Just brainstorming and was wondering if anyone had tried a simple plug-and-play replacement for their factory, standard headlight bulbs using LEDs instead.

I searched the threads here and found a lot of discussion about LED side marker lights, license plate lights, etc. But there are now LED headlight bulbs in standard sizes that you can use.

They seem to be cheap enough to take a chance on (most of them are $3 - $10 on eBay) so long as I wouldn't screw up the car in the process. Anyone tried it yet?

Jess

(here's an example, not even sure it's Jag-fit: http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/2-X-C...Q5fAccessories)

 

i bought a complete kit (ballasts, bulbs) from xenondepot.com and they are working great. you can install without taking off bumber....it's a bit tight but it took me less than an hour. Once you see the difference you will never go back! BTW, mine is a 2006 s-type 3.0L.

 

Unf., electronically speaking, no LED of any kind can produce the amount of lumens required by a headlight -- yet. Making the amount for headlights can only be done by tunsten filament lamps or arc-discharge types as in HID car headlamps or UHP lamps as used in data projectors. These have the disadvantage that they require a high-frequency power unit to drive them, sometimes mis-called "ballast". The HID lamps however are much more efficient than tungsten, and the light is not blue
deficient but more equal-energy white.
Leedsman.

SORRY! Must retract that statement about LED headlights. I had it in the back of my mind that unbeknown to me, someone might have indeed produced an LED headlight; well, they HAVE! The Toyota Prius and others can be ordered with LED headlamps. The high power LED lamp is not without problems however, mainly around the heat produced requiring some means of dissipation. Exessive temperature reduces the light output significantly and shortens expected lifetime. The heatsinks used do not mate well with the plastic reflectors, melting can be a problem. On the other hand, LED light is instantaneous like tungsten-halogen, no warmup time.

 

Agreed, LEDs would be worthless for a headlamp application. They are good for accent lights, and tailights. The ONLY way to go is to get an HID kit with ballasts. They are very reasonable nowadays, and if you have a sound/audio custom shop around you I'm sure they can price it out if you dont feel like tackling it yourself. My buddy with a Cayenne just got his done, had one ballast for each side, $100, plus $75 for installation. Looks and performs amazing compared to his stock halogens.

 

You can get hid's in any color or bulb type for $30 from DDM tuning.com I have no affiliation with the site but that's where I get all my stuff. My S-Type has 6k hid head and fog lamps and I couldn't be happier. I just put 4300k hid in my 500sl, also happy but the S-type has a better headlight lens for it.

George

 

He needs an HID setup before he can get real HID bulbs aka ballasts. Of course he can put the halogen upgraded bulbs from PIAA or similar but those are marginally better than stock at best. They are more for looks.

 

This is a real HID setup I'm talking about bull. HID bulbs, ballasts and plug and play wiring.

 

Oh, sweet, good deal and look good. Couldn't open the site on my phone, thought you were just talking about those "xenon", fake HIDs.

 

Thought I'd better point it out: What are called "xenon" headlamps aren't true xenon really. They are 'metal halide'* lamps (similar to early data projector lamps) with SOME xenon in the quartz envelope to improve the warmup time, an important consideration for automotive use. True xenon lamps are terrifyingly expensive and are used only by professional photographers, the reason being that the light is close to daylight in its "color-temperature" resulting in accurate color rendition for FILM. Video cameras have auto white balance correction and work well even with plain tunsten.
A big xenon for a cinema projector can cost well over Ł1000 and have a service life of only 800hour. Unsurprizingly, many cinemas still use carbons. You can get xenon up to 12Kw.
*Pronounced 'hay-lide'.
Leedsman.

 

This is good info, and I thank you for posting it It would never have guessed that heat dissipation was an issue with LEDs, given how "cool" LEDs typically feel compared to incandescent bulbs.

I was really surprised to hear you say LEDs could melt the reflectors inside a headlamp housing. I would have thought that would be a problem more with the hotter incandescent types (i.e., Silverstar Ultras, etc.).

Jess

 

Re. heat and LED headlamps: This problem is to do with the heat coming from the BACK of the array. The heat sink has to be there. So little heat comes out the front that these headlights don't de-ice themselves like the other sort.
A problem with HID lamps in plastic enclosures is the hard UV output degrading the plastic and clouding. Best use glass reflectors and fresnels.
Leedsman.

 

Are you opposed to just getting an HID kit?

 

No, not at all. Just curious whether LED replacement bulbs were known to other members of the forum. I figured with the cost as low as it was, it had the potential to be too good to be true.

Jess