Carmodifier

I know what you are thinking, "Not another damn LED thread"! However, I was unable to locate a thread that had a poll stating the best company to buy LEDs from. I have experience with buying LEDs from Advanced Automotive Concepts (AAC) and Autolumination. I am replacing my parking lights and front turn signals with cool white LEDs. I originally bought a set of the Oracle 1157 bulbs with 20 LEDs from AAC, but these bulbs were too big to fit in the housing's openings I did an interior LED swap in my Jeep (winter vehicle) and bought all the LEDs from Autolumination. I am not happy with their LEDs' brightness. The factory halogens are brighter than the LEDs I obviously want my exterior LEDs to be as bright as possible. That's the main reason why I want my 1157 bulbs to contain as many LEDs and chips as possible.

Where did you guys buy your 1157 LED bulbs and how many LEDs did they have? In your opinion, what's the best company to buy LEDs from? Thanks in advance for your help!

fuzzy02CLS

iTrader: (2)

Moving to cartalk

silver3.5

Are we talking about the experience or the quality of the LED bulbs?

csmeance

find a place that uses CREE led's. They are the best in the industry. ijdmtoy uses them for some of their products and there was a coupon floating around in the 3G TL section a while back.

05TLdcc

no whiskers option? you fail

bobmugen

I bought from superbrightleds before never had a problem. But I only bought from them because they had amber bulbs in stock

Carmodifier

Both. If you comment, please rate both the quality of the LED bulbs and the experience. Thanks!
Is this the company you are referring to: http://www.cree.com/ ? Does this iJDMTOY 1157 LED bulb utilize CREE LEDs: http://store.ijdmtoy.com/40-SMD-S25-...ku35_sku36.htm ?
What is a whiskers option? When I Google "whiskers LED", the only result I get is a LED license plate frame...

05TLdcc

whatever you do, don't venture to ramblings and ask questions.

csmeance

Yes, it says it right in the description for the bulb on Ijdmtoy that it uses CREE LED's. CREE is one of the leading manufacturers of LED components. They are expensive but well worth the price!

Carmodifier

I don't know how I missed that; I looked right at it! Why do you say CREE LED's are the best in the industry?

I am considering the following four 1157 LED bulbs:
1) iJDMTOY Error Free No Resistor Required 18W 20-SMD LED Bulb (It states the bulb is for Audi, BMW, or Mercedes... I wonder if it is error free and no resistor required for Acura?): http://tiny.cc/sdg6z
2) iJDMTOY Super Bright Xenon White 40-SMD LED Bulb: http://tiny.cc/zknpj
3) V-LEDs Platinum 6K White 7W High Power 20 LED Bulb: http://tiny.cc/k5je6
4) V-LEDs White M-SMT 27 LED Bulb: http://tiny.cc/98kpc

Which one do you guys think I should buy?

Carmodifier

I am going to take your advice and buy a pair of JDM Super Bright Xenon White 40-SMD S25 1157 LED Bulbs (http://store.ijdmtoy.com/ProductDeta...FSKU35%5FSKU36). Where would you recommend buying 9005 LED bulbs that utilize the CREE LED's? I want to buy a pair for my high beam headlamps. I didn't see any listed on iJDMTOY.com. However, I might have overlooked it

MarbleGT

LEDs in your high beams?

Completely pointless. Theres no way they will be bright enough to do anything.

Carmodifier

I'm not looking for good output on the road. I am looking for something that is bright and will get peoples' attention when I need to. I already have HID's in my low beam headlamps. If I were looking for good road illumination, what would be brighter than my low beam HID's?

csmeance

CREE is one of the more advanced LED companies and pushed out some really revolutionary LED's like obtaining more than 100 Lumens per watt LED's and such. Many OEM suppliers use CREE components and so do other companies for professional lighting.

swoosh

iTrader: (5)

SuperbrightLED's....I got some LED's from them 4 years back and all of them work....Autolumination sucks....it took me 4 switchbacks and still the product fails....i think they dont test before shipping out....

MarbleGT

The LEDs in your high beams wont be brighter than a HID in your low beams.

In the day time you can forget it, and at night im willing to bet the LED would be overshadowed by the HID. The biggest part of why halogens/HIDs are so bright, is all the light reflected inside the housing. With LEDs, you simply dont get that.

In my CL-S, I had Silverstars that I bought from Autozone, and they were very bright compared to the stock HIDs. In my MX5, I've got 2500k yellow bulbs and they too are incredibly bright. Stick with halogen. HIDs dont fare well with on/off transitions and take a while to warm up to optimum brightness.

LEDs are just a bad idea for high beams. You'd need at least 3-5 watt LEDs to create the light output you need, and at that maybe 15-20 of them...you aren't going to find that anywhere.

fsttyms1

Stick with your stock highbeams. They will be brighter! You want something brighter do a Bi-xenon projector conversion!

Carmodifier

You sold me on CREE Do you know where to purchase CREE 9005 LED bulbs?
I agree with ya! I bought interior LED's for my Jeep from Autolumination. I am not happy with their light output; they are pretty dim
I don't expect the LED's in my high beams to out power the HID's in my low beams. I just wanted to use them as a "warning signal" and not for projection on the road. I also would not use HID's in my high beams since like you said it is not good for the bulbs being turned on and off; plus it takes awhile for them to heat up.

I do agree that halogens would be brighter/illuminate the road better than LED's. I am getting new HID bulbs for my low beams. I am thinking about going with KAIXEN D2C - 8500K (Crystal Blue); I want a nice blue tint, but not a pure blue "ricer" look. If I go with halogens in my high beams, I would like their color to compliment my low beams. What halogens would you recommend?
That would be awesome, but I am done dishing out money modifying my headlamps

mrmako

if you want a slight blue tint with HID's, then you want your color temperature around 6000 - 6500K. Going higher will just be a blue color, and not real helpful.

edit: Here's a link that can help: http://www.delonixradar.com.au/hid-xenon/colour-chart.php

MarbleGT

If you we're behind me, and you we're flashing me with your LEDs right next to your HIDs, in a housing twice as big, I'd never see them. In order for people to see them, they need to be brighter than the HIDs.

8500K?

Thats really, really blue.

@ 6000k you are really limiting your HIDs output. I'd say go for Philips Ultinons, but they stopped making those years ago. They were the brightest 6000Ks on the market. Even then, seeing at night in the rain sucked. Getting the blue color with a reflector based housing is a lot more difficult than someone with a projector that can just mod the shield, or swap out the lenses. I've got a blue cutoff but my bulbs are right around 4100k.

I'd suggest Morimoto 6ks and Hoen Xenonmatch Plus.

Steven Bell

iTrader: (2)

^^^ +1

Carmodifier

Since I am using the Xenon White 40-SMD 1157 LED bulbs [http://store.ijdmtoy.com/ProductDeta...SKU36&CartID=1] as turn signal lights, do I need to add a pair of load resistors [http://store.ijdmtoy.com/50W-Load-Re...d_resistor.htm] to prevent hyper flashing or other malfunction problems?

Since my LED turn signals are xenon white, I would like my high beams to match their color. I think these Nitro Blue (6000K) Putco Pure High Performance Halogen Bulbs [http://www.putco.com/products.cfm?ac...5-8cce3c8e18ee] would compliment them very well. Do you guys have any other recommendations?

For anyone interested, I found this thread that compared various white/blue halogen bulbs using a light meter temp. test: http://www.clublexus.com/forums/ligh...p-results.html

I am not only looking for performance, but also looks. Like I said before, I want a nice blue tint but not a pure blue "ricer" look. I think 8,000K has just the right amount of blue I am looking for without sacrificing too much performance. At least I'm not going with 10,000K or 12,000K or some other higher Kelvin/pure color FYI: I never drive my CL in the snow and rarely drive in the rain; I use my Jeep for those conditions

Does anyone have experience with either the Philips Ultinons, Morimoto 6ks, or Hoen Xenonmatch Plus?

MarbleGT

Tons of people have experience with those.

Philips...well, Philips is the best. They no longer make Ultinons though. Their top of the line now is the 85122+. However, although its probably the brightest 35w light you can buy, its way to yellow for you. Its about a 4100k.

Morimoto is a very high quality bulb as well. I think you'd be super happy with it. Its super bright, with no yellow and a hint of that blue you are looking for. Plus, the bulb isn't crazy expensive. Hoen, like Philips, is probably one of the highest regarded halogen bulb companies. Although this is my opinion, do a quick google on them and you'll see that not only are the recommended by thousands.

Im seriously not trying to steer you in the wrong direction. I've wasted hundreds of dollars on lights and different colors, etc.

Here are 6000k + Hoen Xenonmatch.

...and, Jeep and Acura CL = I hate you. =)

Carmodifier

Since I am using the Xenon White 40-CREE SMD 1157 LED bulbs [http://store.ijdmtoy.com/ProductDeta...SKU36&CartID=1] as turn signal lights, do I need to add a pair of load resistors [http://store.ijdmtoy.com/50W-Load-Re...d_resistor.htm] to prevent hyper flashing or other malfunction problems?

You gotta look good year-round

MarbleGT

I'd go ahead and pick up the resistors just in case. They are easy to install, return them if you don't use them.

Carmodifier

The return shipping would cost more than the resistors themselves

MarbleGT

The odds are you will need them.