. Never blinded anyone, and had my wife drive verify it too. The key thing was the black cap in the reflector housings that blocks a lot of the glare.

The grille lights on the other hand blinded everybody no matter what the viewing angles and I even got pulled over. The cop let me off with a warning, but said it was blinding as hell and there would be a ticket if he saw those lights on again.

I went back to halogen and yeah the low beams were dimmer but I actually had usable high beams again

agreed also, i had 55w 6000k hids in my grille fogs and they shot straight into the sky lol. pulled them out the next day. my headlights were not a problem at all. call me ignorant, but they worked and i never blinded anyone. so im fine with it

 

[Pentalab]

I agree with this^ I honestly like things being closer to me, brighter. I have a problem seeing at night as it is, and when i had my old HIDs in my housings and say it was raining and dark outside.. it lit the road right in front of me better and i could actually see the middle of the road and keep in my lane. But with these halogens in my housings and the same situation I cant see anything right in front of my car and down the road is usless also lol. id rather take good vision at one point than crappy vision at both.. Its just a preferance thing i think. I would love to have projector lenses in my housings but i just dont think they look good. and cant justify the price

I couldn't see a damn thing with oem halogen headlights at night, in the rain /wet. At night, I would always have the oem halogen foglamps in upper grille on as well, rain or dry. After the 7 bar upper grille installed, the oem foglamps get deleted. At that point, I have lost the foglamps, making matters worse. That was the original reason to install the hid kit, which turned out to be a helluva lot brighter vs the oem halogen headlights + oem foglamps combined.

Last night, the int hid on driver's side worked for a change, so had both sides functioning. But on high beam, only the high beam on pass side works, not the driver's side ! The hi beam function on my hid kit uses electromagnets to pull each hid bulb back towards the housing by aprx 1/4".

I agree with the concept of having the light being at the focal point on oem reflector housing, which may be part of the reason for different, varying results depending on whose hid kit is installed.

I was told by the local ricer crowd not to use 8000K hids, and to use 6000K instead. The 6000K, they claimed, worked better in the rain / wet. Too late, the 8000K had been just installed. Natural sunlight is aprx 5750K, so the closest thing is a 6000K.

 

[SNKPWR]

Actually everything I've read is that 4300K is closest to natural sunlight. 5000k is pure white, anything beyond that gets more blue and then purple as you go higher temps. Since sunlight is slight yellowish I would say 4300K is probably about right for sunlight

 

[Pentalab]

Actually everything I've read is that 4300K is closest to natural sunlight. 5000k is pure white, anything beyond that gets more blue and then purple as you go higher temps. Since sunlight is slight yellowish I would say 4300K is probably about right for sunlight

Below is an interesting read.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Color_temperature


The Sun

The Sun closely approximates a black-body radiator. The effective temperature, defined by the total radiative power per square unit, is about 5,780 K.[5] The color temperature of sunlight above the atmosphere is about 5,900 K

daylight photographic film is calibrated to 5600K.
5,500–6,000 K - Vertical daylight
6,500 K Daylight, overcast
5,000 K Horizon daylight
....................................................................................................

I'm guessing here that 5500-6000 K is probably closest to the sun. Esp if photographic film is calibrated to 5600K. 6000K hids / leds could well be optimum. My 8000K hids have a fair amount of blue, but not over the top. These 6000K leds are enroute via USPS tracking, so should be here within days. This will be a good experiment.

 

[MGT2009]

DDM sells pretty nice HID setups that are reliable, and wont break the bank.

http://www.ddmtuning.com/

My ddm kit lasted 3 months. I think its because of the design of the Hi/Lo kit i got from them though. It ran both head lights through the passenger side head light circuit.

 

[SNKPWR]

Below is an interesting read.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Color_temperature


The Sun

The Sun closely approximates a black-body radiator. The effective temperature, defined by the total radiative power per square unit, is about 5,780 K.[5] The color temperature of sunlight above the atmosphere is about 5,900 K

daylight photographic film is calibrated to 5600K.
5,500–6,000 K - Vertical daylight
6,500 K Daylight, overcast
5,000 K Horizon daylight
....................................................................................................

I'm guessing here that 5500-6000 K is probably closest to the sun. Esp if photographic film is calibrated to 5600K. 6000K hids / leds could well be optimum. My 8000K hids have a fair amount of blue, but not over the top. These 6000K leds are enroute via USPS tracking, so should be here within days. This will be a good experiment.

Be that as it may, everything I've ever read says that 4300K gives the most usable light for HID

 

[Pentalab]

Be that as it may, everything I've ever read says that 4300K gives the most usable light for HID

I checked my notes from the past..and most sites say that 4300K are 3.5 X brighter than halogens. 5000-6000-8000K hids are a little less at 3 X as bright. 10,000 + 12,000 K are only 2.5 X as bright. Most oem hids are 4300K, including ford. Keyword here is usable....esp in the rain.

 

[KonaBlueBryar]

yeah my 6k was blue/green color for sure. I know my dads 09 Shelby has 4300k from factory and it looks awesome! im gonna go with 5000k next

 

[SNKPWR]

Lobe my 5000k bulbs in stock hid setup

 

[Bullitt 3309]

Late to this thread, but a few observations.
1. Putting HID Bulbs int a Halogen fixture is absolute BULLSHIT! The Halogen fixture is not designed for the light output of the HID bulb, period!

2. LED is still is the new hotness but the aftermarket setups are not up to par with the OEM yet, give it a couple of years. The biggest problem is the led driver quality. The OEM requirements are far greater for mean time failure compared to the aftermarket right now.

3. You want HID in a car that didn't come with it? RETROFIT!
I converted a set of 2010/2012 Headlights with the Moromoto D2S Mini projector, running 5K bulbs, 35w ballast. I have been running this set up for over two years with no issues and the light output is amazing. I am now building a second set with the newer 3.0 version of the Mini D2S projectors and going with a 6k bulb at 50 watts. I bought a new set of lights from ebay since the aftermarket fixtures are easier to open. I am also modifying the CS Foglights since they are a projector as well to accept an HID bulb, going with a 3k for a yellow output.

Pics of the original build:

 

[07TR]

That retrofit project is mad cool

 

[Saleen4971]

Fxr 3.0 or mh1 6.0?

Fyi mh1 7 is coming in a few months, and they look amazing.

 

[Bullitt 3309]

Fxr 3.0 or mh1 6.0?

Fyi mh1 7 is coming in a few months, and they look amazing.

I am building these:
http://www.theretrofitsource.com/components/projectors/morimoto-mini-d2s-3-0-projectors.html

For the money I love the D2S version vs the H1. Little more fab work but worth it.

 

[Saleen4971]

Md2s is great as well! The bulb variety is my favorite part.

I run 85122 in both my cars, at 50w (fxr) and love em even at 35 they are epic.

One set I got brand new when they were known as 85122+, 2nd set that I have in the stang were oem takeoff from trs closeouts for 25 bucks. Awesome bulbs.

I do want CBIs though

 

[FastDarkHorse]

I just purchased some LEDs at a local supply shop. So far the headlights are awesome! They are V16 Turbo LEDs, paid $65. 3600 lumens, 6K color. The high beams are great. You can hear the cooling fans run at power up but so far I'm very pleased. As far as the fog lights they came from the same place but a cheaper $35 plug and play, no power supply. 6K color but not very bright.

HIDlightsusa, in Ga. Owner has been very helpful.

My son purchased LEDs from LMR as a kit. The headlights are not very bright on either setting. The fog lights are a different story. His fogs are more like brights. He is running halo headlights and fogs from AM. Those have a small dome over the bulbs where my factory housings do not.

I also installed switchbacks from AM. Awesome kit for my car.

Hope this helps,
Bruce

 

[Chiron]

To the dudes who have done a retrofit - what kind of guide did you use for modding the housing? Or did you just start cutting bits off?

Seriously considering picking up an extra set of lights and throwing some projectors in 'em.

 

[Pentalab]

You folks with hids.....are you using 35w or 55w ? Mine are 35w. 55w must be stupid bright.