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LED vs. HID Headlights.

5K views 23 replies 8 participants last post by  Vangm25 
#1 ·
About to upgrade headlight bulbs. I see the Avi has a combination of projector low beams, with reflector high beams. Leaning toward LEDs from past experiences, but wanted to see what others thought were better and why. Have at it boys.
 
#2 ·
Hid for low beams. I'm happy with Morimoto 35W, 5K.
 
#7 ·
HID require light up time of about 10-20 seconds depending on what kit you have. Great kits are under 10 sec. that means using HID high will be delayed so no HID high or HID Fog.

LED is super bright and is great for high beam. Super quick and floods out of a reflector very well.

HID are brighter than LED long range. Great for low beam when seconds don’t matter much when turning on low beams.

These are obviously my exp. and opinion. YMMV Check out my headlight build! Quad Bi-Xenon projectors.


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#9 ·
Stock (on Limited) is HID projector low beams with halogen reflector high beams. I've upgraded low beams with better HIDs, Philips Xenon X-Treme vision Gen 2 (much better than stock BTW). Stock high beams I replaced with LEDs and it is a blast even with my old OPT7 FluxBeam that I got pulled from my previous Avalon. Looking to replace it with GTR Lighting ULTRA 2 kit. HID low beams are somewhat weak on this car comparing to the previous generation, which had much larger aperture projector, so I'm working on an aftermarket fog / driving lights installation and maybe at some point LEDs for the low beams as well.
 
#10 ·
New one. So your working on an aftermarket fog light.
B4 you buy. Take a look at deauto LED`s there is a kit for the H11. bulbs. They have a new duel white/yellow fog light kit, with switchback, and a strobe feature.
Pretty cool, I wish they had these B4 I bought my single color white fog light kit from them. No junk sold here. With a lifetime warranty. Something to consider B4 you buy! See them on youtube. May need resistors for the strobe mode?
I have replaced my backup lights, turn signals, and fog lights with deauto and never had anything to complain about. And so far needed no resistors. It`s a V.W Audi site mostly, but you can purchase bulbs and some kits, by just the bulb type.
 
#11 ·
New one. So your working on an aftermarket fog light.
B4 you buy. Take a look at deauto LED`s there is a kit for the H11. bulbs. They have a new duel white/yellow fog light kit, with switchback, and a strobe feature.
Pretty cool, I wish they had these B4 I bought my single color white fog light kit from them. No junk sold here. With a lifetime warranty. Something to consider B4 you buy! See them on youtube. May need resistors for the strobe mode?
I have replaced my backup lights, turn signals, and fog lights with deauto and never had anything to complain about. And so far needed no resistors. It`s a V.W Audi site mostly, but you can purchase bulbs and some kits, by just the bulb type.
Nice kits these guys have there. Thanks for posting. Unfortunately I can't use any of that because there's no room on the car to fit them. They would work on 2015 Avalon or before but In 2016 Toyota stopped making Avalons with fog lights altogether and changed front bumper style. I'm going for a small, projector type round lights mounted behind the grill just inboard from headlights. There's about 1.3" opening in the grill and my round lights will be mounted to the radiator support behind it. On the radiator support I'm using "horns" mounting holes. This way I'm not cutting anything anywhere. These are the lights that I'm going to use https://www.amazon.com/Driving-Moto...Headlights&qid=1606636126&s=automotive&sr=1-1 . Also I'm using this switch https://www.amazon.com/iJDMTOY-Fact...,+33x22mm)&qid=1606636277&s=automotive&sr=1-1. I had to replace yellow LED in that switch with the white one to match the rest of the OEM switches in the car and it works very nice.
 
#14 ·

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#19 ·
I honestly can't say the difference is anything to scream about, I expected more, both from past experience and high expectations from this product. Perhaps I expect too much (I do) perhaps the original Sylvans or whatever they're called are just that good as to give LEDs a run for their (or my) money. Still, there is an improvement, and I've yet to test them on a truly dark street, which is what made me want to get LEDs in the first place. The pictures are not the best, but I did what I could, hopefully they help someone else who is on the fence.
 
#23 ·
I would seem that the XLE comes with halogens. I've read somewhere that one should not put HIDs in a housing meant for halogens. Anyone have insight?
Yeah, I work at one of the largest automotive lighting companies in N America. Halogen is just a type of bulb used. There is two halogen types of headlights. One is reflector, one is projector.

When people say you should not use HID in a halogen headlight, often times they mean in a Halogen Reflector Headlight. Now, cars come with halogen projectors so you can upgrade to a HID in your projector headlight. It’s very common if you witness the trends today. Projector headlights don’t flood the area like a reflector bowl, it has a cutoff that limits light output in the wrong places. A perfect replacement for a halogen is indeed a HID bulb, but it is equally extremely important on what type of headlight you have. Sure you can use a LED like I have in my halogen projector headlight in the past. It’s good for what it is but surely isn’t the same as a HID in my opinion. It is also more expensive to go HID tho given the amount of components to fire up one of these puppies. Some might not even mind using LEDs, there’s no problem in that if your not a early bird or night owl.


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