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Hey guys, looking to swap out my headlights to either HID or LED. if I go worth HID I know I have to do a retrofit to projector housings. I've never used LED headlights before, what do people suggest? Looking to improve both visability and looks.
Or just sealed beam conversion housings and LED bulbs?
I have some experience with just the LED bulbs (9004 and 9005/9006). They light up the road real well. They also seem to put out out an oboxious amount of glare. I've noticed at times that road signs get lit up during the daylight hours. Perhaps this is more the brightness than glare.
I have the ones similar to the ones posted above, i like them.
good clean light output, the pic above they show the high beams. low beams are just the top row and two center leds light up, can sort of see in pic of my car
Last edited by sid 91RS; 04-14-2017 at 08:35 PM.
Reason: Add pics
I have the ones similar to the ones posted above, i like them.
good clean light output, the pic above they show the high beams. low beams are just the top row and two center leds light up, can sort of see in pic of my car
I kind of like them as well. I see more than a few tractor/trailers that are running them.
Did you have to hack into the buckets they fit in or did they drop in?
While they were very acceptable and much better than stock, I truly would trade them for HID's from the company below (For my Subaru Outback)...
the lights are F'n amazing. No blind spots, very good in the rain (wet roads), basically Light cannons... I got the H11b's, 50 watt (they sell 35)...
I had an older cheaper Ebay set in my Honda Wagon a year ago, and though they were better than stock, the HID in the Honda vs the Outback, Outback 100% better... You can find cheaper stuff, but it's just that... not as good.
You Can use a standard H4 housing and fit either HID or LED bulbs. I did some research on the LED's and most project light 360 degress. This is what lights up street signs and blinds on coming drivers. Halogen and HID bulbs only project light from the bottom half of the bulb for a better concentration of light on the road. They make the 180 LED's but they were expensive for good ones. They have little cooling fans built into them. I had HID in my headlamps and got flashed all the time and had to eventually just point them down. I ended up going with the 100w halogen in the headlamps. Need a harness for this I got it from Octane lighting. Moved my HID's to the driving lights, yes now they are driving lights! and used the new LED's for the marker and parking lights.
I love the look and the function is fantastic
and I have not got flashed once.
Years ago I built my own HID set and loved them but I was a cheap kid and they were not built well. I invested in a Skinny Boy kit last year and it was worth it. They look great, custom made, easy install and for the price you get everything needed.
Either choice is better than the stock sealed beams but it's all about preference really.
You Can use a standard H4 housing and fit either HID or LED bulbs. I did some research on the LED's and most project light 360 degress. This is what lights up street signs and blinds on coming drivers. Halogen and HID bulbs only project light from the bottom half of the bulb for a better concentration of light on the road.
This is wrong and I would not suggest doing it unless you want to be that guy who blinds everyone.
The only thing that properly concentrates the light are projectors.
DO NOT PUT HIDs IN H4 HOUSINGS.
If you want a proper upgrade invest in a good kit from Skinny, or build it.
You can buy the housings and real projectors separate and retrofit them yourself.
Hey, jumping in here and know its a little older thread. I am tired of not being able to see the road at night so need to upgrade. I do not want to be the guy blinding others but need decent light down the road. Not concerned with looks other than stock (ie don't need halo). Probably asking too much but looking for reasonably straight forward plug and play. There is a kit on Hawks Thirdgen. Anybody have experience with it and how well it works. Trouble is it looks like they are only for the low beams. Looking for a recommendation for my 92 for both high and low beams... Have a long cross country drive coming up soon so planning to order right away.
About the hawks kit... or what is pictured...
10,000 is pretty, not the best "color" for seeing, you want around 4,000, which actually lights up the path...
A few issues with the light housing. See that wire clip in the back? Not a strong / sealed closing point. Moisture, dew, water, bugs will get in.
Also, the glass itself...??? The HID stuff looks to be ebay stuff...
Now... You can get "e code" (I think), which stands for european code housings...
these have provisions in the glass that pretty much let is emit a beam of light that is cut off at the horizon (they do have a slight kick up on far left, and also far right to light signs). I bought some of these for my firebird, and used LED lights. Same wire closing thingamabob, but I used sealant (silicone) to seal it up.... so far, so good...
For your camaro, you would need 2 different bulbs, 1 for low beam, another for high...
If you get a good quality set of low beams, you don't really / barely use the high...
For my daily Driver (Subaru Outback), I found this company. Spent $200 on HID kit and 2 spare bulbs (4 total), no housings and it was $200. But the lights are amazing! Next time I upgrade the Firebird, I'm going there to ask them guys for options... I would...
I've put HIDs in so many cars with the stock housings and never have been flashed.
Never tried it with the H4 housings, but with how bright modern cars lights are now today, and the implementation of mirrors that reduce light reflectance into the cabin, even an occasional glimpse of a HID does not bother people from what I've seen.
I'm sure you'll get a few people who disagree with it, but hey it's your money, your car.
Never once heard of an accident due to someone's HIDs blinding someone, there's maybe 3 people I know online who are extremists about this. I wouldn't let it bother you
I'll also be in the market for either HIDs or LEDs for my car, so I'm subbing. Would like to avoid projector housings as they make our cars front end look weird. The cheap HID kits kinda suck sometimes too due to poor QC. So I'm looking more towards LED with a retrofit housing that looks like the original
I have some NOS E-Code Cibie housings that I never installed that take halogen H4 and H1 bulbs. They'll probably not work very well with any kind of conversion bulbs.
I'm guessing that they'll be just as obnoxious as the 9006/9005 LED's I have in my '03 Safari. I have found that LED's with side-by-side emitters (two at 180-degrees apart) are much less obnoxious than the LED's with 360-degree emitters (four at 90-degrees apart) - at least to my uncalibrated eye.
I don't know....I'm on the fence on bulb only retrofits. I will say that even candles are better than a 9004 incandescent like those in my old Legend.
FWIW, instead of conversion bulbs, I would lean towards the LED conversions where the entire sealed beam is replaced. If you can believe those images on ebay, the 4D and 5D lenses (whatever 4D and 5D denote) seem to have that sharp cut off that many people like.
Enough of my....
I too think halos give the car a kind of goofy look. To each their own.
My old HID/projector retrofit set-up.Havent looked back since or even need to use my h-beams.Avoid the reflector lamp/HID kits if you really wanna see better at night.
I also have a old 4656 set i modified way back for the valeo projector.Never used it, if interested you would need proper projectors & a D1S type HID set-up.OE style basically.
If you get the HID housings, simply put LED bulbs in them.
On my 2nd gen, I installed some 2008 Acura TL projectors several years ago. They worked great with the xenon bulbs, but I always hated the warm up time.
Last year, I bought some LED bulbs for them and frankly the LED's are lightyears ahead of the xenons. Not only is the rise time is instantaneous, the set up now blows my wife's 2017 Infinity QX60 out of the water in terms of headlight performance. That's no exaggeration either... even she noticed it and she doesn't know anything about cars.
Check out The Retrofit Source... their stuff is top notch. theretrofitsource.com. I use them for all my LED stuff now... yeah, I'm sure you can get stuff cheaper on ebay, but you get what you pay for.
The comparisons and reviews in the videos linked below are interesting. Two vids are from TRS(theretrofitsource) and one is from Headlight Revolution. The consensus from both companies seems to be that LED is a good performer, but it's not yet ideal for use in projector headlights, and it definitely falls short of HID. Be warned, however, TRS Matt does not censor himself; the TRS videos could probably carry an R rating lol.
Now, that consensus is based upon using replaceable LED Kits, as the designs of those LEDs do not lend themselves well to such housings as projectors. However, sealed LED headlights, those being housings designed with LED chips built into the housings, be they reflectors or projectors, can be very strong performers. I say, "can be," because most are very good, while some are not.
As for replaceable LED kits in reflector housings, I've used them in my daily vehicle, off-and-on, for the last four years, and I wrote a thread about them when I first installed them. They work very well and produce a clean, bright light that dissipates to a soft glow in the distance. I used them "off-and-on," because the failing grade for me has been durability: I went through two kits. Granted, I was one of the first to use LED kits 4 years ago, and they were "1st Generation" kits, which were not well-tested at that time, so it was a bit of a gamble. Currently, though, they've progressed to "3rd Generation" kits, which are designed very differently and appear to be excellent products.
Regarding HID, both companies have also tested and shown that it is a good product in reflector housings, too, not just projectors, showing that reflectors with HID produce a well-controlled beam-pattern. However, they only demonstrate that by shining the light against a wall, not by looking into the headlight as if it was in an oncoming car, where the output would probably produce a much larger hotspot of very intense light than a projector might produce. So in that regard, HID might not be as good in reflectors as their demonstrations might indicate.
Personally, oncoming bright headlights don't bother me. I drive more miles per year than most people accumulate in 5-10 years, and most of that is at night. And the norm these days is to have very intense lights; that's just the way things are, and things will only continue to get brighter. So people either have to learn to deal with it and adapt, or do all of their driving during the daytime and stay home at night.
The consensus from both companies seems to be that LED is a good performer, but it's not yet ideal for use in projector headlights, and it definitely falls short of HID.
I'm more than a little surprised to hear him say that... There's a (pardon the pun) night and day difference between the LED bulb and the xenon bulb on my car... the LED blows away the HID bulb.
I had been communicating with TRS for a little over a year before they came out with there D2S LED bulb. I saw a bunch come on the market on ebay previously and was tempted to buy some, but I was skeptical of the quality and TRS had said they were working on their own offering because the other ones wouldn't perform as well as the HID. So I waited until they came out with theirs and again, it's a major improvement over the HID.
Now he says the LEDs come up short? Color me confused...
Thanks, a lot of good information. However, it still hasn't led me to a place to buy parts and what parts to buy for my 92. The Retrofit Source doesn't list any Camaros from what I saw on their website. Again, I want better than stock, look close to stock, and don't want to blind people assuming that is achievable. I don't mind doing a little bit of modification but need to know what parts to round up and how to modify them. Any suggestions?
Thats what your gonna have to do if you use TRS.Pick the items that fit your needs & "retrofit" them or go with the cookie cutter kits that use a 4656 type lamp & some HID bulb.Best results are from OE style projectors with a dedicated HID, better than any P&P kit you can buy.Projectors are also much better at not blinding oncoming traffic.
Personally, i like the Valeo projectors myself w/D1S lamps, but i pieced my set-up from ebay .
Yeah, unless someone makes a direct swap kit for the 3rd gen headlights to convert over to projectors, it's going to be all custom.
This is what I had to do to retrofit them onto my car. Maybe it'll spark some ideas on how to do it on a thirdgen. Granted the 7" rounds are very different, but who knows, maybe someone will get an idea from it...
Are all the Camaro owners that use true projectors and HIDs having to cut up the bracing behind and just above the headlights? All the Camaro projector threads I've seen have mutilated the car.
Not mine, but i cant speak for others.I only had to enlarge the hole on the headlamp bucket so the projector can fit thru.No cutting on the hood/bumper/core support at all.Only ones i saw do that are the guys using those BMW lights, but those are'nt true projectors & the light beam isnt much better than stock lights.
Last edited by 84 1LE; 06-14-2019 at 08:38 PM.
Reason: spelling
Updating my thread here. I bought the conversion set on EBay to Euro projectors with H4 Xenon bulbs. I had to cut out the back of the headlight buckets. The kit came with the headlight housings, bulbs and adapter cables. The other problem I ran into was that the low beams were feeding back power to the high beams. After some diagnosing the problem, I found that the adapter cables that came in the kit had the high beam and ground wires reversed on the end that plugs into the factory harness. Switched them and the lights work as they should. Jury is out on whether they are any brighter but admittedly, I probably don't have them adjusted right.
Updating my thread here. I bought the conversion set on EBay to Euro projectors with H4 Xenon bulbs. I had to cut out the back of the headlight buckets. The kit came with the headlight housings, bulbs and adapter cables. The other problem I ran into was that the low beams were feeding back power to the high beams. After some diagnosing the problem, I found that the adapter cables that came in the kit had the high beam and ground wires reversed on the end that plugs into the factory harness. Switched them and the lights work as they should. Jury is out on whether they are any brighter but admittedly, I probably don't have them adjusted right.
Not mine, but i cant speak for others.I only had to enlarge the hole on the headlamp bucket so the projector can fit thru.No cutting on the hood/bumper/core support at all.Only ones i saw do that are the guys using those BMW lights, but those are true projectors & the light beam isnt much better than stock lights.
Same here, I only had to enlarge the hole in the bucket to allow the back of the projector to fit through. Nothing else was cut.
The other problem I ran into was that the low beams were feeding back power to the high beams. After some diagnosing the problem, I found that the adapter cables that came in the kit had the high beam and ground wires reversed on the end that plugs into the factory harness. Switched them and the lights work as they should.
It's not unusual to have to re-pin the connectors. That's usually the first thing mentioned if trouble-shooting is necessary. Good that you were able to sort it out before tearing something apart and creating a real problem.
Ok I have an 87z, what housings are you all using to retro fit projectors in place of the sealed beam headlight?
Because they will be cut-into, most people buy the cheapest 4x6 reflector housings they can find on ebay.
1) You might want to get only two, for retrofitting the two main headlights, while keeping the two stock sealed high beam headlights. This seems to be what most people do. But keep in mind that the high beams will no longer match in color-of-light or style-of-housing, so the physical appearance(and performance) will be drastically different than the retrofits.
2) You might want to get four that match, for retrofitting all four headlights, giving you the best overall appearance and the best overall performance. But retrofitting all four will be expensive.
3) You might want to get four that match, for retrofitting the two main headlights, then using the remaining two matching housings for high beam headlights, installing high wattage H4 bulbs in them, in a color that matches the color of the HID bulbs in the retrofits. If you go this route, then you might want to consider four of the better quality, more expensive 4x6 reflector housings, such as those from Vision X, for their nicer appearance and to get better performance out of the high beams.
With these, however, I believe the Vision X 4x6 housings use 9007 bulbs, not H4, but H4-to-9007 adapters are readily available and inexpensive. But this is a good thing, as 9007 bulbs are better than H4 bulbs because they feature an O-ring seal, whereas, H4 bulbs do not, and there's the occasional complaint or moisture getting inside of H4 housings. Both, 9007 and H4 are dual-beam bulbs(low-high), and both are available in higher-than-standard wattages. In other words, they're the same bulbs, just with different mounting bases.
4) Another option is to get four of the cheap housings that have the fake, projector-style lens. Retrofit two of them, then use the other two for high beams with high wattage H4 bulbs that match the color of the HID bulbs. This way, the appearance of the two high beams will, at least, feature a lens that somewhat resembles the appearance of the two retrofits.
Personally, though, with Option 4, I think the fake lens takes-on an even cheaper appearance when it's paired with a real retrofit, and the overall appearance won't look as good as you would think or hope it would. But that's just my opinion. So I would go with Option 3 and the better housings, for better-quality, cleaner-looking, housing-matching, color-of-light-matching, excellent-performing high beams.
5) If you go with reflector housings for high beams, instead of high wattage H4/9007 bulbs that match the color of the HID bulbs, then you could use H4/9007 LED kits. Not only would the color-of-light match, but also the light would have a similar crisp, bright HID-appearance that the projectors will be producing. For that matter, you could simply go with four housings and 4 LED kits, and forego the projectors. But if you go this route, then I would definitely suggest getting the good-quality Vision X reflector housings because, with LED, the quality and design of the reflector housings will make all the difference in the performance of the product. And Vision X is the best. But this could get expensive, too.
Camaros can accommodate all of these changes, whereas, Firebirds cannot.
All said, however, all options will require you to hone-out the hole in the rear of the headlight mounting buckets, to accommodate the rear of the new reflector housings and/or projectors, just as people have already mentioned in this thread. The only difference will be, with Option 1, you will only have to open-up two buckets, whereas, with all the other options, you will have to open-up all four buckets. But that's easy to do.
So there you go... more than you ever wanted to know!
*Edit: On a side note, since you would probably be retrofitting Bi-Xenon(low and high beam) projectors for the two main headlights, then your two high beam headlights would serve little-to-no purpose anymore because you would never need them. So to get some good use out of them, update them as described above, then you could wire them to a separate switch and use them as DRLs(Daytime Running Lights). ...just a fun afterthought.
Last edited by LAFireboyd; 03-23-2018 at 10:02 PM.
Anyone know if installing 4 of the Vision X 4x6 headlights would require installing a flasher for the front just like the flasher for the Digi Tails rear LED taillights?
I've put HIDs in so many cars with the stock housings and never have been flashed.
Never tried it with the H4 housings, but with how bright modern cars lights are now today, and the implementation of mirrors that reduce light reflectance into the cabin, even an occasional glimpse of a HID does not bother people from what I've seen.
I'm sure you'll get a few people who disagree with it, but hey it's your money, your car.
Never once heard of an accident due to someone's HIDs blinding someone, there's maybe 3 people I know online who are extremists about this. I wouldn't let it bother you
I'll also be in the market for either HIDs or LEDs for my car, so I'm subbing. Would like to avoid projector housings as they make our cars front end look weird. The cheap HID kits kinda suck sometimes too due to poor QC. So I'm looking more towards LED with a retrofit housing that looks like the original
How do we dislike posts? I'm the 4th guy who hates when people drive behind or at me with non-retrofitted HIDs.... ***** blinding at night.
04-14-2017, 08:11 AM
YMMV 
