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LED Headlights?


madhakish
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My headlight brightness is really disappointing and now one appears to be dimming further than the other. Im looking at doing the relay upgrade but Ive done HID upgrades in all my other cars and have considered LED as well.

Anyone tried one of these 9004 style low/high beam conversion kits? https://www.superbrightleds.com/cat/led-vehicle-replacement-bulbs/vehicle/1993-nissan-pathfinder--high+++low+beam+headlamp/43-811--327922/

 

At $50/light that's a potentially very significant upgrade..

 

If no one here has done it, maybe I'll make myself the guinnea pig.

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They are not DOT approved, so I would suggest finding a legal alternative to avoid problems. Lights like that can have hot spots, and may blind other drivers, even if installed properly, due to the lack of a projector assembly. If even the seller says "off road use only" I would proceed with caution. If they're for auxiliary lights however, they shouldn't be an issue so long as you don't use them on the street.

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They are not DOT approved, so I would suggest finding a legal alternative to avoid problems. Lights like that can have hot spots, and may blind other drivers, even if installed properly, due to the lack of a projector assembly. If even the seller says "off road use only" I would proceed with caution. If they're for auxiliary lights however, they shouldn't be an issue so long as you don't use them on the street.

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I felt the same way about my headlights so I purchased a brighter Philipps bulb. HIDs in non-projector housings are the worst! Just too blinding to oncoming traffic. So I added KC driving lights to my bumper and they are AMAZING!! You can aim and angle them however you need so I have my aim at the low beam cut off and drive with them on the road. Nobody has ever flashed at me so I'm assuming they aren't blinding. They are driving lights after all with a cut-off beam. Off road, I aim them up and their reach is incredible. Would recommend something like that perhaps. Plus, LCF ;)

 

6be771b35c1f7001283f6eb092812b4c.jpg

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I have a friend who re-built an old cab over day-cab into a flatbed and he has LED headlights (high and low beam, it has seperate units for each). Last time I talked to him his excitement for them has disappeared and he said he's happy he bairly drives in the dark anymore (he moves cars for one shop, period. Like a semi-retired thing), just paid too much for them to shelf them. Properly aimed the beam, while bright sucks apparently. Of course he is basically sitting on top of the headlights and they are a little further apart than a wd21 :shrug:

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My tapatalk reply apparently didn't make it in here so here goes again.

 

Re: HID's, alignments etc. yeah I'd never put anything that would blind oncoming drivers in, and now that so many of the OEM's are moving to LED it seems like the tech has finally come to pass although perhaps not with this cheap of a set..

I did try my hand at building the relays but I have to have something wrong in my setup, I'm currently getting 1 beam at full brightness and 1 very dim but I didn't not have a wiring diagram to reference. I'm going to have to dig up the actual diagram and check my work.

 

The other way I was looking at going was the h4/cibi route and the hardbody front-end.. Will try to unfsck my relay setup first though.

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After having HID tilting lights (I hated them) I tried Led bulbs. (Cheap set off ebay), They do not have the hot spots and weird spread like the HIDs. They were quite bright.

 

 

However.

 

They only lasted about 4 months. The led actually cracked and failed.

 

They are not ready for prime time.

 

If you are going to get them. Get them from lifetime led, then at least you can get them replaced for free when they fail

 

 

 

Edited by msavides
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Wiring guide for relays:

 

dqrouv.jpg

 

When I did the H4 headlights (hardbody swap) on my former pathfinder I used the high and low beam wires going to the pass. side headlight plug to trigger each relay, than the output from each relay ( one for low beam one for high beam), I ran a wire from each relay to the drivers side headlight plug (furthest away from the relay), than I tapped into the same wire near the pass. side headlight and ran a wire to the pass. side headlight. One for the high beam one for the low. The drivers side headlight plug (stock) I just unpluged and left alone unused.

 

I used 10 gauge for all the wiring, except what was stock going to the pass. side headlight plug.

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Yes, go through your wiring first, most people find them adequate at that point. Some better bulbs help as well, some Sylvania coming to mind but I can't recall the exact info. (well covered in previous threads)

Download the 1994 FSM from the pinned thread in the Garage section, it will have wiring diagram that should be the same.

 

The other way to go is install fog or driving lights and aim them so you can use them on the street as well.

 

I have 2 Hella fogs and 2 Hella HIDs on mine (in addition to stock lights), but haven't done the bulb/relay work yet. At that point, I suspect the headlights and fogs will take care of everything I need, while the HIDs are good to warn the crappy HID/projector crowd; I get highbeam flashed with them @ 1/8 mile+.

 

Lighting is totally subjective to needs, uses and wants. Just make sure you get what you need without compromising someone else.

 

Funny story on a long, slow, open, straight away... An on coming car with very bright lights so I flip on the high beams. They hit high beams, I assume (me thinking it was too bright to begin with) so I flipped on the fog lights. They turned on another set of lights (I can't see crap now), and then I fired up the HIDs. They turn on with a flashbulb ignition, then warm to brightness...

Lights start shutting down on the other vehicle and I drop all mine down as well. Maybe it was just the effect, but I swear his low lights weren't as bright as I had seen that started it all.

 

B

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Yes, go through your wiring first, most people find them adequate at that point. Some better bulbs help as well, some Sylvania coming to mind but I can't recall the exact info. (well covered in previous threads)

Download the 1994 FSM from the pinned thread in the Garage section, it will have wiring diagram that should be the same.

The other way to go is install fog or driving lights and aim them so you can use them on the street as well.

 

I have 2 Hella fogs and 2 Hella HIDs on mine (in addition to stock lights), but haven't done the bulb/relay work yet. At that point, I suspect the headlights and fogs will take care of everything I need, while the HIDs are good to warn the crappy HID/projector crowd; I get highbeam flashed with them @ 1/8 mile+.

 

Lighting is totally subjective to needs, uses and wants. Just make sure you get what you need without compromising someone else.

 

Funny story on a long, slow, open, straight away... An on coming car with very bright lights so I flip on the high beams. They hit high beams, I assume (me thinking it was too bright to begin with) so I flipped on the fog lights. They turned on another set of lights (I can't see crap now), and then I fired up the HIDs. They turn on with a flashbulb ignition, then warm to brightness...

Lights start shutting down on the other vehicle and I drop all mine down as well. Maybe it was just the effect, but I swear his low lights weren't as bright as I had seen that started it all.

 

B

 

Driving with my HIDs on coming down a mountain road last weekend (on a flat portion of the road), a large lifted truck was driving with their brights on. Being taller than me, I know my lights weren't an issue for them, so I flashed my brights. He turned a *#%!ing lightbar on and I nearly had to stop driving because I was seeing spots. :angry:

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So I managed to get the wiring harness working correctly with relays and 10. Ga. Wire and whoa what a difference.. Its almost hard to believe. I even put in a new but cheap set of silverstars and the difference was massive. I just got my PIAA bulbs today, will see what sort of difference those make with the relay upgrade. Might just have what I was after!

 

That was my fear with LED. Good to know its not based on nothing in particular. Will stick with incandescent until I can get some cibies and retrofit them with morimoto bi-xenon projectors..

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I ended up picking up some 6" 100w KC off-road lights to mount on my bull-bar or basket when the time comes.. Beefy things.

Funny reading your guys stories about HIDs..

I think some of you know I'm restoring a '95 525i (the classic e34 style) and one of the first major cosmetic upgrades I did were HID retrofitted Bi-Xenon projectors. I went with the 55w prolumen kit and nice white 5k bulbs. What this gives me is both low and high xenon beams, and when the high beam activates the cut-off drops out so it's just a giant cone of HID goodness. If you know the e34 you have seen the dual lens headlight setup. What this means specifically for me is that I now have quad high beams. 2x HID Xenon (no cutoff), and 2x halogen.

Now I will preface this with the statement everything is properly aligned, no light bleed, beautiful cutoff and totally sealed cans - so this looks about as factory as HID can be. But the 55w prolumen package puts down some *serious* light.

So I'm driving through western Wisconsin on my way to Chicago just outside of Madison, its late and lonely and I haven't seen anyone for a while. I'm cresting a hill with a long valley and as I do an oncoming car crests on his side, his brights drop, mine are not on. I get the flash, so I just flashed my low beams off and on to show they were not brights. Flashes me again. I hit the high beams.

I can only imagine that it is at this point that a sun-like coronal ejection of lumens slammed into his car with enough voracity to cook paint and melt rubber as a rainbow of spectrum - 3700k, 4300k, 5000k - blasted out of every single light on the front of my humble little bimmer - HID fogs, HID low beams, HID high beams, and Halogen high beams, stared down this poor oncoming soul.

He stopped flashing his brights at me after that.

I really don't get it very often except when the angles line up like coming over a hill.. Then I can imagine 55w lows seem fairly blinding.

Edited by madhakish
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