[RedDevil]

Originally Posted by RedDevil

Found these : https://www.lightinthebox.com/h8-h9-...l?prm=1.1.92.0
For that money, I'm tempted...
Could always use them in the fogs (H11 too) if the pattern spread is no good or what.

I wasn't tempted enough by then. But that was way back when those lamps were still, you know, EXPENSIVE...!
Now I bought these:

https://www.lightinthebox.com/nl/p/s...prm=1.18.104.0



(that text writer must be a professional comedian)

Special offer, it was less than €9 including shipping...!
Surely that cheap can't be any good, but worst case I would still have had a story to tell.

I tested them. They draw less than 0.8 A so less than 10 Watt. You can barely hear the fans. They get lukewarm and the heat spreads quickly down to the fins and fan. I doubt the fan is even necessary.

Logically, the light yield isn't great (comparable to a 55 Watt halogen lamp, but neutral white) nor confined enough to be of use as a headlight. They do fit, easily even, but are nowhere near as bright as the HIDs - nor as neatly cut off. The stray light did not seem to be a blinding problem in the projectors, but still it is worse than the HIDs even though the HIDs are at least 5 times brighter within their beam.
So a no go. Worse than halogens (more stray light) and worse than HIDs (nowhere near as bright).
Fair enough, I did not expect anything else for the money.

But then I have fog lights, which had H11 halogens just like the original low beams. Where the halogens are underperforming in the low beam projectors, they do a reasonable job in the fog reflector lamps. Except when having HIDs in the low beams they have little to add...

Now my kids Scouting group resides on a fortress island surrounded by a serrated moat, and access is by a narrow one-way road adjacent to that moat. At night unlit bikers and pedestrians travel it and can't be seen round the corners, as the low beams are relatively narrow.
DRLs with a spread to the side would be ideal. And the fogs do spread wide.

So I wanted to use the fogs as DRLs, but the OEM halogens in them are too bright for that. I tried some cheapo LED replacements, but they were blueish, not bright enough and rapidly failing. A second pair of different LEDs were better, but in the end they too failed.
These LEDs however are twice as bright as the last attempt. As DRLs they are on a par with the brighter of the OEM LED DRLs around here.



By day they are very noticeable but won't blind anyone. By night they may be on edge, but I'd only switch them on when I need to then.



As you can see they do have a low and wide spread. This will definitely help me safely round the moat.