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Headlight Bulb Upgrade


ravindasenarath

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Thanks for the input and yes I agree with you: HID's are pointless without projector lenses. I probably will end up buying a whole assembly for the fog lights which incorporate projector lenses and the fog-lights will essentially be utilized as driving lights.

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I just don't know what vendor to go with at this point. GTRlighting and DDM Tuning are HID kit vendors that are mentioned as dependable by the forums that cover my car, but I wanted to see if any if the members here have any vendors that I can shortlist before I place my order...

So you're going for HIDs? :D

I don't have any experience with the ones ordered through eBay, but the HID kits sold in local joints like S#n L#nka are all the same (same bulbs and stuff ). Only the box they come in is different.

I have 6000k bulbs which is more close to white light. When the kelvin value reduces , the light is more yellowish and when it increases it's purplish.

I'm hoping to replace mine with Osram fog breakers when these bulbs give up.

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So you're going for HIDs? :D

To be honest I'm still on the fence about the HID option.

There's a LED branded option (the Philips H11 X-treme Ultinon LED Fog Bulbs) which are LED bulbs apparently designed for non-projector fog light use that will be a direct swap with the existing halogen bulbs and wiring. The light output would be 2400 lumens which would offer a bit more light output but longer life than the retrofit H9's and most importantly, I can just swap out the bulbs and have everything back to the standard OEM setup when I sell the car, which is an attractive option.

The other option is to install 3400 lumen LED's from GTRlighting into the low beam projector housing and leave the fog lights alone. Apparently these LED's are a direct swap as well and the light output is pretty incredible (if it is claimed). Again the this option would give me the light output I need while allowing me to revert everything back to the standard setup if needed. The drawback is that the bulbs are manufactured by GTRlighting and I have no way to verify their claims or know if these bulbs will be safe for the housing.

The only drawback to both these options is the cost. I'm not sure whether I can justify the sums involved going with the LED option when you can buy a HID conversion kit (ballasts, bulbs and projector lens housing) for 1/2 the cost?

Your thoughts? And how come you want to revert back to halogens for the fog lights after going with HID lights? Won't that mean you'd have less light output? If you're not happy with the current 3rd party bulbs why not just buy 5000k or 4500k (or even 3000k golden yellow) HID bulbs from Phillips when the current bulbs give up? Won't that option be compatible with your existing HID ballasts and serve to give you better light output (over halogen bulbs?)

The commercial for the Phillips LED fog lights that don't require projector lenses:

Edited by Kavvz
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To be honest I'm still on the fence about the HID option.

There's a LED branded option (the http://www.xenondepot.com/h11-h8-h16-philips-Ultinon-LED-Bulb-p/12834unix2-h11.htm'>Philips H11 X-treme Ultinon LED Fog Bulbs) which are LED bulbs apparently designed for non-projector fog light use that will be a direct swap with the existing halogen bulbs and wiring. The light output would be 2400 lumens which would offer a bit more light output but longer life than the retrofit H9's and most importantly, I can just swap out the bulbs and have everything back to the standard OEM setup when I sell the car, which is an attractive option.

The other option is to installhttps://www.gtrlighting.com/product/gtr-lighting-gen-2-led-headlight-conversion-kit-h11-3600-lumens-gtr'> 3400 lumen LED's from GTRlighting into the low beam projector housing and leave the fog lights alone. Apparently these LED's are a direct swap as well and the light output is pretty incredible (if it is claimed). Again the this option would give me the light output I need while allowing me to revert everything back to the standard setup if needed. The drawback is that the bulbs are manufactured by GTRlighting and I have no way to verify their claims or know if these bulbs will be safe for the housing.

The only drawback to both these options is the cost. I'm not sure whether I can justify the sums involved going with the LED option when you can buy a HID conversion kit (ballasts and bulbs) for 1/2 the cost?

Your thoughts?

The commercial for the Phillips LED fog lights that don't require projector lenses:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=foO-Mh9BHx8'>https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=foO-Mh9BHx8

Phillips LED fogs seems like a good deal. They may be costly but in long term it would be beneficial IMO. HIDs are cheaper but most of them don't even have a guarantee.

LEDs are good for the housing also due to less heat, good for the battery as well.

Anyway how much is it? Now I feel like I should buy a set of those :D

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Phillips LED fogs seems like a good deal. They may be costly but in long term it would be beneficial IMO. HIDs are cheaper but most of them don't even have a guarantee. LEDs are good for the housing also due to less heat, good for the battery as well. Anyway how much is it? Now I feel like I should buy a set of those :D

An eye-watering $159 a pair off amazon or the vendor I linked above but you should google around, you'd probably find a better deal -that price seems high :(

But I agree with you it seems the safest / most dependable option as it is a trusted brand with a 3 yr warranty (from Phillips, so I guess the warranty would be global?). Just gotta get my head around that price though... how much did you pay for your HID kit ?

Edited by Kavvz
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And how come you want to revert back to halogens for the fog lights after going with HID lights? Won't that mean you'd have less light output? If you're not happy with the current 3rd party bulbs why not just buy 5000k or 4500k (or even 3000k golden yellow) HID bulbs from Phillips when the current bulbs give up? Won't that option be compatible with your existing HID ballasts and serve to give you better light output (over halogen bulbs?)

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Â

An eye-watering $159 a pair http://www.amazon.com/Philips-X-tremeVision-LED-Fog-Lamp/dp/B00KTZB0EQ]off amazon [/url]or http://www.xenondepot.com/h11-h8-h16-philips-Ultinon-LED-Bulb-p/12834unix2-h11.htm?CartID=1]the vendor I linked above[/url] but you should google around, you'd probably find a better deal -that price seems high :(

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But I agree with you it seems the safest / most dependable option as it is a trusted brand with a 3 yr warranty (from Phillips, so I guess the warranty would be global?). Just gotta get my head around that price though... how much did you pay for your HID kit ?Â

In 2011 it was 11k. I recently checked the prices out of curiosity and it's more or less the same.
And how come you want to revert back to halogens for the fog lights after going with HID lights? Won't that mean you'd have less light output? If you're not happy with the current 3rd party bulbs why not just buy 5000k or 4500k (or even 3000k golden yellow) HID bulbs from Phillips when the current bulbs give up? Won't that option be compatible with your existing HID ballasts and serve to give you better light output (over halogen bulbs?)
Machan the problem is though HIDs in reflector housing give out more light, it is totally wasted because it spreads here and there not focusing on the road. So its not efficient.

And I hardly notice any reduction in visibility when I drive at night with fog lights off because my low beam HID projectors provide enough light.

I usually travel to Bandarawela and Nuwara Eliya because one is my home town and other is where my sister lives. Most of the time it's rainy and misty. During rain at night these HIDs are hopeless ,the roads almost appear black. And not helpful with the fog or mist. That's why I thought of going back to halogen fog bulbs or osram fog breakers. At least the fog lights would be worthy of their name :D

Edited by sathyajithj99
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In 2011 it was 11k. I recently checked the prices out of curiosity and it's more or less the same.

Machan the problem is though HIDs in reflector housing give out more light, it is totally wasted because it spreads here and there not focusing on the road. So its not efficient.

And I hardly notice any reduction in visibility when I drive at night with fog lights off because my low beam HID projectors provide enough light.

I usually travel to Bandarawela and Nuwara Eliya because one is my home town and other is where my sister lives. Most of the time it's rainy and misty. During rain at night these HIDs are hopeless ,the roads almost appear black. And not helpful with the fog or mist. That's why I thought of going back to halogen fog bulbs or osram fog breakers. At least the fog lights would be worthy of their name :D

Ah! I forgot you didn't get a projector lens housing for the fog-lights! Righto, I see why you would want to switch back. An alternative option would be buy projector lens housings off eBay, but the drawback there is that all the ones I found seemed to be Chinese made units designed for show, rather than effective use.

On another note: I have fond memories of the Bandarawela area as well and yes, you would certainly benefit from working fog-lights up there for sure!

Edited by Kavvz
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I was planning to fix LEDs too.

I stayed away cuz of two reasons

1. For some reason LED light doesn't travel as far as halogen/HID. Maybe this is cuz of the housing. ( Google LED vs Halogen, you'll come across couple of threads from various forums)

2. Most of them seem to be cheap Chinese ones and didn't at least look like they would last long either.

However Toyota seems to be having LED optional fog lights in their hybrid models.

As sathyajith mentioned high lumens bulbs that send light beam up coconut trees or towards houses on the road side aren't really any use if they don't focus the light on the road

Bdw Kavvz don't those sellers you have mentioned deal within US only?

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I was planning to fix LEDs too.

I stayed away cuz of two reasons

1. For some reason LED light doesn't travel as far as halogen/HID. Maybe this is cuz of the housing. ( Google LED vs Halogen, you'll come across couple of threads from various forums)

2. Most of them seem to be cheap Chinese ones and didn't at least look like they would last long either.

However Toyota seems to be having LED optional fog lights in their hybrid models.

As sathyajith mentioned high lumens bulbs that send light beam up coconut trees or towards houses on the road side aren't really any use if they don't focus the light on the road

Bdw Kavvz don't those sellers you have mentioned deal within US only?

The commercial for the Phillips LED's was based out of Australia so I guess they do sell them there too. But yes the vendors I was looking at seem to be N.America based, but I haven't looked further. I'm sure there are other vendors out there for this product.

(Just checked and the amazon.com option for the Phillips LED's will ship to SL for an additional $38.99 for a total price of almost $200 for a pair of LED's. Reviewing this I'm not sure whether its worth the price. It seems quite mad to spend so much on a pair of bulbs.)

What cars come with optional LED fogs? The Prius, Aqua etc? I wonder whether it would be cheaper to source one of those OEM replacements?

Edited by Kavvz
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The commercial for the Phillips LED's was based out of Australia so I guess they do sell them there too. But yes the vendors I was looking at seem to be N.America based, but I haven't looked further. I'm sure there are other vendors out there for this product.

(Just checked and the amazon.com option for the Phillips LED's will ship to SL for an additional $38.99 for a total price of almost $200 for a pair of LED's. Reviewing this I'm not sure whether its worth the price. It seems quite mad to spend so much on a pair of bulbs.)

What cars come with optional LED fogs? The Prius, Aqua etc? I wonder whether it would be cheaper to source one of those OEM replacements?

Are you planning to modify the housing as well to fix LED?

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Are you planning to modify the housing as well to fix LED?

It depends on the LED bulbs I guess. Like you I couldn't find any LED's other than the ones from Phillips that seemed functional, and for the Phillips LED's you don't need to change the housing as they are designed to be used in a regular fog lights; instead of halogens.

See the commercial for clarification. I like everything about these except for the price. For the price of these LED's I could buy 14x pairs of H9's instead!

Edited by Kavvz
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It depends on the LED bulbs I guess. Like you I couldn't find any LED's other than the ones from Phillips that seemed functional, and for the Phillips LED's you don't need to change the housing as they are designed to be used in a regular fog lights; instead of halogens.

See the commercial for clarification. I like everything about these except for the price. For the price of these LED's I could buy 14x pairs of H9's instead!

Genuine branded LEDs probably would be fine but I'm not sure about those generic ones in eBay

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Genuine branded LEDs probably would be fine but I'm not sure about those generic ones in eBay

I couldn't find any other large name brand automotive LED bulbs other than Phillips.

I searched for Cree LED lighting etc as they seem to be the market leader in LED lighting, but found that Cree doesn't really make automotive LED bulbs, they sell the diodes wholesale and third parties (like GTRlighting) manufacture the bulbs. It didn't seem dependable to me. However, GTRlighting does seem to have a large following and their claim of 3600 lumens for their Gen2 LED's which are a direct fit (but need projector lenses) is pretty amazing. But again there's the question of dependability and price as it an unfamiliar brand.

Do you know of any other brands I could check out?

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The commercial for the Phillips LED's was based out of Australia so I guess they do sell them there too. But yes the vendors I was looking at seem to be N.America based, but I haven't looked further. I'm sure there are other vendors out there for this product.

(Just checked and the amazon.com option for the Phillips LED's will ship to SL for an additional $38.99 for a total price of almost $200 for a pair of LED's. Reviewing this I'm not sure whether its worth the price. It seems quite mad to spend so much on a pair of bulbs.)

What cars come with optional LED fogs? The Prius, Aqua etc? I wonder whether it would be cheaper to source one of those OEM replacements?

I heard LED fog light set for Axio Hybrid is around 60k SLR. No idea about the price of a seperate bulb.

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I heard LED fog light set for Axio Hybrid is around 60k SLR. No idea about the price of a seperate bulb.

For real? Wow! And I thought the $29k SLR for a pair of the phillips LED bulbs was expensive, that looks like a bargain now! I guess the high price is because these items are essentially a one time purchase due to the projected life span etc and this is the only way that manufacturers can break even.

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That's it? What about those ones in eBay with crazy lumens figures like 4000 lumens, probably those are fake then.

Check this out: Look at this on eBay http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/391443396090

Its not really made by Phillips. Just like the Cree bulbs this is an instance of a 3rd party using Phillips diodes and manufacturing (generic) bulbs. The bulbs may live up to the stated claims but I am a bit skeptical that it would...

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Its not really made by Phillips. Just like the Cree bulbs this is an instance of a 3rd party using Phillips diodes and manufacturing (generic) bulbs. The bulbs may live up to the stated claims but I am a bit skeptical that it would...

Those power figures are fake too eh?

Check this out, interesting comparison:

  • Stock H11 Halogen headlights
  • XenonDepot HID Philips 4300K Xtreme kit
  • XenonDepot HID Philips 5000K Xtreme kit
  • XenonDepot H11 LED Headlight kit

YvRRLGD.jpg

ovqeaBq.jpg

Edited by Magnum
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Those power figures are fake too eh?

Check this out, interesting comparison:

  • Stock H11 Halogen headlights
  • XenonDepot HID Philips 4300K Xtreme kit
  • XenonDepot HID Philips 5000K Xtreme kit
  • XenonDepot H11 LED Headlight kit

YvRRLGD.jpg

ovqeaBq.jpg

Yeah probably totally fake.

Nice comparison: I think I like the 4300k HID's the best...

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Agree. 4300k seems to have a decent colour and light output. By the way I was meaning to ask, what is your car Kavvz?

The lights are for a Nissan Teana- Good car, shitty lights.

I found direct fit LED fog-lights with projector lenses etc but again the price is just nuts. I think the way to do things is to just leave the retrofit H9 fogs in place, retrofit the low beams with H9's as well, and then donate the rest of the money to the flood victims and call it a day.

The price of these LED bulbs is nuts- at least that's my take on it.

Edited by Kavvz
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LED bulbs seem to be available only in 6000k temp. Personally i don't like to go beyond 5000k unless it's for cosmetic purpose.

If you're okay with halogens check out nightbreaker. They output 1350lumens at about 3900k and was quite an improvement over stock bulbs for me.

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LED bulbs seem to be available only in 6000k temp. Personally i don't like to go beyond 5000k unless it's for cosmetic purpose.

If you're okay with halogens check out nightbreaker. They output 1350lumens at about 3900k and was quite an improvement over stock bulbs for me.

I can't seem to find them for the H9's. All I can get are the regular OSRAM H9's. Did you buy yours online? If so do you have a link I can trust?

Correction: I had GE Nighthawks on the previous car which is ideally what I'm trying to source, but any of the high output bulbs such as OSRAM nightbreakers are fine...

Edited by Kavvz
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