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Tried LED headlight, no good. Anyone tried as well?
I recently drive my 2013 RX350 quite often in the night. So, I figured that enhancing the headlight with LED bulbs can be a good idea. However, I tried two sets of LED bulbs from amazon (one from Hikari ~$90, one from JDM ~$60) for the lower beam lights (H11). The results are disappointing: 1. the LED lights are not noticeably brighter than the stock halogen bulbs . 2. The shape of the tip of LED bulbs projected a shaded area in from of the car.
The reviews of both bulbs seem to be very good. Considering most of recent year cars use the projector headlight for lower beam, which is the same as my RX350. I don't understand why my results are so different.
Has anyone tried the LED conversion for lower beam headlight? What is your experience? Thanks.
Mine is 2013 but F-Sport. My low beams are HID and I find them fairly reasonable.
I replaced the high beams and fog lights a month ago with LEDs and they made a big difference while driving to the mountains at night. My main concern was that it's so blinding to incoming traffic but the highway was dead at that time so no harm to others occurred.
I finally came to a conclusion that the headlights are not really made for generic LEDs due to the reflection pattern and that it might be time to consider flipping the whole headlight assembly with different configurations like these Headlights
Tip on LED bulb can be removed, what I did on all of mine. Unless you have one that does not have tip and it's molded aluminum piece.
I had Hikari on one of my cars and was rather pleased with them.
I am presuming, you ended with patchie light cast?
Thing is, OEM headlight reflector is specifically designed for a particular light source. They are "mated together". Simply sticking something brighter in does not always produce desired effect as optical characteristics of that source are not matching optical characteristics of the reflector.
Mine is 2013 but F-Sport. My low beams are HID and I find them fairly reasonable.
I replaced the high beams and fog lights a month ago with LEDs and they made a big difference while driving to the mountains at night. My main concern was that it's so blinding to incoming traffic but the highway was dead at that time so no harm to others occurred.
I finally came to a conclusion that the headlights are not really made for generic LEDs due to the reflection pattern and that it might be time to consider flipping the whole headlight assembly with different configurations like these Headlights
Thanks for your response. Mine is Halogen type not HID. That is why I wanted to upgrade. I don't care high beam and fog lights since I don't use them that much. I studied a little bit on the shape of the LED bulbs and found that the newer ones are made in such a way that the LED array resembles the Halogen filament very closely. As a results, the direction of the light does not change (as for my case) after the LED replacement.
Tip on LED bulb can be removed, what I did on all of mine. Unless you have one that does not have tip and it's molded aluminum piece.
I had Hikari on one of my cars and was rather pleased with them.
I am presuming, you ended with patchie light cast?
Thing is, OEM headlight reflector is specifically designed for a particular light source. They are "mated together". Simply sticking something brighter in does not always produce desired effect as optical characteristics of that source are not matching optical characteristics of the reflector.
The ones I got did not have a enlarged tip. The LED chip holder is a like T shape looking from the front. And the T is casted to the lens and the ground in front of the car. It was not that bad since the tip is not that large. But it is not brighter. So there is no point of switching to LED. The thing I don't understand is that a lot of reviewers on Amazon claimed the the LED bulbs are so much brighter. I believe the headlight projectors are all made similar: a smaller reflector plus a lens in the front. I am still puzzled.
By the way, I did put LED bulbs on one of my older car which has reflector headlight housing and it is much brighter. Maybe, LED is only good for reflector. I don't know. Thanks.
I've used aftermarket LEDs with my following vehicles:
1. CT200h with all OEM halogens.
I replaced OEM low beam halogens AND fogs with aftermarket LEDs.
Much better visibility to the front and sides and NOT blinding oncoming traffic.
2. RX450h with OEM BIXEON HIDs, but OEM fogs were halogens.
I replaced the OEM fogs halogens with aftermarket LEDs.
Much better visibility to the front and sides and NOT blinding oncoming traffic.
3. LX570 with OEM BIXEON HIDs, but OEM fogs were halogens.
I replaced the OEM fogs halogens with aftermarket LEDs.
Much better visibility to the front and sides and NOT blinding oncoming traffic.
All the above three vehicles going on 3+ years since the conversion to LEDs without any problems except for one of the LEDs burnt out and one got damaged during a fender bender on the CT200h about one year after the LED conversations. The RX450h and the LX570 LED fogs are still running strong without any issues.
There are some CL members advocating the more "advanced/sophisticated lighting retrofit systems" that costs anywhere from several hundred to several thousand dollars.......personally if I WERE to spend that kind of money on an old car......I'll just go buy a much newer car with the more advanced lighting systems.
I've tried many different LEDs when I was trying to find the best one back 3+ years ago. Lucky for me, Amazon has a generous 30 days return policy. The LEDs I got 3+ years ago are no longer in production. There is a good YouTube video of the most recent LEDs review with the link below.
I recently drive my 2013 RX350 quite often in the night. So, I figured that enhancing the headlight with LED bulbs can be a good idea. However, I tried two sets of LED bulbs from amazon (one from Hikari ~$90, one from JDM ~$60) for the lower beam lights (H11). The results are disappointing: 1. the LED lights are not noticeably brighter than the stock halogen bulbs . 2. The shape of the tip of LED bulbs projected a shaded area in from of the car.
The reviews of both bulbs seem to be very good. Considering most of recent year cars use the projector headlight for lower beam, which is the same as my RX350. I don't understand why my results are so different.
Has anyone tried the LED conversion for lower beam headlight? What is your experience? Thanks.
Lexusrus, thanks for the info. I checked your links. But I could not find a reason why the LED low beams works ok with your CT200h and does not work for my RX350.Maybe the headlight projector housing of your car is different than mine. I am currently only seeking to change the low beam instead of fog/high beam. Thanks again.
One thing that YouTube video review I put a link said is to compare your OEM halogen bulbs to your prospective LED bulbs. Meaning compare the overall length and the actual location of the OEM halogen filaments to the location of the LED "chips"....... You want as close a "match" in terms of distance from the "base" of the "bulb" to the "LED chips" where it lights up. So that the light housing projector will "try" to project the light out as close to OEM specs as possible.
Also try to get "FANLESS" LEDs. The ones with a "fan" tend to burn out sooner based on my prior experience.
Is your RX350 OEM halogen low beam light housing "projector type" or "reflective type"?
I will post pictures of my OEM CT200h and RX450h light housings later this afternoon when I get a chance.
****Important**** Once you find the aftermarket LED's that will work for you. Make sure to order an extra pair for future use. The ones you ordered just now WILL MOST LIKELY NOT BE IN PRODUCTION LATER ON. I have an extra pair on standby. So if one burns put later, I have an EXACT color match to replace it.
I would leave the "high beams" alone (OEM halogens) since these are proven and more reliable AND as a last resort if for some reason the aftermarket LED's fail.
Note the equal length of the OEM halogen bulb vs the aftermarket LED bulb. This is the CT200h OEM light housing. Note the most outside one is the low beam which has the OEM \"projector type" housing vs the high beam next to it to the left which has OEM "reflective type" housing. Usually it's better to use "projector type" of housing for higher output bulbs such as the LEDs otherwise with the "reflective type housing" there will be too much scattering of light all over the place.
This is the OEM RX450h light housing. My RX450h came with OEM HIDs so I did not change these. But the fogs (not shown) were OEM halogens and I replaced with aftermarket LED's. Note that the low beam with HID on the outside (most right of the picture) is the \"projector type housing".
Originally Posted by sz8
Lexusrus, thanks for the info. I checked your links. But I could not find a reason why the LED low beams works ok with your CT200h and does not work for my RX350.Maybe the headlight projector housing of your car is different than mine. I am currently only seeking to change the low beam instead of fog/high beam. Thanks again.
I did fanless on my Camry and they were fine but cooling fins need to be spread far apart as much as you can, to produce good heat exchange. On Highlander, I went to fanned ones. yeah, a bit of humm, but they were more powerful.
Ratings you see online is combined brightness for both bulbs. So if they say 8000 lumen, it's actually 4 000 per bulb.
The ones I got are 4800 lumens each (or 9600 lumens combined) which is the same as yours.
I still prefers FANLESS. And yes, I spread the silver strands as widely spart as possible for heat dissipation.
All good.
Originally Posted by ukrkoz
Can't help. I had LEDs in my Highlander, same projector lense as yours, and it worked fine.
here's what I had: https://www.amazon.com/MOSTPLUS-Head...ype=automotive
I did fanless on my Camry and they were fine but cooling fins need to be spread far apart as much as you can, to produce good heat exchange. On Highlander, I went to fanned ones. yeah, a bit of humm, but they were more powerful.
Ratings you see online is combined brightness for both bulbs. So if they say 8000 lumen, it's actually 4 000 per bulb.
Lexusrus, thanks for the photos and info. The housing of mine looks the same as your CT200h. The low beam is projector and high beam is reflector.
Passive heat sink is good but currently, I don't think that matters since it does not necessarily produce more light. The led bulbs I got do have very similar beam pattern as halogen bulbs since they are similar to the halogen bulbs in terms of position of the LED array. I currently has no plan to do HID since
the package mounting has too much trouble for me.
Please don't get me wrong: the LED still works for my car but it just does not produce more light than the stock halogen. Is the led of low beam of your CT200h brighter than the stock halogen bulb?
Ukrkos: same question: for your highlander, is led brighter or did you just want the color of the led?
Thanks,
Ahhhhh, a headlight discussion my favorite. To begin, Toyota and their headlight parts supplier Koito have done a really good job at making headlight parts among the Toyota brands interchangeable. Let me please introduce you to the world of retrofitting. OP, the factory projector that comes in your specific RX350 is that same halogen and HID Xenon projector that Toyota has been putting into their and Lexus vehicles for quite some time. The good thing about this is that there is a specific Bi-Xenon projector that will directly bolt into your headlight housing, in place of your current halogen projector (Xenon is low beam projector, Bi-Xenon is a projector that functions as High and Low Beam). This specific projector is the RX350 non-afs projector, which initially was offered in the Other Parts of World RX350, beginning model year 2010 to 2012. For the US, beginning in 2010 thru 2012, the RX350's with Bi-Xenon received the AFS Bi-Xenon projector. There are two differences between the AFS and non-AFS Bi-Xenon projectors, they are bolt pattern and Bi-Xenon shield, however the optics and reflectors of the projector are arguably the same. What is even better news is that these projectors are one of the best Bi-Xenon projectors for retrofitting, and when combined with the correct clear lens, bulb, and ballast, come into their own; the non-AFS will bolt right into your headlight housing.
I do need to clarify that going the Bi-Xenon route is pretty expensive, but the results are pretty amazing. My mother has 2010 RX350 with Bi-Xenon (AFS) that I just upgraded the bulbs and swapped projector lens, it is hard to describe the amount of usable light that has been unleashed.
Lastly, if you are keen to stick with your stock projector setup up, you can always throw an H9 into the low beam and a 9011 into the high beam. If you must go with LED conversion, check out Diode Dynamics SL1. Please, for the sake of other drivers around you, pick your LED bulbs carefully, you get what you pay for. You can find reputable brands of LED bulbs from Lighwerkz Global and The Retrofit Source.
Mine is 2013 but F-Sport. My low beams are HID and I find them fairly reasonable.
I replaced the high beams and fog lights a month ago with LEDs and they made a big difference while driving to the mountains at night. My main concern was that it's so blinding to incoming traffic but the highway was dead at that time so no harm to others occurred.
I finally came to a conclusion that the headlights are not really made for generic LEDs due to the reflection pattern and that it might be time to consider flipping the whole headlight assembly with different configurations like these Headlights
If you are handy, you can retrofit the non-AFS Bi-Xenon into your headlights for half the price (all parts included) and have almost twice the performance that those *linked* headlights will offer you.
YES SIR!!! My aftermarket LED'S are much better and brighter than the OEM halogens.
After I changed over to the aftermarket LEDs (low beams and fogs).......AT NIGHT whenever I roll up to a vehicle in front of me that is traveling slower than me, that vehicle (9 out of 10) will start to move over and let me pass. THIS was not true with my OEM halogens. Also multiple lanes of traffic going the same direction.....the vehicle to my right tend to move further to its right side as I pass them (semitrucks included). This was not the case when I had OEM halogens. Incidentally the above experience is the same with my RCF's OEM triple beam LEDs at night.
Originally Posted by sz8
Lexusrus, thanks for the photos and info. The housing of mine looks the same as your CT200h. The low beam is projector and high beam is reflector.
Passive heat sink is good but currently, I don't think that matters since it does not necessarily produce more light. The led bulbs I got do have very similar beam pattern as halogen bulbs since they are similar to the halogen bulbs in terms of position of the LED array. I currently has no plan to do HID since
the package mounting has too much trouble for me.
Please don't get me wrong: the LED still works for my car but it just does not produce more light than the stock halogen. Is the led of low beam of your CT200h brighter than the stock halogen bulb?
Ukrkos: same question: for your highlander, is led brighter or did you just want the color of the led?
Thanks,
Or maybe you can gain some insights on how he did it?
Originally Posted by sz8
Lexusrus, thanks for the photos and info. The housing of mine looks the same as your CT200h. The low beam is projector and high beam is reflector.
Passive heat sink is good but currently, I don't think that matters since it does not necessarily produce more light. The led bulbs I got do have very similar beam pattern as halogen bulbs since they are similar to the halogen bulbs in terms of position of the LED array. I currently has no plan to do HID since
the package mounting has too much trouble for me.
Please don't get me wrong: the LED still works for my car but it just does not produce more light than the stock halogen. Is the led of low beam of your CT200h brighter than the stock halogen bulb?
Ukrkos: same question: for your highlander, is led brighter or did you just want the color of the led?
Thanks,
11-23-18, 09:32 AM
Tried LED headlight, no good. Anyone tried as well?
