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Led low beam conversion

MaxCommie689

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I have had the Nighteye LEDs on the low beams for about 2-3 weeks now. While there is a dramatic improvement in the light output over the stock halogens, I still am not satisfied. Things that bother me:
> Beam pattern - the halogens definitely had a longer throw in front of the car
> Colour - they are a little too blue for my taste
> Random canbus errors - when they have run for ~2 hours, an error pops up
> Noise - its audible even at idle

Has anyone done a side-by-side comparison of the Nighteye low beam vs the eBay Commodore HID low beam kit? From what I have read on this forum, the following could swing it in favor of the HIDs:
> No canbus errors
> Does not need messy cooling setups (one less point of failure)
> Better colour temp (~6500k on LEDs vs. ~6000k for HIDs)

Anything else that will justify almost 5 times the price ($30 vs $150) and the pain (dear lord!!) of replacing the low beams on our cars.
 

[paradox]

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Beam pattern - the halogens definitely had a longer throw in front of the car
seems to be the number 1 issue with LED.
people think they are brighter, because they can see more foreground light.
not necessarily light where hey need it 100m down the road.

from my understanding that is to do with the focus, and a major cause of that being how far apart the LEDs sit back to back

so something like this
Wide
would be far worse than something like this
Narrow

there really should be some sort of globe standard to be able to measure LUX at 100m or something to give a better indicator that raw lumens
 
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Skylarking

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... there really should be some sort of globe standard to be able to measure LUX at 100m or something to give a better indicator that raw lumens
There are clear definitions as to how to measure headlight assemblies as mentioned within lighting ADR (especially within the referenced euro standards).

These standards not only specify beam pattern, beam cut, light intensity but they also define aspects of the globe itself, including the mechanical side so globes of one type can’t be put into a headlamp assembly that‘s certified for a different globe type. That’s because the characteristics of each globe technology and the way the light is produced and sprays out is different for each tech.

So each lighting tech uses its own globe mounting method and headlamp assembly which as a package has to solve the various issues that the used tech causes. For example HID produces light over a certain intensity which needs to be well managed to avoid blinding other oncoming drivers. Despite good light path design with clean cut lines and great focus, the light output in these assemblies can still be scattered by dirt on the lens or by vehicle load. Such is solved by mandatory headlight washers and globe self levelling mechanisms.

So meaningful standards already exist but meaningful measurements can’t simply be light output some distance from a bare globe. Any meaningful measure must include the headlight assembly itself so that the designed light path from the source through the reflectors and focussing elements is ultimately projected on a screen and measured.

As is, “Mr. Wang Cars Lighting Co” who makes non compliant hid/led globes that are used in halogen headlamps assemblies and onsold by all on eBay simply won’t go through the difficulty of trying to certify them to work really well in halogen headlamp assemblies (if they can be indeed certified).

If it was technically possible to produce a LED globe which would comply in a halogen headlamp assembly, there would be many such certified led globes available. They’d work really well, they’d be legal and they’d cost a bucket of money... but there aren’t any, nada, zero, zilch. The are all sold with either no complience statements or sold with a label the states “not for road use”.

Standards already exists, we just don’t like what it means for us.

As is, changing globes in our VF’s is an absolute pain so we want something that will last. Bright and powerful halogen globes already exist but they just don’t last.
 

[paradox]

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Standards already exists, we just don’t like what it means for us.
im not disagreeing with you

i guess all im trying to say is you buy “Mr. Wang Cars Lighting Co” lights of ebay with 100,000 lumens,
when the only way that might be true if you are measuring 0.1mm away from the chip, and you are including every chip on a pair of lights

not at any purposeful distance that the light is intended to be used at, you are buying a headlight globe whether thats for offroad use or otherwise.

you also can buy "Mr Shazzas LED Pty Ltd" lights off amazon with 20,000 lumens which could actually be 500% better than the above

but the only point of reference that is being used is lumen output, which doesn't mean anything without all what you said.
 
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Mayuri Krab

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From the comparison reviews I have seen on YouTube, general consensus seems to be LEDs don’t do well for distance in projector style head lamps vs stock Hx bulbs, but they do decent in reflector ones (seem to support my own experience with using nighteyes in my highbeam).

HIDs are better in projector housings, still technically illegal though... As it currently stands I recently replaced my blown stock low beams with the similar “dim” long life bulbs as they were a pain in the ass to change.
 

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I have purchased both H7 and H9 for Hi and Low beam from Lightforce and being Rural in the NT have found that the Low beam does cause radio interference when there are trees/ vegetation close by but the closer to town i get the interference recedes.
the performance on High beam is excellent. but the low beam leaves a lot to be desired also i think one of the LED`s is faulty as the intensity changes at random. As a conclusion the LED`s do make a better light source than the halogen globe, you just need to find out the best one for you.
have just purchased a set of LV Automotive H7 and hope this fixes the problem of interference as they use different power supply system.
 

RevNev

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I've had Narva Gen2 LED's with resistor modules on low beam for a year and they're great. They need to be aimed on the road to get high beam right as they were too high and swung to the right too much from a wall alignment. Low beam has a better light spread but didn't increase the distance much, but high beam is massively better than the stock halogens.

Low beam is a lot of messing around to do the job properly and I ended up mounting the resistor modules on the chassis rails behind the guard liner and wired them into the headlight harness, otherwise you'd have leave the caps off. I probably wouldn't do low beam again and I'd fit a better halogen globe instead as the LED low bean isn't really a significant enough improvement for the messing around it takes to fit them.
 

Jdm178

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i have used these in multiple vfs and they work very well without issues/errors.
i also used the same brand H9 kits in the high beam.

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These things are absolutely garbage. The H7’s aren’t even for projector headlights and the H11 high beam don’t even match the distance length of the factory halogen regardless if they light up 3-4times more at a shorter distance. high beams are meant for distance. I thought I’d try these because I wasn’t happy with how hot the Stedi kits get, hoping they would be really good, but they work exactly how I would expect a $35 set of globes to work, although they do maintain a much cooler temp. The Stedi globes were outstanding even if I won’t be going back to them. It was rude shock how below average the nighteye’s actually are after reading a few people on here we’re actually eating these things.
 
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