HID vs LED Low Beam Questions

That’s only because they are comparing it to the stock halogens and not a true hid projector. This is a true projector for hid.

 

HIDs can be better than LEDs depending on your housing hid's are better for projector housing (source: https://www.xenonpro.com/difference-between-projector-reflector-headlights)

 

What housings are you using? After market?

 

Rx350

 

You install those yourself? Just looked at the install and looks like quite a bit of work and knowledge lol

 

I did enough research to do it myself but in the end I decided it was best to have @kustom54lighting do the retrofit. Money well spent in my opinion.

 

How much did it run you for it all if you don’t mind me asking?

 

I don’t mind. It was right at $1000 for the retrofit. This included the complete hid kit, housing paint, smoked lens, and shipping. It might sound like a lot but to put it in perspective you can spend twice that on oem pro lights which has no upgrade to lighting or you can try the retrofit yourself and maybe mess up and it will cost you $4-500 for another set of stock light housings. Also keep in mind that parts alone for the retrofit is about $500 or a tad more. Having proper light output for hid bulbs as to not distract other drivers on the road is priceless to me.

 

People including me spend $700 or more on tires and that is a wear item. As long as you never get in a front end collision the light investment will last the life of the vehicle.

 

I wo

uld go higher.....I think mine measured 37"

 

Thanks for the tip Sgt. As you and others have noted repeatedly in this forum, HID bulbs in Halogen projector housings are not ideal. Been running the XD HID Phillips 4300K kit for a couple of months. Really nice color and brightness, forward projection is good, more pronounced cutoff is fine, no shaking. My concern is too much light out to the sides affecting oncoming traffic. Our other vehicle with OEM HID projector headlights is similar color and brightness, but a more usable projection pattern with less light out to the sides. Was hoping for same in the Taco but it ain't happening with these bulbs in them projectors. Checking out a kustom54 retrofit to HID projectors.

 

You won’t be disappointed. Amazing guy to work with.

 

I'll give it shot this weekend going up to the mountains.

 

@JagoTaco I did a write up if your interested.
https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads/shout-out-to-kustom54lighting-and-mesojdm.585806/

 

Set them to 36" at 25' from the wall. It was creeping in to rear windshields and screaming into side mirrors on sedans. Oncoming traffic was fine though. I lowered them to 33" just to be on the safe side again of being that guy.

 

So I just changed all of the bulbs in my fiance's CRV to LED. Did a ton of research and found these to be the highest reviewed LED headlight bulbs for the money ($36 for a pair):

$43 BEAMTECH H11 Fog Light Bulb H8 H9 Fog Replacement

https://www.amazon.com/BEAMTECH-Hea...1550595400&sr=1-4&keywords=beamtech+h11+bulbs

After installing these, I agree 100% with what this guy has to say in his youtube
review:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QcDq2SJyuZI&t=272s

They are not the ABSOLUTE brightest LEDs, but their beam pattern is almost perfect, and the build quality is surprisingly great. They are a drastic improvement over halogens.

The CRV has reflector housings; not projectors but the Beamtech bulbs have a super slim LED design which mimics the stock bulb design. It might be worth picking up a set to see if they perform well with the projectors. If so, they are a steal at $36. Possibly save your hundreds of $'s for better mods! lol

 

I’ve adjusted my rx350’s about 4 times now. Never been flashed but I can’t seem to find that perfect spot. It either feels too high or too low for me. Hopefully this time I have it set right. I think the sharper the cutoff the easier it is to second guess the height because there is zero light bleed.

 

Are you guesstimating or measuring at 25'? If so, what height do you have your cutoff at? I'm in the same boat, I had them at 36" and could see the future, but felt they were so high. Now at 33" they feel so low.

 

Honestly I tried the measure thing and I didn’t like the height. Most important part to remember is that at at least 50’ your not level or higher than the center of your projector. Initially I set the lower part of the step about an inch lower that center of projector at 25’ but noticed as I got further away from the wall or on the road the beam was still too high. Since that initially setting I just drive on the interstate and make mental notes of wear the cutoff is on an average size car. I like to be at or just below the side mirror at about 3 or 4 car lengths back. I also read somewhere that on a flat road you should be able to see light on the road at about 300’ out. But I’m sure that is for a car that is already low to the ground. Being in a truck we are at a disadvantage and if you lift, your light has to shine less far down the road.

 

I went with the morimoto HIDs in my 19 lows and went with their LEDs for my highs. I was extremely apprehensive to buy the morimoto HIDs after hearing about the bounce issue, I don't know if they changed the spacer or if they've done anything with the 19 housings, but even on rough country back roads I have absolutely no bounce. Like others in this thread, I plan to upgrade my housings for better projectors and to Black them out