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Unless you have projectors, otherwise i say don't expect much.... The one i used was 50w... all it did was form a "white cloud" in front of me. It did not even have any hot spot or cutoff of any sort. The light just "evaporates" in the air.
Unless you have projectors, otherwise i say don't expect much.... The one i used was 50w... all it did was form a "white cloud" in front of me. It did not even have any hot spot or cutoff of any sort. The light just "evaporates" in the air.
Haven't received them yet, but will take a pic of one LED and one halogen H4 to compare when I install them
Results of two LED H4 bulbs from Banggood in a 2003 Pilot
Low Beam - Extremely good, the white light really illuminates the road in front and to the side.
High Beam - Fair, distance is not great but I need to to aim the headlight which I haven't done yet.
The only negative is the cooling fan despite being small is heard if the engine is off.
Other than that definitely worth $28 for a pair.
Some pics, I need to aim and polish the headlight lens (they're fairly frosted now).
Now please do the other drivers on the road a favor and take them out. You are creating unnecessary glare for other drivers on the road.
Not a single person so far has flashed their high beams so far the past couple nights.
I looked at them from the front, they are bright no doubt but not excessive glare by any means.
I was thinking the same when I did some research online from LED's in older reflector headlamps.
One factor is that headlamp designs are so different on modern vehicles that I suppose it's possible on some LED application on older H4 designs to be OK glare-wise and other designs to be excessive.
Results of two LED H4 bulbs from Banggood in a 2003 Pilot
Low Beam - Extremely good, the white light really illuminates the road in front and to the side.
High Beam - Fair, distance is not great but I need to to aim the headlight which I haven't done yet.
The only negative is the cooling fan despite being small is heard if the engine is off.
Other than that definitely worth $28 for a pair.
Some pics, I need to aim and polish the headlight lens (they're fairly frosted now).
Appreciate you sharing your mod. Can you post a picture of your headlights on to a flat vertical wall about 25 feet away from your car. It'll provide a better perspective regarding glare than light on the road for the low beams.
My guess is your high beams will be nothing more than a diffuse white wash instead of a well centrally focussed beam. I hope I am wrong.
Thanks.
Thx.... It does not seem that 03 Pilot has projectors in low beam,... so i am very confused about how different the result is compared to the ones i put in the Civic ($70)
Appreciate you sharing your mod. Can you post a picture of your headlights on to a flat vertical wall about 25 feet away from your car. It'll provide a better perspective regarding glare than light on the road for the low beams.
My guess is your high beams will be nothing more than a diffuse white wash instead of a well centrally focussed beam. I hope I am wrong.
Thanks.
I'll get another pic with a flat brick wall in the future but here's the view on garage doors.
Low Beam
High Beam
FWIW, I tried this headlight lens clearcoat solution from Duplicolor. I'll see how it does over time.
^ there is a major difference between your "lights on the wall" picture than the one i had in the Civic. Yours at least had some kind of line or cut off. Mine was just a mist of light even when i pointed it directly to a wall. "sigh"
I have tried all different kind of headlight restoration kit, the conclusion is unless you have to use sandpaper, otherwise it will only last up to 1 month or so.
^ there is a major difference between your "lights on the wall" picture than the one i had in the Civic. Yours at least had some kind of line or cut off. Mine was just a mist of light even when i pointed it directly to a wall. "sigh"
I have tried all different kind of headlight restoration kit, the conclusion is unless you have to use sandpaper, otherwise it will only last up to 1 month or so.
Do a retrofit! I did a few Civics and they were definitely better cutoffs
^ there is a major difference between your "lights on the wall" picture than the one i had in the Civic. Yours at least had some kind of line or cut off. Mine was just a mist of light even when i pointed it directly to a wall. "sigh"
I have tried all different kind of headlight restoration kit, the conclusion is unless you have to use sandpaper, otherwise it will only last up to 1 month or so.
I'll post some pics after six months with the DupliColor headlight clearcoat, it was a pretty good kits. I got tired of re-polishing the lens every year, so I'm hoping it lasts a few years.
Originally Posted by thoiboi
Do a retrofit! I did a few Civics and they were definitely better cutoffs
As for the LED H4 bulbs, there's a large amount of variability in the performance of LED bulbs in general but especially in low voltage vehicle bulbs.
The older LED's headlight and light bulbs that had a large number of lower power LED's are worthless.
The newer high power Chip-On-Board (COB) are much better in lumen per watt efficiency and have far better thermal management so I decided to try them out.
The H4 pic above only has three elements (they appear to be identical), two for the low-beam and one for the high beam (which is offset to mimic the traditional H4 filaments.
I turned them on outside the headlight housing and are incredibility bright even without looking at them.
I'll get another pic with a flat brick wall in the future but here's the view on garage doors. Low Beam High Beam FWIW, I tried this headlight lens clearcoat solution from Duplicolor. I'll see how it does over time. After the application of the kit above.
Thanks for the pictures. These look pretty acceptable to me. If at all there is glare it could be easily controlled by tilting the headlight downwards. I like the way the new LEDs are evolving. Great job.
I'll post some pics after six months with the DupliColor headlight clearcoat, it was a pretty good kits. I got tired of re-polishing the lens every year, so I'm hoping it lasts a few years.
As for the LED H4 bulbs, there's a large amount of variability in the performance of LED bulbs in general but especially in low voltage vehicle bulbs.
The older LED's headlight and light bulbs that had a large number of lower power LED's are worthless.
The newer high power Chip-On-Board (COB) are much better in lumen per watt efficiency and have far better thermal management so I decided to try them out.
The H4 pic above only has three elements (they appear to be identical), two for the low-beam and one for the high beam (which is offset to mimic the traditional H4 filaments.
I turned them on outside the headlight housing and are incredibility bright even without looking at them.
I agree that the LED technology is getting significantly better but that's not the bottleneck. The LED bulbs in a halogen reflector perform very poorly because it's not the proper application from an optics perspective. Same as HID's in a halogen reflector housing.
I agree that the LED technology is getting significantly better but that's not the bottleneck. The LED bulbs in a halogen reflector perform very poorly because it's not the proper application from an optics perspective. Same as HID's in a halogen reflector housing.
LED's by design and physics are cone type optical spreading and incandescent are kinda spherical (most car headlight filament bulbs are vector filament), that's why the better LED's are emulating the filament bulbs with their LED placement.
I won't say they perform poorly, on low beam the LED's I installed were superior to the halogen H4's. Some LED's that are not well designed do perform poorly. The H4 (or any filament replacement) LED's light pattern needs to act like a filament in their optical output to be effective.
Of course, LEDs came standard on my new Acura RDX and I was truly amazed how much easier night time driving is. Although I almost always offer the courtesy of dimming my high beams when I see a glimpse of oncoming traffic, I had just purchased the RDX and was not paying as much attention to oncoming traffic as I should have. Believe me - the oncoming traffic reminded me!!