Yet another LED headlight thread

[Michael_P]

The other day I was buying boat parts at a place that happens to sell RV's as well. While checking out the RV's (not seriously looking), I saw two virtually identical RV's. One had a 2016 International 4500 chassis. The other had a 2017 International 4500 chassis. The 2016 had halogen headlights. The 2017 had LED headlights. The fixtures were identical. Both headlights were from the factory and not some dealer installed option. I thought it was a no no to put LED bulbs in a fixture designed for incandescents. But here seems to be a case where the manufacturer installed LED's in a fixture designed for incandescent bulbs.

Thoughts?

 

[bdcardinal]

They sell LED housings that look like halogen housings. A friend of mine put them on his '74 Dart. They are DOT legal and everything.

 

[UltrafanUK]

The rules vary from country to country and with the output of the LED. For example you can put a legal LED in the side lights or brake lights in the EU, BUT not in the headlights due to the change in the light spread pattern.
Cheap LED's are unreliable regardless of what the advertising says. The expensive (10 usd for a R5W) single cell ones are very reliable and efficient.

 

[HerrStig]

Phillips makes a nice, apparently DOT accepted, set of H4 LED replacements for a little shy of 300 bucks. Ya gotta really want them at that price.

 

[Rand]

Did you look at part numbers or just "think" they are the same.

Also which kind of led bulbs were they.. there are many.

 

[JustinH]

would be interesting to see the part numbers for the housing, and for the bulbs.

Also I would be interested in the presence of a glare shield around the bulb or something as well.

 

[DoubleWasp]

There have been a lot of HID specific reflectors that looked a whole heck of a lot like their halogen counterparts, but we're made around the D2R or D3R bulb.

 

[Michael_P]

I'll have to go back and check part numbers when I pick up my order. There is a lot of info I didn't know about LED's.

 

[daves87rs]

Wonder if we are going to see more older housings offered as LED...

 

[Hokiefyd]

I'd bet more than a few cups of coffee that the housings equipped with LED lights were designed as such from the beginning. Those housings need to meet FMVSS 108 just like everything else does, and you can't do that by using a retrobased LED cluster on an HB4 socket (or similar).

 

[DBMaster]

These threads inevitably contain a claim that "the factory LED/HID/halogen" housings LOOK identical. If they really are identical that is awesome, but I'm willing to bet that most people cannot SEE what the differences are. The curve of a reflector or the focal length of a projector lens is not something that can be "seen" without measurements being made and most of us don't have the measuring equipment. And, a garage door onto which headlights can be shined doesn't qualify as equipment.

 

[KrisZ]

Lots of OEM LED headlights have lots of glare and blind me at night. I don't particularly care of they meet DOT or not, or if the housing was designed for LEDs or not. Terrible light is still a terrible light.
But plenty of people seem to have no problem with being blinded as long as it's from a DOT approved housing and not an HID kit.

 

[DBMaster]

Originally Posted By: KrisZ
Lots of OEM LED headlights have lots of glare and blind me at night. I don't particularly care of they meet DOT or not, or if the housing was designed for LEDs or not. Terrible light is still a terrible light.
But plenty of people seem to have no problem with being blinded as long as it's from a DOT approved housing and not an HID kit.

I don't disagree with you. Unfortunately, there's not much any of us can do about it. Maybe I'll start wearing sunglasses to drive at night...

 

[SubLGT]

Originally Posted By: KrisZ
Lots of OEM LED headlights have lots of glare and blind me at night.


Lots of OEM headlights come off the assembly line aimed too high.
Even in the daylight I am bothered by the LED headlights on Cadillacs, Toyota Corollas, and pickups carrying a load.

A few weeks ago I read an interview with the IIHS engineer who is doing their headlight testing, and these comments from him stuck out:

Quote:
"…FMVSS 108 is not limiting real world glare on a lot of vehicles. That was a surprise to us"

"We've found enough vehicles have such vertical and/or horizontal misaim that FMVss 108 limits don't correlate to real world glare"

"In some cases we see as much glare from the low beams as we see from the high beams"

 

[wing0]

Originally Posted By: SubLGT
Originally Posted By: KrisZ
Lots of OEM LED headlights have lots of glare and blind me at night.


Lots of OEM headlights come off the assembly line aimed too high.
Even in the daylight I am bothered by the LED headlights on Cadillacs, Toyota Corollas, and pickups carrying a load.

A few weeks ago I read an interview with the IIHS engineer who is doing their headlight testing, and these comments from him stuck out:

Quote:
"…FMVSS 108 is not limiting real world glare on a lot of vehicles. That was a surprise to us"

"We've found enough vehicles have such vertical and/or horizontal misaim that FMVss 108 limits don't correlate to real world glare"

"In some cases we see as much glare from the low beams as we see from the high beams"





More than half the time when some Corolla is driving behind me. I would know right away from their blue glare through the rear windshield or side mirror.

I guess Toyota didn't do enough testing to somehow reduce the glare in the design of the headlight and rather just focus on the cost factor to implement this in all trims or something.

 

[Michael_P]

I just got back from the boat/RV store to pick up my parts. There is an actual difference in the diffuser hat (or whatever its called) in the fixture. It looks to be about 1/4" longer and shaped a little different. Furthermore, the parts guy who was having a slow day verified that the part numbers are different. The differences are subtle, but noticeable on more careful observation. Apparently, you cant put a 9007 bulb in the LED fixture and you cant put an LED bulb in the fixture designed for 9007's. I had never seen an OE LED lighting fixture up close before. The way I have heard how its not a good idea to use LED bulbs in a fixture made for incandescent bulbs, I was expecting an OE fixture designed for LED's to be radically different (kind of like Acuras). I learned something new.