LED H11 Bulbs?

Cburge95 · September 19, 2018

I'm sure this has been talked about before on this forum but I'm new and haven't had a chance to fully read through all the articles.

Anyways, does anyone recommend any LED headlight bulbs? Currently I'm running HIDs in my Lows, Highs, and Fogs from Kensun on Amazon. Fogs and Highs work flawlessly, but my Lows have been pissing me off since I installed them. I am always having trouble out of them either flickering and going out or just not coming on unless I turn the headlights off then on again. I've replaced ballasts, installed anti-flicker devices, installed a relay harness, everything. I'm just fed up at this point. Lol

I am looking at buying these for my fogs to try out. Cheap enough and have good reviews on Amazon.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00NOA8NCU/ref=ox_sc_act_title_2?smid=A126Q4T86JLNL&psc=1

But I'm looking at these for my Lows. They look like they may fit fine behind the dust cap and also have many good reviews.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01H6NZ7D8/ref=crt_ewc_title_dp_1?ie=UTF8&psc=1&smid=A3NZKZYVZPUD1T

Anybody have any good experience using this style of LED bulb? Or possibly any other affordable option someone is using? Any input would be great. Thanks!

Rukus · September 19, 2018

YES! Loved them in my '15 1500. WAY better than the stock bulbs. I am in Southern end of Naperville... if local you can check them out. (now have an '18 and kept bulbs as they were expensive)

camcamaro1991 · September 19, 2018

for your fogs 5202's , those are the older style, that had issues with fitting in the fog light housing o-ring issue... PITA to install, not bright at all. I do not recommend at all. For your low/high beams stay away from "fan style cooling" leds,

for the H11, if you have the room,

number 1 recommendation. - http://www.jdmastar.com/product/752/6S-H11-LED-Headlight-Fog-Conversion-Kits-for-Limited-Space-Set-of-2.html

2nd- http://www.jdmastar.com/product/289/8TH-Gen-H11-LED-Headlight-Conversion-Kits-Set-of-2.html

5202's go with a more powerful from JDMastar

lastly use the 5% off your entire order code on the Jdmastar website. Code = "JDMASTAR"

Cburge95 · September 19, 2018

1 hour ago, Rukus said:

YES! Loved them in my '15 1500. WAY better than the stock bulbs. I am in Southern end of Naperville... if local you can check them out. (now have an '18 and kept bulbs as they were expensive)

I'm right outside Springfield so about 3 hours away. Lol

I love my HIDs. Having HID fog lights help down here in the central part of the state where we have PLENTY of deer. I always run with the Fogs on at night to shine down into the ditch to watch for those little sparkling eyes. I waited until my bumper to bumper warranty ran out before I put them in because of having to cut out the dust caps and all that. And at that point there weren't really any LEDs that were bright enough/reliable enough to be used for actual headlights (or they were just WAY too expensive). Now there seems to be a growing amount of decently affordable and reliable LEDs available so I'm coming back around to the idea. I'm just going to try them out for my low beams first since my high beam HIDs still work fine.

Cburge95 · September 19, 2018

1 hour ago, 05SIERRAMAN said:

for your fogs 5202's , those are the older style, that had issues with fitting in the fog light housing o-ring issue... PITA to install, not bright at all. I do not recommend at all. For your low/high beams stay away from "fan style cooling" leds,

for the H11, if you have the room,

number 1 recommendation. - http://www.jdmastar.com/product/752/6S-H11-LED-Headlight-Fog-Conversion-Kits-for-Limited-Space-Set-of-2.html

2nd- http://www.jdmastar.com/product/289/8TH-Gen-H11-LED-Headlight-Conversion-Kits-Set-of-2.html

5202's go with a more powerful from JDMastar

lastly use the 5% off your entire order code on the Jdmastar website. Code = "JDMASTAR"

Not that I'm doubting your opinion but why fan-less? I can understand fan-less if you have large area behind your headlights to allow the fins to properly dissipate the heat but in my case on the 2014's the bulbs are covered with a hard plastic dust cap on the back of the light. There isn't much room to spread the fins out on the lights in the first link you sent without either leaving the dust cap off or routing the fins out of the back of the dust cap where the HID harnesses pass through. I was hoping with the Fan LEDs I could get the fan shroud to line up with the whole cut in the back of the dust cap to kind of make a "seal" to allow it to properly pull the heat away. The second ones you sent are nice but a little pricey for what I"m looking at for right now. This is really just a test to see if they will work better than HIDs. If they don't preform the way I was hoping I'll put my HIDs back in and go about my business until another time. Same with the fog lights. Those HIDs are still good so if they don't preform either they'll get pulled and HIDs will be put back in.

I do appreciate your input though. I will definitely keep it in consideration

truckmann · September 19, 2018

I put these in my 2014 with the projectors and I'm not very happy with them so I'm looking for something brighter myself. https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B06XHDYTGL/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o00_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

I have them in my car too and they work decent in a reflector housing, but too weak in the projectors.

From all I've looked at recently you won't find anything in an LED that can touch the output of an HID bulb, but I'm still looking for something as good or better than the stock halogen bulb because I don't want to mess with an HID conversion. Still not sure what I will try next. It's hard to go throwing money at bulbs just to be disappointed. I also do prefer a fanless design since that's just one less thing to fail. Not a lot of good fainless options that will fit that I'm finding though.

These kind of have my interest, but are more expensive than I really want to spend too. https://www.theretrofitsource.com/led-lighting/h11-led-headlight-bulbs-morimoto-2stroke.html

camcamaro1991 · September 19, 2018

14 hours ago, Cburge95 said:

Not that I'm doubting your opinion but why fan-less? I can understand fan-less if you have large area behind your headlights to allow the fins to properly dissipate the heat but in my case on the 2014's the bulbs are covered with a hard plastic dust cap on the back of the light. There isn't much room to spread the fins out on the lights in the first link you sent without either leaving the dust cap off or routing the fins out of the back of the dust cap where the HID harnesses pass through. I was hoping with the Fan LEDs I could get the fan shroud to line up with the whole cut in the back of the dust cap to kind of make a "seal" to allow it to properly pull the heat away. The second ones you sent are nice but a little pricey for what I"m looking at for right now. This is really just a test to see if they will work better than HIDs. If they don't preform the way I was hoping I'll put my HIDs back in and go about my business until another time. Same with the fog lights. Those HIDs are still good so if they don't preform either they'll get pulled and HIDs will be put back in.

I would normally say never cut a hole in your dust cover its not just a dust cover but a moisture cap as well, you will have to fit the light inside the headlamp unit that means the harness and all parts, so get the smallest most compact unit.

The fans typically fail or make noise, no OEM manufacturer uses fans, even on my GM OEM LEDS on my 2016.

The fin's can be cut or bent, or use the 2nd option, since the heat sink is the same only fan-less

camcamaro1991 · September 19, 2018

1 hour ago, truckmann said:

From all I've looked at recently you won't find anything in an LED that can touch the output of an HID bulb,

What? no... good LED's will outperform the 30-35w HID's... now the older 55w HID's that a different story. My factory Sierra LED's are crazy bright easily out performs my 30-35w HID's on my Caddie I would even say they can keep up with 50w, You get what you pay for, buying a $20-40 set of LED's and you have your answer.

truckmann · September 19, 2018

40 minutes ago, 05SIERRAMAN said:

What? no... good LED's will outperform the 35w HID's... my factory LED's are crazy bright. You get what you pay for, buying a $20-40 set of LED's and you have your answer.

I don't know, just what I'm finding. I haven't seen a real test yet that an LED does better than HID. LED's are close and getting better though. Here's and example of a pretty good test done at the benging of the year. https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=12&v=0KbZBgrEk_w It was a few months ago so maybe there's something better out there now. I didn't mean to make it sound like LEDs where junk either just not quite to HID level yet.

The OEM LED lights are a whole different thing with lenses that are properly tuned to best use them and should be far superior to an aftermarket bulb in a housing designed for halogen so not really a fair comparison.

I realize the ones I bought are cheap and wasn't expecting greatness out of them. Like I said they put out decent light and pattern in a reflector (I've had them in my car for about a year) just not as good as I want in the projector housing in my truck. Don't know how legit this site is, but they gave Beamtech a pretty good review. http://bulbfacts.com/led-kits/reviews/beamtech-led-kit-review.html

I also don't have a problem paying more for a known good product, but it can be a lot of money to spend on some bulbs without knowing for sure if they are going to fit and be worth a crap. Just because something costs more doesn't always make it a better product.