I have factory HID now and I am wondering if I should, or even if I could, convert over to LED headlamps? Please give me your thoughts and feed back. Is it easy to do? Not worth the stress? It just seems like everything is going LED and so LED is much easier to find and buy.

 

I said this before on a few forums. I’ve had both. Currently have HIDS.
If you don’t need to see at night,live in an urban area then sure do LED. If you need to see them leave HID. LEDs are not as bright as HID. The tech hasn’t caught up yet. Sure newer cars have them,but take a closer look at new cars with LED headlamps (acura,Cadillac etc) They ALL have multiple LEDs in the lamp. Newer Acura’s have no fewer then 5 led bulbs per lamp. That doesn’t include signal or running lights. At the same time NOTHING we can buy aftermarket can even come close to oem acura led. Just food for thought

 

Alright. That's good enough for me. Obviously conversation to that multiple LED would no be worth it so I will stick to HID. I drive at night and drive in both country and urban settings. That being said what is the best light quality and brightness for my headlamp? My fogs are 6500k LED CURRENTLY.

 

Fogs are stupid. They over-illuminate the area immediately in front of the car causing pupillary constriction, limiting distance sight. For maximum distance visibility, you want the cabin and immediate surroundings as dark as possible for optimal pupillary dilation and accommodation.

As far as HID vs LED, WHY? Trying to fix something that isn't broken.

 

I have no idea why you even commented? It is completely irrelevant to my question and also just simply unnecessary considering you do not know my driving pattern or reason for asking.

 

I like sharing knowledge. You just got schooled for free. You should be thankful.

 

Fogs that are 6500K are for show only and defeat it's purpose of providing better visibility in the fog close to the front end, especially illuminating the shoulder fog line. The color temperature for optimal visibility amber, is around 3000K, but there are those that see this as ugly and go for the looks over function.

 

I'll check into the 3k fogs. I live in wisconsin and my night driving eyes are not so good. A good fog light has become a necessity for me to see the lines or lanes. Suggestion for best HID bulb for distance and crisp vision?

 

Anecdotally, I replace my windshield, fogs and HID bulbs as glare at night was getting worse and worse. Started scaring myself in construction zones. Finally ended up going to an eye Dr and found that I had cataracts! Modern medicine corrected the issue and I see so much better in night and fog again. Doesn't hurt to replace HIDs every 3 or 4 years but the windshield and fogs were overkill. I prefer 3600 to 4K for my fogs with my eyes but wouldn't go over 4K if fog is really your nemesis.

 

you guys are saying HID are better and brighter for night vision?

 

Not at all. It is all about the Lumens. 5 or 6 leds or 1 big honker. So, it really isn't an LED vs HID as much as lumen to lumen. If you can find the same light output or even more in an LED, sure it can be fine or even superior. (Although the lens plays a big part in the dispersion as well.) But if you have HIDs, a retrofit to LEDs is probably not worth the effort unless you change out the fixture as well and now you are talking real money.

 

Mine had halogen originally, I've had HIDs and LEDs, most recently LEDs but they went bad, I been looking for new bulbs, not sure what to get... I need something bright enough to see at night specially when road is wet... any brands or kinds recommendations?

 

What setup do you have? The original HID projectors and ballast or what is the starting point?

 

OEM projectors, no ballast since they were halogens

 

I'm in AZ and the heat destroyed the lenses on my headlights. I found some used headlights from offerup that had clear lenses. I have the OE HID headlight and the replacements we halogen so I had to take the time to separate the lenses from all the headlights to swap them over.

But my point here is since i was already opening up the headlight, i ordered new morimoto clear projector lenses for $40 from theretrofitsource.com and it made a decent difference on light output from my OE HIDs. As someone that has their windshield tinted I was looking for more output from my headlights at night. The projector cut-off line is crisp and output for focused.