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First pics are the sealed connection wire, wire that taps the HID harness, and bulb.
HID with ballast underneath
Removed the three screws holding the ballast, disconnected the standard connector, and removed HID bulb / socket from housing
Re-attached ballast (to avoid moisture) and inserted the LED with zero modifications
Had 2 concerns in this project. First was the dust cap clearance but luckily, goes on unobstructed. Second concern is towards the end
To avoid drilling into the housing itself, I dremeled a hole into dust cap in the area left of LED. Guessing every WARNING label is placed the same on every cap so right above it
Double-sided taped the MICRO box running from the LED and placed it on flat area right beneath the projector housing
Kinda defeats the purpose of 100% sealing the housing, but cut two slits into caps so the LED fans have somewhere to exhaust air. Can cover slits if they become problematic
Now, the second concern which also ended up being a non-issue. Removing the HIDs does NOT throw an alert on the cluster so cut off that HID pigtail and splice away
I could have spent more time troubleshooting the HIDs but went this route because I was TICKED OFF by the "biased" advice being given to people who just wanted an alternative means of wanting to see at night but were only met with "you cooooould go that route...................BUT OUR BI-XENON HIDS ARE SOME OF THE BEST" blah blah blah. My OEM HIDs went out, replaced them, nothing but trouble. Installed LEDs, no more trouble. Simple as that. If you're familiar with removing the bumper / headlight and are not intimidated by cutting wires on your car, difficulty rates at NOVICE. I'm EXTREMELY happy because I have fully functioning lights again. I'll post some light pics tonight. Again, I'm in no way a HID Aficionado, just somebody who drives at night. HID?? LED?? I honestly can't tell the difference. What they DON'T look like is Halogen so in my book, i'm winning.
Every car I've owned, LEDs went into them in some form or fashion. Just converted the Halogens on my Chevy Silverado to LED this summer and liked the quality. So I didn't up and decide to "experiment" with LEDs on the TL. I already knew what to expect. Hey, if you're true to the HID game, that's cool. I honestly didn't write this up for you, BUUUT since you can't stop people from giving their opinions on the Internet, so be it. This thread is in response to the handful of threads started by our MEMBERS who came seeking help but were met with Herd Mentality. For anyone who (A) has problems with their HID system or (B) just like LEDs (which for me is both) and want to make the change but need a little confidence in doing so.
thank you for the write up! How is the cut off with the new LED bulbs? DO you notice more brightness at night when driving? Can you snap a few pics with the lights on, with the car on the street/parking lot?
I'm also curious about how it looks from other drivers perspective.
I faced the decision of changing headlights bulbs 2 years ago. One of solution was going into leds. Made a lot of research and test I've found showed led light in our headlights dispersed more than in case of hid bulbs, which can blind other drivers and lower the visibility.
thank you for the write up! How is the cut off with the new LED bulbs? DO you notice more brightness at night when driving? Can you snap a few pics with the lights on, with the car on the street/parking lot?
I agree with Csmeance!
OP can you also take a pic from 25ft back from a wall or garage door to see the cutoff?
thank you for the write up! How is the cut off with the new LED bulbs? DO you notice more brightness at night when driving? Can you snap a few pics with the lights on, with the car on the street/parking lot?
One of the two, with such a small radiator, the headlights shine almost the same as the HID, but they will burn out in 1-2 years, or the headlights shine much weaker than the HID and burn out in 5 years. I really liked the holes in the back cover, they are great for helping water to get inside and cool the radiator of the bulbs.
One of the two, with such a small radiator, the headlights shine almost the same as the HID, but they will burn out in 1-2 years, or the headlights shine much weaker than the HID and burn out in 5 years. I really liked the holes in the back cover, they are great for helping water to get inside and cool the radiator of the bulbs.
There is a guy online I believe from ukraine on youtube who does testing on bulbs and has shown some amazing results with LED's (both failure and survival). With technology improving all the time it's never a bad idea to discount something. I'm interested in seeing the results!
You are right about the water! OP, you might want to put a mesh screen or something to prevent water/bugs from getting in.
There is a guy online I believe from ukraine on youtube who does testing on bulbs and has shown some amazing results with LED's (both failure and survival). With technology improving all the time it's never a bad idea to discount something. I'm interested in seeing the results!
You are right about the water! OP, you might want to put a mesh screen or something to prevent water/bugs from getting in.
He is not Ukrainian, he is Romanian, unfortunately he did not compare D2S xenon with LED, perhaps he does not want to disappoint LED owners. I watch this channel, but unfortunately here Russian speaks Russian. https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCVO...YXw8Thg/videos
He is not Ukrainian, he is Romanian, unfortunately he did not compare D2S xenon with LED, perhaps he does not want to disappoint LED owners. I watch this channel, but unfortunately here Russian speaks Russian. https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCVO...YXw8Thg/videos
My mistake! My geography isn't the best these days
There were a few LED's that did have a lot of lux in a projector vs the HID's but he has not put them head to head as you said. Thank you for the link! Time to use some subtitles to learn!
My mistake! My geography isn't the best these days
There were a few LED's that did have a lot of lux in a projector vs the HID's but he has not put them head to head as you said. Thank you for the link! Time to use some subtitles to learn!
I think it doesn't really matter where he came from, I myself was born in Ukraine, my nationality is Russian, but I live in the best country in the world, I live in the USA I would gladly switch to LED, but with modern realities I don't see the point in this, maybe in the future they will invent LED which will not degrade due to overheating and will shine brighter than HID.
I could have spent more time troubleshooting the HIDs but went this route because I was TICKED OFF by the "biased" advice being given to people who just wanted an alternative means of wanting to see at night but were only met with "you cooooould go that route...................BUT OUR BI-XENON HIDS ARE SOME OF THE BEST" blah blah blah. My OEM HIDs went out, replaced them, nothing but trouble. Installed LEDs, no more trouble. Simple as that. If you're familiar with removing the bumper / headlight and are not intimidated by cutting wires on your car, difficulty rates at NOVICE. I'm EXTREMELY happy because I have fully functioning lights again. I'll post some light pics tonight. Again, I'm in no way a HID Aficionado, just somebody who drives at night. HID?? LED?? I honestly can't tell the difference. What they DON'T look like is Halogen so in my book, i'm winning.
For the record, and I quote...
Originally Posted by ciscopath
The general consensus will likely be GROUND ISSUE but hear me out. One of the HID bulbs went out so I installed a new set. Mind you, it was a $15 set off eBay. When I crank up, lights work perfectly as long as the car remains still. Soon as I start moving and hit the slightest bump, one or both of the lights start flickering similar to when you're trying to crank on a dead battery. After about 5 minutes, the lights will decide whether they want to come on FULL or go completely out. When they go out, I turn them off at the stalk switch, turn them back on, and the process begins again. When they go FULL under 5 minutes, good chance that another bump sends them back into flicker. If I make it to FULL for 5 mins, zero problems. To me, I can't see where a ground issue would come into play because all I did was pop out the old bulbs and put in new ones. Did I just go too cheap on the bulbs or does this still sound like something electrical gone awry.
You went from POS $15 HIDs off eBay to a $200 set of LEDs from VLEDs.. You could have just as easily spent money on a quality set of bulbs, chose not to and now think LEDs in a HID housing are god's gift to earth.. LEDs will get better over time but until the fine-tune the optics of the bulbs to best match their HID counterparts to get the best performance within an HID projector housing, HID will still be superior for our car's application.
This is just the modern day's version of putting HID's in a halogen reflector housing.
LED's in a retrofit situation are not even close to the quality of the OEM HID setup, but kids will be kids.
Not to mention that the original TL projector setup from 04 is still recognized as one of the best headlights ever installed to this day.
Why are you sticking to a person? This is compulsion. He does not want to show you pictures, especially since pictures do not show how many lumens differents.
Why are you sticking to a person? This is compulsion. He does not want to show you pictures, especially since pictures do not show how many lumens differents.
Because we want to see his cutoff and how much he's blinding oncoming traffic. Could not care less about the lumens, it's not a contest.
put a lux meter on the wall and take a pic of it from 25 feet if you really wanted to show lumens. but like @Superunknown said, we couldn't care less about luminosity.. OP stated that LEDs are a superior product/apt replacement to our HIDs so we're just asking him to show his work and prove his case.
You went from POS $15 HIDs off eBay to a $200 set of LEDs from VLEDs.. You could have just as easily spent money on a quality set of bulbs, chose not to and now think LEDs in a HID housing are god's gift to earth.. LEDs will get better over time but until the fine-tune the optics of the bulbs to best match their HID counterparts to get the best performance within an HID projector housing, HID will still be superior for our car's application.
This is just the modern day's version of putting HID's in a halogen reflector housing.
/steps off my "biased" soapbox
Agreed. Bought the Phillips bulbs myself recently and while they were $100 for 2 bulbs, they are fantastic as far as visibility and quality are concerned. Never understood the whole LED over HID preference, but to each their own lol
Come on now...with the overly attack'ish attitude being presented here, why would the OP come back with pictures? I get it...I fall in the "retrofits suck" camp...but....after years reading posts on here with people spending several hundred chasing HID gremlins, I get the draw of LED kits in this specific use case. He was not looking for improvements, expecting the LED to be the greatest thing ever. He had failed HID setups, didn't want to buy various components, and decided to swap in LED. Fair enough.
Now...I'm pretty sure it will be no where near the quality of a proper refreshed HID setup....but it may have been simpler, quicker, and possibly cheaper this time around. LED has come a long way....but still don't think any retrofit no matter what technology will work out well. I never have no matter what car or what technology was being replaced. I am would mostly be worried about the glare. The picture that was posted "appears" to have quite a bit of glare. But it isn't always super obvious in a picture how much glare there really is. But anytime the camera is above the direct horizontal from the light and you get a reflection, I generally assume glare. I know the driving/fog light HID swaps always had extreme glare and it was obvious in pictures.
I would gladly switch to LED, but with modern realities I don't see the point in this, maybe in the future they will invent LED which will not degrade due to overheating and will shine brighter than HID.
