Upgrade Driving Lights

[David Lee]

I want to upgrade my driving lights to a white LED, having a hard time finding any info. I am looking for white and bright. Thoughts?

 

Thanks, Dave

[Bill336]

I've used bulbs from Oracle Lighting in two vehicles. Expensive compared to some, but very good bulbs. Be sure to check carefully to be sure they will fit your housings. They stick out way further than incandescents, so you may run into space issues depending on the housing you have/choose.

[SouthPawCO]

First, make sure you lens aren't 'fogged' over. This will drastically reduce the light output and make it seem like you have dim lights. If they are clear, I would at the HID route. HID's are a significant upgrade over halogen and when adjusted right, they will not blind other drivers. LED's are great too but generally come with a giant fan mounted to them which can make for a tight fit. HID's are plug and play and if your truck in your info is the one in question, will not require any cutting to fit. They literally replace your old bulb, plug the ballast into your light socket and find a spot to mount the ballast. 

[Bill336]

A little update. Out of curiosity I tried a set of JDM astar 9006s. If I pulled out some instruments I could probably find a difference, But from just driving at night I can't see one. They're half the price of Oracle. The only big thing I noticed was a need to re-aim my headlights up considerably. Not sure why. Bulbs are oriented correctly in the housings. Something about the construction I'm guessing.

[greatmizzou]

I generally dislike the harsh the super bright white lights.   They don’t seem to be as effective throwing light as traditional bulbs and drivers will flash you all the time thinking you left your high beams on.  Worst are the brand new projector ones with an intense cutoff where the light stops (Ford Explorer)

 

 Which bulbs do that most often, halogen, HID, LED?

[Grubbworm]

I just bought a set of these (https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07H4GFS8F/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o00_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1) for my truck. So far they work great. They were easy to install, and are much brighter than the standard bulbs that were in there. If you orient them correctly, the pattern is good and they do not blind oncoming drivers. These appear to have good 3-year warranty and a better than most price for a set of 4 (2-low, 2-high).

[Bill336]

On 1/3/2019 at 3:02 PM, greatmizzou said:

I generally dislike the harsh the super bright white lights.   They don’t seem to be as effective throwing light as traditional bulbs and drivers will flash you all the time thinking you left your high beams on.  Worst are the brand new projector ones with an intense cutoff where the light stops (Ford Explorer)

 

 Which bulbs do that most often, halogen, HID, LED?

It's not a bulb issue, it's a projector issue. I replace my headlight housings with some from Spyder and had that problem. Adjusting the headlights properly pretty much eliminated it. If you follow the advice from all over the Internet about the cutoff being the same height as the optical center of your projector (measuring the height at 25'), you're almost always going to be low. I have mine adjusted so that when driving down a level stretch of road the light cuts off at the bottom of the road signs (curve, school zone and the like). The hard cutoff is eliminated, except in situations where the road slopes up sharply in front of you. No one has flashed headlights at me yet.