[d3sl91]

Hey All,

I know the Wiper Motor failure is common with HIDs - but does anyone know WHY it happens?

I just installed some LED bulbs, and am hoping that the blow out of the motor is caused by the HID power surge when starting up - which does not happen with these LEDs.


All was plug and play - I do get the "Bulb Out" error - but that is not bothersome to me.


Thoughts?

 

[Raphmass24]

Hey All,

I know the Wiper Motor failure is common with HIDs - but does anyone know WHY it happens?

I just installed some LED bulbs, and am hoping that the blow out of the motor is caused by the HID power surge when starting up - which does not happen with these LEDs.

All was plug and play - I do get the "Bulb Out" error - but that is not bothersome to me.

Thoughts?

I don't think you'll have any problems with LED. Which model did you go with? Are you satisfied with light output?

 

[Veefifty T5AWD]

Would love to see light output pics as LEDs tend to pale in comparison to Halogens for lumens.

 

[d3sl91]

I don't think you'll have any problems with LED. Which model did you go with? Are you satisfied with light output?

Would love to see light output pics as LEDs tend to pale in comparison to Halogens for lumens.

I went with the "Opt-7 Fluxbeam" Units that are popular on Amazon. I know you can get cheaper ones on ebay, but these are shipped/supported by some folks in California.

I installed a couple hours ago, and its mid-day so I'm not sure about output yet. My headlights need a good buffing too...

They "look" brighter. But we will see. Worst case scenario - I figure they hopefully have at least the same output, but are now actually white and wont burn out every 6 months. I also got some LED fog bulbs as well.

 

[d3sl91]

Of course only night driving will tell, but, these use the Cree MK-R LEDs. 2 per bulb.

The Cree's provide "up to 200 Lumens per watt" and are rated for up to 15 watts So, these can do MAX 6k Lumens per bulb, or 12k lumens total. OPT-7 only claims 3500 Lumens per bulb, which based on Cree's claims is believable.

http://www.cree.com/LED-Components-and-Modules/Products/XLamp/Arrays-Directional/XLamp-MKR

By comparison, the Sylvania Silverstar Ultras claim 1700 Lumens.

Now I just want it to get dark....

 

[Slipperyb]

How are you dealing with the bulb-out-warning on the dash? I have tried a few LED kits over the past few years. Only one produced road illumination that slightly surpassed stock H11 halogen bulbs (not saying too much there), but not as good as the H9 conversion.

I have been meaning to take and post a bunch of pics on here, but busy-life gets in the way. Needless to say I am running an LED kit now, using that best LED performer I tried, because I am a sucker for the white light. I am using the LED bulbs with the adjustable focus type (LED stalk rotates and moves in an out), fanless with the short back of the bulb, in order for the bulb to fit in the housing and not have a fan burn-out be an issue. I am using those little aluminum resisters in order to remedy the BOW. I tried several cancelers and none of them fixed to the BOW, sent them all back. Only thing is those little resisters get super hot, so they are currently mounted to the engine bay frame above the headlight assembly.

The light cut-off is there and only is slightly off from the proper geo., but the best that could be done with the bulb tech that I have. Glare is very minimal. I have been running these for about 8 months now. Just waiting for them to produce the LED bulbs where the filaments are the diodes mimicking a halogen bulb in a suspended-in-air fashion, like the LED Edison house light bulbs.

 

[d3sl91]

How are you dealing with the bulb-out-warning on the dash? I have tried a few LED kits over the past few years. Only one produced road illumination that slightly surpassed stock H11 halogen bulbs (not saying too much there), but not as good as the H9 conversion.

I have been meaning to take and post a bunch of pics on here, but busy-life gets in the way. Needless to say I am running an LED kit now, using that best LED performer I tried, because I am a sucker for the white light. I am using the LED bulbs with the adjustable focus type (LED stalk rotates and moves in an out), fanless with the short back of the bulb, in order for the bulb to fit in the housing and not have a fan burn-out be an issue. I am using those little aluminum resisters in order to remedy the BOW. I tried several cancelers and none of them fixed to the BOW, sent them all back. Only thing is those little resisters get super hot, so they are currently mounted to the engine bay frame above the headlight assembly.

The light cut-off is there and only is slightly off from the proper geo., but the best that could be done with the bulb tech that I have. Glare is very minimal. I have been running these for about 8 months now. Just waiting for them to produce the LED bulbs where the filaments are the diodes mimicking a halogen bulb in a suspended-in-air fashion, like the LED Edison house light bulbs.

the BOW warning is still there. I will see if it bothers me too much. As it is, I left the "Scheduled maintenance" warning up for a year so the BOW warning will likely just not bother me. - What aluminium resistors are you using?

I will have to see the cutoff on these. I can rotate them a bit, but no in-out adjustment. I did a very quick rotation test and even a small rotation changes the cutoff a bit. What models are you using that do? I did get these via amazon, so, can return if I feel they dont work.

One thing I noticed, is that many of these are marketed as having cut-offs built into the bulb. Probably because most people getting HIDs or these want brighter light in their reflectors, not projectors?

 

[d3sl91]

I don't think you'll have any problems with LED. Which model did you go with? Are you satisfied with light output?

Would love to see light output pics as LEDs tend to pale in comparison to Halogens for lumens.

Well, my guesstimate was about right. Drove my wife to work in the dark this morning. Was a worst-case scenario, we have some bad fog this morning (about 1 block's worth of visibility). They are just about the same as my Silverstar Ultras. I do NEED to give my lenses a really good polish. Last time, I stopped halfway through due to time and the kit not being nearly enough sandpaper for the job. So, that would help - but other than nice colored light, it's not much better - but not worse enough to cause me to put the halogens back in (yet). However, I will be ordering some H9s and see what I'm missing out on.

Sorry I have no pictures - but the reality is, pictures would not be accurate, as my phone will just try to adjust for how dark it is, and make the headlights seem brigher (aka, every amazon review ever that has lights that look way too bright to be true).

 

[LizardOfBodom]

Hey All,

I know the Wiper Motor failure is common with HIDs - but does anyone know WHY it happens?
....
Thoughts?

Read this topic, theshadow27 did an extensive research on that and his conclusions basically explains everything.
I have no idea if LED bulbs are affected by WMM issue though, not sure if any of HID issues apply here.

On the sidenote - if you can still provide some pics of that LED working, especially pointing towards the wall - I am interested to see the cutoff and beam pattern, would appreciate it. havent seen an decent output of any of LED sets so far so if you are happy with yours it may be interesting to compare.

thanks!

 

[GRat9717]

I'd be really surprised if they gave more light output than halogens.

 

[LizardOfBodom]

I'd be really surprised if they gave more light output than halogens.

I have no problem believing the lumen count is higher than H* bulb, the only thing I am always wary about is the beam pattern, and so far - havent seen any LED kit that would work well in this type of projectors. I will be happy to be proven wrong, but until they figure out how to to LEDs emulating halogen filament (like Slipperyb mentioned) I think we are far from perfect.

 

[GRat9717]

I have no problem believing the lumen count is higher than H* bulb, the only thing I am always wary about is the beam pattern, and so far - havent seen any LED kit that would work well in this type of projectors. I will be happy to be proven wrong, but until they figure out how to to LEDs emulating halogen filament (like Slipperyb mentioned) I think we are far from perfect.

Yep I feel the same way. Reliability comes into play too.

 

[d3sl91]

Read this topic, theshadow27 did an extensive research on that and his conclusions basically explains everything.
I have no idea if LED bulbs are affected by WMM issue though, not sure if any of HID issues apply here.

On the sidenote - if you can still provide some pics of that LED working, especially pointing towards the wall - I am interested to see the cutoff and beam pattern, would appreciate it. havent seen an decent output of any of LED sets so far so if you are happy with yours it may be interesting to compare.

thanks!

Thank you - I did actually find that after I posted (yes, fail on my part) - Seems that because LEDs do not use high wattage ballasts like HIDs, the issues (spikes, shared grounds, EMI) are not existent with LEDs. If I did daily long distance night driving, I would be getting a harness and doing quality HIDs - but I don't (work from home and wife works 1 mile away) so I'm just messing around with LEDs for now.

I will see what I can do for cutoff pics. In my case, I really do need to polish my lenses, as they are cloudy enough to affect the cutoff of even the halogens.

 

[hq_]

I have no problem believing the lumen count is higher than H* bulb

Having tinkered and experimented with LEDs a bit, I do, at least until I see the readings from a calibrated lux/lumen meter. While higher color temperature may often give an illusion of brightness, the actual lumen reading on the road matters. Considering the bulb beam pattern required for S40/V50 projector headlight for reasonable efficiency, the LED needs quite a bit of wattage and an unusual design to match even a nominally dimmer halogen bulb. HID bulbs are a different story with their near-360° beam but LED... well, I hope I'm proven wrong now, because I'd love the idea of reasonable output LED headlight solution for V50.

 

[GRat9717]

Having tinkered and experimented with LEDs a bit, I do, at least until I see the readings from a calibrated lux/lumen meter. While higher color temperature may often give an illusion of brightness, the actual lumen reading on the road matters. Considering the bulb beam pattern required for S40/V50 projector headlight for reasonable efficiency, the LED needs quite a bit of wattage and an unusual design to match even a nominally dimmer halogen bulb. HID bulbs are a different story with their near-360° beam but LED... well, I hope I'm proven wrong now, because I'd love the idea of reasonable output LED headlight solution for V50.

Yeah unless the projector and diodes on the bulb are made specifically for the purpose of a low beam application I'm very skeptical.

 

[d3sl91]

Against my wall 15' away:

On a dark road:

They seem to have the "reach" of the Silverstar Ultra H11s, but because of the white coloration, it does improve the visibility from what I can tell.

Having tinkered and experimented with LEDs a bit, I do, at least until I see the readings from a calibrated lux/lumen meter. While higher color temperature may often give an illusion of brightness, the actual lumen reading on the road matters. Considering the bulb beam pattern required for S40/V50 projector headlight for reasonable efficiency, the LED needs quite a bit of wattage and an unusual design to match even a nominally dimmer halogen bulb. HID bulbs are a different story with their near-360° beam but LED... well, I hope I'm proven wrong now, because I'd love the idea of reasonable output LED headlight solution for V50.

I was thinking the same thing on the way home. If the LEDs were designed better for the output pattern, I would imagine they would work much better. But the reality, is that these are not very efficient.

 

[Veefifty T5AWD]

That doesn't look that bad, actually...

 

[GRat9717]

That doesn't look that bad, actually...

I'm curious as to how it looks to other drivers at night!

 

[hq_]

Photos are nice but quite uninformative about the actual light output without a known light source in the same picture for comparison. By default cameras adjust to ambient light conditions and even with a full manual setup you still need something to compare the visible light output to. Personally I'm a big fan of lumen meter at a known distance or in an optically shielded enclosure. To headlights it's what a dynamometer is to the engine.

 

[LizardOfBodom]

Against my wall 15' away: .

Looks pretty decent I have to say, any chance you can do one more in front of an even surface, like the one below? (that illustrate clearly how the LED patter should NOT look like

Colour output from yours is definitely better than I expected, very nice bright white light.