I converted to LED lighting!

[teoman]

You definitely have less draw with led’s.

But the reason it doesnt dim, is that the circuit regulates the amps.

So it will draw more amps with the engine off (alternator off) vs alternaor on.

Basically it tries to draw constant power, if the voltage drops the amps go up.

[Ecky]

Some years back I retrofitted 35w HIDs with projectors into my factory headlight housings. Probably not California legal, but the cutoff is very clean and I aimed the beams correctly. They were a tremendous upgrade over the stock halogens in reflectors.




I like to tinker with things and try to fix what isn't broken, so on a whim I picked up some of the highest rated fanless LEDs on Amazon which would fit into my H1 projectors (which insure that whatever bulb I use, will not blind other drivers).

They advertise these as 40w per bulb, 4800LM per bulb. My understanding is that most 35w HIDs are somewhere around 3200-3400LM, and that 35w is before conversion losses from the ballasts, so on paper these should be better, right?

HID on the left, LED on the right:






No forward facing pictures. My car was not parked in a place where I could get a good comparison, and the difference was so stark I didn't even bother.

I was pretty disappointed. I expect you can't just make up numbers like I'm about to, but if the 35w HIDs I have are 3200 lumens, I expect the brightest LEDs on the market aren't more than 1500.