3rd Gen HID vs LED vs Halogen H11 projector headlights

I've had the hyper yellow H9's in for about 5 months. Not as bright as the Philips H9, but definitely better than stock.

 

I understand that they will not be as bright as an uncoated bulb. But I wonder if the color helps see better in poor weather than just having a brighter uncoated bulb. That's the million dollar question. However being that it is on a car that is considerably lower than our trucks is if it will be a noticeable difference. I guess the only way is to try it as it is somewhat subjective.

 

@TacoFergie
So, a yellow tinted halogen bulb, or a slip-on bulb filter over a clear bulb, or tinting the lens of your headlight and running a clear bulb are all going to result in somewhat diminished output. Daniel Sterns site has an excellent breakdown on "Selective Yellow," which is what I was aiming for when I first tinted the lenses of my 4runner (see pic attached). With one headlight tinted and the other not, you can see the difference if you really look for it. Otherwise, meh, not really.

You will see a big difference if you frequently drive in heavy fog and/or rain. It cuts a hugely noticable portion of the backscatter out of the road in front of you. Its not perfect, you still see the fog, but drive up next to someone who has normal halogens or a high color temp HID or LED bulb in the same conditions, and you can see lightyears better than them.

Also has the really nice effect of mellowing out signage that uses a white or blue metallic based reflective paint. Still lights it up, but now its all illuminated, not glaring back at you.

After I got popped one too many times for tinted lenses (not legal in PA), I bought a set of selective yellow slip-on bulb covers from rallylights.com/susquehanna motorsports. The shape of them works well for the low beam on an H4/9003 bulb, but the curvature of them sits right iver the high beam filament, so it works great for the 80% of driving on low beam only, but it did make a noticeable negative difference on high beam. I dont have a vehicle that uses a H11/H9 to tell you if the same covers would work for them, but they're only like $7/set, so you could give them a try over a high output/high quality bulb like an H9 and see if you like them.

 

That would be interesting to test the difference between the cover for the bulb and the tinted bulb itself. I don't have any of the testing equipment but it would be cool! I have some film from Vivvid that I plan on putting on my beater subaru fog lights since one lens has a small hole in the lens and I figure the film will seal it too.

I don't mean to get people off topic, but I was curious and I figured this would be the best place since my use is the H11/H9 and is in a projector.

 

Sooo looking at post #2 on this thread, A $6.93 H9 bulb is king of Halogens using a stock headlight performance wise? Does this still stand as of today? Also, using Lux chart @ 18' is there any difference in real world driving between 1k+ lux group. Obviously numbers are numbers but speaking as yes this bulb @ 12xx is much brighter than this 1xxx

 

The 2nd post is updated as new bulbs are tested and reviewed so yes currently the best halogen bulb is the Phillips H9.

I’ve used both the GE +130 and the Phillips H9. I can’t see a terribly big difference between the two, except the GE is noticeably cooler in color temp.

 

Appreciate the input. Myself being ignorant to technical talk about lighting didn't know if a couple lux difference would make a huge difference between the top bulbs in the chart.

 

Perfectly reasonable since you are talking same bulb format in a projector.

I've only seen the yellow balloon (bulb cover) for H4 bulb, I haven't seen any H11 yellow balloons. If using a film over a lens with a hole, I could see the heat intensity inconsistency cause issues with the film at the hole.

The Morimotos are a little higher intensity output on low beam, and a fair amount lower on high beam. The peak pattern intensity is also a bit low in the beam pattern due to the way they have the projectors aimed with vertical spread, when ideally you want peak pattern intensity at the top of the beam for best distance projection. The Morimotos have better cut offs, whereas the H9 swap does produce some increased uplight as the entire OEM pattern is magnified. Color temp is higher on the Morimotos, which some like, but isn't as ideal for poor weather conditions like rain/snow/fog where LED light will reflect back off the precipitation making it more challenging to see beyond it. LEDs will freeze over in poor snow conditions, H9s will offer the best resistance to freezing.

Comparing H9s to the high efficiency H11s, while peak intensity and distance projection will be similar, the H9s will provide a bit more light to the sides of the pattern than the H11s which will be more focused and a little cooler in color temp.

 

@crashnburn80 I think you're right about possibly burning a hole in the film. It's a beater car so if it holds out for a while I'll be happy. haha Plus it will be my first time using vinyl wrap so it's something to experiment with. I have 9006 bulbs in those housings, but the beam pattern on those old subaru fog lamps are worthless. At some point I'll likely get some Hella 500's or something like that.

 

Thanks for the feed back Crash. Mainly asking these questions because ill be making a 20+ hr trip to Colorado in mid may and I have trouble driving at night. Most of the time my wife drives at night that way she doesnt have to rip the o shit handle off the truck ahah. But other than that I live in the deep south so no snow here, like never. Higher color temp is more applising to me but without sacrificing a ton a performance. Until i get my mod list cut down the retros won't be for a few months. Obviously retro is the way to go but for now I was looking for a happy medium till then.

 

@ TacoFergie and Crashnburn80

You could apply a layer of kapton tape over the len. iirc it has a fairly high melting temp, and it will effectively filter a halogen to selective yellow. Surprising durable.

I don't have pics of it, but I used large sheets of kapton tape over the lenses of my 4runners lamps. Apply it over a wetted lens, and squeegee out the water, like you were applying window tint or a sticker. It doesnt look likeit will go on clear, but it does. Very very similar tint effect to the paint I ended up using later, Duplicolor metalcast anodize yellow. Easily removed as well, didnt really leave an appreciable residue from the adhesive.

I would definitely try kapton vs a vinyl lens cover, its thinner and should block significantly less light. And definitely kapton or other lens wrap before trying paint over a plastic lens of any sort.

 

I did the h9 switch and I am ecstatic about how much more light output these things have. Cost wise these things cant be beat. Thanks crash for the recommendation.

 

nice, what bulb did you end up going with? Philips, ect?

 

Standard Phillips h9. I think they were 3.00 when I bought.

 

o nicee, i used the Amazon link in post #2 i think its $6 something but still. That's ridiculous cheap to for the numbers it produces in crash's test.

 

I kinda' have stealth fog lights. They're Nokya NOK7618 Hyper Yellow bulbs.
You never know that they're yellow / amber(ish) until I turn them on.

$20 Nokya NOK7618 Halogen Bulb

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000U3TTN6/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1

 

I haven't used Kapton tape before. I looked it up and it seems like its mainly used in electronic insulation among other uses but it does not seem like it would handle impacts from rocks and such. Fortunately for me, Iowa doesn't have vehicle inspections and doesn't care what you do to your vehicle.

 

@TacoFergie

The benefit is that its cheap to use the kapton, and much less permanent than paint over a plastic lens (unless you are willing to polish off the paint and then whatever is left of the original uv hardcoat). So if it starts to get noticeably torn up, its easy to peel off and reapply. Vinyl is going to hold up better, but is also going to block more light.

 

Thats pretty cool! I'm going to have to check that out! Is there any brands to stay away from or ones I should look for?

 

You’ve done us a solid Crash...I’m a bit confused what the winner is?