Inexpensive H4 / 9003 / HB2 LED headlights ($32) - trying on the Prius & motorcycle

[marksavoid]

I have a sinking feeling (pun intended) that these bulbs are not approved for road use. Not that DOT approval is important but I'm not a big fan of blinding oncoming traffic. Has the DOT approved any LED aftermarket headlight bulbs where halogen or tungsten is OE?

[starcraper]

I fell for the trap last year when I was looking to upgrade the lighting on my motorcycle while simultaneously reducing power consumption. I bought a pair of H8 to use as low beams and leave the halogens as high beam. Unfortunately, the spacing is very tight in my motorcycle, and due to the length of the bulb, I had to figure out a way to seal the headlight assembly because the original rubber did not reach the headlight. I tested in the high beam, and while the total light output was higher than the halogens, the beam pattern was horrible. It was split in two, so each half was less bright than the halogen. This is due to the source of the light not being where the reflector was designed for.

Eventually I tried using them on low beams, extending the rubber seal by buying the closest thing I found at home depot: a garbage disposal rubber thing. On my first night ride, it proved that I could not use it. I had forked over $78 for the pair (they were new to market at the time), and have not been able to re-sell them (though have not tried very hard).

On the right is the low and high beam halogens. On the left is only LED high beam. Notice it aims higher AND lower than where it's supposed to. If you aim the headlamp assembly lower... you'll be lighting up the ground immediately in front, which isn't very helpful above 30mph... Yes, they're bright, but without proper light source location, they're not worth it.

Well, I can't post images due to low post count... but below is the link.

imgur.com/5Sb4Nqc.jpg

[2000mc]

Originally Posted by starcraper

Well, I can't post images due to low post count... but

.

[Quasiff]

I bought a couple of LED bulbs for my twin headlight motorbike which were highly recommended on ADV Rider forum. They appeared very bright to look at (possibly blinding oncoming drivers) but the illumination of the road (dark night, unlit country road) was significantly worse than the original H4 halogens. I returned them and received a refund. It could be that they just don't suit some reflector designs.

[serialk11r]

I just ordered these:
A Pair H11 H9 H8 60W ETI LED Headlight Super White 6000LM High or Low Beam Lamps | eBay

Fingers crossed...it's in a projector housing, so hopefully the beam pattern comes out more okay than H4 ones.

[herberpower]

h4 led buy a 20 / 30W bulb a few months ago.

6000k color was, I did not like. it is blue.

a color of 4300K ​​I like more. It is white.

the bulb was 3 chips xml2 believes.

two light up in low light.
three light up in high light.

the difference between short and long is too little. If you regulate the beacon for low light. high light has insufficient height. to put a larger amount of long light note to the sides. sees no more distance.

the car has a piece of metal which covers the bulb that comes. the bike if you have the piece of metal. dont keeps light out in some addresses.

Car lighthouse bulb led car dazzles. It gives a portion of the light upward. on the bike does not dazzle.

with halogen bulb light is balanced.

with LED bulb there are very bright areas. less bright areas. and dark or not unlit areas. this can be seen in the pictures that got a few meters from the wall or garage door.

LED bulb is the gift for my father to his motorcycle enduro. that only use for the day.

LED bulbs are not suitable for halogen headlights.

if you want led. you have to change the lighthouse by led.

[Cycle]

I looked at that when I was converting my bike to all-LED, but found it wouldn't work.

First, the space behind the headlight housing was too shallow to fit the heat sink.

Second, I have a headlight modulator, and it'd burn out the LED driver.

So, I bought this one, instead:
Amazon.com: 2x High Low Beam H4 9003 HB2 720LM Xenon White 6000K XBD CREE 6-LED Headlight For Car: Automotive


It's a direct drop-in replacement for a standard H4 bulb. It's not as bright as my old Silverstar Ultra (which you could see flashing off the reflective signs two blocks away), but the higher color temperature matches the two position lamps to either side of the headlight (those are 5 watt Cree LEDs that throw their light through focusing lenses, so it's like the bike's got 3 headlights), the higher color temperature makes the bike more conspicuous (there's some research out there as to why 6000K seems so bright to human eyes, even when it's not as bright as lower color temperature bulbs... has something to do with the sensitivity to different colors of the rods and cones in our eyes), and it's bright enough that you can see far enough down the highway at night.

I like this LED bulb because it attempts to mimic an incandescent bulb. It places three LEDs facing backward, and they reflect off a round concave surface to mimic the light coming off a filament. The other three LEDs throw their light forward through a focusing lens.

So it throws a bright arc of light out about 50 feet ahead of the bike, then everything beyond that is flood-lit. There are no dark spots or light going into oncoming traffic's eyes.

[deejaaa]

Originally Posted by Cycle

............
So, I bought this one, instead:
Amazon.com: 2x High Low Beam H4 9003 HB2 720LM Xenon White 6000K XBD CREE 6-LED Headlight For Car: Automotive

...............

i would like to see pics if you can.

[Cycle]

Sorry, the wife took the two cameras with her to Taiwan. She'll be visiting family for the next couple months.

The one thing I can say... this bulb is fine for a scooter that mainly stays on city streets with occasional freeway runs. But it'd sure be nice if it put out about 1500 lumens. It's gotta be more than the stated 720 lumens, because it's plenty bright on the freeway at night, but I got used to my Silverstar Ultra.

[maxfnz]

Been looking at these here in NZ, primarily for the motorbike. Have treid a few so far (all from aliexpress.com, Chinese direct from manufacturers), so thought I might offer some findings so far... My bike is a BMW with a Bosch Emark headlight, but it's "old" - ribbed "lens" on the glass, not a prismatic reflector.

- all very bright. Bright doesn't mean the road is well lit though!
- most of the designs don't allow for the H4 standard that the low beam reflector/sheild under the low filament is tilted 15 degrees to the left (from the base)

My first attempt uses rectangular LED emitters, so they don't even try to account for the filament placement between high & low. Cutoff pattern was totally lost, so didn't persevere since oncoming glare would be bad.

Second attempt has two disc "COB" LEDs, one up for low & the other down that comes in as well when high is selected. Fitting was excellent (rear "rod" with a removable fan so all the original H4 boot etc fitted) but in operation the beam distribution was more figure 8 and washed out on covering the sidewalk & road edge. Cutoff was good, but needed work to account for the 15deg offset before it sharpened up. Will probably try these on the Toyota Echo here, with a pair maybe the coverage would be good enough (and they're prismatic reflectors, maybe they are more forgiving).

Now have a pair coming with 3 COB disk LEDs ... a triangle of 2 low on top at 45 degrees, 1 high pointing straight down, 2500 lumen claimed. This design has the high beam LED offset backwards (correct, though don't know if 3mm is enough) but the two low beam LEDs **should** get rid of any side-on dead spots, I'm hoping. Will post some photos when its sorted.

HTH

Max