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Hey guys,
I'm new to the forum and looking to replace my DRL with LEDs. Did a lot of research and I am pretty familiar with my options at this point. I have narrowed it down to the VLEDS or Morimotos. From my research, found alot of happy VLED owners but I didn't really find any body talking about Morimotos as DRLs:
Price wise, VLED and Morimoto are both coming out to be the same. VLEDs would be with the bulbs +wiring harness. I contacted TRS and was told the morimoto's DRL did not need a wiring harness and simple plug & play w/ no issues of DRL light in-dash.
any input from all you veterans? any help would be much appreciated!
Why do you need a LED bulb that puts nearly 3000 lumens for your daytime running lights? Are you trying to blind the world?
Our HID xenon headlight bulbs put out a little over 3000 lumens and are used for night time driving to illuminate dark roads.. Your trying to put bulbs in your daytime running lights that are meant to be used for headlights. Why do you need it to be so bright?
I have 850 lumen VLED DRL bulbs (the ones listed at $60) and they are plenty bright. Anything over 1,000 lumens is excessive and not needed for DRLs.
Why do you need a LED bulb that puts nearly 3000 lumens for your daytime running lights? Are you trying to blind the world?
Our HID xenon headlight bulbs put out a little over 3000 lumens and are used for night time driving to illuminate dark roads.. Your trying to put bulbs in your daytime running lights that are meant to be used for headlights. Why do you need it to be so bright?
I have 850 lumen VLED DRL bulbs (the ones listed at $60) and they are plenty bright. Anything over 1,000 lumens is excessive and not needed for DRLs.
Why do you need a LED bulb that puts nearly 3000 lumens for your daytime running lights? Are you trying to blind the world?
Our HID xenon headlight bulbs put out a little over 3000 lumens and are used for night time driving to illuminate dark roads.. Your trying to put bulbs in your daytime running lights that are meant to be used for headlights. Why do you need it to be so bright?
I have 850 lumen VLED DRL bulbs (the ones listed at $60) and they are plenty bright. Anything over 1,000 lumens is excessive and not needed for DRLs.
People complain that those types of bulbs sometimes aren't bright enough and are not visible enough when in direct sunlight. That's why those "Frosty" style LEDs are all the hype right now. I'm personally still considering my options at this point. I know some people say those classic tower type bulbs are bright enough but a part of me likes the idea of having something clearly visible in broad daylight. I don't know, tough decision, would suck buying a pair of $50+ bulbs to end up with something not bright enough
how do the vleds perform on highbeams? Maybe that's where the TRS bulbs truly shine .. :no pun intended:
High beams? The 3rd gen TL headlights are bi-xenon projectors. There is no separate bulb for high beams. Yours Low beams also double as high beams.
Originally Posted by EddieOnAZ
People complain that those types of bulbs sometimes aren't bright enough and are not visible enough when in direct sunlight. That's why those "Frosty" style LEDs are all the hype right now. I'm personally still considering my options at this point. I know some people say those classic tower type bulbs are bright enough but a part of me likes the idea of having something clearly visible in broad daylight. I don't know, tough decision, would suck buying a pair of $50+ bulbs to end up with something not bright enough
"those classic tower type bulbs" actually are not bright enough. They are very dim and appear as a bunch of blue colored dots reflecting from the chrome reflector. You can buy them in white but they still look blue because the quality of LEDs used are poor (particularly ijdmtoy bulbs)
I actually think you have the bulbs mixed up. Pictured below is a "Tower LED bulb"
The ones sold by VLEDs are not considered "tower LED bulb style"
Trust me, they are plenty bright even during the day in broad daylight. You have 850 lumens of light shining directly at you through a glass projected lens. There is no way you can miss it. Those tower smd LED bulbs on the other hand lack brightness.
Last edited by vietxquangstah; 02-28-2015 at 07:33 PM.
High beams? The 3rd gen TL headlights are bi-xenon projectors. There is no separate bulb for high beams. Yours Low beams also double as high beams.
"those classic tower type bulbs" actually are not bright enough. They are very dim and appear as a bunch of blue colored dots reflecting from the chrome reflector. You can buy them in white but they still look blue because the quality of LEDs used are poor (particularly ijdmtoy bulbs)
I actually think you have the bulbs mixed up. Pictured below is a "Tower LED bulb"
The ones sold by VLEDs are not considered "tower LED bulb style"
Trust me, they are plenty bright even during the day in broad daylight. You have 850 lumens of light shining directly at you through a glass projected lens. There is no way you can miss it. Those tower smd LED bulbs on the other hand lack brightness.
Nice, you possibly just saved me a couple bucks. Do you have any pics of them on your car? If they're bright enough why not save money.
But they are closer to tower type bulbs than the morimotos or the bigger Vleds designs though.
High beams? The 3rd gen TL headlights are bi-xenon projectors. There is no separate bulb for high beams. Yours Low beams also double as high beams.
you are correct. I must have read something incorrectly somewhere. fifty bucks for a vled harness seems kinda steep. people have commented on the great quality tho. ijdmtoy sells two types of harness:
Very happy with my purchase thus far - bulbs are plenty bright in the daytime, but not overwhelmingly so, and ridiculously bright towards sundown. Installation was no problem and the quality of the harness is fine - Its not magnificent but then you don't need it to be. With some basic cable management and electrical tape, or even epoxy if you so desire, you will pretty much ensure the damn thing lasts an eternity.
Guitarplayer16 on here likewise runs the iJDMToy harness, he's the guy who inspired me to get one in my Canadian TL and he's had it for some time with no major issues
I should add that I do believe that GP moved on from iJDMToy bulbs to GT Lighting USA bulbs which according to him are even brighter.
Very happy with my purchase thus far - bulbs are plenty bright in the daytime, but not overwhelmingly so, and ridiculously bright towards sundown. Installation was no problem and the quality of the harness is fine - Its not magnificent but then you don't need it to be. With some basic cable management and electrical tape, or even epoxy if you so desire, you will pretty much ensure the damn thing lasts an eternity.
Guitarplayer16 on here likewise runs the iJDMToy harness, he's the guy who inspired me to get one in my Canadian TL and he's had it for some time with no major issues
I should add that I do believe that GP moved on from iJDMToy bulbs to GT Lighting USA bulbs which according to him are even brighter.
just checked out GT lighting USA, their bulbs are similar to TRS morimoto but their bulbs only seem to be available in 6000k. Hope GP can chime in on his new bulbs
After a lot of research and hearing that the ijdmtoy harness wasn't so great, I went with the v-leds shown above with their harness. Everything was high quality and installed without a hitch. They're plenty bright and are a bright white (not blue) color. No regrets.
Nice, you possibly just saved me a couple bucks. Do you have any pics of them on your car? If they're bright enough why not save money.
But they are closer to tower type bulbs than the morimotos or the bigger Vleds designs though.
I don't have any pictures of them on my car.
This image is a good comparison of the standard tower LED style bulbs vs the VLED/ijdmtoy version.
Notice how ugly and blue the tower SMD style bulbs appear. In DRL housings the blue dots are even more noticeable because of the chrome reflector in the headlight housings.
Originally Posted by abg2257
you are correct. I must have read something incorrectly somewhere. fifty bucks for a vled harness seems kinda steep. people have commented on the great quality tho. ijdmtoy sells two types of harness:
You need the R3 version which is a additional $7.99.
It totals nearly $30 with shipping in the end. They have a 15% sale going on right now so you might spend a little less than $30 shipped.
Just a warning, I had the ijdmtoy harness and it worked for maybe 2-3 months for me. It eventually started to give me problems. The DRLs wouldn't light up sometimes when I started the car. I had to physically smack the relay module and the lights would come on. I replaced the relay twice and it failed twice.
Ended up throwing it away and going with the VLEDs harness and it's been working just fine for a little under 2 years now.
i had tower LEDs first with my DRL kit, they were about 6k or so (came with JLC lightings harness), and then I switched to VLEDs when they came out with their DRL LED bulbs. they were so much better and provide a cleaner look (no "dots") and are brighter.
VLEDs 5k on left (6 leds), JLC lightings tower LED on right
one of my LEDs went out on the VLEDs, so they sent me a new pair under warranty. i asked them to upgrade to the 10 LED version that replaced the 6 LED one, and I also asked for 6k since I like that color a little more since it stands out. it may look a little green in this pic but they are not green at all, great white color
overall, definitely go with the VLEDs version. it's bright, clean, well dispersed, and they have great customer service. they'll send a new pair out if anything goes wrong within the first year. highly recommend!
The morimotos also come with a one year warranty. I don't know how well they honor it though.
These look plenty bright though. Are those the exact ones Vietxquangstah recommended from vleds? If they are I might just go with them. Plus I have a feeling their design is a little less prone to overheating in the long run.
The morimotos also come with a one year warranty. I don't know how well they honor it though.
These look plenty bright though. Are those the exact ones Vietxquangstah recommended from vleds? If they are I might just go with them. Plus I have a feeling their design is a little less prone to overheating in the long run.
The ones sockr has are the same ones I'm using.
As far as the warranty goes I had to use it twice and they replaced the bulb for me no problem.
My first bulb was going out 9 months in. I got it replaced under warranty.
My second bulb started having problems 11 months in. Also replaced under warranty.
Now I have another bulb with 4 dead LEDS but I have already used up the warranty for each bulb and can't get it replaced anymore.
I really like the vled ones but I've already had 3 bulbs fail within 2 years. When they start failing they slightly flicker or a few leds on the bulb burn out.
Wow, so reliability is sketchy? I have not heard bad things about the morimotos or the vleds equivalent. Do you still think your vleds are the better option? Finding a definitive solution seems to be rare when it comes to LEDs..
Wow, so reliability is sketchy? I have not heard bad things about the morimotos or the vleds equivalent. Do you still think your vleds are the better option? Finding a definitive solution seems to be rare when it comes to LEDs..
Those morimoto bulbs are too new to speak of reliability. They came out with those only 1 or 2 months ago.
Vled ones been around for about 2 years now.
3000 lumens for drl is too much. Plus it will just blind people during the day.
Those morimoto bulbs are too new to speak of reliability. They came out with those only 1 or 2 months ago.
Vled ones been around for about 2 years now.
3000 lumens for drl is too much. Plus it will just blind people during the day.
People haven't reported blinding others with the frosty LEDs as DRLs or fogs during the day so these mirimotos or big vleds should be fine in that regard.
Of course if you have them on at night in a reflector housing aimed high (such as our DRLs) then yeah glare might be crazy.
I'm not advocating for any of these products. All I'm saying is that from the perspective of a potential buyer, none of those bulbs look like a suitable solution.
The big vleds and the morimotos are expensive and might be too bright. The "cheaper" vleds sound like they aren't as reliable as their price suggests and I don't wanna mess with those bulbs every few months, going through the hassle of returning them or communicating with vleds for a warranty claim. A 60$ pair of bulbs should last the life of the car (something something LED 50,000 hours lifespan now give me your money sales pitch from these companies...)
Guitarplayer16 on here likewise runs the iJDMToy harness, he's the guy who inspired me to get one in my Canadian TL and he's had it for some time with no major issues
I should add that I do believe that GP moved on from iJDMToy bulbs to GT Lighting USA bulbs which according to him are even brighter.
Originally Posted by abg2257
just checked out GT lighting USA, their bulbs are similar to TRS morimoto but their bulbs only seem to be available in 6000k. Hope GP can chime in on his new bulbs
Bought my iJDMToy Option R3 harness exactly one year ago.
I've had ZERO problems with my harness (only thing is I had to flip the connectors for it them work, from what I heard - everyone has been doing this).
I electric taped every connection and relay. I also replaced the relay with one from the auto parts store ($3-$5).
I never got the bulbs from iJDMToy, I went straight to 35W bulbs from JLC which look similar to the VLED ones Quang posted above. Yes, they were very bright.
After they failed twice, I decided to go with GT-lighting USA bulbs after hearing about them from Frosty.
They're listed as 6k, but they are PURE white. The picture below shows it.
Here's a comparison.
The 35W bulbs were very bright, I wouldn't have upgraded if they failed.
Now just imagine how bright the GT-Lighting USA bulbs are
In these pictures you can see it hit the ground/ceiling.
NOTE: I edited the pictures like crazy changing colour temperature etc., so the bulb colour looks blue, but it's really not.
Last edited by guitarplayer16; 03-01-2015 at 11:30 AM.
^ you would think so but if you look at new Audis, one of the most comment issues they have is their LED DRLs failing like crazy. Almost 1 in 2 Audis I see on the road in Toronto have one or both of their DRLs out. And most of those cars are fairly new as well.
I found some pictures of my JLC 35W bulbs, as you can see, they're very bright.
I don't believe I have any pictures of my GT-Lighting bulbs during the day, but you can imagine how bright they are comparing to these.
You need the R3 version which is a additional $7.99.
It totals nearly $30 with shipping in the end. They have a 15% sale going on right now so you might spend a little less than $30 shipped.
Just a warning, I had the ijdmtoy harness and it worked for maybe 2-3 months for me. It eventually started to give me problems. The DRLs wouldn't light up sometimes when I started the car. I had to physically smack the relay module and the lights would come on. I replaced the relay twice and it failed twice.
Ended up throwing it away and going with the VLEDs harness and it's been working just fine for a little under 2 years now.
The ijdmtoy harness is a hit or miss.
haha i can only imagine your frustration with the ijdmtoy harness..
Originally Posted by vietxquangstah
Those morimoto bulbs are too new to speak of reliability. They came out with those only 1 or 2 months ago.
Vled ones been around for about 2 years now.
3000 lumens for drl is too much. Plus it will just blind people during the day.
the morimoto's have a 2 year warranty.
Originally Posted by guitarplayer16
Bought my iJDMToy Option R3 harness exactly one year ago.
I've had ZERO problems with my harness (only thing is I had to flip the connectors for it them work, from what I heard - everyone has been doing this).
I electric taped every connection and relay. I also replaced the relay with one from the auto parts store ($3-$5).
I never got the bulbs from iJDMToy, I went straight to 35W bulbs from JLC which look similar to the VLED ones Quang posted above. Yes, they were very bright.
After they failed twice, I decided to go with GT-lighting USA bulbs after hearing about them from Frosty.
They're listed as 6k, but they are PURE white. The picture below shows it.
Here's a comparison.
The 35W bulbs were very bright, I wouldn't have upgraded if they failed.
Now just imagine how bright the GT-Lighting USA bulbs are
In these pictures you can see it hit the ground/ceiling.
NOTE: I edited the pictures like crazy changing colour temperature etc., so the bulb colour looks blue, but it's really not.
damn. thats good to know. it doesnt look blue at all in the pic. no flickering issues yet? those are pretty damn bright.
your bulbs seem very similar to the morimoto at TRS. TRS informed that a relay harness is not required. are you running yours with a harness?
i just dont want to get started and then have to put everything on hold because im missing a part.
Last edited by cacheflowe; 03-01-2015 at 12:24 PM.
There's been a variety of vendors that say they don't need a harness and I have yet to see one work without one
lol yeah i figured. I'll prolly grab the vled one. but their website states they're back-ordered /out of the passenger side resistor? wth? i'll call em tomorrow morning and place the order over the phone
For one, you'll ALWAYS want a harness. I use the iJDMToy harness, option R3.
You don't need one, they will work but it will give you an error on the dash, and it will not be full brightness.
Harness supplies full 12V power to the bulbs, instead of 6V.
As for my setup, I've had zero problems.
They fire up every single time, no flickering, nothing.
All there is to the iJDMToy harness is 3 things:
Resistors
Wires
Relay
Resistors don't usually ever go bad.
Wires are wires - they don't usually ever go bad unless you cut the wire insulation or something and expose the copper wire, but tape up the wire openings just to be sure.
Relay - the main culprit to failures.
The main reason why people get flickering or sometimes it doesn't turn on and you have to "shake" or "tap" on the relay, is because the relay is simply failing/failed.
Relays fail because moisture gets inside, causes rust and causes mayhem inside it.
Electric tape everything nice and tight, and no moisture.
If a harness is "failing" - it's not the harness, it's just the relay.
Something that costs $3.
That being said, I don't hate the VLEDs harness, but I don't recommend it when iJDMToy does the job for much cheaper.
Think about it, it's just a bunch of wires and a relay. Why spend so much when you can actually make your own harness at home?
Last edited by guitarplayer16; 03-01-2015 at 02:11 PM.
I agree, 3000 lumens is excessive for DRL. I just put in the VLEDS 10-LED 850 lumen bulb (5K) and I'm very satisfied with the brightness and the color. I recently took my car in for service, and while the rep was driving my car (around 10 am, sunny, zero clouds), I was still surprised to see how bright the bulbs were. The pictures that sockr1 put up are a very good representation of what I have.
Originally Posted by abg2257
lol yeah i figured. I'll prolly grab the vled one. but their website states they're back-ordered /out of the passenger side resistor? wth? i'll call em tomorrow morning and place the order over the phone
When I ordered last month, I remember seeing that message, but when I looked up the individual part, it was in stock. I figured that the complete harness was linking to an old version of that resistor which isn't listed anymore. Sure enough, when I ordered, all of my parts came in one package, with no waiting.
I saw the Morimoto 9005 bulbs pop up and considered them but the high luminosity and price makes them a little excessive (and I'm a DIEHARD TRS fan/supporter and overall lighting enthusiast). I agree with all that say it's a bit overkill and would probably just stick with VLEDs for DRLs and save that money for some CBI's
THanks for this. wish I woulda known. I just received my VLEDs in the mail yesterday I might order these as well and try to give y'all a comparison but I'm already itching to put them in tomorrow
THanks for this. wish I woulda known. I just received my VLEDs in the mail yesterday I might order these as well and try to give y'all a comparison but I'm already itching to put them in tomorrow
Only thing is the second listing says HB4 9005 and I think that doesn't make sense. HB4 is 9006 and HB3 is 9005. I'm contacting the seller to see what's up with that.
For one, you'll ALWAYS want a harness. I use the iJDMToy harness, option R3.
You don't need one, they will work but it will give you an error on the dash, and it will not be full brightness.
Harness supplies full 12V power to the bulbs, instead of 6V.
As for my setup, I've had zero problems.
They fire up every single time, no flickering, nothing.
All there is to the iJDMToy harness is 3 things:
Resistors
Wires
Relay
Resistors don't usually ever go bad.
Wires are wires - they don't usually ever go bad unless you cut the wire insulation or something and expose the copper wire, but tape up the wire openings just to be sure.
Relay - the main culprit to failures.
The main reason why people get flickering or sometimes it doesn't turn on and you have to "shake" or "tap" on the relay, is because the relay is simply failing/failed.
Relays fail because moisture gets inside, causes rust and causes mayhem inside it.
Electric tape everything nice and tight, and no moisture.
If a harness is "failing" - it's not the harness, it's just the relay.
Something that costs $3.
That being said, I don't hate the VLEDs harness, but I don't recommend it when iJDMToy does the job for much cheaper.
Think about it, it's just a bunch of wires and a relay. Why spend so much when you can actually make your own harness at home?
Out of curiosity, where did you find a replacement relay for the iJDMToy harness? I've had them send me about 5 harnesses and they have failed every single time. What are the specs on the relay?
Installed the LED DRLs from VLED this morning. Best first mod ever . These 5k bulbs are pretty damn bright. I'm glad I didn't go with the morimotos. It woulda been overkill.
I saw GP's DRLs in person today and the concern about those bulbs being too bright and/or blinding people during the day is a non-issue.
At night, 3000 lumens in a reflector housing might be problematic but then that's why we have projected HIDs.
My conclusion from this is that either the vleds 850 lumens, the morimoto XBD or the big and expensive vleds should do the job just fine. The morimotos and the big vleds will be more noticeable while the 850 lumens from vleds will keep a rounder shape when looking at them.
This looks like a good post to ask about DRL and Fog light upgrades. I've read and read until I have become confused so hopefully no one holds a broken bottle to my throat. Looking to change out the HIDs, DRLs, and Fog lights on my 2007 RDX. Trying to achieve that more modern look. So I've decided on changing the D2S HIDs out to the Morimoto 6500K HID. Where I become completely confused is with the DRL and Fog. I'd like to match the 6500K HIDs but understand that would take modification to LED? Regarding the DRL my understanding is that if I was to go to LED I would lose or not appreciate any difference on high beam? If this is true then what is the point of a DRL LED? I don't want to lose the high beam feature. If not true then what are the best options for a DRL LED? As for the Fog maybe I'd go down to a 5000K (LED) or 4000K (Slyv xZe bulb) to get more visibility but my question is are there LED plug and swap bulbs for the H11 without modification (mounting ballast, splicing wires, etc)? Its seems every site I look at VLED, THERETROFITSOURCE, etc they all require a ballast mount? I've also had trouble finding posts with pics of where these ballasts are mounted. Seems like all the company sites skip that part in their installation instructions. Any help, suggestions.... are greatly appreciated. Thanks!
02-28-2015, 01:44 PM
Morimoto DRL vs V-LED DRL
