Oceans13

I ordered a set of interior LED bulbs, and got to thinking about LED headlight bulbs. Lowbeams and possibly highbeams / drls / foglights. Anybody swap their conventional bulbs for the LEDs?

dwoods801

LED’s are easy and cheap upgrades, I started with those for my fog lights and high beams, but couldn’t get a good match to the factory Xenon bulbs, so I swapped the LED’s for the aftermarket hid kits. If u are careful doing the install, they are very reliable and still affordable. And then u can get a little more creative with the color temp.

Oceans13

I actually did the 3M headlight restoration and clearcoat to my car tonight in anticipation of getting some LED bulbs, What brand did you use? Do the high beams eliminate DRL? Any flickering?

And the HID, which kit did you use?

dwoods801

I can’t recall the brand but from my experience, there is only a handful of companies making the ballasts and bulbs, and a million retailers, selling the same parts, and just putting there brand name on the box.
The DRL’s didn’t survive the first upgrade when I swapped the high beam halogen bulbs to LED’s. The DRL’s are high beams being fed 6v instead of 12v, to dim em down a little. And the only LED and Xenon options I found require a minimum of 9v. I was hoping to save the DRLs but not enough to stick with the halogens. There is actually a 194 bulb hiding in the high beam bucket, once I put a brighter LED in it, it actually looks just like the DRL’s anyway.
Let me know if you have any other questions, I think LEDs are great and have tracked down every last green halogen bulb in the car and swapped em. There has to be 100 of the little things hiding throughout. It was a bit of an undertaking to find em all

Oceans13

Did you change the lamp housings for the HIDs?

firelizard

iTrader: (1)

There's no HID high beam housing on the market, other than retrofitting a projector. The factory HID lamp is a complete lamp unit with a different low beam reflector, auto-leveling servos, and ballast attached, but the high beam cups are the same as on the non-HID lamps.

Oceans13

So I would need to purchase used HID housings compatible with the gs300 / gs430 and buy aftermarket ballast / xenon bulbs? Might be out of my budget and skill level. I am planning on ordering a set of 9006 LEDs this week to see how they look / work in my restored halogen housings, properly alligned and leveled. Also considering a set of 9005 LED Hibeam bulbs to eliminate the halogen DRL.

dwoods801

Whatever housing u have is fine, u can order basically any kit, for any setup, for any option. Just decide what is important and do some research to learn what set up is going to fit your needs. I just started buying kits off Amazon and skipped the research part, and had to pay for an education I could have got for free. If u want simple, bright, easy and reliable, some 6000k LEDs will look great and should last longer than the rest of the car without ever even flinching, or if u want a sweet look, the Xenon’s but they are more work to install, can be temperamental, the bulbs get really hot and can melt a housing. U could go with LED's in your lowbeams so they are reliable and get a xenon kit for the fog lights, where it's not critical if u have a problem

Oceans13

I got the nineo leds. The installation was pretty easy. I don't like how they look in the reflector housing but that's just me. the beam pattern is good and the lights are very bright. I might adjust the elevation so as not to blind the oncoming drivers.

cr4west

I needed a 3mm flat top wide angle warm white internal resistor 12v leds. Never did find any of this type and ended up just buying a 50 pack of 3mm bulbs off Amazon for $10 and a 10 pack of 5mm bulbs for $7.

Oceans13

For which of the lights?

dwoods801

I bought a box of those 5 color, 3mm and 5mm bulbs and without a resistor they burn out after a month or 2. I found these on eBay and the price was a lot higher, they work great for all the soldier in place 3mm square And flat top LED’s Hidden in my factory radio and window switches that I wanted to change from the factory green to a blue. These have the resistor built right in so they will last for the rest of my lifetime without any trouble.

cr4west

@Oceans13 I used the 3mm bulbs in the various switches in the dash and center console. Used the 5mm bulb in the mirror control switch.

Oceans13

I don't completely understand what you were trying to do. If you are trying to do the dashboard cluster LEDs, here's an instructional video.

If you are doing the climate control