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Halogen & LED Headlight Bulb Upgrades


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That's good to hear. It'll be interesting to see your comparison. I would guess that the 55W HID kit will have the best output. But hopefully with the LED's you won't have to drive home with no headlights again. :D

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After reading everything on blub replacement if you don't want to change your actual head lights, or do any modifications to the existing head lights to get the blubs to work, there are no great blub replacement (except color) for this truck. Is this correct? I am only looking for a simple (not expense - $100) plug and play type bulb to see better at night. I was looking at Silverstar ZXE but it doesn't see to be anything better for the money from what I read.

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After reading everything on blub replacement if you don't want to change your actual head lights, or do any modifications to the existing head lights to get the blubs to work, there are no great blub replacement (except color) for this truck. Is this correct? I am only looking for a simple (not expense - $100) plug and play type bulb to see better at night. I was looking at Silverstar ZXE but it doesn't see to be anything better for the money from what I read.

 

 

If you are talking about staying with a halogen bulb then you are mostly correct. Some halogen bulbs will be brighter but not by a lot, also using halogen bulb that produces a whiter light will help.

 

The next closest thing to a true PNP kit will be the LMZ (this is based off of looking at Jon A's install pics compared to having to run a wire harness for HIDs. However the LMZs are above your $100 limit

 

 

 

 

That's good to hear. It'll be interesting to see your comparison. I would guess that the 55W HID kit will have the best output. But hopefully with the LED's you won't have to drive home with no headlights again. :D

Yea hopefully that won't happen again! Although the DOT pods from Rigid worked extremely well.
I really think that after adjusting the LMZs to just the right position in the projector, and being that they are rated only 500 lumens less per bulb, they should be extremely close to the performance of HIDs, although I could be wrong. But after spending $200 on a set of headlights, I hope I'm not wrong.
Edited by Mike1220
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If you are talking about staying with a halogen bulb then you are mostly correct. Some halogen bulbs will be brighter but not by a lot, also using halogen bulb that produces a whiter light will help.

 

The next closest thing to a true PNP kit will be the LMZ (this is based off of looking at Jon A's install pics compared to having to run a wire harness for HIDs. However the LMZs are above your $100 limit

 

Mike:

 

Thanks for your update.

 

 

 

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If you don't mind waiting few days, I have a set of the new 45W LMZ bulbs on order and due to come in soon. I have had a 55W HID kit in for the past 6 months but wanted to go LED. If they are an improvement, then it'd be nice for those looking to have LED headlights. I plan to do a comparison between OEM halogen lights, 55W DDM HID 5000K, and the new LMZ LEDs at 6000K (or 5000K, I originally ordered them in 6000K but emailed VLED to change it to 5000K in hopes that it'll better match my LED DRLs at night, but I still haven't seen a change to my order, so not sure if the change was made)

 

 

I plan to take pictures and share with everyone on here to let y'all know, at least what I believe is the best option after trying all 3.

 

I will agree, the OEM halogens SUCK.

 

 

EDIT: if you want to see how halogens compare to the 45W LMZs, Jon A took some pictures when he changed to the LMZs. Check post 358 and 359. I know you already read through this whole thread though.

 

 

I have all the time in the world so I look forward to your post and comparison. :)

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VLEDs LMZ 3000LM issue. The adapter harness is just cheap. I just found this tonight and will call them tomorrow. I've seen better adapters and might end up buying better ones. This is the 5202 adapter and might not be an issue with others, but just so people know.

 

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  • 2 weeks later...

I'm in, can't wait to see the comparison pictures.

 

 

I have all the time in the world so I look forward to your post and comparison. :)

That's good to hear. It'll be interesting to see your comparison. I would guess that the 55W HID kit will have the best output. But hopefully with the LED's you won't have to drive home with no headlights again. :D

 

Can't wait for some pics and your impressions after having the HID's.

 

I am thinking these LMZ's with some DOT Rigid fogs might be the setup.

For headlights its HID hands down. To do it right you need to retrofit in some OEM equipped hid projectors and ballasts. Most will be satisfied with a kit installed on the halogen projectors though

same here, got mine for sale and vled on order

 

Okay so I think I have quoted everyone in this thread that has talked about either purchasing, currently owning, or just general interest in the performance of the LMZ bulbs. I don't have my full side by side by side OEM halogen vs 55W HID vs LMZ LED comparison and write up yet and won't have it till next weekend at the earliest, possibly the following weekend if I can clear a night in my schedule to do it. But I do want to share my thoughts on these bulbs.

 

First impression: DAMN!

 

Explanation of first impression:

These bulbs are EXTREMELY BRIGHT! Blinding? No, because I never got flashed tonight when I drove around town. I personally do not have these bulbs in the absolute best orientation (probably) but I will say that they still perform extremely well and are certainly extremely strong contenders for knocking out HIDs as being the best option for improved lighting. Granted with these you'll have to adjust them until you find the best orientation, but still, I think that the output of these bulbs is well worth that easy work of finding the best orientation.

I have the 5000K LMZs and the output is MUCH cleaner with these than the 55W 5000K HIDs I had. And they match the DRLs beautifully. To give you an idea of what they look like, they look just like an OEM HID, IMO. They also add a lot of light on the sides when you hit the high beams. The HIDs seemed to have just faded quickly as you went to the sides but these stayed strong until they hit a certain cutoff, but that's the projector's limits.

 

Comments I have towards some of yall that I quoted that made specific comments

 

JON A:

Like I said in my quick review above, I really think that these lights are as good, if not maybe even better than 55W HIDs. Or at least better than the ones I had. You did a great job making these new dust covers but I have some news for ya, I don't think you'll need to put a hole in the back of them anymore. Everything will fit inside the headlight under your custom dust cover. Just connect everything, slide the ballast in under the projector, and then put in the bulb. Bam, no need to exit the housing.

If you or anyone else feels that this could cause issues, please correct me and let me know. I'm not 110% sure on whether or not leaving the ballasts inside the housing will cause any issues with anything. After 35 minutes the hottest item in the housing was the projector which was 170.1*F (compared to a 55W halogen which was 185.4*F)

 

NEWM:

Add the DOT pods to the equation and you are set![emoji106] more light than you'll know what to do with.

 

 

CORWEST:

The output of these bulbs in the OEM projector is really impressive. It's got me really looking forward to testing them in the FXR projectors that I have sitting in a box in my closet. If they work this well in a bad projector, just imagine a good projector! These LED bulbs may even outdo the OEM grade HIDs. I know that they seemed brighter to me when I compared them to the HIDs on my mom's Lexus with OEM HIDs

 

 

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I started driving with the 3000LM fogs at night now with them modified and even with 50 watt HID I can tell they are on. The stock ones I had to lock at the dash or out the side window to see the dim light on the ground, so I would imagine 5000lm would work great. I did get flashed once, but was on a crest and think it was because they were below my headlight cut off line.

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CORWEST:

The output of these bulbs in the OEM projector is really impressive. It's got me really looking forward to testing them in the FXR projectors that I have sitting in a box in my closet. If they work this well in a bad projector, just imagine a good projector! These LED bulbs may even outdo the OEM grade HIDs. I know that they seemed brighter to me when I compared them to the HIDs on my mom's Lexus with OEM HIDs

 

 

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Well it sounds like you really like these things. I would love to see some output comparisons with a d2s projector like the FXR and who knows maybe they might make there way into my RX350's if they are indeed superior :)

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VLEDs LMZ 3000LM issue. The adapter harness is just cheap. I just found this tonight and will call them tomorrow. I've seen better adapters and might end up buying better ones. This is the 5202 adapter and might not be an issue with others, but just so people know.

 

You're the first person I've seen with the VLEDS in a Silverado. Do you have DRLs on your truck? I've been wanting to pull the trigger on these lights but I've heard they don't work well with the Chevy DRLs.

 

 

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All this talk about how bright this or that bulb is, made me go out and buy a lux meter. The engineer in me always seems to want real measured data. So, I bought this Extech LT300 for about $125. I looked at various makes and models and couldn't find a rational method of selecting a meter. So, I followed the path from TRS on the HID Planet forum. They did some testing of various bulbs and they used this meter. I figured that at least, I could communicate with them with the same meter measurements if it comes to that.

 

I haven't used it but once, but I'm definitely going to do some comparison tests before and after on various lighting mods.

 

DSC_2834Medium_zps08648315.jpg

 

DSC_2835Medium_zps6cd734d7.jpg

 

DSC_2836Medium_zps0fc20e6f.jpg

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