LED Headlight Upgrades (Topic merged with 9004 Headlight LED Conversion)

I have been looking for an LED headlight, and they are available from China on ebay. I won a pair for $43 shipped. They are an 80 watt set 9004s. There is also a 90 watt set available. I installed one in my 92 OCC, and here is picture of the difference between it and the OEM bulb. My lenses are exceptionally clear. I had to unscrew the top of the bulb cover then remove the cover and the 9004 adapter to assemble the retainer on the lamp. It fits like it was made for the car. They have a fairly long pigtail that attaches to the stock connector. They are also made in other styles of bulbs. I am going to get a set for my 91.

nice, do you have more info or a link to purchase?

Go to ebay, and type in LED headlight, then select ebay motors, and click on search. Look for the 80 or 90 watt LED pairs. You can buy them as a buy it now, or try to get a set cheaper by sniping an auction. Check the regular price first to make sure you do not pay too much for them. The 80Ws go a little cheaper than the 90Ws. I have the 80Ws in the car in the picture.

ok, thanks

I installed the passenger's side bulb today. The bulb does not fit between the core support and the light capsule, so you have to loosen the battery and tilt it back to get the bulb in. 94-96 cars may have to remove the filter box for installation on the driver's side.

Looks like a major improvement.

Fred-

Do these come with any necessary resistor? Did your set come from US or international seller?

They come with a module in the line that they use to regulate the voltage and current. They are supposed to work from 9-24 volts.

Mine came from China. They are also available from US locations.

I got to test the lights tonight. The roads here are fairly well lit, but in the places where they are not, it made a big difference in the visibility. Not only are they much brighter, the light is noticeably whiter. I have stock lenses, and they are much brighter. I can only imagine what they will be like on my 91 with the clear lenses.

The high beams are even brighter.

I hope the life of the lights is as good as the improvement in light output.

So.....Now everyone and their brother is bidding on these on eBay so trying to get a set under $50 right now is impossible!

Fred- any update? Curious of you have experienced any flicker?

Also, these lights appear so bright, they wash out the parking lights almost completely so I am wondering if one should also upgrade to LED for their parking/turn lamp? Not sure someone could see the turning lamp flashing next to such a bright lamp?

Fred Kiehl wrote:

They come with a module in the line that they use to regulate the voltage and current. They are supposed to work from 9-24 volts.

Sounds like a buck-boost converter. How's the heat sink on these bulbs? 80w LEDs are like computer chips -- they will burn out in seconds if not kept below the junction temperature limit. They also tend to get dimmer as they approach that temperature.

How do they handle high/low beam? Are they adjusting the power output to all chips equally or lighting up different chips? That could affect the beam focus. Did you compare the pattern down the road before and after? Maybe you could compare the 91 to the 92 before converting the second car?

How do they handle daytime running lights? I can't remember off hand about our cars, but some run the DRL though both filaments, which obviously wouldn't work with a diode!

You mention they are too long when installing. How are they after you manage to get them in? Looking at a couple of eBay ads, it looks like at least one of the 90W sets is shorter (from the back of the unit to the mounting flange) than some of the 80W ones. Would that be a better option for our cars?

Considering that a standard 9004 bulb is something like 700-800 lumens and require about 35% more current than these, they sound like a great idea. Cheaper than upgrading the wiring harness and more light output to boot.

I got a set of 90W for $50. You just have to snipe them, and not pay more than that.

No flicker. Low beams at night with my cellphone.

I know the pics do no Justice, but those don't look like they project very far.
I put clear headlights and like an 80/110W (i forget exact wattage) bulbs in mine and they do 5 times as much as the etched factory glass lenses did. They look great during the day too!

I will try to get a pic of stock headlights from the same place.

I ordered a set and they arrived this afternoon. I just finished installing them.

So unfortunately, they come with zero direction or guidance. Factory bulbs can only go in one way. The way these LED bases are made they can go into the reflector in 3 different positions.

On low, I can have the one bar of light aimed up, to the left or to the right. I installed them with the light up so then when you hit the high beam, the other 2 bars light up the rest of the reflector. Doesn't seem right though; if anything, I would think the one lit bar (low beam) should aim down, and then when the highs are on, the other 2 bars light up the top half?

Anyone else install these that can tell me how you did yours?

With the bar aimed up, the light hits the top of the reflector which directs more light down?

The 80Ws have 4 LEDs. The mounting adapter ring has a detent, so it is designed to be mounted in one position. The slot in the adapter ring is designed to be inserted in the top position. I have not checked the lighting orientation of the LEDs, or how many, or what orientation are lit at one time (assuming all on high beam).

If the reflector is parabolic, and I believe it is, the light should reflect at different angles across the span of the reflector, depending on the relationship of the light source to the given point on the reflector. Most light is emitted from an LED perpendicular to the surface of the LED (almost like a LASER). Because of that, it should be fairly easy to determine the spread of most of the beam. The further away from the back of the reflector, the more the light will be reflected toward the center of the beam. There is a "sweet spot" that will reflect most of the light perpendicular to the orientation of the capsule. The top of the reflector is abbreviated, and should minimize the downward reflection of light (the bottom is abbreviated as well), if the light source is properly positioned within the confines of the reflector.

E-bay clear headlights with whisperjets harness and relays and 80/100 bulbs,.

is a bit too bright for oncoming traffic,. but i can see great out here in the country,..

Wagoninabox wrote:

I ordered a set and they arrived this afternoon.  I just finished installing them.  

So unfortunately, they come with zero direction or guidance.  Factory bulbs can only go in one way.  The way these LED bases are made they can go into the reflector in 3 different positions.

On low, I can have the one bar of light aimed up, to the left or to the right.  I installed them with the light up so then when you hit the high beam, the other 2 bars light up the rest of the reflector.  Doesn't seem right though; if anything, I would think the one lit bar (low beam) should aim down, and then when the highs are on, the other 2 bars light up the top half?

Anyone else install these that can tell me how you did yours?

I believe we have the same ones. Mine are 90w and the leds are on the outside 3 faces of the triangle prism. I tried mine up first and that was terrible.

Low beams are a single side and the highs are the other two added. They seem about the same orientated left or right so I ended up doing both of mine to the outside of the car. That seems to have the focus be similar to the stock hot spot and keeps them away from the signals. I could see them fine from 10 feet or so in low or high with the lamp orientated to the inside but I didn't check as oncoming traffic.

I did a quick drive around the block (dark country roads) and I'm not sure if I like them or not. They're definitely a better color. Having the super focused points instead of a wash around the whole reflector may be losing some output.

I'll say a B on my mod scale of useful/awesomeness. The color temperature is much better. Hopefully they last.

Yep, mine are 90 Watt version also.

From all that I could scrounge on the interwebs, the bar of light (low beam) should aim up.  The way the reflectors work is that one bar of upward light is then bounced downward and the front reflectors aim the light out.  When the highs are on, the other 2 bars come on (which are aimed down and to the left and right) and aim that light upward to give you more distance.

I am with you...its whiter but hard to tell if it is truly better until you are in complete darkness.  I am doing a road trip soon and it will be driving at night through the mountains and that will be my test.

It did make me want to change out all my interior courtesy lights to LED but I am not doing any other exterior until LED's for exterior lamps are perfected some.

If you do the turn signals, you need the relays that are not activated by heating a bimetal strip.

I have LEDs in the turn assist lights. They work about equal to the incandescent bulbs.

Fred-

Do you mean the cornering lights?

I tried LED's in mine and found that they did not broadcast the light further than the stock 2057's.

I now have 3496's in the cornering lights and they are darn bright; definitely brighter and broadcast light further than stock or LED bulbs.

Mine are about the same, maybe a little less bright. I do not rely on them, so I don't pay much attention to how bright they are.

I am curious about the 100/80 watt bulbs? will our stock wires handle this? thinking about grabing these:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/151809489905?_trksid=p2060353.m1438.l2648&ssPageName=STRK%3AMEBIDX%3AIT

JIMMYDPCC wrote:

I am curious about the 100/80 watt bulbs? will our stock wires handle this? thinking about grabing these:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/151809489905?_trksid=p2060353.m1438.l2648&ssPageName=STRK%3AMEBIDX%3AIT

They are pretty much a stock bulb with a whiter light. They will not put out as much light as the LEDs.

but stock bulbs are 45/65 watts, so these have to be brighter, but im just worried wires wont handle access power. You may be right, safer to just upgrade to LED.

I had 100/80's in the orange wagon,it's running a whisperjet 4 relay bulky harness,.in fleabay clear headlights,.

The bulbs don't last long,. but they definitely are very bright,...so i run regular bulbs now,..

thats good info!! thanks, yea I love some of the options that avalaible now in the euro lights, but not ready to lay out $150 for headlights, maybe someday. for now I may just get the cheapest LED set of Bulbs I can Ebay

The LEDs use about 1/2 of the current, and put out 3 times the light as the stock 45/65 (per side) watt bulbs. A 80/100 halogen is going to use about 2X the current, so I would think that you should have a substantially heavier wire. I also do not know if the rating is for both bulbs in the pack, or just one. I would assume it is for one. I would not put them in my car unless I upgraded the wiring.

The rating for the LEDs is for both bulbs with all of the LEDs lit. Low beam with the LEDs is 20W per side. High beam is 40W per side. The low beam puts out more light than the stock high beams. The high beam load on the wires is less than the OEM lights on low beam.

JIMMYDPCC wrote:

thats good info!! thanks, yea I love some of the options that avalaible now in the euro lights, but not ready to lay out $150 for headlights, maybe someday.  for now I may just get the cheapest LED set of Bulbs I can Ebay

I sniped a set of 80s for $43, and a set of 90s for $50.

Just completed my road trip through the mountains. Two lane highway with no overhead lights.

These LED's rock! The light cast to the sides is better and the light is an awesome bright white. I felt they broadcast light the same or just a tad further than traditional bulbs and are very bright white. I highly recommend that if you have trouble seeing with your stock headlights, try LED!

I would reccomend that you properly adjust your headlights before you switch out to the LED's as adjusting the light capsules with LED's in them is a lot tougher. Keep in mind that on the drivers side capsule, you do not have to aim in to the right with the LED's as they have a sharp upper cutoff and will not blind oncoming drivers.

A quarter way into my trip I pulled into a rest area and actually aimed them up a bit more and that was the final adjustment to have them dialed in perfectly.

Now that you've had them installed for awhile, any more feedback?  I'm ready to order some for my '95 RMW.

I have been running a pair of the 80W lights, and I really like them. It is a little weird when the delay of the twilight sentinel does not shut off the lights immediately. The little fans run, and only shut off when the lights go off.

Sure makes a lot more sense than installing relays and/or larger wiring. The actual difference in current draw between halogen lights and LED's is a ratio of 8:1. The LED's require 1/8 the power of the old bulbs.

I'm anxious to try them in my RMW. From what I've read, there are no issues with installation. No mods needed?

bocoogto wrote:

Sure makes a lot more sense than installing relays and/or larger wiring. The actual difference in current draw between halogen lights and LED's is a ratio of 8:1. The LED's require 1/8 the power of the old bulbs.

I'm anxious to try them in my RMW. From what I've read, there are no issues with installation.  No mods needed?

The 80W bulbs require no mods. You do have to remove the clear cover, and the adapter, to put the retaining clip on. You also have to loosen the battery, and lean it back to get the passenger's side bulb in.

The 90W bulbs require that you ream out the retaining clip, and cut one of the bars out to pass over the heat sink, and power wire. You also have to do the battery thing.

Thanks for the info.

Do you mean the clear cover on the bulb needs to be removed?

I saw Fred mention the 80W LED headlights in a previous post. Anyone else running them?

Cree has a set with nice looking heatsinks, it inspires more confidence than the generic ones on ebay.

The 9004's are just not cutting it. I was going to try a 9007 swap but the LED conversion may (or may not) be the better way to go.

I recently installed these:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/181970739743?_trksid=p2060353.m2749.l2649&ssPageName=STRK%3AMEBIDX%3AIT

The difference is incredible...I can see at night now.  I haven't used the brights yet (except to test if they worked), but the dims work great.  They are bright, but I haven't been "flashed" by oncoming traffic (yet).  Well worth the time/money.

Cool. I got a set very similar to those (but fanless) that should be here in a few days. I need to align them too, the lights point in different directions.

And duh, yes Nick, I should have added to the other thread. Did you do a LED conversion also?

Be careful which ones you get. Some of them do not work well with the retainer for our cars.

There seems to be a lot of questionable information given in the Ebay listing.
1/ It's stated that they draw 80Watts (each, or is that for 2?) I sounds like far too much for LEDs.
2/ It's stated that they replace 9004s, yet the compatibility "app" shows that they are not compatible with '95 Buick Roadmaster!
3/ They are offering Cree's for $15 more. I'm thinking that it's probably worth it.

paart wrote:

There seems to be a lot of questionable information given in the Ebay listing.
1/ It's stated that they draw 80Watts (each, or is that for 2?) I sounds like far too much for LEDs.
2/ It's stated that they replace 9004s, yet the compatibility "app" shows that they are not compatible with '95 Buick Roadmaster!
3/ They are offering Cree's for $15 more. I'm thinking that it's probably worth it.

I asked the seller about the compatibility and this is the message I received:

"Due to the limit in the number of vehicles we can input per listing, we were not able to include every vehicles. Your vehicle was not listed, therefore it returned a "not compatible results". However, since you know the bulb size you require, just place your order and write the bulb size in the purchase note."

So.....on low beam, does the entire light capsule light up or just the upper half? I have discovered that finding led 9004's that light up too snd bottom may not exist.

They will light the whole capsule on high beam though.

The ones I purchased are a "triangle" shape....two sides have a LED the same distance from the end (the brights) and the other side had the LED a different distance from the end (the dim). You can't tell the light only comes from one side when they are on (and installed). It gives off a very bright and white light, and uniform through the stock lens. I tried to take a picture with only one side installed, but the picture doesn't do it justice. After installing one side and turning the lights on to compare I laughed out loud because of the difference...the LED side lit up the garage while the "old" bulb had it's usual yellow glow...there is a HUGE difference in light.

Mine are also triangle shaped. On low, 2 angles (left and right) light up and on high the 3rd bar lights up. The challenge with all of these is that in order to get actual projected broadcast light from the headlamp, on low, light must shine up and down in the capsule.

Unfortunately, they all just aim up or to the sides. Only on high beam will a bar aim down.

I love them but find I must drive with them on high to match/exceed stock lights.

I may be wrong as to which ones are the bright and dim. I am very happy with them so far, but have not had a chance to take it out in the country at night to play with the brights and/or adjust them. Right now they work so much better than the ones I had I'm not in too big of a hurry. I know I will be changing my other vehicles over to LED.

I got the 80W set today and put them in. I didn't want to disassemble the LED so I split the retaining ring and threaded it on the bulb that way.

I'm not really able to align them in the garage, I'll have to do that elsewhere. However they certainly are a lot brighter than the stock bulbs, that's for sure.

Are the 90W bulbs much brighter than the 80's? The 90's have the three LEDs in a triangle as opposed to the 80's which are two-sided.

Well, I've had them in the car a week although only used them once. I didn't have a good location to align them so they're way out, but I can share a few notes so far.

The ones I got have 4 LEDs on a flat mount. I think this may work out better than the triangle shaped version since the light that gets projected ends up being a "bar". Since the bulb doesn't lock in at a specific position like the halogen ones, you can rotate the bulb to a certain degree and get the pattern you want.

Each unit has 4 LEDs. They are positioned to mimic where the hi/lo filaments are in the 9004. At low 2 LEDs are on, on hi all 4 are on.

In order to get the retainer installed you either need to remove the fan/heatsink assembly or cut the ring. I chose to cut the ring. Clearance is a little tight, you may need to remove the battery and/or airbox or take the headlight assemblies out if you can't get your hands in there.

The lenses in my car seem reasonably clear. If I can find a set of Impala SS clear lenses I may swap them out and see if that makes it better or worse. I also need to carefully align them soon and make sure they have a good cutoff. The bar-like pattern should make that possible.

Fred,-

Can you provide a link to or a photo of the actual 80's that you used? I searched eBay as suggested and find at least 3 different styles with different dimensions listed as replacements for the 9004s.

HueyLt1 wrote:

I recently installed these:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/181970739743?_trksid=p2060353.m2749.l2649&ssPageName=STRK%3AMEBIDX%3AIT

I'm trying to sort out all the options, and you are the only one who has linked to a specific product. Thanks for that!

Fred mentioned some styles have problems with the retainer, and lamune apparently bought one of those. Did you have any retainer (or other!) installation issues?