Hi, so I'm still new here and I'm slowly figuring out the forums. My question today though is about headlights. I recently replaced the old yellowed lenses with new ones and replaced the halogen bulbs with LEDs. When I replaced the lenses I saw that the new ones have diffusers in them where the old ones didn't. And while I like the beam that it throws, when I flip on my high beams it's not that much brighter like it should be. Is this because the diffuser is covering the high beam diodes? If so how would I go about anlarging the slots in the sides of the diffusers so that the LED high beam shines brighter?

 

LED's are not DOT certified in these housings and are technically illegal. Take them out and stop blinding oncoming drivers.

The problem you are describing is because the light source of the LED is not properly aligned with where it would be from a halogen bulb. Switch to a good halogen bulb and stop blinding oncoming drivers.

 

The dot regulates bulbs, not led ballasts, so from a legality standpoint they aren't illegal
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No, your aftermarket LED lights are not legal. This article from a month ago may interest you: https://arstechnica.com/cars/2020/03...ermarket-leds/

 

I won't challenge the illegality of LEDs in OEM or any aftermarket housing. However, it is ill-informed to assume that any LED replacement is blinding other drivers. In fact, OP even stated that these LEDs are not as bright as they should be, so he probably isn't. A lot of us remember the early days of HID retrofits where somebody would stuff some HID bulbs in a halogen housing and not give a damn about other drivers. From all of the horrible aftermarket headlights I see on the road that do the same thing, I see that those people still exist. However, when I put new bulbs in my Cadillac SRX, I went with LEDs because the halogens were just pathetic, not even as bright as my barely usable F150 aftermarket housings. There are some decently designed LED retrofits available, but it pays to do some research before just buying the cheapest or coolest looking ones. This video does a pretty good job of explaining how good LEDs differ from poorly designed ones. The Auxito brand LEDs I bought for my Caddy produce a beam that is near identical to that of the halogens. I did some side-by-side comparisons and aside from the brighter, whiter light, there was no difference in the light produced.


Dave

 

LEDs don't have ballasts, Xenon HID does, but that's beside the point of what you're asking about.

I encountered this issue early on in 2016 with my 97 Expedition. Simply put, the light output from our stock or OE replacement housings is complete garbage. The only thing worse would be a Sealed Beam headlight, whose reflector setup dates back to the 1950s if memory serves. Check Wikipedia or Daniel Stern Lighting to be certain.

Anyway, I've had surprisingly good results from a set of Spyder Auto 1-piece projector housings. Granted, they are not HID/Xenon, but it is clear, concise and does a good job for using a H3 halogen bulb as low beam while being DOT-Compliant. The company is good with support too. Check Ebay, you might find a set for cheap like I did. Mine were used and I paid $70 shipped.

Also, a company called The Retrofit Source makes a drop-in low beam HID projector for these housings too. Saw some good reviews from other sources, so I'm thinking about doing that later on. But for now, I'm happy with the accent lights having cheap ebay 194 LED bulbs in them. 12 bulbs, each with 5 LED chips, they're nearly as bright as the low beams and draw less than 1 amp. Perfect for the back woods

 

Sharing my experience. I tried LED. Light output was not evenly spread. Overall worse than halogen. Our reflector housing was not designed to go with LED. Distributed LED to match halogen might work, but I haven't seen such LED. As Travis posted above, I had to go with a projector type LED.