LED HEADLIGHTS

I just let people have their opinions. My eyes tell me my LED lights are phenomenal and I’ve tested the beam pattern to ensure no spray to oncoming traffic.

 

Don't believe the science, just believe what makes you feel better about yourself. Hmmm...sound familiar, look where that's gotten us lately.........

 

You idiots are arguing with an SAE lighting engineer who does this for a living, and has conducted actually objective tests on dozens of different options and posted the data here on the forum for us all.

But yeah, I'm sure your eyes do a good enough job determining light output. Why did anyone even bother developing lux meters?

 

Have you ever driven in the rain with your DD SL1s and then with an OEM led equipped truck or one with a proper retrofit for comparison? If not, you then you don't have a baseline of what "perfectly fine" is.

 

I literally don’t care who you are. Like not one bit. Enjoy your HIDs and let me know when you burn the bowls in the projector housing

 

Stellar reading comprehension, @crashnburn80 is literally a professional at this who posts great data at his own personal expense and then is ignored by idiots who go "BUT IT LOOKS BRIGHTER UP CLOSE".

Anyways, I run an H9 conversion which was cheaper than your LED bulbs and I 100% guarantee you does a better job.

 

I don’t understand why people aren’t willing to accept LED performance has come a LONG way from even 2 years ago. The argument is a tad outdated as bulbs progress

 

Lol you all and your small dick syndrome. Cool man I’m glad whatever you have you feel is superior. Proud of you.

 

Since my DDSL1 leds light up these back country roads, mountain roads some during the year, better than my stock bulbs and better than my GE mega 130s then I'm satisfied. Take all the data, testing you want and I thank you all who have helped but seeing is believing!

 

I'm not against LEDs, I actually prefer LED over HID for their instant on/off ability. They have come a long way, and are more than acceptable for headlight use. I'm just not a fan of drop in bulbs, either HID or LED.

 

I don’t disagree one ounce with that statement. Taking a housing that wasn’t built for HID or LED lighting isn’t ideal. But a lot of people “ball on a budget” and like the path of least resistance to achieve what they want. I’m not stupid and am aware HID in areas have advantages but when weighing pros and cons it’s not as simple as telling people HID is the only way to go. LEDs are efficient, effective, instant turn on and have become cost effective. HID conversions are far more invasive. But people are so black and white with it it’s impossible to have a productive conversation for people looking for legit pros and cons.

 

We've all been blinded by at least one Honda Civic in our lives. I'm sure that driver felt the same way, these bulbs are awesome

 

yes. And that goes back to diode placement and housing. Our projector housing does a really good job of beam projection. That’s not to say it’s not possible but I have had my wife drive my truck down a road while I drove another car and there was no issue with it.

 

first off let’s circle back to his tests. He tested A few mediocre bulbs. There are more to tests than raw “tech”. Do you understand that? Perhaps the bulbs he tested were indeed not up to par in the tests. But that does not mean other bulbs cannot perform better. Following along yet? If you think every LED bulb is created equal then I do not know why you’re chiming in. He can be an SAE engineer and still test an inferior bulb. There are advantages to both bulbs for different reasons. I suggest you stop regurgitating a sample size of data someone else provided. I’d love to see him test a couple market leading bulbs from recent iterations. I’m done arguing with you. You can enjoy your HID kit and I’ll be over here kicking it with my LED bulbs happy as a clam.

 

crash, have you tested the sv4 or gtr ultra 3 bulbs compared to HID? They are widely considered 2 of the best bulbs. I’d love to see the data on them. Since there is so much arguing over it I’d love to know how these perform in a scientific sense

 

I remember running into that for the first time in my old STi with OEM HID. It was a rainy night and all of a sudden I lost all my distance throw. It was almost jarring at first.

 

I never said I disagreed with the testing or the science. I'm sure that it is all correct. The point I was trying to make is that I am completely happy with the performance of my drop in LEDs regardless of what the numbers say. Yes, I'm probably taking a little hit when it comes to distance projection but in all honesty my naked eyes can't perceive it. As long as I'm not blinding others on the road I really don't see what the harm is. I simply can't stand the outdated look of yellow halogen bulbs on an otherwise modern truck and drop in LEDs are a very cost effective way of taking care of that. Not once have I ever thought "gee I could use some more light" so I'll stick with what I've got at the moment. I'm happy.

 

Lots of nonsense bickering. Science actually has the answer as to why. People inherently find foreground light better/more favorable/more comforting (as proven by science). LEDs produce more foreground light due to the lack of focus compared to a halogen. Focus in a halogen assembly is determined by making your light source as small as possible, and LEDs are far larger than halogen filaments. Manufactures might talk about emitters matching a halogen filament, but that is only in 2 dimensions, you need it in all 3. Even then the LED isn't omni-directional like a halogen. What happens is people install LEDs and see that increase in foreground light and rate the LED as better because going back up to the inherent human error of rating foreground light as better. This makes people convinced they can see better, when science says directly otherwise. This isn't pointing fingers at anyone, this is a well documented human flaw in judging light. Unfortunately foreground light isn't at all what you want in a headlight, you want to maximize distance light. Best distance light is provided by performance halogens in the 3rd Gen projector, without the excessive foreground light that people favor with the LEDs which is actually scientifically more harmful than helpful, even though it is more comforting.

A few mediocre bulbs?! You mean bulbs from the credible major lighting companies like Philips, Sylvania/Osram and Diode Dynamics? Or the ones from major aftermarket LED companies like Morimoto, Xenon Depot, Headlight Revolution/GTR and Hikari? They are all covered in the thread as well as more. If you think all those brands are mediocre, there isn't much left.

I have not yet tested the Sv4. If you have some Sv4s you are willing to send, I can test them and report the results and return the bulbs. The latest GTR bulbs are tested in the thread already linked. Spoiler alert, they have the worst design out of all the LEDs in the thread but one and performance is terrible. The design is very dated, the LED is too large, they don't replicate a halogen filament at all. The manufacture clearly lacks a scientific understanding of automotive lighting, they build them to be super bright but with total garbage for focus. Pretty much on par for Headlight Revolutions products and their demonstrated lack of understanding in automotive lighting. And if you didn't realize, GTR is Headlight Revolutions own brand, so all those videos that declare GTR as best and show all the great reviews, yeah... They are just trying to sell you their own products as an "independent 3rd party" when they are not. The GTRs completely blow out foreground light with excessive light while losing significant distance light due to poor focus. You can tell the product is a disaster before even turning it on. But! A short range lux meter test will tell you they are super bright, making for great video demonstrations. Many will be fooled by an up close short range test. Run a distance test and you will see focus is terrible, and the output numbers return a very different story.

Also for clarity, again, you can have the worst LED design and not have blinding glare in 3rd Gen. It has nothing to do with the LED design in 3rd Gen, this seems to be a common misconception. 3rd Gens Projector headlights have internal glare light shields that prevent glare to oncoming drivers for halogen/LED light sources. This is a function of the projector headlight design and has nothing to do with the LED.

Again, all the data is in the 3rd Gen headlight thread. If looking for replacement LED, the only one that has tested better than stock is the Hikari Ultras. Far better than Diode Dynamics, Morimoto, GTR ect. They have the smallest design, providing the best focus out of all the LEDs tested, leading to the highest intensity output and best distance projection.
See posts #1, #2 for halogen, #3 for LED:
https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads/3rd-gen-hid-vs-led-vs-halogen-h11-projector-headlights.589465/

As to who I am. I'm just and engineer with a formal vehicle design degree that is tired of seeing so much complete bullshit pushed by "LED lighting companies" that is taken for fact. You'd be surprised how many of these companies do not even fully comprehend the automotive lighting for the products they are pushing. There are some awesome companies out there, but there are also so many more misleading ones. Everything I post is my data backed raw unfiltered assessment, conducted at my own expense. I was the one that caused Baja to recall their SAE lights based on my review that they were not actually SAE compliant as advertised. The SAE fix resulted in horrible performance degradation, I was not un-shy in sharing that data, which definitely burned some bridges. But I don't care. At. All. All my reviews are 100% data backed and not for sale in the slightest, regardless of the product or brand. You can use the info I post for benefit or not, but I can assure you a science based testing approach across many products will result in optimizing a higher performing outcome.