LED Fog and Headlight bulbs

[moparmansfield]

Anyone Install LED bulbs in the Stock fogs or headlights? I've installed some in other vehicles and they seem to work very well and are decently bright. There are a lot of options out there these days for bulbs, so seeing what anyone has tried out.

Tom

 

[Jackie chan]

Hid>led

 

[moparmansfield]

Cost difference?

 

[Jackie chan]

Fully depends on what you want, Costs between brands an off-brands vary quite a bit. HIDS are just more functional in my opinion.

 

[Protege5 Smoke]

I've heard from some people that hid's are pointless without projectors. Any thoughts on this?

 

[Jackie chan]

I wouldnt say that they're pointless. They are much brighter than halogen bulbs. The projector housing just aids in aiming the light more accurately, cuts glare, and provides a sharper cutoff.

 

[moparmansfield]

So no one has installed led bulbs? I thought at least one person would've. Sounds like I'm gonna be the guinea pig. I'm going to see how much room is in the fog light housings to see if the h3 led bulbs would fit. I've read a lot of reviews saying the bulbs are kind of long, so I hope that won't be an issue. I'll post back up here with the results.

Mainly going with led bulbs because its easy and cheap, and my knowledge of HID's is pretty slim.

 

[Protege5 Smoke]

Well, I found these..

https://www.ebay.com (commissions earned)

Not exactly cheap but they look cool that's a plus lol. Actually makes me want to try LED lighting now. If I didn't have HID's already I'd definitely do it

 

[i12drivemyMP5]

I've run some in my truck. Did not like. The low beam was fine...no better than Philips Xtremevision halogen tho but the high beam sucked compared to halogen. About the same as H4 HIDs. That is the reason I went back to halogen. Seperate bulbs for lo/hi like with H7's might be better but I did not like combo ones like H4.

 

[Fraya713]

So no one has installed led bulbs? I thought at least one person would've. Sounds like I'm gonna be the guinea pig. I'm going to see how much room is in the fog light housings to see if the h3 led bulbs would fit. I've read a lot of reviews saying the bulbs are kind of long, so I hope that won't be an issue. I'll post back up here with the results.

Mainly going with led bulbs because its easy and cheap, and my knowledge of HID's is pretty slim.

I recently installed LED for my headlights - my MP5 has regular Protege headlights though

Here is what I used:
https://www.amazon.com/dp/ (commissions earned)

I'd say the lights are definitely brighter, but the light beam is narrower and doesn't travel as far. Setting the LED's onto "High beams" definitely lights everything up like a christmas tree so personally, I'd stick the LED's on the High beams or swap everything out, but keep your Fog lights at stock.
My cars is missing the fog headlights and need to be replaced, but I digress.

 

[i12drivemyMP5]

I would suggest lighting up s*** like christmas trees with your optional lighting like fog lights. Normal mandatory lighting > road rage from others.

 

[ReginaldWagon]

If the HID lights are close to the original stock halogen in color and brightness most would probably give you a pass, if they're brighter or some interesting color then that's pretext for a stop as it's unsafe. Depending on what you had been doing or what was in the car a simple warning or fix it ticket could turn into more. Generally cars with HID headlights already have other violations that the headlights are the least of their problems. More likely to issue citations for front window tinting than headlights out this way.

 

[MrGiggles]

I recently installed LED for my headlights - my MP5 has regular Protege headlights though

Here is what I used:
https://www.amazon.com/dp/ (commissions earned)

I'd say the lights are definitely brighter, but the light beam is narrower and doesn't travel as far. Setting the LED's onto "High beams" definitely lights everything up like a christmas tree so personally, I'd stick the LED's on the High beams or swap everything out, but keep your Fog lights at stock.
My cars is missing the fog headlights and need to be replaced, but I digress.

That's what I've always heard about LED headlights. They are very bright up close but don't project as far as halogens.

 

[moparmansfield]

I'm going to be doing the fog lights first, once I find some h'3s with good reviews. The led bulbs I installed in a '13 ram 1500 Headlights were great and threw the same or longer light distance. They were a higher end bulb and we're some what pricey though.

 

[i12drivemyMP5]

There are H3C bulbs which are compact H3 where the bulb is shorter in length.

 

[pasadena_commut]

They are very bright up close but don't project as far as halogens.

The physics of that escape me. Light is light no matter what emits it - all photons of a similar wavelength will behave the same way.

My guess is that this effect, assuming that it is even real, might be the result of the LED bulbs being both a bit brighter (in terms of total photons emitted) and a bit bigger than other emitters. Because the bulbs are bigger they are less well focused than a smaller emitter might be. That is, the mirrors in the back of a headlight have a focal point and rays emitted right there are focused as well as the headlight can into a slightly diverging beam. Rays emitted "far" from the focus will travel different paths, not quite in the intended direction, and these will come out at slightly skewed angles. So at a greater distance that light has spread out more than it would have with a smaller emitter (as in another bulb type) which lies closer to the mirror's focus point. Up close though even the poorly focused rays will still impinge on an object. So "bright up close" but not so much at a distance.

 

[i12drivemyMP5]

I was with ya up to the "impinging" part............still, nice illuminating splanation.

 

[pasadena_commut]

I was with ya up to the "impinging" part............still, nice illuminating splanation.

see

http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/impinge

third definition. When describing the paths of rays in optical systems "impinge" is often used to describe a situation where a ray's path intersects an object.

Anyway, that last sentence has the same meaning if "will still impinge on an object" is changed to "will still illuminate an object".

 

[i12drivemyMP5]

I was just messin with ya, hence the use of illuminating as a synonym................