9007 LED headlights

[EL SHO]

Has anyone tried in your car a set of 9007 LED headlights and how they work?
Wondering if it would be a good investment.
Currently I have a set of Silvania Silverstars and they are good but LEDs could be better?

 

[NoSlo]

New or re-polished headlight housings will make a world of difference, I would do that before worrying about the bulbs. Replacing one of my headlights recently made a noticeable difference.

Then you might do another trick to increase the voltage to the headlights - take +12v right from the battery with a fusible link on large gauge wire, and run the headlights via a relay on each. This gives better power than old wiring harness wires that go through two fuse boxes, through the headlight switch, and then to the lights. You should use individual relays for each light so you don't lose both at once from a malfunction, and you'll need relays for both high and low beams if you want to boost both. You should NOT do this with a daytime running light module, as it pulses the high beams on and off 50 times a second which will destroy the relays. You can get a kit that includes everything and plugs into your old headlight bulb connectors.

Looking at the LED headlights (which I hadn't heard of before), they all look like no-name Chinese imports that are likely neither reliable nor an upgrade.

 

[SHOdded]

Philips, Osram, and PIAA among other name brands also offer LED lighting. Problem is LED lighting looks great & fancy, but is still in developmental stages. Put bulbs into reflector housings especially, most of the light is foreground, not distance. PIAA has the best implementation so far that I have seen, but at 250 a pair, it can get a bit pricy. The bulbs you choose should have a cap on the end to at least scatter the lighting more "normally", or even a capsule surrounding the element (not really that good).

 

[EL SHO]

I've never heard of that trick to increase voltage to the headlights, sounds like a doable project to try.
I have already replaced the headlight housings about a year or two ago and later installed the Sylvania Silverstars, they light up good but thought LEDs might be an upgrade.

I've seen Phillips LED headlight bulbs at Autozone (pricy) and the rest have been from china.
I think I should then invest in an upgrade from the stock fog lights, those I dont even notice a difference when I turn them on.

 

[zak]

You might want to look into GE Nighthawk or Phillips Extreme Power in a 9007. They don't draw any additional power over stock, but instead have much more precise manufacturing and focus their energy at the exact focal point of the lens assembly. This puts more light down on the road, typically with better distribution.

The trade off is much shorter life, about a year, so carry spares or save your old bulbs. Like them on my Gen 2 the increase in output was noticeable (I changed one bulb first then compared shining on road vs shining on wall etc.).

 

[zak]

In the Classifieds I have some brand new aftermarket headlight housings for sale, cheap if that would help.

 

[TimboSHO]

The relay idea that Noslo was talking about is available in a kit as well!


http://www.shosource.com/catalog/product_info.php?cPath=61_7_15&products_id=494