Q & A For the LED Headlight Bulbs

NicKlaus · January 4, 2019

LED headlight bulbs become the best replacement for the factory halogen bulbs. However, when choosing and replacing the LEDheadlight bulbs, you will find some problems.

Why Choosing LED Headlight Bulbs?

LED headlight bulbs are known to offer more benefits as compared to other standard bulbs. LED headlights are widely used to upgrade halogen bulbs in vehicles. LED headlight bulbs are known to be highly energy efficient. They use less power to produce the same amount of light output as halogen bulbs. LED headlight bulbs consume less than 60% of the total energy required to power a halogen bulb. This means your car will need less fuel to run the alternator. In addition, using LED saves power for other electrical devices such as the stereo and phone.

LED headlight bulbs also have a longer lifetime as compared to halogen bulbs. If they are supplied with the right amount of power, they offer at least 20,000 working hours. This saves your money since you don’t have to replace them regularly.

These headlight bulbs also have an outstanding optical performance. You can easily control the direction of the light to maximize visibility. This allows you to direct the beam of light at a low angle to avoid causing glare or blinding the drivers in oncoming vehicles.

Vehicles with LED headlight bulbs produce a brighter beam of light than halogen bulbs. This gives you move visibility especially at night and during bad weather such as snow. Better visibility enables the driver to make proper judgment and avoid unnecessary accidents.

The LED headlight bulbs are also easy to install. You can buy and an LED retrofit-kit which allows you to replace the halogen bulbs in a few steps. The bulb doesn’t require any modification in the wiring of your headlights and it doesn’t affect the performance of other electrical components.

How to Fix the Problems When Upgrading The Headlights?

It is easy to upgrade your headlights with LED headlight bulbs. However, you can encounter various problems if you don’t use the right LED headlight bulbs. Low-quality LED bulbs have poor performance and they can cause some safety issues. Some cheap bulbs are not designed with safety in mind and you will notice that some of them produce an extremely bright light beam. Strong light causes glare and makes it difficult for other drivers to see. Such LEDs can cause eye problems and even accidents at night.

LED headlight bulbs are known to produce less heat but they can also overheat when used for a long period of time. Some low-cost LED bulbs lack small fans and heat sinks for heat dissipation. Such bulbs should not be used in headlights since they can overheat and fail after some time.

Flicker or Dashboard Warning?

When you install LED headlights on vehicles without Canbus, they will work perfectly without adding any additional driver. However, you can experience some problems if your vehicle uses a Canbus (Controller Area Network Bus). Canbus checks the electrical components of your vehicle and sends their status to the control unit. You might encounter problems such as dashboard error that notifies you that the bulb is out, flickering of the headlights, bulbs not lighting up or even low light beam. Therefore, it is advisable to check if your vehicle has Canbus before upgrading any electrical component. But it is easy to fix these problems. Just buy an appropriate Canbus Driver for your vehicle and install it after replacing the bulb.

It is advisable to use some LED bulbs series such as the T1 and W series since they come with Canbus drivers. These bulbs series are a better option when it comes to replacing halogen bulbs with LED headlights, and you do not know if your car is equipped with the Canbus system.

Check the Factory Bulb Type But Still Cannot Put The New One In?

Before you buy led bulbs, you have to check your car manual or ask an expert so that you can select the right bulb type. However, some LED headlight bulbs cannot be 100% installed in some vehicles even if you choose correct bulbs with the right plug-type fitting. Vehicles such as BMW, Audi, Mercedes-Ben, Volkswagen, Buick, Hyundai, and others that needs H7 led bulb for high beam or low beam need to use the special bulb holder. If the factory H7 bulbs have the bulb holders, you can use them on the new LED headlight bulbs. But some factory bulbs and bulb holders are fixed together. So you may need to purchase the bulb holders according to your vehicle type.

Fortunately, Auxbeam provides you with H7 LED bulb holders that can allow you to fit LED headlight bulbs in these vehicles. Auxbeam has got every H7 LED bulb holder ready for you to choose. After you have purchased the LED headlight bulbs and the H7 led bulb holders, you should make the right connections on the terminals to avoid damaging the headlights.

The Factory Dust Cover Cannot Fit In.

Dust cover is an important item in the headlights since it prevents dust from getting into the bulbs. Dust can hinder heat dissipation and make the bulbs to fail. You can buy the right LED headlight bulbs but discover that the installation process cannot be completed since the cover cannot be reinstalled. Some LED headlights are usually designed with a bigger heatsink. The heat sink occupies most space and it doesn’t allow the rubber dust cap to be reinstalled.

You can also get an LED headlight with a massive fan which occupies more space. The big fan gets too close to the dust cover and this prevents it from getting sufficient airflow. This hinders the fan from functioning properly and the bulb can get too hot and fail prematurely.

Some people try to solve these problems by drilling a hole on the dust cover and trimming some parts to accommodate the massive heat sink. However, this is a bad approach since it is time-consuming and you can accidentally damage some components.

All the components of an LED are important and there is no way you can remove the big heat sink or fan from the bulb. These components provide cooling which determines the durability and light stability of the bulb. In addition, the headlights require a dust cover and you can’t do away with it if you want your bulbs to last for a long period of time.

You can choose Auxbeam T1 series or A2 LED headlight bulbs. They are designed in small bulb size. Thus, you dust cover will fit in. The reliable solution is to use the Auxbeam headlight dust cover which fits perfectly in all types of vehicles. This dust cover accommodates LED headlights with large heat sinks or large fans for cooling the bulb.

Conclusion

There are many different situations why the LED headlight bulbs do not be installed and work normally. Sometimes, it is not the LED headlight bulbs have some problems. There are some little problems and accessories you also need for your vehicles. If you want to know some other problems that do not mention here, you can tell us and we will try to help you fix that. If you want to know more about LED lighting and vehicle modified parts, please read on to know more.

Edited June 3, 2019 by txab

Sierra Dan · January 16, 2019

Great Write-Up Nic Klaus

tbarn · January 16, 2019

On 1/3/2019 at 9:33 PM, NicKlaus said:

Why Choosing LED Headlight Bulbs?

LED headlight bulbs are known to offer more benefits as compared to other standard bulbs. LED headlights are widely used to upgrade halogen bulbs in vehicles. LED headlight bulbs are known to be highly energy efficient. They use less power to produce the same amount of light output as halogen bulbs. LED headlight bulbs consume less than 60% of the total energy required to power a halogen bulb. This means your car will need less fuel to run the alternator. In addition, using LED saves power for other electrical devices such as the stereo and phone.

About how much gas can I save? .001mpg?

Catch1177 · January 23, 2022

Question for you. I want to convert to led bulbs in my 20 custom trail boss. Most likely lasfit. Can I do this without causing any electrical issues. Seems most convert to leds with our trucks. Seems I may need heat sinks and fans with the LEDs.... If they burn out before replacing, will it cause any issues? Any info would be great. Thanks