spedaleden

Driving home the other night and was not happy with Halogen output. I did my research on Xeon, HID and LED headlamps and was ready to order HID kit. I called Octane lighting in Cali and talked with owner who was a big help. He was going to sell the HID kit I wanted but then asked me about what I thought about LED. My past experience was it was ok but nothing great. He agreed and told me there has been a lot of changes with LED and he got a new kit in that he thought I would be very happy with,

Benefits

Do not have to rewire car
Kit is plug & play (Sure it is)
Bail out if the headlamp fails run to auto parts store and purchase a bulb
No modification to buckets

Kit is plug and play as he stated
Headlamps are glass housing with are DOT and SAE rated, they are set up for H4 bulbs



LED bulb has a fan built inside to cool headlamp



Kit is plug and play







No modification to buckets



Pic of 1 halogen and 1 led




Completed install








Whole kit was $250 and could not be happier and car can go back to original, if I ever wanted which will never happen. You can hear fan running if you place your hear up to bucket.

Hope this helps others
Dennis

Kubs

Looks cool! I may have to consider this in the future.

sstopczy

Do you have a link to the ones you purchased? I am interested.

maxmachz

yes, link or vendor info for sure!!

Brass Pass

x2

KrisB410

I would read this article
http://www.thetruthaboutcars.com/201...etrofit-bulbs/

LT1M21Vette

Reputable e-code housing, Hella or Bosch, and relayed H1/H4 bulbs are the way to go for upgraded lights, so you can see the road well without blinding oncoming traffic.

toobroketoretire

But 98% of the members in this forum would view that article as total nonsense.

KrisB410

So be it, but the important part of the article was written by Daniel Stern, whom I have seen referenced on this forum many of times as the goto guy for headlights.

spedaleden

This does not pertain to C3's no electronics in the wiring and no body control module to worry about. Housings are DOT and SAE rated

spedaleden

Here are links

https://www.octanelighting.com/p-84-...bulbs-set.aspx

http://www.ebay.com/itm/6K-8k-10k-H4-CREE-LED-White-Hi-Low-Bi-Xenon-HID-Light-Bulbs-Headlight-Kit-Pair-/331624939483?vxp=mtr&hash=item4d3662ffdb
Call them and talk to owner

JimLentz

Do they have a kit or do you have to order the parts separately? Neither of the links go to a LED headlight kit.

lionelhutz

Interesting looking bulbs. Wonder if they are like the HID kits though that completely destroy the housing optics and produce a blinding/glaring light instead of the properly distributed light when the proper H4 halogen is used.

It doesn't make it right just because the housing is DOT approved - the housing isn't DOT approved for use with the LED bulb.

Doesn't matter, I just leave my high beams on and blind the idiots who are running HID's because the "low beams are as good as the high beams". It's only fair.

MotorHead

The same 98% that run double pumpers I assume. How do I break into that lofty 2% you are in ?

Whenever I see those blinding "Look at how bright my headlights are" morons I flash my aircraft landing lights on them

jb78L-82

I would like to see the beam pattern on a wall and a dark road...Only this method will reveal the probability of the lights throwing an improper blinding beam pattern.

There seems to be much confusion about lens light dispersion with HID's versus halogens. The light source does NOT create the beam pattern...the lens reflector and glass/plastic covering of the light housing does. If the headlight uses a halogen bulb for a light source that produces a poor beam pattern then an HID light source will produce a brighter poor beam pattern as well. If the headlight lens has a projector lens using a halogen bulb that produces a sharp even cutoff beam pattern, then the same projector will produce that same beam pattern with an HID bulb, just whiter and brighter.

Example: My 2008 Chrysler 300 with halogen projector lens...sharp even light with cutoff but yellowish weak color light. HID's in the same exact lens...same exact beam pattern just whiter and brighter, no beam scatter...Chrysler uses the same lens for halogen and factory HIDs....hmmm

Kubs

This is only partially true. Yes the beam is a product of the lens design. A brighter bulb of the same type will produce a brighter beam in the same housing. However, the design of the bulb matters as well.

Housings designed to halogen blubs utilize the specific "hot spots", or location of concentrated light, in the halogen bulb. The angles of the housing are set up to maximize the beam. Putting an HID bulb in a halogen housing will not make the beam brighter because the hot spot is in a different location and requires a different housing angle to use it. Same goes with projectors. A halogen projector is different from an HID projector and they cannot be interchanged. This is why when people "upgrade" to HIDs they blind on coming traffic with a bright terrible beam. The bright bulb in the wrong housing just sends light all over the place.

If these LED headlights are designed to use the hot spot location of a halogen bulb then they should work very well. If not then they will just blind people without projecting much on the road.

sstopczy

I am interested to hear your results. Have you driven at night and had people flash their brights at you? I do t want to do this and then have them be too bright. I'd be really curious to get your thoughts while driving another car at your vette if you'd let someone else drive your vette. That would be hard for me.

lionelhutz

No, if you move the light source inside the housing then the light reflects differently off the inside the housing and goes out of the housing at different angles. Some housing and HID retrofit combinations are worse than others. I have good H4 housing on my car. Using the halogen bulbs they produce a cutoff line almost as good as a projector. But, use a "H4 HID retrofit kit" with the housing and the light pattern looks like a crappy spot light.

There is no such thing as projector designed for both Halogen and HID. They are designed for the light type. If your projector uses a bulb type like a D1S or D2S then it's a HID projector. If it uses a bulb like a H4 or 9004 or similar then it's a halogen housing. It's amazing how many people can't understand this....

jb78L-82

You are correct that the hot spot of the bulb will vary from halogen to HID bulbs. I would assume that since Chrysler uses the same Lens design for 300's with halogen projectors and HID's, the hot spot focal points must be very close between the two types of bulbs since the beam pattern between the two is almost exactly the same. I have used the HID conversion kit with my Chrysler 300 for 7 years now and no one has ever "beamed" me. I use Hella Euro lead crystal lenses on my 78 since 1983 with 55/60 watt lows and 100 watt halogen highs

I did a proper 100% conversion on my 2001 Pontiac Grand Prix from theretrofitsource.com with HID projectors fitted into the stock GP headlight housing...these lights are awesome!!! Ever see a stock 2001 GP headlights? They are worse than worse.

toobroketoretire

You'll need a lot more "hands on" experience and education in several scientific disciplines to reach that upper 2% level. But in reality its the upper 1/100th of 1% that you need to achieve.