LED Headlight Upgrade

[myotis1134]

Sorry for the delay... Got the LEDs installed some time ago, but poking around revealed other problems I had to deal with. Better late than never though, here's what went down.

First, here's some before and after pics.

Pre - Dim: (sorry no before - bright)


Post - Bright: Post - Dim: Post - Front:


As you can see (sort of), there's a decent difference in light-output. The particular LEDs I installed are supposed to be in between HID and halogen lights, lumen-output-wise.

... Specifics. According to the site (VLEDS), these bulbs crank out 2500 lumen on low beams, and 4500 on high. I'm not certain how that compares to the Sylvanias, but there is a definite difference.
Here's a link to the LEDs I got (9007 LMZ Platinum Ultra Output High/Low Headlights)

I got four boxes in the mail, two were the bulbs, and two were the controllers. The controllers also came with 9007 harness adapters, so no wiring modifications were necessary.

Bulb: Controller: Adapter: Assembled:


I took some measurements to see how close the controller needed to be to the bulbs, and it came out to approximately 10 inches of wire.

Schematic:


- Unable to insert more (necessary) pictures, so I'll continue this in a following post.

 

[sperold]

Very impressive.
Is that bulb a new invention, it has a futuristic look?
I take it you do not have to alter the back of the headlight housing at all, you simply install it as you would a factory unit.
If they burn out, do you have to get a whole new unit, or can you get a new "tip"?

 

[myotis1134]

continued...

With 10 inches to play with, I determined the controllers could be mounted on the sides of the engine bay - in front of the air-box, and tucked behind the battery.

Controller Positions:


Using the assumption that the controller boxes were stepping-down the voltage, I determined they would be putting out some heat. To aid in heat-removal, I didn't want the controllers to be contacting the walls. To achieve this:

1. I picked up some plate with pre-drilled mounting holes from Home Depot.
2. cut them to the dimensions of the controllers.
3. marked and drilled the controller-mounting holes on the plates.
4. used four of the pre-drilled holes on the plates as a template to drill mounting holes on the engine-bay-walls.

Mounting Plate (marked):


The plates were fairly thin, so I doubled up - not wanting them to be able to flex. To achieve a gap between the walls and the mounts, I picked up some nylon spacers from the hardware store. As you can see, I spaced the mounts from the walls, and the controllers from the mounts.

Controllers mounted to plates:


After some mother ****ing experimentation, I determined that removing the fenders weren't necessary to gain access to the opposite area of the engine-bay walls, where the plates would mount. Instead I merely had to pull the blinker housings and I had all the access I needed.

Drilling the driver side was straightforward - After pulling the air box, I had plenty of room to maneuver the drill. The passenger side was a bit tricky - I could only drill the trunk-side holes, due to the air-conditioning coolant line, so the front-mounting holes had to be done on the outside - through the blinker-housing space.

Plates secured in blinker housing space:

 

[myotis1134]

Wanting to be able to remove the controllers + mounting plates as a whole, I got machine screws (#6 I believe) long enough to extend about 1/2 inch beyond the outer engine-bay walls. I secured the machine screws to the plates (red locktight), then mounted the controllers to the plates, put on the plate-spacers, and poked the screws through the walls. This way I only have to pull the blinkers, unscrew the lock-nuts, and the whole assembly comes out.

The bulbs have a removable spacer with slots for the bulb-retainer to go through. The retainer must be slid down the bulb before the spacer is threaded on. This causes a tricky situation, since the spacer has a small screw-lock to secure it to the bulb (requires a small allen), and access to this is blocked unless you cut a small chunk from the back of the retainer.

Bulb minus spacer: Spacer: Bulb with spacer:


Notched bulb-retainer:


Retainer on bulb:


Note: Don't be a ***** like I was, and attempt to take some snips to the retainer. It is very hard/brittle plastic, and you will crack it if you use blunt force. I broke out the Dremel and ground out a space on the passenger side retainer, but ended up using half a roll of electrical tape to "fix" the driver side one.

 

[myotis1134]

The bulbs are supposed to be positioned horizontally in the headlight assembly, supposedly for optimal light output. This takes some dinking around to get it right. Also, the spacer is supposed to be threaded up or down to get the LED position around the same position as the original bulb filament.

After all that it's cake. The driver side was a breeze, plenty of clearance. The passenger side was **** - I ended up cutting to get clearance for the bulb.



It was worth the effort in the end. After tucking the wiring out of the way, putting the battery and air-box back into place, the results were pretty cool.

The only hitch I'm noticing, is that I'm getting a "bulb out" hazard light on the dash, when the low beams are on. I'm guessing it has something to do with the low amount of voltage the LEDs use, but I'm not certain. I'm looking into this, but if anyone has suggestions...



I recommend this upgrade to everyone. It ended up costing around $400.00 for the bulbs and hardware, but a significant increase in lighting, and therefore safety. I attempted this upgrade because I was getting sick and tired of being blinded by people with HIDs, as they massively overpowered my own light output when approaching me on the road. Now I can still see the road in front of me.

The next logical step is to upgrade the fog lights to LED as well. Stay tuned.

 

[myotis1134]

Sperold, the bulb is futuristic-looking indeed, but it's the built-in fan that gives it "the look". The bottom of the bulb is a large heat-sink with fins and a fan. This is what caused me so much pain on my clearance issues.

 

[SHOdded]

Great writeup! Yeah, keeping those bright LEDs cool is a BIG effort The ones I use have a passive heatsink (no fans), but they are equally massive in that area. Hard to say how efficient they are though. Jury's still out on light scatter & cutoffs in headlight housings meant for halogens.

 

[sperold]

You can search this forum for threads of people using LED tail lights and getting that "light out" situation. With the tail lights, a special "Grodde?" flasher was required to use the signal light, and I think it incorporates a resistor.

In your climate, in the winter, could you delete the fans somehow. Is there a chance for too much cooling?

What is the amount of spacer travel to get the light tip in the same spot as the original bulb? Is it trial and error, or do you simply line the 2 up on a bench and set it by comparison, away from the car?

Is the back of the SHO plastic housing altered in any way to make this work?

 

[TimboSHO]

a special "Grodde?" flasher

It's a Grote flasher. I have not upgraded to LED's at all, so I can't tell you which one.... Of course, the headlights don't flash, so you would have to do something different. I think if you could wire in some appropriate resisters in the circuit, that would work. You just have to figure out how much more resistance you need in the circuit to equal that of the original halogen bulb.

 

[itwonder]

I may try a set in out '97 Camry - great car, lousy headlights.

 

[myotis1134]

Thanks for the feedback guys... I have a list here...

1. Thanks SHOdded, totally agree with you on the lens. I've always wanted to build my own headlight housing, but with a clear lens rather than the refractory deal we're stuck with at present. Shouldn't be too hard (in theory), CF or fiberglass body, aluminum frame, couple types of polycarbonate to choose from, and I found a walk-through a couple years back outlining how to mold poly in the oven. something to think about at the least.

2. Sperold, thanks for the Grodde tip. I do want that warning light to go away so I'll be dealing with that next. As for the fan delete, it might be possible during the winter months, but it would be pure speculation on my part. I have no idea how much heat is generated, or what the limits are for these LEDs. However, and this is still speculation, basing this hypothesis on the size of the heatsink and fan - it can't be cranking out that much heat - so pulling the fan wire could work, but I'd have to do a lot more homework to be comfortable with trying it on something that costs $160 a pop.
To get the bulb spacing right, I had the halogen and LED on my desk, and moved the spacer around until it looked right when they were side-by-side. I used the o-ring at the base as reference vs the difference in length from the retainer, if that makes sense. The tricky part was finding the correct position after removing everything and slipping the retainer on, then threading the spacer back on - that took some experimenting, but it only took a couple tries.
No modification of the headlight housing was required. The spacer configuration matches the sylvania bulb, so it's a direct fit.

3. TimboSHO, thanks for the game plan. I agree with you, and it shouldn't be too difficult to determine the difference in voltage. I'll be browsing some LED sites/forums to see what configurations others have used to combat this issue.

4. Itwonder... at least you have a SHO.

 

[SHOdded]

Current Draw ~3.45A @ 12V (vLED listing/about 42W), so does the SHO detect ANY voltage below 55W as a bulb-out situation for the headlamps? The LEDs I use are 20W and no issues, but different year, different model ...