LED vs HID who made the switch

[Conrad311]

Please do post up pics, I'm trying to decide on LEDs or morimoto route. I just sold my e83 with bi-directional xenons and hate the lights in our Fiat and e30 by comparison.

[Staszek]

Please do post up pics, I'm trying to decide on LEDs or morimoto route. I just sold my e83 with bi-directional xenons and hate the lights in our Fiat and e30 by comparison.

Will do, its funny. I have HID in my E38 (new bulbs) and they are no where near as powerful as the HID in my E93 M3. It was night and day difference. When my wire got the F15 X5 with LED it put my E93 to shame (I know those are factory and much brighter than these aftermarket ones). My G12 brought LEDs up another level and are fantastic! I cant imagine what the laser lights are like.

I am doing the swap this week, hard part is I dont know it it will be dark enough out to show the difference. I will have to take pics in the garage.

[djkostas]

On my euro smileys I went from halogen to LEDs to HIDs.
Halogens where on the car when I bought it, pretty sure they were old.
LEDs were top of the line 3 years ago (OPT-7) and I was quite happy with them, bright enough.
Few months ago and few months after 2year warranty expired one of them burned out.
I tried some of the cheap LEDs (C6 and similar) with disappointing results.
Tried a cheap 35w HID set, still not bright enough.
Now using a cheap 55w HID set, it's not too bright, but it's bright enough to go around at night.
Next up I have been advised to use expensive HID bulbs with my cheap ballasts but will wait until one of mine burns out.

[prisonerofdoom83]

I will do some before an afters I went with the LEDs because now that I have real euro hella's instead of the Depos I didnt want to hack up the housings and put in the morimoto projectors. Going to sell that as a set. Even if its not brighter than the HID I will be a ton brighter than the old sealed beam H4s.

Let me know when you are ready to sell the depo headlights

[Staszek]

Let me know when you are ready to sell the depo headlights

Probably after this weekend. I will write it up but its a nice setup, they are depos but they have Morimoto V7 mini lenses with the Square D adapters. The HID system is worth as much as the Depos lol.

[moatilliatta]

I love Hellas, US or Euro.. but the morimoto projectors are worth hacking them up IMO. Especially if old, the reflectors are probably toast.

[Staszek]

I love Hellas, US or Euro.. but the morimoto projectors are worth hacking them up IMO. Especially if old, the reflectors are probably toast.

These are brand new Euro Hellas out of the box.

[moatilliatta]

I’d still consider. Best of the best. Especially if it’s driven.

The morimoto 2 stroke bulbs are decent. But I think the 9006 have fans that run. Ah nvm, Euros are H1. I think they done have fans.

[Staszek]

I’d still consider. Best of the best. Especially if it’s driven.

The morimoto 2 stroke bulbs are decent. But I think the 9006 have fans that run. Ah nvm, Euros are H1. I think they done have fans.

I hear you but if I wanted to hack them up I would keep the Depos. Its not a daily and wont really be driven at night or ever in bad weather unless I get caught out in a rain storm.

[Staszek]

My car is in storage at a relatives house for the winter, unlike my garage which is heated and insulated this one isnt. Sooooo I started to work in the cold and moving fast I completely forgot to take before pics of my HID/Depo lighting.

Anyway quick teaser, rewired my H4 wiring and hooked up Shawdowline Motor sports H4 to H1 adapaters and relays with the R8 LED bulbs, pretty plug and play and now both high and low beams come on at the same time.

I will do more extensive night testing and distance, but with the R8's in the new hella buckets I am happy so far. The cutoff is really nice. More to come when it warms up.

High and low setup.



Soldered back on the old connectors and felt taped them.


Put in the R8's they wont fit with the OE caps, Shawdowline provided rubber caps




Lights on.



I know this doesnt give you the best idea yet, but I will do some distance test in the spring. I plan on testing against my E93 M3 stock HID. I know the E93 will be better but it will be interesting to see the two.

[positiveions]

My car is in storage at a relatives house for the winter, unlike my garage which is heated and insulated this one isnt. Sooooo I started to work in the cold and moving fast I completely forgot to take before pics of my HID/Depo lighting.

Anyway quick teaser, rewired my H4 wiring and hooked up Shawdowline Motor sports H4 to H1 adapaters and relays with the R8 LED bulbs, pretty plug and play and now both high and low beams come on at the same time.

I will do more extensive night testing and distance, but with the R8's in the new hella buckets I am happy so far. The cutoff is really nice. More to come when it warms up.


I know this doesnt give you the best idea yet, but I will do some distance test in the spring. I plan on testing against my E93 M3 stock HID. I know the E93 will be better but it will be interesting to see the two.

Just bought me a set of euro ellipsoid blacked-out smileys. Thinking of doing the same. Where did you purchase all that?

[Staszek]

Just bought me a set of euro ellipsoid blacked-out smileys. Thinking of doing the same. Where did you purchase all that?

The bulbs all from Shadowline Motorsports they are on this board.

[positiveions]

Thanks 👍🏻

[Andrew325is]

Edit:
I wrote this when my only experience with LEDs are the random Chinese ones that destroy the beam pattern and produce glare, which is what most people still buy because they're all over Amazon. Except there are some good ones made by OEMs within the last couple years that do a good job reproducing the halogen beam pattern and don't produce glare. Most of them still have a color temperature that is too high though. Blue-white light is scattered more by water droplets and reduces visibility in the rain and fog, so you want to stay below 5500K. Ideal is in the 4000K to 4500K range. I tested some 4200K H4 LEDs from Japan that are made by Koito and they're really good. I plan to test the HB3/4 version in US ellipsoids to see how they perform. The main benefit is the reduced power consumption. The Koito ones are 12 watts, so you save 14 amps converting all 4 bulbs to LED. That's more juice for the battery to save fuel or for your sound system.

Orignal reply:
Hey people, please don't put LED (or HID) bulbs in reflector housings like the e-codes. You're going to blind on-coming traffic. They're probably fine in the ellipsoid headlights, but they're still not designed for that filament. The best (and legal) option if you want LED headlights is to get a set of dedicated 5.75" LED headlight assemblies like these Noldens.

https://www.nakatanenga.de/en/lighti...tion-light-lhd

[Staszek]

Hey people, please don't put LED (or HID) bulbs in reflector housings like the e-codes. You're going to blind on-coming traffic. They're probably fine in the ellipsoid headlights, but they're still not designed for that filament. The best (and legal) option if you want LED headlights is to get a set of dedicated 5.75" LED headlight assemblies like these Noldens.

https://www.nakatanenga.de/en/lighti...tion-light-lhd

I wouldnt put them in halogen housings, but they work just fine in the projectors.