You mean like OEM LED lights do to me every night?
Brighter Headlight Bulbs ?
- Thread starter ChrisD46
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Difference is the OE setups have gone through some level scrutiny to ensure they meet SAE/DOT requirements. Sorry you're getting old and night vision is getting difficult. Blaming other cars really doesn't help, nor give free license to the healight narcissism club.
I don't use my headlights to navigate amongst vertical garage doors, despite their popularity amongst youtube headlight marketing media creators. I typically drive on horizontal surfaces.
Camera exposures can be misleading. From a glance, neither of them can be aimed using the top edge of the cutoff. Buy better cars.
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The aftermarket Chinesium is on the left and the OEM LEDs are on the right. I can tell by the spammy floodlight-style lighting on the left that would blind everyone
No need to be snarky - I'm not too "old" at 52 and my night vision is just fine, that's per my doc/eye doc I see annually. In fact they even do the driving at night test now that I'm "old". "buy better cars" - really?
This convo is typical and you usually have 2 types of people in it. Those that have no practical expeirence with aftermarket lighting and those that do. I am the later. I tested the bulbs with my son, we did a bunch of things on a quiet road near my house with oncoming and in the rearview using his car as it's low to the ground like mine and came to the conclusion that nobody is being blinded by them as I wanted to confirm it based on the amount of this convo online.
I have been blinded by crappy aftermarket lighting. I get it and undertstand it. HID kits in reflectors are the worst offenders with the entirety of the bulb emitting light in all directions - not many doing that anymore in 2025. I've seen shielded HID bulbs (so only portion of bulb exposed is where the filament would be) to help but the ones I saw still had a bit more bleed that necessary. LEDs can work well IF the diodes are orietated at 9/3 and are at the same position as the halogen bulb's filament within the housing; the bulbs I used in the past were this way. Not a perfect sharp cutoff by any means b/c you have to have a projector/shutter to do that but worked well enough to increase visibility and not blind anyone with spill - similar to me to our Atlas that has factory LEDs in a reflector-style housing. Osram makes replacement LED bulbs that are now legal in several Euro countries (I've posted the links on BITOG so you can search that if interested) for use as retrofits into halogen housings - they aren't doing that b/c it blinds everyone, clearly they know what they are doing and the Euros are super-tight about this kind of thing w/r to legality/passing inspections.
The picture I posted shows my wife's VW Atlas on the right, there is a decent spill on the top and I've been "high beamed" many times by folks coming the other way b/c they are getting blinded. These are 100% legal OEM lights and interesting enough are in a reflector housing, not a projector. The left is my Sportwagen when I ran the LEDs in my halogen housings. A similar look without so much spill. Can't recall ever getting flashed by folks in that car in 100K miles of driving with them. And why would I? They aren't throwing light up that high b/c they are aimed correctly.
My issue is that in that car, I'm low to the ground and in 2025, there are more trucks/SUVs/CUVs than cars and all have more ride height. I'm blinded regularly by factory lighting on modern vehicles b/c I'm lower to the ground. This is not something I made up or b/c I'm old, it's a regular comment on the interwebz about modern "1.21 gigatwatt" lighting. And so yes, I don't feel bad with my lighting choices b/c they aren't bothering you or anyone else on the road, I've made sure of it. The "rep" lights I got last year with HID kit are much better of course and have the super-sharp cutoff from the projectors but I find they are actually a bit harder to deal with b/c of the v. sharp difference between lighth/dark at the cutoff line (I may aim them up a bit - currently aimed at 25' from a wall to be at the same level/height as the bulb is from the ground) but I'm low so need to account for that. The best headlights I've had are the ones on my '03 Passat actually, factory HID without quite the super-sharp cutoff which I find less distracting. Those are 6K bulbs and are fantastic lights...got new old stock housings a few years ago as the original bowls were cooked and had no output and dropped these cheaper 6K bulbs in, amazing lights and love to drive it at night.
Some videos on this subject on my YouTube channel:
Aftermarket/Chinesium LED kit (non-DOT legal) in reflector/halogen housings (2018 VW Golf Sportwagen):
Factory "bi-xenon" w/6K Chinesium HIDs (2003 VW Passat W8 wagon):
Factory "bi-xenon" w/6K Chinesium HIDs (2003 VW Passat W8 wagon):
Aftermarket/Chinesium "rep" headlights (V-Land, non-DOT legal) w/5500K HID kit (2018 VW Golf Sportwagen):
Aftermarket/Chinesium "rep" headlights (V-Land, non-DOT legal) w/5500K HID kit (2018 VW Golf Sportwagen):
Some pictures of the aftermarket/Chinesium LED kit (non-DOT legal) in reflector/halogen housings (2018 VW Golf Sportwagen):
https://golfmk7.com/forums/index.ph...u-name-it-this-is-the-way.360080/post-7428782
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Try again - read above/watch, nobody being blinded here. But good you got it - most say the right b/c of the spill on top that will yield the occasional high-beam flash from oncoming traffic from those 100% factory/legal bulbs...still waiting for that driving the one on the left
$205 PER bulb?!
Yeah, I'll pass... gotta draw the line somewhere /
Would need to call to confirm but on the bottom it says 2X (one pair) for that $205. Still not inexpensive but if it solves the ice/snow thing is a n option.
Someone has to order them so we'll see if they send one or two /
Judging headlight output by using human vision is akin to smelling motor oil. Human senses are too easily fooled. That’s why we have goniometers and oil testing. Taking pictures of headlight output is equally flawed. Cameras are not human eyes and have a different spectral response. That’s why is why people love “Fuji” or “Leica” colors, it’s not the sensors that are so different, but the processing software is.
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Look, I respect that you enjoy tinkering with things, that's all good! I do as well. I'm not trying to make this place Candlepowerforums 2.0 but unless you have the very expensive lighting equipment that lighting engineers use to properly analyze beam patterns for a myriad of different reasons (glare, distance vision, peripheral vision, foreground illumination, road sign illumination, reflections off the road in rainy weather, etc. the list goes on) -- you cannot say that you're not blinding people by you eyeballing it. Or doing tests like driving by your own car to see if there's any glare. Or looking at the cut off for any stray light you see against a garage door or wall.Try again - read above/watch, nobody being blinded here. But good you got it - most say the right b/c of the spill on top that will yield the occasional high-beam flash from oncoming traffic from those 100% factory/legal bulbs...still waiting for that driving the one on the left
Car headlights don't work like a flashlight, it's so much more complex than that. There's different parameters within the beam pattern that has to be measured for it to be safe. Impossible by just looking at it with the naked eye. Which is why headlights are so expensive, it's an important safety equipment and it takes a bunch of R&D to get it right. Lighting the road ahead of you, without blinding or glaring oncoming drivers, while you're driving 70mph in a 3 ton metal machine is a very careful craft for obvious reasons.
On a conceptual level, putting anything other than a halogen bulb in a housing designed for halogen bulbs (reflector OR projector) is a fail due to physics. It won't work safely and correctly no matter how much you adjust the bulb and no matter how much "better" you think you see. It's putting a square peg in a round hole.
Arguing against physics a losing battle but some people don't care so it's whatever I guess lol
Similar to what folks always say in these threads w/r to judging whether an aftermarket bulb will blind other folks on the road or not without actually having driven with them/tested and basing it on whatever folks read online. Pics are typically shown to attempt to show light throw/cut off but I agree on color temp can be goofy with pics and even the throw can be misleading, really just have to just try them to see how things works.
Arguing with folks that have never driven your car with your light setup is equally a losing battle that lay it all on (insert details from your post). I can just go drive my car back to back with X and Y and see what I like. I can have someone drive my car at me/behind me and see how that looks in the mirror. It's not that complicated. If you are behind someone and you are lighting up their rear view and see their face, you are blinding them. Same with them coming directly at you in the other lane. If not, you aren't. Again, this isn't that complicated but lord folks make it that way. I have been in front of a car with crappy LED (diodes up/down the length of teh stalk on all sides) and HIDs in reflectors, yes, it blinds you/makes you turn down your mirror. That didn't happen with my kit. So I'm still being blinded but just didn't know it?
Buy better cars - actually yes. Daytime test drives sell cars. If manufacturers couldn't sell a car because of shoddy headlights, they'd do better.
Old - actually yes. I don't care if you have 20/20, there are other metrics of eyesight that impact night driving that do not improve with age. As much as I want to shake my fist in my front yard and blame all the LED lights for making night driving less pleasant, part of it is my vision. And I'm not as old as you. Fewer photoreceptors, smaller pupils, slower pupil response, and cloudy lenses (built in glare source) are the reality we all live.
The other half is that modern cars have beam patterns that better focus light just under the cutoff, as opposed to the sealed dual beam candles of yesteryear. Unless you live in a glass flat town, every bump or crest in the road puts oncoming traffic into your eyes and you into theirs. So yes, the technology that helps us see better is bad for oncoming glare and is added to factors such as aging.
Personally, my day (and night) driving really suffered a year ago when I started wearing glasses at the age of 42. I have zero near/far correction. Mild astigmatism in both eyes. The additional glare of dirty lenses and the reduction in peripheral awareness (I think my brain is trying to ignore the frames) were the biggest downsides. Crispness of vision improved but the glare and overhead used to maintain peripheral awareness are more taxing.
I judge anyone that insists their brighter light sources don't also make for more energy sent in harmful directions. It's the cornerstone rationale for their own narcissism. Your photos illustrate that cutoffs aren't absolute. Even if we assume patterns/cutoffs are 100% preserved, when you make everything proportionately brighter there will be negative consequence of excessive foreground, excessive uplight, etc.
Want actual improvements? The Morimoto MLED 2.0 projector and D2S 5.0 projectors are pretty acclaimed these days.
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Ok then we agree that modern OEM headlights are too bright making anyone buying a new car with these a narcissist.
I never said that. I said they're different which helps your aging eyes but also hurts them when oncoming traffic has them.
Full send with the LEDs.
But as usual in these types of threads, aftermarket = you’re a bad, narcissistic person
OEM = they’re trying and it’s the governments fault.
But as usual in these types of threads, aftermarket = you’re a bad, narcissistic person
OEM = they’re trying and it’s the governments fault.
You like to argue in circles I see.
If OEMs blind you it’s fine, they gave you a brighter headlamp to see better at night.
If I install a brighter bulb to do the same, it’s bad and narcissistic.
The outcome of both is the same, better illumination for the driver at the expense of the oncoming traffic. Not sure how you can justify one and vilify the other.
Bingo.
I guess I imagine that the OEM put effort into the reflector/optics that determine distribution of the light and had certain metrics to meet, for instance SAEJ578. I also pretend that this is a different game than the final user turning up the volume and doing nothing about distribution. If those two divergent paths seem like a circle, perhaps we had different geometry textbooks.
Here, state safety inspections include bulb type and an enforcement push was made less than 5 years ago. Despite this I daily spot violations. Less than 15 years ago they were required to check aim with that fancy aim checker prism mirror thingy. I wish that would come back...which would largely solve your justification of glare from other cars aside from unavoidable bouncing and hills.
LED module swaps are the cheap and easy "solution" when most of the time the 10 year old housings on your beater are degraded and should be replaced. It's right up there with "I'mmagonna drive with my fog lights on so that the extra foreground will help constrict my pupils and make my distance vision worse."
I'm all for individual freedoms but they end when your ignorance impacts the eyeballs of other traffic, which is the definition of narcissism.
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