Led Headlights

5473 Views 23 Replies 15 Participants Last post by AndriusSAABUA, Oct 5, 2010

SOAB

Discussion Starter · Aug 3, 2010

So out of curiosity I ordered a set of blue 18 LED headlights off ebay cause I couldnt find any info about them..

Left Harbour Freight bulbs (which are GREAT btw)
Right Ebay led's

Ill get some day pics tomorrow but the final verdict is the light output is AWFUL and they are %100 percent illegal but they look DAMN cool imo haha Ive got problems I know.. These might work in white and with like 3x as many LED's, There are ones with 60+ LED's I believe that might be better. They definitelyseem like one day they could be a viable option but as of now they are certainly not functional aside from the function of looking awesome! (btw they also come in red yellow white and green I think.

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PoisonBeef

· #2 · Aug 3, 2010

Useless.

But then again, who needs to see.

SOAB

Discussion Starter · #3 · Aug 3, 2010

I think comments like that are useless. That was my point... but there is no harm in tryin... I dont see why this community prides its self on being different but aside from an amazing few, refuses to go outside the box. I know some people are going to think 'Ricey head lights.. that's real out of the box..' but that's the same smug bullshit that holds this community back. Y'all are so obsessed with being BETTER than ricers, instead of being different and expressing your self. Exploring new horizons and pushing the limits. You know why there are coil-overs on civics everywhere? Because at some point against the advice of everyone else went out and built them. And thank god someone has finally pushed that boundary with a 9k. The response was a lot more accepting than I expected but to be honest that isn't saying much. I ABSOLUTELY love Saab's and the community is GREAT, but im really getting tired of the scene. I did this cause it frustrated me that I couldn't find any information on the lights and my conclusion was that they were pretty much useless.. but I guess without a smug smart ass comment it wasn't enough..

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Castor Troy

· #4 · Aug 3, 2010

pushing the boundaries with headlight bulbs that are not only functionally worthless, but illegal? what the fuck are you smoking?

SOAB

Discussion Starter · #5 · Aug 3, 2010

I never said I was pushing the boundaries. I was taking out my frustration as a whole. I clearly stated that I did this BECAUSE there was no information on them other than specultion. Now there is information that hopefully others can use. So i guess helpfulness is what im smoking.. or lack of information. That could be it too..

Snabb SAAB

· #6 · Aug 3, 2010

As I see it he tried the headlights to see how functional they are and he's reporting here so that others who might be thinking of adding them will just choose some other lights. Nowhere in his post he mentioned he would keep running them despite knowing they are illegal.

I say thanks for the post, SOAB. When I see these cheap LED headlight bulbs on eBay I'll just ignore them.

On the other hand, LED headlights are very much a reality already, just not yet as aftermarket drop ins for small size bulb replacements. Our new Army trucks have LED headlights in the big round 7" style lights. The same lights can be purchased commercially and are DOT legal for any vehicle that uses 7" round headlights, like Jeeps, VW Buses, and many, many other cars. Those LED headlights are not cheap at all, the set running from $250 to $400 for both lights. Their beam projection is excellent and are way better than any 7" round lights I've ever seen.

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SOAB

Discussion Starter · #7 · Aug 3, 2010

Thank you for saying with a level head what I was trying to say.. I really need to stop getting on here when im dog tired.. sorry.

mike9000aero

· #8 · Aug 3, 2010

im going to steer clear of these now, thank you.... they do look useless but you posting about them was not

zach9000

· #9 · Aug 3, 2010

so are they like H.I.D.s? or just a l.e.d bulb?

i have hids that are illegal and i love them. ha.

SOAB

Discussion Starter · #10 · Aug 4, 2010

nah they are 9006 headlight bulbs with 18 little led's on them, ill post some pics of the actual bulbs when I get a chance.

Snabb SAAB

· #11 · Aug 4, 2010

This is what they look like

At first it's a good concept, but these LED cells they are using aren't up to par now. Maybe a few years down the line. For now it's all for show and "off road use only".

You bet you will see some riced out cars driving around with these on... :evil:

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zach9000

· #12 · Aug 5, 2010

ohhhh.

well they look pretty cool. im gonna put HIDS in my 9K just like my 9-5

SS929k

· #13 · Aug 5, 2010

I'd say get another set of hyper white LED's. They may come close to HID bright since it's a more focused beam of light (at least thats what I think). As for as for the negetivity I personally thing it's because your doing something right, your doing your own thing and your sharing your input which goes to say "If you got haters, you must be doing something right". You got me wanting to get a set of LED's.

tuner4life

· #14 · Aug 5, 2010

They do look cool even though they dont work.

Did they trigger your "headlight out" dash icons?

ctruss53

· #15 · Aug 5, 2010

Snabb SAAB said:
This is what they look like

At first it's a good concept, but these LED cells they are using aren't up to par now. Maybe a few years down the line. For now it's all for show and "off road use only".

You bet you will see some riced out cars driving around with these on... :evil:

No wonder they suck. Those are not high output LEDs. If you did the saome thing with the more expensive high output LEDs you could definately have a functional set of headlights.

To give you an idea how bright you can get the high output LEDs I built some mirror turn signals out of a row of 8 of them on each side. I was going to use less, but I had no idea how bright they would be. Well the 8 LEDs were as bright as my fog lights!

Wrox

· #16 · Aug 6, 2010

SOAB, thanks for sharing this! LEDs would be a great replacement for the hot, reflector killing halogens.

SOAB

Discussion Starter · #17 · Aug 7, 2010

tuner4life said:
They do look cool even though they dont work.

Did they trigger your "headlight out" dash icons?

Yeah forgot to mention that, The light... light comes on I believe because of the lower draw of the LED's.

And to who said they were low output whats the difference other than obviously ones brighter?

c900

· #18 · Sep 1, 2010

I think LED-based headlights are feasible but you can't do it with lots of individual LED's (even an array of a small number of 5 watt Luxeon's) since there is no way to properly colimate and direct the light output like there is with a standard single-point light source (H4 bulb or similar).

If the light housings were designed differently to handle merging and directing multiple light sources, it might work ok.

Even with 5 watt Luxeon's, you'd need around 10 of them to give enough light output to match the high-beam output of a good qualilty Osram, Philips or Narva halogen lamp. The other aspect is that even though LED's are very efficient, Luxeon's require good heatsinking so that counts out plastic housings like current-generation cars using HID headlighting have.

Craig.

Galvas

· #19 · Sep 29, 2010

HID´s on the 9K... works like a charm....
They have to be correctly mounted... if so there´s a HUUUUUUGE diference for the better than stocks!!

I Recomend it...

The only way to kmow they are HID´s it´s on the start up...

( if needed i have pics of my installment )

Svenska94Aero

· #20 · Sep 29, 2010

Galvas said:
HID´s on the 9K... works like a charm....
They have to be correctly mounted... if so there´s a HUUUUUUGE diference for the better than stocks!!

I Recomend it...

The only way to kmow they are HID´s it´s on the start up...

( if needed i have pics of my installment )

I agree, they were possibly the best thing I've done to my car so far, such a huge difference, even without e-codes.

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