turabo87

Hi folks,

As the title says, I'm playing with the idea of a refresh/modernization of the pop up headlights. I'm a fan of the look of the pop up headlights therefore I plan to keep them, but I was considering that look change to either LED or HID bulbs. Who has done it, what did you get, and do you like it and have any pictures? I'm not looking for ridiculously bright lights, I just think the change of yellowing headlights to a white headlight might look nice.

Tsumi

Radioflyer ACA popup headlights. Nothing else comes close, and everything else that looks white will have poor lighting and/or cause excessive glare.

NSFW

A lot of simple bulb swaps end up with terrible beam patterns, so watch out for that. If you point the car at a wall at night with HID or LED bulbs, there should be a very clear cutoff between where the light goes (headlight height and lower) and where the light doesn't go (above headlight height, into the eyes of oncoming drivers). That wasn't so important with incandescent bulbs, but modern stuff is so bright that's important to have a good cutoff. This is why factory HID assemblies tend to have projectors, lenses, and a cutoff shield in between. Below the cutoff line everything is lit up like you have high-beams on. Above the cutoff, there's very little light to mess with the people piloting multi-ton death traps in your direction.

TheRadioFlyer

With a good set of headlights, they won't appear "ridiculously bright", rather they will disperse light evenly over a larger area with both width and "throw". All of our headlights do this.

info@umnitza.com

https://www.corvetteforum.com/forums...cial-sale.html

Something to consider

RPGR90s

The headlight aiming was waaayyy out of adjustment on my new to me 2000 C5. I simply learned how to adjust them and they now work fine. There are lots of upgrades I could probably do but I like originality when it works.

My $.02

StrangelovesM6Vert

I've had these Radioflyers with 55 watt HIDs for 4 years
The high beams take 2 seconds the first time but then they're almost instant.

_zebra

LEDs will need an in-line resistor to provide enough resistance for the headlights to go up & down, but those get hot. HIDs are the better option for brightness andease of installation/operation. or you could do HIR halogens as a moderate upgrade from stock.

all those options are discussed in great detail all over this website, many with easy-to-follow instructions & part numbers.

OneFast1

I tried the LED and did not like the light spread. LED is not the same as a filament bulb as it does not have the same wavelength which means you have to align it just right in the housing otherwise your spread is all over the place. I changed to HID which is way better but not as close as the ones that RadioFlyer sells. Just look at your flashlight that has a filament bulb and compare it to the beam of an LED and you will get the idea.

TheRadioFlyer

Close... You're talking about focal point. (and I say "point" with a very vague sense of the word since even a halogen bulb is more of a focal "bar"). When LED bulbs to replace headlights were first released, it was all about getting as much Lumens out as possible. Now manufacturers are focusing on making the chip-sets as small as possible and as close to the focal point of the bulb filament they are replacing to replicate the correct pattern but with increased brightness and more appealing color. Some bulbs are better at this than others, but for the most part, I still think that high-output LED bulbs are best used in a dedicated high beam position where a specific pattern is not as critical as with the low beams. Currently all of our headlight kits use high-output LED bulbs in the dedicated high beam position.

This is not to be confused with a dedicated LED projector in which the LEDs are built into the Projector housing. This is not a replacement bulb and as a result performs MUCH better than any replacement bulb and even better than some HID projectors on the market today. We are switching to a Bi-LED projector for our fixed headlight system (mostly for clearance reasons) but also gaining a slight improvement in long-distance vision as well.