Wanted LED headlights

well first he moves the goal post from "muh SAE" to "except projectors" and then "anything from China is garbage"... all of these may be partially true, but there were many different types of LED housings in the links I posted earlier, and what I said is exactly correct: There is no telling what the light pattern of those lights is. Some of them might be quite good, others not so much. I am not going to definitively say one way or the other, or baselessly shit on something because I don't know.

At the end of the day, I could give less than two shits about whether or not a headlight has a SAE or DOT cert or if it comes from a certain country. I only care about the output and glare. If all of those housings had pics of the output on a wall, I would be happy to have more of a discussion on this, but right now there is just no telling. I was merely offering suggestions and a word of caution. I generally dislike LED in low beam headlamps due to the color temperature and overall crappy output per diode. LED tech just isn't there yet unless you are willing to spend a pretty penny. I will stick with HID.

There are a couple of lights that I wouldn't even remotely consider just due to the basic design.. others look a bit more nuanced and require some sort of output shot to be sure. And of course, be wary of any lumen claims...

 

The only way to know if those random non-certified housings have an acceptable light pattern is to potentially waste your money buying them and testing them yourself. Crash has actually done a lot of that for us, and posted his results.


The point of those certs is that there is some level of assurance that you are getting a good light beam pattern. Otherwise, you are basically buying products from manufacturers who are more concerned about looking cool than actually functioning (i.e. boosting sales), from countries that use suicide netting on their manufacturing buildings.

If I'm going to roll the dice on new housings, I'll roll the dice with a certification.

 

I think we are on different wavelengths here. I can tell by looking at a light based on its construction if it has a chance of producing a compliant beam pattern, or if it is not possible based on the design. Many of those lights are cheap China products with no optical engineering for a headlight pattern, there are some decent ones in there too.

The ‘headlights’ that resemble a light bar with forward facing non-projector LEDs are not actual patterned headlights. They are just that, light bars stuffed into headlights. They are not safe or SAE compliant for street use, as they have no cut offs, will emit crazy glare and do not produce a headlight pattern.

The LED headlights that use projectors likely are SAE compliant, meaning they have the correct pattern and cut offs. But you need to look for the SAE/DOT compliance mention in the listing. It will also be stamped on the lens.

The ones that use LEDs pointed backward into a reflector are also likely SAE pattern, but again you need to check for the SAE/DOT compliance mention. Again it will be stamped on the lens.

 

Totally agree here and made some edits to that post while you were working on your reply, with the exception of the SAE/DOT stamp. I am not sure how motivated these manufacturers are to do that.. let alone get the actual cert. Many put the stamp on there but don't have the cert.

 

If they are not motivated enough to certify compliance, they are probably not motivated enough to engineer it correctly to begin with either. The point of producing a real headlight for reputable companies is to have it be compliant so that it can actually be sold as a legitimate legal product. It is a self certification process, if the company does not have the expertise in-house they can outsource the compliance testing.

True that cheap China ones from non-reputable companies may forge the stamp. I've seen it on products that are obviously not legal and perform so poorly they wouldn't meet the legal minimums for output. Which is a good reason to buy from reputable lighting companies like Rigid, Trucklite, JW Speaker, KC and others that make quality LED headlight products that are properly designed and will work correctly.

 

we are circling back around to the HID retrofit argument I was making earlier - there aren't any projectors out there that have this certification, yet would pass it with flying colors. I do not believe a component such as a projector (rather than an entire housing assembly) can even be tested in such a way, at least not with current regulatory environment. I could be wrong though

 

Except this thread was discussing off the shelf LED headlights, not custom hand made HID retros. Yes, if you do a full custom headlight build, you can build whatever you want, you could even include an SAE stamped lens, or a generic blank lens. Since it is a custom hand made build, it is up to the builder and they could include whatever they like. But we were not talking custom hand made units, we were talking mass produced complete assemblies.

 

handmade how? Most projectors are still made in China.. so what I'm saying is we can't knock all of those LED assemblies. A couple of them might be good, as you and I agreed on with respect to their inherent design.

 

My personal take on it is that I wouldn't touch it with 9 ft pole unless one is "made" by reputable international manufacturer (Osram is one of them for example) that has to much to lose if they cheat. Even lamps sold by well known distributors are not guaranteed to be backed up by real R&D and compliance testing. Stamping a cert code or printing seal does not mean anything on products made in China for wholesale distributors.

I can trust "Made in China" products only if they are made for reliable international manufacturer, who will back it up by its own R&D, testing standards and QC. I'm not talking about cheap disposable items like interior bulbs for example, but something that your life depends on - like headlamps or example.

 

Totally understandable. Everyone's got their risk/financial tolerance for these kinds of things - I was just making some addt'l suggestions with words of caution

 

Is there anything on these two long lists you are you suggesting? I hope not all of them .

 

the only ones I would try would probably be these:


or



or



or






but not these:



or



and probably none of the "normal" looking reflector housings that are marketed as LED.

 

Put LED plug and play H4 bulbs in the e code housings and you'll still have a better pattern than all of the junk Amazon/ebay 6x7 LEDs

 

No, No, No. You have not read the linked thread

 

for reflector housings e-code housings have a much cleaner cut off than the SAE ones, it's not ideal but still better than most of the other cheap junk

 

e-codes are still designed for halogen bulbs. throwing LEDs in them and calling it "better" than conventional SAE housings is not exactly a high bar.

Do any of those advertise that they are street legal in the US or conform to some standard? If they don't, you kinda have to assume they don't and they're just hoping people don't notice.

 

Rather than sort through what may or may not be acceptable, I’d still go back to my first post for what will good performing high quality LED headlights. JW Speaker E-code LED headlights and Rigid SAE led headlights linked in my first post. Both trusted as OEM suppliers of SAE LED assemblies to automotive manufactures in the US.

 

Yes.

 

And disappointment here it comes . Because the SAE and ECE specify the maximum amount of light coming out of headlights, these LED will not "outperform" halogen bulb. So $200+ per lamp is pure cosmetic only.

 

A fair point. Would be nice if there were high quality LED specific housings that you could put brighter bulbs in, a la the "ultimate upgrade".

The earlier 1st gens seem to have a leg up on the 2000-2004 1st gens because they at least have the E-code style housings. There is jack crap for my 2004. I've been happy with the ultimate upgrade (1st gen version) and haven't ever felt a need for more light on the road, if I need more light for off-roading, I'll throw a lightbar on top and some ditch lights.