I want to upgrade the lighting in my car (1970 Charger) but I do not want to install relays. The last time I tried, it made things all messed up. I think the electric headlight door wiring required some differences in how the relays are wired in.
Regardless, I have read about the LED replacements but do not know which brands are good, what a decent price is, etc.
Help ! :icon_smile_question:
I bought these a couple years ago, but I haven't got my car finished to test them yet.
http://www.rodtiques.com/catalog.php/DavidHarris4/dt94727/pd2152206/5_3_4__Maxtel_LED_Headlights
It is a bit confusing with all the different offerings. The owner at this place assured me that these were a lot brighter and whiter than H4 Halogens. :shruggy: I hope he wasn't lying.
While Relays would be nice and a must if doing HID's.. They aren't as necessary for LED's as they are not the Power hogs HID and incandescent are.
There are plenty of quality bulbs on the market but the issue with LED's is the housings. LED's were never meant to be in the old standard housings for our cars, they were designed for projector housings. I ran my LED's for a while in regular housings but could never get rid of the "scatter" of the light. I used housings that had the reflector over the bulb in it to clean up the spread of the light, which worked pretty well but still not perfect.
Now I just had these built. They are one of the first true bolt in housings that I have seen. No cutting or modifying the headlight brackets at all. Just need to get out and get them installed. They look a bit different but on our cars they are hidden so no worries for me. Once I've tested them I'll post up on how they are.
There are also LED 5 3/4 housings with the LEDs built in but require completely cutting up the brackets to make them fit. I bought a set but just couldn't bring myself to cut as much as needed to make them work so I sent them back.
Here are similar bulbs to what I run. I have had a set of these in my old daily driver for 5+ years with them and not a single issue.
https://www.superbrightleds.com/moreinfo/led-headlight-bulbs-conversion-kits/led-headlight-kit-h4-led-headlight-bulbs-conversion-kit-with-compact-heat-sink/3929/8565/
https://www.superbrightleds.com/moreinfo/led-headlight-bulbs-conversion-kits/led-headlight-kit-h4-led-headlight-conversion-kit-with-aluminum-finned-heat-sinks/4314/9633/
Ho-Lee-CRAP these things are expensive ! :eek2:
I just purchased and installed some LED headlights from headlightexperts.com in my 68. The install was quite simple as the LED's they supply are a ?plug and play" operation. The driving lights were straight forward perfect fit plug, but the bright lights needed a 2 to 3 wire adapter because all the plugs are the same in their kit. While they supplied me the adapter for the job after a phone call and email to their customer service.....it is kinna a cheesy wired plug with pig tails for the 2 wire side.
Currently they are super bright in "bright mode" but the normal driving lights look a bit weak. Which is weird, because during install and testing the looked crazy bright in comparison!! I need to see if I can get them adjusted better. I tried like hell to get them adjusted good last night but simply ran out of adjustment. All may have been because I had a bit of a tunnel effect going trying to do it just outside of my garage door shining into the garage.
My only complaint with the company would be that they didn't really explain upon ordering that the lights and their "harness" wasn't even made yet. I kept trying to get pictures of the connections to see just how "plug and play" they really were before I ordered. But after several emails and phone calls they assured me that they were "plug and play" (they use that phrase ALOT!!) and would fit right in.