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Hey everyone.
I finally replaced my cheap ebay LED fogs for a much nicer quality set.
Big thanks to Thmanx aka AFspec for the suggestion and holding onto these until I was ready to take them off his hands. This is the second set of LEDs he suggested for me and he is now 2 for 2 in suggesting LEDs that literally put to shame the LEDs I had before.
Philips 2700k Gold with an estimated 12year life. Hot damn. Better than the 10 year reverse light LEDs!
Before with the old amber fogs
On blocks just to get the low profile jack under the splitter.
Before more people ask and fuck up their radiator. This is the front jack point. Marked via big arrow. ::cough::Justin::cough::
Side pinch welds work to hold the car up. Stay safe. Use jack stands to hold the car up NOT the jack itself. Let the jack hold some weight just in case but rely on the stands not the jack.
You can see screw that needs to be loosened through at hole. Just one under the car.
Use the corner to pop open the fog bezel the easiest. Use a plastic tool if you have one or just very very very careful with a metal tool.
Pull from the corner.
Two screws to take the fog housing out of the bumper.
Housing comes out easy. Twist the socket my pointer finger is on. It twists counter clock wise so like Beyonce says. To the left to the left.
Old shitty LEDs unplugged from the socket.
The 3 prongs is what hold the LED in. It'll only fit in with the LED slightly crocked then you twist to lock it right side up.
Some lighting set ups will have resistors. Thats what that black box is connected to the light. Hook it up just like the old light was.
Apologies. Some of these were taken out of order because I didnt take any shots of taking the lights off... hence why some are in my garage while some are while I was parked at the curb.
New output. Cut off is amazing.
Album can be found here. Going to try and collect all the DIYs I make on imgur so they can be in their own albums. DIY: ILX G1 Foglight Swap
Well sadly I didnt go from stock to these. I went from stock to some cheap white LEDs to cheap amber LEDs to these. lol
But I can say when I went from stock to the cheap LEDs I didnt notice a downgrade, though Im sure it was.
But going from the cheap LEDs to these are easily more than a 100% increase in output.
I can say the pattern alone is much wider than the stock fogs. Which is awesome. And I can say Thmanx, who would have a lot more info, said they do a great job over stock in his 2016 ILX.
Well sadly I didnt go from stock to these. I went from stock to some cheap white LEDs to cheap amber LEDs to these. lol
But I can say when I went from stock to the cheap LEDs I didnt notice a downgrade, though Im sure it was.
But going from the cheap LEDs to these are easily more than a 100% increase in output.
I can say the pattern alone is much wider than the stock fogs. Which is awesome. And I can say Thmanx, who would have a lot more info, said they do a great job over stock in his 2016 ILX.
Thanks for the info! I am contemplating between these or Xenondepots. Apparently both use the same Luxeon Diodes, however XD's have a higher lumen output (not sure how accurate this is). Might just grab the Philips as i am leaning towards the 3000 kelvin look.
...I am contemplating between these or Xenondepots. Apparently both use the same Luxeon Diodes, however XD's have a higher lumen output (not sure how accurate this is). Might just grab the Philips as i am leaning towards the 3000 kelvin look...
Well heres my 2c on the Xenon Depo style bulbs (aka these from cn360 the main manufacture/trading company behind most of these 'better-ish' designs)
Now I'm not docking CN360, they do great stuff compared to most believe me, however these style of bulbs (from ~early 2015) don't quite cut it... and there are some lies behind them...
For starters...
that 2500lm per bulb number... garbage.
The LEDs on the XenonDepo/cn360's are Philips MZ's (a 4 pot version of their Z)
The chips they use are Philips MZ 5700K/70CRI chips that produces ~950lm each when running at 700ma @ 12V.
That means in 'theory' each chip can do 950lm w/ 8.4W of power.
--
According to the manufacture, these bulbs are NOT 25W, but closer to 20W (12V*1.6A)=19.2W
Not even accounting for efficiency losses in drivers and such, just doing a straight division of the bulbs total ACTUAl wattage (since there are two MZs per bulb) means each MZ led side should get near 9.6W...
Not enough to raise the lm output from 950 to 1250 per MZ set (to get the magic 2500lm number)...
-------
For comparison, the Genuine Philips H11 LED bulbs use a narrow strip of Philips Z LEDs (3 per side, 6 per bulb). That bulb runs near 9.4W per bulb if I remember from my bench tester. The White Philips H11 LEDs are advertises as "2400lm!" but if you read the packing closely, you'll see thats a total number (2x1200lm). And there is a 2nd asterisk saying its 'equal' to a 1200lm halogen, actual lm output per bulb is 700lm.
Now before you start calling foul on Philips for false advertising, surprisingly... they arnt.
There is a difference between total lms from a chip, and actual lux output on the road. Having 5000lms shining everywhere at once means nothing is actuating going out to the road, and conversely, you can have a very low lm bulb -thats very focused to have high lux output on the road- and can appear very bright.
So heres what Philips figured out. They realized with their Z line of LEDs, they could get a very bright and very focused spot of light that is perfectly inline to where a halogen bulbs glowing filament would be. Think of it as the opposite effect of HID glare, since the LEDs are smaller and more focused then the halogen coil, glare is actually LESS then a halogen, but output on the road/lux can be improved.
For LED's to really work, you not only have to match the proper bulb height, but also the actual size of the original glowing element. Having a bulb out of alignment will cause un-focused light, and having a light source thats larger then a halogen will cause light bleed and glare.
With that said, Here is a real comparison. The Photos Dont Lie
Tri-Podded T4i, locked exposure with proper locked white balance and such.
3 examples,
Left are the Genuine Philips H11 bulbs, Right are my original Osram H11 Halogens...
And holy cow, you can tell the Philips H11's truly are just as bright if not a little brighter then the H11's they replace, and are more focused.
Less glare, more focused light, instant on, solid-state reliable, hell the beam pattern is even wider... Car was parked folks, I just swapped bulbs in
w/ 'only' 700lm per bulb.... For an LED bulb to actually surpass the halogen they are designed to replace, is very-very hard to do, especially with NO compromises...
Now you may be asking, WTF is in the middle?
That were this...
These I call the 'Ultra MZs' and are the current 2015-16 style of bulb I've been seeing from china a few months ago and are now making there way on eBay listings and amazon sellers. I nabbed a set last year for testing. This is an example of the cat & mouse between OEMs and China variations. Over-seas production houses have tried to take the designs Philips pioneered, and learn from it to make a better bulb... kind-of
These claim 55W per bulb, and I believe them, they actually pull the current to match. Have active cooling, 4 MZs per bulb etc.... They are literally brighter then a H11 HID capsule no joke. BUT you see the compromise you get for that larger MZ sized light surface compared to the narrow strip of Zs. The "fatter' MZs produced a thicker fog beam output, instead of a near flat shelf of light. Thats the difference proper small LED size & focus can do. Its not just about getting the bulb height and focus right, its about getting the light source small and focused too...
So sure the SuperMZs are brighter, but it has more glare then the Genuine Philips do (perhaps less glare then HIDs... but meh)
I loved the 55W UltraMZ to death... until I ran into a puddle one really raining day, caught water in a plug some place, and one side began to go dim...
Maybe I had a bad set, but I was over it... They were bright as FUCK though seriously... these sites claim like 5400lms per bulb... like wtf? OEM D2S HIDs do ~3100-3300...
There have however been -newer- options on the market. Some are almost direct copy of Philips designs with modified heat syncs or other little things, others are complete re-designs with improving technology. For example CN360 released a 2016 edition bulb utilizing 4 Z chips per side (8 per bulb), no fans, and higher wattage then the Genuine Philips H11s are. Not to mention they are available in every possible Fog/Low/High beam size out there...
Do you have pics of the cheap ebay amber leds versus the new phillips. I dont see spending $150 for foglights. Whats a reasonable amber led thats way better than the stock white halogen. Thanks
Do you have pics of the cheap ebay amber leds versus the new phillips. I dont see spending $150 for foglights. Whats a reasonable amber led thats way better than the stock white halogen. Thanks
I do not have pics of the cheaper ones. They pretty much barely lit up the road but looked pretty in the housing. IMO for what you get $150 is more than reasonable. That's just me. Can't really help finding a cheaper set sorry.
Looking to swap out my fog lights for more of an amber/yellow color. What do you guys recommend?
Also, is the Phillips bulbs just plug and play? From your images it looks like it is.
Best,
P.
I highly suggest the exact bulbs I bought. They are indeed pug n play and should come with a warranty if bought from phillips.
If you want the housing/cover to be amber even when the lights are off like this
then you will want the Lamin-X amber foglight covers. Those alone will make your OE foglights appear amber. They will slightly under preform since they have a film over them but that is the cheapest way to get amber looking fogs.
I highly suggest the exact bulbs I bought. They are indeed pug n play and should come with a warranty if bought from phillips.
If you want the housing/cover to be amber even when the lights are off like this
then you will want the Lamin-X amber foglight covers. Those alone will make your OE foglights appear amber. They will slightly under preform since they have a film over them but that is the cheapest way to get amber looking fogs.
04-17-2016, 09:00 PM
I'm interested
