Thread: LED headlight/fog Conversion kits

Anyone have any experience with these or know which are the one's with a better reputation/reliability?

I'm referring to conversion kits similar to HID conversion kits, not the poor quality universal LED foglights available off every parts store and Walmart shelf.

Here's one example.
http://www.ebay.com/itm/9006-LOW-BEA...0b76a7&vxp=mtr

I wouldn't use those in your headlights. No matter how bright they are, the beam spread is going to be horrible, probably worse than HID's. The reason dedicated LED headlights are just showing up on newer model year vehicles is because of the amount of work that is needed to focus the beam properly.

A kit like that may work decent in the fog lights because of the wattage, but keep in mind that the wattage does correlate to heat output to some extent. Don't want to go melting your fog light housings.

It is confusing to me as to why they require ballasts though, and the description makes me laugh.

• Super Bright! (Brigthter than typical HID Kits)

In spite of that, the ballast says 1800 lumen (per bulb), whereas most 35w HID's put out 3200 lumen per bulb. Shady marketing right there.

So should I stick to stock headlights for good vision? I really don't want to lose visibility. I do need to replace my headlights and I was looking at halo projectors.

Originally Posted by nik12937

I wouldn't use those in your headlights. No matter how bright they are, the beam spread is going to be horrible, probably worse than HID's. The reason dedicated LED headlights are just showing up on newer model year vehicles is because of the amount of work that is needed to focus the beam properly.

A kit like that may work decent in the fog lights because of the wattage, but keep in mind that the wattage does correlate to heat output to some extent. Don't want to go melting your fog light housings.

It is confusing to me as to why they require ballasts though, and the description makes me laugh.

• Super Bright! (Brigthter than typical HID Kits)

In spite of that, the ballast says 1800 lumen (per bulb), whereas most 35w HID's put out 3200 lumen per bulb. Shady marketing right there.

I had a spat with someone on a different forum for my Camaro regarding these LEDs and being retrofitted into old 4x6 sealed beam assemblies- I called him out on it as they were being marketed as DOT compliant.
I have no information on the quality itself, just that the the layout of the LEDs does not faithfully mimic the light output of a filament.

As for the "ballast", it is more of a driver to regulate the current going through the LEDs; as LEDs are current driven as opposed to voltage.
Their resistance also goes down as they heat up which would allow more even more current to go through; this is known as thermal runaway.

Having researched vehicle lighting for my projects over the last 20 years, I do not recommend any "conversion" kits. The only way to go is a retrofit where the bulb/reflector/lens assembly is integrated into whatever your vehicle has.