3rd Gen HID vs LED vs Halogen H11 projector headlights

well. I will say this. People want cheap and if the reviews are biased towards that cheapness; I think think that’s a good service. But that doesn’t take into account reviewer bias.

 

Funny guy, but no. I'm from another country, even from another continent. Search where Romania is and that we don't speak russian and then maybe you can make assumptions.

If you would have watched some of his videos, you would have seen that until now he was against any kind of aftermarket led replacement. I haven't said his test are perfect, I just wanted your opinion and made some corrections to some of your observations. Also, I said about aliexpress because I have seen many leds on youtube that are sold by american companies and are actually chinese products. It's your choice if you want to pay extra for a name or you can buy the exact same product from china for half the price or even less, but the performance will be the same.
I had the F3 led (which many american say it's great on youtube or Amazon reviews) and I was dissapointed by the performance, mostly by the fact the hot spot wasn't near the cut off line.

 

But Russian is a recognized minority language in Romania so you never know

 

@OP Good luck with further testing. It's obvious that this is not a place where discussion is allowed in order to discover new things.

 

@viruszzz94 this is a great place to exchange ideas but when science has disproven a hypothesis on more then one occasion its kind of hard to except it.

 

@El Duderino correct, but also tehnology is evolving at such a speed that we would be fools to not think about the fact that in the near future there can be an led that will be great in halogen headlights. Morimoto with it's 2mm thickness will be a great start for others to improve.

 

You are correct. And the performance will be - wait for it - total crap.

 

@Too Stroked yes, but it will be crap even if the led is 20 dollars on aliexpress or 80 dollars on Amazon because they are the same products. If you order enough, they will even write what you want on the box and on the led itself.

 

I think you're missing my point. Cheap Chinese crap - no matter who's name ends up on the final package - will always be junk. Your suggestion that we need to pay attention to it because technology is marching forward so quickly is folly. The Chinese are great at copying (or should I say ripping off) designs from others. They are terrible at coming up with true technological breakthroughs. Said another way, when I'm looking for breakthrough technology, I don't look to Chinese products.

 

I don't disagree, but they're starting to become a real contender in the engineering of stuff.

Not just that, as I mentioned too, people love that cheap junk because it's so cheap!

A review that focuses on evaluating that cheap junk and showing what's good and bad about is a valuable resource. Even if the science shows a halogen H9 is better, you're going to have people say "Yeah, but, like, these have 'TRD' on them, so they're cooler, what do you think of these vs. the other ones that say 'Taco'?" etc, etc. So, I think knowing what's on the market, what people are buying and wanting, etc is a valuable resource.

 

Very well put. All to often people look at price but not quality

 

A review of "cheap Chinese junk lighting products" might be valuable to certain folks, but probably not people who are truly interested in performance. This thread - and every other thread started by @crashnburn80 - is aimed at folks who are interested in performance. The ones that it might interest would be those who only buy based on price. But if they're only interested in price, why bother reviewing performance?

 

Did you see my previous comments regarding the design? It is a very old dated design style typical of many years ago that doesn't accurately replicate a halogen, which is typical of most the junk on Alibaba and AliExpress. Yes, many companies buy stuff there and mark it up, but that doesn't make it any good. That particular LED appears higher power than many, but what is needed in a replacement LED light is focus, and that LED lacks it. A high power LED with lack of focus dips the beam pattern significantly and blows out foreground light and loses distance projection. It shows that the designers do not understand optics or how to make a proper headlight. A short range test of 20-25' (6~7.5 meters) may show the LED as a clear winner because it is concealing the lack of focus issue. This is exactly what I was talking about earlier when another company validated the old bulky Morimoto 2.0 as 238% brighter than stock when measured at an inadequate distance with an incandescent meter, vs my test showing 3% brighter than stock when tested at an extended distance with a full spectrum meter, and that 3% brighter was dipped way down in the beam. This is again playing out in the video you referenced.

I welcome all discussion to discover new things and advances in lighting technology. You'll note that credible lighting manufactures like Philips, Osram/Sylvania and Diode Dynamics work on building more focused LEDs that are thinner with smaller emitters, because that is what is needed in a halogen assembly to work properly, and they are not sourcing them from Alibaba or AliExpress. I wouldn't put the previous Morimotos in that group, but I would include their new 3.0 product. Trying to debate that a dated bulky style LED with oversized emitters even with high power, is a new discovery worth considering is a significant step backward in LED evolution and design. Focus is more important to building a LED replacement for a halogen than power. All reputable LED companies have figured this out already and moved away from that dated model because it doesn't work.

As @Too Stroked points out above, all my lighting threads are aimed at high quality lighting performance. Not to be harsh, but you won't find support for low quality aftermarket projectors running poorly focused LEDs, even if they are super bright because the design is wrong and they don't work correctly. I think an example that might help illustrate this point is the AlphaRex headlights, another Alibaba/AliExpress product resold in the US and marked up significantly. See this post. Almost all reviews comment on how much brighter they are than the Morimoto XB assemblies, but there is way more to a headlight beam pattern than being bright. And in the case of the AlphaRex, the beam pattern is backwards and all the brightness is foreground light. Looks impressive but will make for a horrible headlight. In very much the same way a bulky high power out of focus LED works, looks very bright, but it will all be foreground light and loss of distance light which again makes for a horrible headlight.

 

Finally pulled the trigger on some philips h9 from Amazon lucked out and got the german made. modifying the base took a total of about 10 mins for the pair. Cant believe the output compared to the philips h11s i had in there before

$33 Philips - Diamond Vision H11 Halogen HID Super White 5000K (Pair)

https://www.amazon.ca/Philips-Diamo...eywords=H11+LED+Philips&qid=1608172209&sr=8-8
Thanks for the info Crash!

 

Ironically perhaps, the H9’s for low beams are kind of my least favorite. They match the HIR high beams but they are just so old school yellow that they don’t get me excited for city driving. Granted, that’s not the point, they are a workhorse and they do their job well where it counts. It’s more that the light on the road reflected back is not sexy and the look of the vehicle from the front seems off, like a yellow haze on the projectors.

I’m contemplating swapping in the +130’s tonight as we have our 2.5h night drive tomorrow. I don’t know that I can knowingly downgrade though. Hmm.

 

The sheer number of times I reference this and it falls on deaf ears is astonishing. Drop in LEDs are HUGELY popular in the C5 world. I try to explain to them that while the stock 9006 are indeed garbage, drop in LEDs are not a viable solution. Of course then I get called stupid because you know, Vette owners, but I digress.

Had the Tacoma not had the HID shake issue I might have gone that route had I not found your threads. Granted, I went OEM LED, but that being said, I've used your data as a reference in many other areas.

 

you can only do it in the C5 if you measure your quarter mile before and after and know how much weight was added. And if you keep it in your maintenance records. And then try to bring those with you to sell the car for 99.5% of what you paid for it because you have all the maintenance records.

And You need to be wearing one of these while you do any meets with other corvette owners.






I’m now not a fan of the stock LED white. I liked white until I drove with yellow and realized holy shit this is so much better. I like the way the truck looks with the white but hot damn, it is so much better to drive with the yellow.

 

HID is a very nice light. Bright and powerful and can be had in whiter color.

It’s just so f’ing high maintenance with the ballast and bulb life and bouncing and warmup. You get used to it sort of like how kids wear you down to being their servant but it’s not the easiest way.

LED is so much less headache.

 

You're going to pay a pretty bad output tax with a 5000k coated halogen.

Sounds like the Hella H9 Performance 2.0 bulbs (in post #1577 here) could be a good compromise. A bit whiter like the GE/Tungsrams but close in output to the Philips H9s, though slightly less. Granted not going to help you for tomorrow.

But with 9006 you could upgrade to the ultimate bulb, the 9012 +120!!!
https://www.ebay.com/itm/2x-Vosla-9...-Made-In-Germany-ULTIMATE-LIGHT-/174099096628

Sometimes it is hard to argue science though with those that are looking for the cosmetic factor.

 

I got lectured at the first and only Corvette show I went to for "changing too much" on my car. I have different wheels and at the time aftermarket seats. What's hilarious is they love their aftermarket knockoff cast chrome wheels that are replicas of C6/C7 wheels, but if you show up with legit BBS LM wheels you're somehow a poser. The guy looking at my car with disdain had the full Corvette owner uniform, hat with flames, bowling shirt with flames, tall socks. It was brutal. His car had every chrome and red piece you could possibly have. I still have pictures of it somewhere. It was the first and last Corvette show I'll ever go to. If the front emblem wasn't posted into the bumper I'd have already pulled it.

I ran a set of proper retrofitted HID projectors in my C5 for about a year. They were a HUGE headache. They were a 55w set so I had to have a fully charged battery, or they didn't work. If the car sat for more than a day the parasitic draw was enough to not allow the headlight assembly to work. The car would start fine, but I had no headlights. That was independent of the amount of slop in the pop-up assembly which meant the cutoff line dazzled which wasn't acceptable to me, or anyone else in the road. Removing them was a HUGE downgrade, but it was unsafe to use.

I have the KC HID Pro Sport 6" lights on my roll bar and they've been nothing but a headache as well. I had to cut / splice the wires downstream of the connector and to get all (4) lamps to turn on without the truck running is near impossible. I have halogen inserts to go back in if need be. They're basically ornamental anyways and there's too much slop in the mounting bar for the lamps that they bounce, but it grinds my gears they do not work properly.

I've got the basic Vosla HIRs in mine right now. I don't believe they made the +120 when I got mine. I'm trying to go back through my archives to see which set I actually got. I thought the Vosla weren't true HIR? I know we discussed my Voslas earlier this year. Regardless, at night without proper aim the Voslas I have a quite good and a HUGE upgrade over the stock 9006. I wish cosmetically they looked cooler, but sometimes it's function over form. I am guilty of running a 3500K HID kit in the fogs, but my car uses an 880 bulb which with as low as that car is couldn't glare someone if you tried. Maybe I'll try and retrofit the DD lamp in there for laugh sometime.