LED Headlights

[umangu]

Has anyone ungraded to LED headlights? (Full LED, not just the halo)

How was your experience?

I currently have sealed beam Halogens and don't know whether to upgrade.

Pros and cons?

 

[Mustang Jim]

I upgraded my 64.5 just two weeks ago to the Mustang Project led package that uses Hella glass housings and Cree leds. The LEDs use an H4 plug, so no modifications are necessary. It was a simple swap that took all of 20 minutes in total. These are way brighter than the halogens I took out and provided a much needed improvement in visibility. I can see much further down the road as the light output is easily twice as great. It’s a nice bright white light, but not obnoxious to other drivers. The glass is not curved as much as the old halogens, but a casual observer would never tell the difference. I’m quite happy with them and glad I made the swap.

 

[Mustang Jim]

I forgot to mention the cons. One word... Cost. You could put your own kit together. Hella 7” glass housings can be found on Amazon and eBay for under $40 each and LED bulbs H4 style for little as $40 a pair. I cannot speak to the quality of the bulbs, but I’m sure you get what you pay for.

 

[umangu]

You know man, that's precisely the reason I asked. There are so many 'made for vintage Mustang' LEDs out there, but oh so pricey!!

Meanwhile, plenty of bulbs out there so cheap I definitely know we're being ripped off. All I need to do is find the right housing to match up.

Something that looks like Sylvanias, same glass etching, same curve but engineered to work well with these LED bulbs.

 

[wicked93gs]

I upgraded my 64.5 just two weeks ago to the Mustang Project led package that uses Hella glass housings and Cree leds. The LEDs use an H4 plug, so no modifications are necessary. It was a simple swap that took all of 20 minutes in total. These are way brighter than the halogens I took out and provided a much needed improvement in visibility. I can see much further down the road as the light output is easily twice as great. It’s a nice bright white light, but not obnoxious to other drivers. The glass is not curved as much as the old halogens, but a casual observer would never tell the difference. I’m quite happy with them and glad I made the swap.

I have yet to see ANY LED headlights(or HIDs for that matter) that are not obnoxious to other drivers. The first headlight upgrade you should consider before blinding other drivers is to add relays to your headlight system....its a vast improvement in lighting. While its nice to be able to put out twice the light....that works both ways, you are putting twice the light into other peoples eyes....there is nothing worse when its 2AM and you have just worked a 12 hour day than to be blinded on some country backroad by someone who thought it made his car look cool to have LED headlights. The output from halogens with a relay system is perfectly sufficient for any condition you ever likely to be driving in.

If you are ok with HID/LED headlights, then you are also ok with people driving around with their highbeams on all the time...the light output is similar

 

[umangu]

Why is that? Is it an inherent defect in these bulbs or will a headlight alignment fix it?
I thought with their nice cut-off lines blinding on coming traffic would be less of a problem.

 

[wicked93gs]

More light means more light. Even factory LED/HID headlights actually designed for the car by factory engineers put more strain on other driver's eyes at night, if the DOT actually did their job, they would never have been approved for street use(not that the lack of DOT approval would stop anyone using them of course). If you are going to go with brighter-than-stock headlights of any type though, please take the time to correctly aim them. There are any number of lifted pickups running around...those guys almost never bother to re-aim their headlights when they lift their trucks, minimize the amount of other drivers who will inevitably flash their highbeams at you because they think yours are on. LED taillights are almost as bad late at night honestly, but at least if you are following behind someone with LED taillights you can at least control the distance you are following, which lets you have some control over eye-strain(LED taillights are also most often dimmed to some degree or another)

 

[umangu]

Fair enough. I will look into getting a relay first.