Philips 12953BWX2 LED Headlight Bulb Install

A few months ago I picked up a set of HID retrofits from a TW member. The light output was great and very sharp, but I was not thrilled about all of the extra crap under the hood (all the extra wiring and stuff that goes with HIDs). I was also worried that if I lost a ballast or bulb I'd be down until I could get a replacement ordered. So when I ran across a thread and someone mentioned these Philips LEDs that are built in a similar fashion to stock halogens I became very interested in them. Here is a pic of the lights I am talking about:




I kept waiting for someone to get them and try them out but as far as I know only one member has ordered them but it's going to be a while before he gets to this. Monday of this week I had a "fuck it" moment and went ahead and ordered these damn things. To my surprise they were in my hands by Wednesday. Well shit, now I have to install them, lol! I was honestly hoping they would take a week or so to get here so I could do this next week, but since they showed up this week today after I got home I decided to just get this done. I kept my original lights when I bought the retro's so it was "just" a matter of swapping them out. It took me a couple of hours, but I got them in and hooked up and all of the HID wiring out. First off, installation of these lights is SUPER EASY. You can't see in the pic above, but the heat sink unscrews from the lightbulb assembly. This allows you to install the bulb into the housing, hook the retaining spring, put the rubber boot over everything and then put the heat sink back on. Something else you can't see in the pics is that the wire to connect the lights comes right out of the back of the bulb assembly. This connects to a small ballast (1 per light, another surprise I wasn't happy about). The only good thing is they are small and each one connects to the headlight plug and the light only. No extra grounds or any other crap to deal with.

I got it all installed and I can clearly see where the low beam is not hitting the bottom half of the headlight reflector. Light output is very good in my opinion. I was concerned about the 6200K being too blue, but in reality it looks very bright white (this is GOOD). I am having to re-adjust to a non HID cutoff in the light pattern, but my initial impressions are good. I'm attaching a few pics from today's fun. Tomorrow I plan to go find some dark streets so I can really get a feel of the throw I am getting from these things. If that is decent then I am keeping these (may have some retro's for sale). AND, if I lose one of these I can easily put a pair of stock bulbs in temporarily. Enough talk. Here are the pics.

 

Where'd you get those from?

 

xenondepot


http://www.xenondepot.com/h4-philips-12953BWX2-LED-Bulb-p/12953bwx2.htm

 

if u get them today they are 20% off with free shipping

 

Thanks for the info ... Been looking to replace my crap Brite ass LED lights. I have had one bulb start to flicker. BA LEDs have not been responsive to my contact. So F it !
I am pretty much sold on these Phillips units.
OP ... Do you have any other experience with "other" LED lights ?
Thanks.

 

No other personal experience, but I have talked to two other people who had BA LEDs and neither of the were satisfied with the light output they got from them. I liked the sharpness of my HIDs in the projector housings, but I prefer the simplicity of these LEDS more and don't feel that I am losing too much visitibility. Going on a month running these and I am getting closer and closer to posting up my HID Retros for sale!

 

have you had anyone honking at you as if you were blinding them? also, your fog lights look like they match pretty well. did you replace them at the same time? if you did or even if you didn't, what do you have in there (lights or a kit info and what k)?

 

I've had ONE person flash me since I put these in. The fogs were put in when I put in my HID retros. They are Morimoto XB LEDs. I got them used from a member here. They are around 5500K so they look nice and white and do match the Philips lights closely.

 

have you had any flickering caused by the ballasts or bulbs? I think I read that you used the factory harnesses no aftermarket harnesses or relays needed?

 

They are not ballasts. They are simply LED drivers.

 

ok...nice... I know people are saying retrofit all the way but I really don't want to mess with it. I work in the 12vt world but I just don't know if I want to mod my shrouds and then worry about leaking or any other issues. I know I can do it know problem. I wish there were some good aftermarket shrouds for '15s. might just go this route for a minute. did you have to adjust? I think you said you did but hat was because of the retros. correct me if wrong. if you had not retro'd the shrouds would you still need to adjust?

 

I think that i am going to order the fog light kit (morimoto) juts really hope they match

 

No flickering. And the two driver boxes are very small compared to the ballasts I had for my HIDs.

 

Will these fit a 2016?

Thanks,
Steve