Hyundai Forums banner

Thoughts on LED headlights instead of Halogen or HID?

33K views 108 replies 25 participants last post by  StephanV 
#1 ·
Hey folks;

I did not realize that you could get LED headlights instead of halogens or HID:
Headlight LED Bulbs

Not cheap at all (and I think they can be found a bit cheaper if you shop around).

Says these are "plug and play"...does this mean less fuss than a HID? My car is a few years old now on the halogens (which I dislike). Wondering if I should start looking seriously at an upgrade, and if these LEDs work good it could be an option (the lifespan numbers are very good).


ps. Looked for updated thread, but Google-fu is weak today. Apologies if this has been covered.
 
#2 ·
Every LED bulb i've seen online has reviews that say they aren't bright at all for headlamp use. I'm not entirely convinced that they would work from what they look like either, as high wattage LED's need a VERY LARGE surface area to work. At that price tag, I would look for some real reviews/comparisons before splurging and trying them out.
 
#3 ·
These belong to a newer generation of led head lights. There are crappy ones that a not as bright. That website you posted is a scam. Check out Aliexpress my friend ordered these for well under $100. These are cheaper than many hid kits.

G6 2014 New Arrival Auto Car LED Headlight H11 6000k 30W 12V 24V IP68 Super Bright Aviation Aluminum + 1 Year Warranty-in Lights & Indicators from Automobiles & Motorcycles on Aliexpress.com | Alibaba Group

They are very bright. A little less bright then good his but easier hook up. No relays are caps needed.

I have been considering ordering these exact ones.

BTW the ones I posted are much better then the link you posted. Those ones are 2013 models. The ones I posted are the newest style in LED lights and are !ore brighter with no fans, just a heat sink.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Icelert
#41 ·
These belong to a newer generation of led head lights. There are crappy ones that a not as bright. That website you posted is a scam. Check out Aliexpress my friend ordered these for well under $100. These are cheaper than many hid kits.

G6 2014 New Arrival Auto Car LED Headlight H11 6000k 30W 12V 24V IP68 Super Bright Aviation Aluminum + 1 Year Warranty-in Lights & Indicators from Automobiles & Motorcycles on Aliexpress.com | Alibaba Group
I have never ordered from this store before. Is is like an international version of ebay? The prices are lower than what is found on ebay. I am debating ordering these, the lumen appear to be double a halogen bulb yet slightly dimmer than HID.. I would accept that if it is 100% reliable and has less wires for the install. I wouldn't even mind modifying the dust caps to make it work.
 
#5 · (Edited)
Unless it's factory all aftermarket HID kits are utter junk and a waste of money. We constantly fix these POS systems at the shop. Sooner or later the customers decide to rip them out and go back to their stock bulbs. They miss the light they give off but problems always seem to arise with them.

Beamers have been some of the worst kits so far, but pretty much every no cheap brand has had issues.. $250-$400 i want it to work a lifetime not months!

As for LED it's going to be the latest fad, since HID have been so problematic for many manufacturer.
 
#8 ·
This couldn't be further from the truth. I've never spent more than $150 on an HID kit (going back as far as 2006). I've owned 3 HID kits for 3 cars. Had one bulb go out in 8+ years. If you buy crap, you get crap. But you certainly do not need to spend $250-400. I'm not saying it's the right solution for everyone, either. But saying they're all junk is simply uneducated.
 
#9 ·
I have always ran cheap China HID systems in 3 different cars and the only issues I have ever had was my $10 ballasts dying prematurely. IMHO it is a big waste of money to spend top dollar on an HID system. I just buy extra ballasts, sometimes they last 6 months some times a year but they are disposable so I don't care you can swap a ballast on the side of the road in a snow storm in about 1 minute. I keep them in my glove box.

The only thing I buy now is better bulbs as they shed light better. I get CNLight ball HID bulbs and I only pay $20 for 2 bulbs from Aliexpress when some local shops charge $80 - $100 for the exact same bulbs.

That's my 2 cents.
 
#12 ·
Thought I would throw in my experience. I ran these for a few weeks:

60W 6000LM 3rd Gen CREE LED Headlight Kit H4 H1 H7 H8 H9 H11 H13 9005 9006 9007 | eBay


They are plug and play, bright, easy to install, and look great. The light output was enough for me to see clearly even with a tinted windshield. They came on instantly without any warm up time and did not flicker/cut out like my HID's did until I installed the relay.

The problem I ran into is I could not get the dust covers on to keep dust/water out. I tried a few different option and couldn't come up with anything that would work. I ended up switching them out for HID's which was just a small hole drilled in the dust cover and sealed up around the wires.
 
#13 ·
Those are basically the same ones I posted. My thoughts were to make a bigger hole in the center of the dust cover and then insert a plastic lid from a spay can or similar in the hole and epoxy it in place to offer the clearance. Spay paint it flat black and Bob's your uncle.

How bright were they in comparison to your HID bulbs?
 
#15 ·
Here is my question. I see the desigh is the led are on the side of the bulb, where is the reflect / mirrored part in the projector. I assumed it was in the end where the light bulb sticks through. that way the light is projected through the lens from the rear of the assembly. if this is correct the how is the light getting out of the assembly? if you look at the bulb shown then the reflecting surface would have to be in the side or barrel of the assembly . if so how is this better?
 
#18 ·
I will say this if anyone gets the led bulb post some before and after photos . I have tried almost every hid high watt BS thing that I thought would work. my results 350.00 spent still have crap for headlights. I think the whole thing is how far will they shine and how bright will they be at a distance. I spent 140.00 for supposedly high quality hid conversion. 55w 4800 temp . the result was my fog lights worked better I sent them back , had a one year money back guarantee got a letter back saying they checked the system it worked fine wanted to know if I wanted to pay 30.00 for shipping the system back to me . I told them where to put the system .
I"ve tried cheaper systems with better results but they fail after a few weeks. I had a system professionally installed with the same results. I will have to see how they performe.
it comes down to a technology being put into another type of technology that was not designed for it. the real problem is a piss pore designed projector headlight. no amount of higher technology can over come a bad design. proof you ask , pinto , vega, yougo . I think I will try a better projector put in to the old headlight housing
well so much for a "quick reply" you all have a good one
 
#44 · (Edited)
I see a lot of misinformation in this thread. Although I am from the sedan forum, i would like to give my $0.02.

First off, the best lighting can only be achieved with a full HID retrofit.

Second best option would be getting TRS brand equipment.. You get what you pay for. These will not dissapoint.. Compatible with cold starts, best/reliable bulbs, best customer service.

I understand that the stock projectors fare well with HID kits and if going that route, I would only recommend theretrofitsource. I believe theirs is the highest quality route you can go. No, there is no such thing as osram or phillips hid kits. 100% fake.

Here is the kit for the GT
H11: Morimoto Elite HID System - HID Systems from The Retrofit Source Inc

I would never recommend LED bulbs... They will soon be the future but the technology of bulbs are not quite there yet..

Here is a comparison between the different options with PnP kits for halogen projectors. We are comparing a FRS stock halogen projector similar to the GT.

As you can see the LEDs lack hotspot and are overall worse than HID. (for now)

 
#20 ·
I am of the opinion the fog lights are weak. I will attempt to change that with a higher output LED bulb.
My HID low beam system brightened up the road but not nearly as much as I would like for distance (still have to try to raised them a tad).
I use high beams as much as I can when in rural areas.

I was told by a friend in Scandinavia, a European magazine article comparison between similar cars rated the stock i30 headlights as poorest of the group.
 
#37 ·
I just skimmed through the last two pages so if you've already answered this sorry , but how well do the HID's work for the high beam? I have looked into it but was a little hesitant due to every thing I have read saying its a bad idea( warm up time, early failure of the bulb from being turned on/off, etc)
 
#28 ·
Did you use the Xenon bulbs made by Phillips?
 
#27 ·
Aiming them higher is the most effective thing you can do, next is changing the bulbs to HID or H9's. I did the H9's and they work great! I just bumped the bright light cutoff to about 60 feet ahead of the car this weekend after comparing it to my friends sonata. I try to keep it a little lower than his because I don't want to load my bikes in my tow hitch and blind everyone on the road.
 
#30 ·
Now, if someone could help me with headlight aiming....:(

I looked it up in a repair manual, checked it out here and YouTube as well, but they just don't want to adjust. They could stand to go up a few inches, based on the cutoff I see on cars ahead of me.
 
#48 · (Edited)
******* solution: Put some sand bags in your trunk. >:D
Plus, you can save some bucks on those lowering springs you want. :laugh:
Problems solved. (free if you get the sandbags off of the road construction signs late at night)
 
  • Like
Reactions: kevjef420
#32 ·
Every day that goes buy I hate my HIDs more and more.. They work amazing when the temp is above 50 degrees, if its less than 50 degrees, I need to let the HID warm up with the ignition on but the car not running for about 30 seconds or they will not work. The problem is not the HID either because I put them on my wifes car and all works fine. If the LED is brighter than Halogen I might have to try going that route.

I have tried different combos of relays and capacitors and still nothing works right..
 
#39 ·
AC 35W Premium DLT X3 Canbus Error Free Digital Slim Ballast For HID Conversion Kit For BMW BENZ Chevrolet Mercedes Audi Volvo-in Light Source from Automobiles & Motorcycles on Aliexpress.com | Alibaba Group

These are almost exactly the same ballasts as the ones that I got from a guy locally. I can confirm that they work flawlessly without capacitors and without relays. If you look at the cables coming out of the unit they have 2 black boxes. As far as I know, one is a capacitor and the other is an HID canbus decoder. This enables it to work without flickering and the need for extra parts.

I will not be removing my relay wiring kit and throwing it in the garbage tonight. Caps I will keep in my tool box.

Here is the problem with all of the HID kits people have installed. They are first generation. The older cars didn't have these canbus problems and they didn't need special ballast so the cheaper ballast didn't include what wasn't needed. They were mass produced and still lots on the market. Now you get people with newer cars like us trying to make old technology work. Things like capacitors and relay kits are made so suppliers can sell off the old technology ballasts.

Don't make the mistake that I and many others made. Just get the right ballasts and plug in and enjoy problem free. They are not that expensive.

Here is another option that is a little cheaper, they should work just as good.

High Quality AC CANBUS Ballast 35W for HID XENON Conversion Kit CAN BUS Headlight Lamp Car Replacement Light Bulb FREE SHIPPING-in Light Source from Automobiles & Motorcycles on Aliexpress.com | Alibaba Group

I attached a photo of the ballasts I got.

I hope this post helps others.
 

Attachments

  • Like
Reactions: Airforce1
#40 ·
^^^ just realized I made a typo that contradicts my thought.

Rephrase...........

"I will **now** be removing my relay wiring kit and throwing it in the garbage tonight. Caps I will keep in my tool box.
 
#43 ·
I wish we had a edit button so its just not post after post...

Upon looking into these LEDs a bit more I came across a seller that said these light can not go in fully sealed headlight housings, like ours with the solid dust caps. The seller had it listed that they heatsinks get HOT need to be able to breather otherwise they can start to melt the surrounding plastics and/or burn out the bulb prematurely. What do you guys think about that?

As cheap as it sounds what would be done it you take aluminum weatherproof tape and just seal the whole thing up. I did this on my wife's 2011 Soul, I was changing one of the headlights and left the headlight cover on top of the engine, and well its missing now, without the dust cover the entire housing fogged up after the first rain so I just covered the whole opening with the aluminum weatherproof tape and it worked perfect. I guess the 2011 Soul is "special"and KIA tried a different style headlight cap and they didnt like it and its already discontinued, it was a one year part, so now the only way to replace it is get a whole new headlight housing with a different style cap or go to a junkyard and find a 2011 neither option seemed worth the effort after the aluminum weatherproof tape worked great..
 
This is an older thread, you may not receive a response, and could be reviving an old thread. Please consider creating a new thread.
Top