Daniel, you are talking two very different technologies here. So, the question now becomes how much rewiring you want to do. The LED bulb is going to be much easier since it will be much more "plug and play" since it will for the most part plug right into what is inside the headlight housing. The issue I find with LED lighting in general is that it does not like to reflect back. So, you have to have a lot more lumen (brightness) to get satisfactory light reflected back to you so you can see what is out there. This can be a problem for oncoming traffic. Where, the HIDs are going to reflect the light better back at you. But, the down side is you now have to do some rework of the wiring. It is not necessarily hard. In short, what you are going to end up doing is taking the positive wire that goes to the headlights and attaching a wire to it (will be included with the HID kit you will get) to extend it to outside the headlight housing. The other wire on this harness will get bolted to a suitable ground point under the headlight housing. In this area, you will also need to mount a ballast box (there is a nice spot right under the headlight housing on each side). You will then have 2 wires that will run from the ballast box back into the headlight housing (kit comes with a plug to make the headlight housing water tight again, requires drilling a 3/4 to 1" hole in the back cover). From there, you mount the HID bulb into the factory hole. The big thing you have to keep in mind with HIDs (the same can be said about LEDs) is that you need to pay attention to what size "bulb" you are getting. All of the HID/LED bulbs are going to use the same technology (respective to being an LED bulb or HID bulb), but the plastic base that the bulb sits in will be dramatically different. Some HID bulbs don't even come with a base. So, make sure that you pay attention to what bulb base you need to make your life much easier.

A pro for the HID bulbs is that you should find that there will be a much wider selection of light color to choose from. This can be a a little intimidating though too. Think of it this way, 3000K, very yellow (good for looking through fog, but may not necessarily be legal as headlights depending on local laws), 4300K has a very slight yellow tint to it, but also provides the most light output for a given wattage bulb. 5000K is a pure white light, but seems to be difficult to find. 6000K gets a slight blue tint to it, but still a fairly white light. 8000K, starts to get an obvious blue tint to the light and is not as bright as the 5000K or 6000K bulbs. The further away from 8000K you get, the more the color shift is going to be away from a white light, leading to a higher probability of attention by the cops.

Another note, don't pay so much attention to the wattage of the bulbs, but more to the lumen output of the bulb. a standard halogen bulb outputs about 1500 lumen of light. A properly sized HID bulb is going to be only 35W and output around 3000 lumen. LED technology is expanding fast and can have greatly varying degrees of light output compared to power input. This is where paying attention to the packing is going to be key. 2 things to look for: 1) the big one being that the packaging specifically says that it meets your local lighting requirements (for example, in the US, this would be "DOT Rated" and therefore acceptable for on-road use, if you see "For Offroad Use Only", then these would be illegal to use on the road), 2) the lumen rating of the bulb should be in the 1500 to 3000 range. I mention the lumen rating because there are a lot of HID bulbs out there that have very high lumen ratings (normally rated at 50W and 80W too). A 50W HID outputs around 5000 lumen. I am sure you get mad when someone comes at you with their brights on. Now, imagine that person with not only their brights on, but have an additional set of headlights shining light. that is what those bulbs would be like to other drivers.

If you need more info, let me know. I have converted a few cars in my years from halogen to HID. So, I can step you through finding an upgrade. The big thing with the new lighting technologies (HID/LED) is that you tend to get what you pay for. You go cheap, you will get something that will work great initially, but after about a year, it is going to fail on you. So, research is going to be important.

 

I have HID mains and LED DRL bars. Here's a link to LED "kit" for mains and you need the capacitors (4,000 lumen and 6,000k color), but as stated there, Thermo is the guru here on HID conversion.
https://www.jaguarforums.com/forum/x...advice-203756/

 

 

They are 4,000 lumens (U.S. Legal) AND 6,000k is the COLOR (blueish-white). Color will be very close to my lights (mains are HID, fog are LED, DRL's are LED) =

 

Lol, pic I don't have fogs on, but are the same color

 

I installed the

SYLVANIA H1 zXe Halogen

Looks great and won't break the bank.

 

Did you happen to see the life expectancy for those bulbs? It's 18 months.

In general customers are impressed with how white the lights are, even comparing the zXEs to the SilverStar Ultras, a noticeable difference was evident. Major complaints are those of the bulbs failing too early. A reasonable estimate of 18 months for these light bulbs.

 

Almost all of the premature failures are due to improper handling of the bulb. Just one touch with your fingers to the bulb drastically decreases it's life expectancy. If handled correctly these bulbs will last as long as any other. I have them in my X-Type and so far all is well.

I did install LED's for brake lights. Reason is they last a long time but even better the light comes on sooner than using conventional bulbs giving the driver behind you a better notice for stopping.

 

That quote was from Sylvania's site. Yeah, I know about the fingerprint diminishing life particularly on halogens.

 

 

Description in second link =

In addition, we made our LED sets with the slimmest design on the market so fitment is never an issue. The clearance is about the same as most of the factory bulbs that you are removing so there is no chance of incorrect fitment. Most competitors use bulky cooling units at the back that have a hard time fitting in most headlight assemblies. Our unique aluminum fin radiators encourages optimum cooling of our units so they can last a lifetime.