Just noticed yesterday my driver's side low beam bulb was out, popped a spare I had in my toolbox in and all is well, but after the fact I realized that there was no indicator that I had a headlamp out...but I do get a display and amber light that I have a brake light out. Is this normal and there aren't main beam warnings or am I missing something?

The beam pattern, especially with the fog lights on is surprisingly good enough that I really didn't notice it was out from inside the car.

So now that I've got my spare bulb in there, might as well do a lighting upgrade. Has anyone got any particular LED bulb recommendations they like? Looking for white light, don't want to blind other drivers or get flashed all the time because I put crappy bulbs in there and didn't adjust them properly. Don't want the car to have blue or purple headlights, even if the light on the road is white. Thoughts? Don't want to go HID because of how much the autolamps turn the headlights on and off, even with the sensitivity all the way down.

 

Looking through some not too old threads it seems like fitment for LED headlamps has been an issue, photos in those threads look like the replacement bulbs aren't a direct fit replacement for the H7 bulb, which explains that.

Found these alleged "direct fit" H7 LEDs on Amazon for $30 a pair. Ordered a pair and will see how they fit later this week.

https://smile.amazon.com/dp/B09JZC6T...hk_typ_imgToDp

 

they should fit as they don't seem to have a fan, but I have a feeling you may be disappointed with the light output and the color.

I put a HID kit in and I'm pretty pleased with it.

 

Whitout any cooling passive or not those bulbs can not be very bright or last long. Otherwise finally easy and directt fit led bulb.

 

Seems weird to me that LED lighting should need cooling at all. They use so much less power than a halogen lamp, and halogens don't need heat sinks. Obvioulsy they do need it or it wouldn't be there, but its just weird to me. But my electronics courses are decades in the past.

Reviews for these were positive heavy enough for me to take a chance...worst case scenario, if I'm not happy I can return them and keep hunting.

 

Opted to cancel the order and keep shopping. same seller has an H7 bulb with a cooling fan for a bit more. I'll keep hunting though.

Quadcammer, where do you go for your HIDs?

 

Led's do need high current when their light power is high. And not just leds itself but powerstage too what drives them. With human eye one yellow dot at the led bulb contains multiple leds. 30W led bulb with active cooling blows warm air pretty fast after turned on. 15W bulbs tend to have passive cooling only. Against this knowledge, bulb without any cooling ribs is not gonna be powerful. My daily driver has H1 led bulbs in dipped beams. 3 "dots" per bulb side. Another one of them broke last autumn. I Took it apart and one of the dots was burnt broken. Whole bulb is layered with thick copper to dissipate heat from the leds. It is not clearly enough in long term.
I'm still going to swap leds to my jaguar some day. It is not going to be easy. Good led headlight bulbs are SO much better than any basic halogen bulb. Expensive yes, but so good. Good led bulb fits good, has some patterin adjusments if needed and produce good or very good light pattern.

 

Thanks! Power = heat to dissipate which makes sense. Back in the day (late 80's) LEDs were strictly low power...stands to reason its an entirely different world now.

 

Hmmmm... I just use the stock Sylvanias and I can see just fine. However,
maybe the thought here leads more to the way it looks to people who are
not driving the car.

 

This may not look very professional from the backside of the headlamps but, it works very well. The same ones I installed about 3 years ago on my daughters XJR are still going good today. If you zoom in, you’ll notice that I used a zip tie. I had to remove each headlamp to successfully install the bulbs but, no glue was involved.

I know this isn’t a good sense of comparison but, they are a bright white bulb. I have them as a low and high beam. In this photo is pictured only the low beams and the inner little peanut bulb is a bright white. I can tell you that they’re plenty bright enough but I don’t get flashed from other drivers as if my high beams are on so it’s not too overwhelming.

VoRock8 R2 COB H7 8000LM Led Bulbs,High Beam Low Beam Conversion Kit, High Beam or Low Beam Bulbs, Fog Light, Replace Halogen Bulbs for Cars and Motorcycles, 6500K Xenon White, 1 Pair

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01N01QE3S/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_glt_i_WBEB26W8ZB142CA6ZQF2?_encoding=UTF8&psc=

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01N01QE3S/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_glt_i_WBEB26W8ZB142CA6ZQF2?_encoding=UTF8&psc=

1

 

I bought them from amazon. Can find you the exact items if you like. I also used a relay harness and e39 bmw adapters to install. Tiny bit fiddly to get them in snug but they work well now

 

Addicted2Boost: How you did the headlamp sealing to the led bulb ? is there any moisture in the headlight in the mornings?

 

I didn’t really notice any condensation inside the headlights. If there is any, it’s minimal. Keep in mind I’m in Florida so it’s a lot warmer here than in Finland. There’s no seal between the led bulb and the headlamp housing and it does sit flat up to the housing.

 

ah Florida. Then I understand.

This time of the year here cars have about half centimeter of condensation water on all outer surfaces in every mornings with or without rain in the night.