Hid vs led headlights

evilcw311

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Why do led's have fans? I thought they were more efficient and ran cooler than halogens and hid's.

Thats ok man, I appreciate the help.

Anything that creates light creates heat.

The more light, the more heat. The led headlights are putting off so much light that's it's insanely hot. The reason they don't seam as bright is cause of the directional issues.

They do pull less current but at that high of a light output they generate a great deal of heat and they would be very prone to failure if they cudnt dissipate the heat.


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ttocs

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the old standard output leds were very cool burning but now that we are in the age of the high output led they are not so cool. I have often wondered what would happen when the fan fails.
 

azurebluemach

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the old standard output leds were very cool burning but now that we are in the age of the high output led they are not so cool. I have often wondered what would happen when the fan fails.

I would certainly hope there is something internal to open the circuit if a design temp is breached. I'll admit, if I was daily driving my Mach 1, I would not have LED headlights that had fans that could have problems with dust/dirt and humidity/rain.


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evilcw311

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I have often wondered what would happen when the fan fails.

d77787c9f322920e925a6deb7ff3f0b6.jpg



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ttocs

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it reminds me of this video from long ago showing what happens to chips when the heat sink fails.
[video=youtube;Xf0VuRG7MN4]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xf0VuRG7MN4[/video]

I mean you get the wrong really cheap housing and it could get interesting... Would love to see it tested, but not on my car(NOMC).
 

B.mad

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Why do led's have fans? I thought they were more efficient and ran cooler than halogens and hid's.

Thats ok man, I appreciate the help.

LED are more efficient than halogens, but if they are bright, they will give more heat than the halogens. They draw less energy that is what makes them efficient. Also that is the reason they need load resistors because they draw less energy, so if the system is sending more energy than is needed, it will burn the bulb. HID will give off a surge of energy to start the bulb, than only draw limited energy to keep the bulb going.
 

azurebluemach

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Not sure about 94-98, but I didn't need load resisters for the fog lights or headlights on mine. No flickering or anything like that. Different story for the tail lights and turn signals, etc. But that's a different topic...


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ttocs

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load resistors are just for the turn signals so they will flash at the same rate. No need to put them on any other lights and really you would be better off changing out the flasher then putting resistors on them.
 

azurebluemach

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load resistors are just for the turn signals so they will flash at the same rate. No need to put them on any other lights and really you would be better off changing out the flasher then putting resistors on them.

I agree^ That's what I did. I didn't like that the resistors would get hot at stop lights etc.


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ttocs

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well yea and ironically the resistors are burning off the efficiency that the leds supposedly save in the form of heat. They use a high wattage/temp ceramic design for this reason.
 

B.mad

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well i might for the blinkers. I got resistors for mine, but going to do flasher. theres a write up on here somewhere
 

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I have had both HID and led light in my car. The when i had after market housings and 9007 bixenon lights. There was a ton of light out put when i had those. I also put then in the fog lights. Now the light out put was scattered but i could see way better than halogen

Then i put projectors in the car and that help concentrate the light output where i need it and helped make a cut off line so that i didnt piss off drivers.

Next i went to venture into the led spectrum. There was a tiny bit of a task to get them to fit into the projectors. I had to play around a bit on getting the light out put i wanted. the light i got claimed they were 8000 lumens... but i think they miss read the box. it looks to be more like 2000 lumens to me. I have a bicycle light that puts out 1600 lumens and the light output looks close to me. So i did the same thing to the fog lights and i noticed the fog lights were much brighter.

My tip to anyone here looking to up grade to LED lights. Get the ones that have a flat led and not the glass bubble over them. they arent as bright and they seem to fit much!!!!! better into the housings.
 

9838stang

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I have also experimented with the leds i the taillights. I just have the raxiom flasher from AM and it gets rid of the hyper flash in the light. I had LEDs in the front corner and the rear tail lights I am still saving up to get all the leds but i had one side done and it seems to work plenty good for me.
 
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07GtS197

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Oh ok I see its because they are brighter. Ive only used the smaller led bulbs and those I know dont put out heat lol but never headlights or something. Ill have to take a pic of the wiring to my hid's, the po hacked up the wiring and wired them himself in some stupid way and even left out a ground or two lol. Even the ddm tuning hid's come with an adaptor harness... Thats one thing that keeps me from trying led headlights and now that you guys say that they have a fan and dont light up the road as far as even the stock halogens, I think Ill pass. We've been using led's now for how long, you'd think they would be better than this now and could be used mod free in place of halogen headlights.
 

azurebluemach

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Oh ok I see its because they are brighter. Ive only used the smaller led bulbs and those I know dont put out heat lol but never headlights or something. Ill have to take a pic of the wiring to my hid's, the po hacked up the wiring and wired them himself in some stupid way and even left out a ground or two lol. Even the ddm tuning hid's come with an adaptor harness... Thats one thing that keeps me from trying led headlights and now that you guys say that they have a fan and dont light up the road as far as even the stock halogens, I think Ill pass. We've been using led's now for how long, you'd think they would be better than this now and could be used mod free in place of halogen headlights.

I think as far as headlights go, it's because the headlight housings were designed for halogen lights. I think the output in the road would be greatly improved if the housings were designed for LEDs.


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evilcw311

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I think as far as headlights go, it's because the headlight housings were designed for halogen lights. I think the output in the road would be greatly improved if the housings were designed for LEDs.


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^this is exactly the problem. Our headlights were not designed for led's. Look at current new cars with led's and they are nothing like our older outdated style.

Simply put, just because someone figured out how to put a square peg in a round hole doesn't mean it's meant to still fit the same.


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07GtS197

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How well would led's do in an hid projector? I know that there are projectors for halogens and one for hid's and I see that led's are designed for stock housings so Im curious how'd they perform in hid projectors.
 

azurebluemach

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I wouldn't say LED's are designed for stock housings. Only halogen lights on our cars until you pony up for one of the newer Mustangs. I would think that any housing that is of the projector type, where it focuses the light on the road, would be good for LED's and HID's. I will say that it seems like the light bulb types that fit in those projectors, don't have as high of a lumen rating as say a 9007 bulb. At least not that I've seen anyway. Maybe that doesn't make as much of a difference since the light is more focused..?

I would love to have a set of retrofitted housings, but dang they are super expensive lol. The projector lenses look kinda small on our housings and I'm not sure I like that look so well. The Raxiom ones have two right? But it's always a crap shoot with Raxiom stuff lol.


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