S2K750

I'm looking for anyone with experience to chime in if you have replaced your halogen bulbs with LED bulbs. I've always done HID in the past, but since LED require less watts and run a little cooler I thought I would give this method a shot.


Yay or nay?

Also do these cars need the cel eliminator if I go with either the led or hid?


Thanks in advance!

C_Class_Dad

I recall another thread on this topic It's much more involved than switching bulbs. In that thread, a very capable poster discussed how he did it and what was needed.

S2K750

Thank you for the response. I saw that thread and realize that would be a 100x improvement over the halogen. I'm looking for a slight improvement and saw there are plug and play systems out. I was hoping someone has tried them before to know if theres any improvement besides color otherwise I'll stick with an HID for some extra light.

Thanks!

C_Class_Dad

You learn something new everyday. I googled for plug and play LEDs and now better understand what you are asking. In the earlier thread, the person wanted the MB LED light kit -- rather than merely making the output brighter. I would be interested in your experience, should you go further with this.

TheElephantGod

Are you not worried about the light scatter blinding oncoming traffic if you switch the halogen bulbs to HIDs? Are there special HID kits that take care of this?

Also, you can compare the performance of LED bulbs by comparing their lumens (light output).

huyuci

I was the one who changed the entire lights from halogen to LED. I also had experience changing just the halogen bulbs on my BMW to both LED and HID. From my experience, probably because I used the ones from Ebay and because of the color I chose (pure white), the light was weak. So, for me, it was mostly for cosmetic because I really hated the yellow ish light from halogen. So, if you want to go for LED, I think you should try ones from Cree. I heard they're the best, but never tried it out myself.

AZN Optics

With LEDs, what you have to watch out for is spread pattern and if your stock housing can properly take advantage to project/reflect that type of light. When you see LED headlights with a higher lumen output than stock halogen, the automatic first inclination is that it'll be better than stock halogen. LEDs are still single directional so can result in dark spots. There is a 3D LED diode that's still in the early stages of development and has great promise for true 360 output, but the lumens on it isn't strong enough yet for use as headlights, but as the technology matures, that'll be the best way to go and will probably be when we feel comfortable recommending to our customers to make the switch to LEDs for forward projecting type lights vs indication type lights.

HIDs are still the superior option right now for your low beams. If heat is a concern, go with 35W kit instead of 55W. 35W burn cooler and have nearly double the lifespan of 55W at only a slight decrease in brightness.