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Try our sponsor CarID.com... they have a number of Camaro projector headlight assemblies with CCFL halos and most are around $200. These are a much better way to install HID conversions than in the stock halogen reflectors.
Not in the Vendor Directory when I first looked (or even now). The headlights that CarID sells are the exact same designs as the Raxiom ones I have in my Mustang (right down to the casting numbers) and I've had them for four years without issue... other than figuring out how to modify the dust caps for LED headlight bulbs. They may be mass-produced in China or something but they work well.
Which LED Headlight bulbs are you using? Almost all drop-ins I've seen are crap. The only one that I've seen that had a remotely close beam pattern to what was intended was a Genuine Philips unit intended for H4 housings. Even the "good" ones shift the light closer to the car losing distance. The only exception so far being the aforementioned Philips (which isn't perfect either).
Which LED Headlight bulbs are you using? Almost all drop-ins I've seen are crap. The only one that I've seen that had a remotely close beam pattern to what was intended was a Genuine Philips unit intended for H4 housings. Even the "good" ones shift the light closer to the car losing distance. The only exception so far being the aforementioned Philips (which isn't perfect either).
This. Every LED drop in I've seen has been terrible in headlight form. The Philips is probably the *BEST* one, but the only ones I've seen are for H4 and fogs.
I've seen a lot of the popular aftermarket projector housings, and the output is just...bad. Like, beyond terrible. The optics are crap, and throwing an HID kit in it won't make it any better. A drop in LED in that would be even worse. I would just stick with BLS, or if you're a do-it-yourself kinda person, do a retrofit with halos.
Be careful when doing these mods. If they require more wattage, your wiring harness will smoke and burn up. Wire gauge specifications are exact. You don't want a fire in you're engine area and loose your car. Just my opinion guys.
The Raxiom lamps use H9 halogen or D3S HID depending on which model you buy.
I now have the LMZ Platinum kit from V-LEDs. They are 5000K pure white (also available in 6000K cool white) and produce 4500 lumens each which is about 40% more than typical HID and double the output of the H9 halogen bulb they replaced, yet they use less power so they are safe with factory wiring. They also have adjustable mounting collars so that you can change the position and orientation of the LEDs to best suit your headlights. In my case, I found that installing with the LEDs pointing to the sides produced the best light although having them top and bottom still produced plenty of usable light.
I have also seen many people complaining in various forums about light output from these aftermarket projector lamps. One big reason is that they bought the "stylish" smoked lens versions. Those who bought the black (with clear lens) versions were impressed with the improvement. This was especially common in the Mustang forums because the biggest vendor sold only the smoked version until recently. I have always had the black with clear lens so I've never experienced the dismal output caused by the tinted lenses. However, I have experienced the terrible aiming of the lamps out of the box. Proper aiming makes a huge difference in usable light but a lot of people install without aiming. One other common complaint is one of perception - people replacing reflector housings and not familiar with the sharp cutoff of a projector beam often feel that they are losing overall light output when they are actually gaining more focused light.
I can't see any difference in beam pattern or overall consistency of light between the LED lamps and the HIDs they replaced. The LEDs are a little brighter but the big advantages are that they require no warm up time to reach full brightness and don't have problems with flash-to-pass, the color is accurate and consistent, and they should outlast the car.
One thing I found about these LED kits is that they can be very sensitive to voltage fluctuations. I found mine had a subtle but annoying flicker at idle. Installing a relay harness and CAN BUS adapters (basically inline capacitors) completely eliminated all flickering.
I've seen tests of those LMZ LED Kits that show those numbers to be a bit optimistic. Those same tests also showed that they do alter the beam pattern negatively. More foreground than distance which is the opposite of what you want. If I can find them again I will post them.
I am not at all surprised that the numbers might be inflated. Virtually all LED vendors post the output as the sum of the theoretical maximum output of all of the LEDs on the bulb. Of course, LEDs can't be run at maximum for very long so the circuitry behind them is designed to limit that output for longevity. Also, the measurement "lumens" can be misleading with LEDs because of their narrow output angle. Still, I figure that the so-called 4500 lumens is probably at least 3500-3600 lumens which is still somewhat more than 35W HID and significantly more than halogen. My "seat of the pants" comparison of the HID and LED setups I've had in the same housings bears this out - the LEDs produce more light than the HIDs did.
As far as beam pattern, I haven't seen any flares or anomalies in the light pattern against my garage door... not very scientific but good enough for my needs. I briefly browsed through the links you provided and it seemed that the complaints about LED patterns were related to reflector housings which is the same as using HIDs in reflectors. I don't see how any light source in a projector lamp could change the foreground/distance illumination since the light focus is provided by the front lens and not a reflector behind the light source (i.e. a reflector combines direct light emission with reflected light so the balance could change based on the position and aim of the reflector but a projector focuses only from the lens in front of the light source so the distribution should be the same regardless of source).
Although projectors lessen the perceived effect a bit due to their optics and having a cut-off shield, foreground vs distance illumination can still be negatively affected. I've seen it happen even with misaligned correct bulbs for the housing. The hot spot should be a noticeable area at the top center of the beam (at the cut-of step). If you don't see a hot spot or it is located anywhere else other than top center of the beam (at the cut-of step) then the beam has been altered. Also, the top part of the beam should be brighter all the way across with a gradual decrease in light towards the bottom of the beam. A missing or lower hot spot will create more foreground light and less distance light.
One of those threads has pics of those LED drop-ins in Projectors showing this happen.
11-24-2015, 11:19 AM
