LED headlights

[malum]

Has anyone upgraded their headlights with an LED kit?
If so which kit did you use and would you recommend it?

The lights on my 2002 A4 are shockingly bad with normal bulbs and even with night-breaker bulbs in them they are only just passable. The amount I've spent on bulbs in the last 4 years would cover the cost of the upgrade!

 

[Sandra]

Try site sponsor @t8ups he is the lighting specialist and is the best.

 

[malum]

Thanks
I's still beinterested to hear about anyone who has done it and if they are any good

 

[john777w]

I think LED headlamp bulbs would be a disaster, did you mean HID's

 

[malum]

No LED like this

 

[john777w]

I'm sure somebody on here has tried LED & they were bad!

 

[vr6gordy]

Led head lights are crap unless you modify your lense projector .. Hid are mile better

 

[Gazwould]

Surely they sit in between halogen and hid for performance ?

 

[malum]

It just became a bit of a moot point as the engine light came on today and it's thrown a P0421 code.
I've reset it and we'll see how it goes! Money might be neede elsewhere

 

[DrStrange]

Hi Malum,

I think from a time/money/inconvenience point of view HID's would be better.

Reason being..the HID's will guarantee to give you the lighting colour and power you want at a cheap price.

LED's can be a mine field because a lot of these Chinese manufacturers lie about their lighting output. (ive been burned by this in the past) so doing your research takes ages.

If you were 100% determined on this..the 'Cree' route is best but again a lot of them are clones of real 'Cree' lights.

The only way to test im afraid is to buy and see. Googling for peoples reviews on a particular set of LED's helps but not better than your own experience.

Hope this helps

 

[malum]

Thanks
I wasn't really sure of the difference between HID and Cree LEDS.
Anyway it's off the table at the moment due to CEL being on.
Let's see if I can get it through its MOT without spending more than its worth on it first!

 

[DrStrange]

Thanks
I wasn't really sure of the difference between HID and Cree LEDS.
Anyway it's off the table at the moment due to CEL being on.
Let's see if I can get it through its MOT without spending more than its worth on it first!

No problemo.

HID use Xenon filled gas (with other gasses) to give off a particular light which is nice and bright. LED's do the same but often look a tad bit 'sharper'.

For example, if you see the new Toyota Prius, you will notice there headlights have a really crisp shining light. They are LED's.

Difficult to compare though as they are OEM compared to Ebay ones.

Hope all the other stuff goes well in the meantime.

 

[kevbu]

They look easy to install, but I'd like to see them in road conditions rather than on a wall.
I dont think they look as bright as standard bulbs, just whiter.

 

[DrStrange]

They look easy to install, but I'd like to see them in road conditions rather than on a wall.
I dont think they look as bright as standard bulbs, just whiter.

Yes i think this is true although it really does depend on which ones you get. No 2 Led lights are created equal haha.

 

[D9n dk]

I've used led Cree headlight bulbs for some months now possible closer to a year and I've never had a problem with them. They was only a cheap eBay purchase to try them out as I was getting annoyed with hid kits going wrong or bulbs being different colour after time or cutting out. On my project thread there is a picture of the bulbs I've used somewhere and a before and after picture of the lights, you do have to use a load resister with them to cancel the warning lights on the dash and be careful the resisters do get hot I've also got some pictures where I fitted mine. I thought as they was only cheap even if they lasted a couple of months then I'd be happy nearly a year on still no issues and still going strong, I'm thinking of getting some new ones slightly higher wattage so they are a little brighter as I do quite a lot of country lane driving but other than that I love mine