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Let me also say this, the color temperature matters to light output. You have to be careful not to compare a 4,300K bulb with one that is 6,000k. What are each of your bulbs?
Not really a fair comparison for the LED. Can you get a 4500k LED bulb or something closer? It will make a difference.
The other issue with the LED bulb is the half life. From my experience, LED bulbs will dim considerably over time so you have to factor that into the decision.
I was trying to upgrade my X164 to LED and ran into the same problems as many did. The H7 adapter did not work. Do you have the link to the H7 adapters that you had used on the LED bulbs? Thanks!
That product page is good because it shows you in one place all the different possible H7 adapter types. There aren't that many, but the only way to know for certain which one fits your vehicle is to see if it looks the same.
This is the adapter for the high-beams: https://amzn.to/2F3QFG6. It's labelled for Audi/Buick but it also works for the x164/w164 high beams.
Keep us updated on your conversion! Which LEDs are you using?
That product page is good because it shows you in one place all the different possible H7 adapter types. There aren't that many, but the only way to know for certain which one fits your vehicle is to see if it looks the same.
This is the adapter for the high-beams: https://amzn.to/2F3QFG6. It's labelled for Audi/Buick but it also works for the x164/w164 high beams.
Keep us updated on your conversion! Which LEDs are you using?
Thanks for the links! This is the LEDs that I bought:
PULILANG H7 LED Headlight Bulbs,360 Degree Full Emitting Headlight Conversion Kit 60W 16000LM 6000K White Highly Recommended for Projector Headlights
The adapters that I bought did not work and I spent way too long trying to make them work. 😊 Will try different adapters. At least I know my dermel still work! 😂
Or should I get a 6500K HID? Which is the best temperature for optimal viewing?
Originally Posted by BlownV8
4,300k to 5,000k is ideal. I believe 4,800k has the most lumens. You should try the test again with LED bulbs that are also 4,500k.
Lumens is a bad measurement system. It favors the center of the light spectrum. At night (in dim light) your eyes are more sensitive to blue light. This measure is called "photopic lumens", but one rarely sees that measurement. For a discussion of the subject, see https://www.sepco-solarlighting.com/...-and-see-light
The best light for seeing at night - to make out the most dimly lit objects - is thus the 6500K blue-white light. The most "natural" looking light will be the 4500-5000K bulbs. Street lights would be most effective if 6500K but people prefer 3000K for its nighttime warmth. I have 6000K LED on my GL; if I come across 5000K LED I will probably change over.
Originally Posted by BlownV8
The other issue with the LED bulb is the half life. From my experience, LED bulbs will dim considerably over time so you have to factor that into the decision.
The degradation of LEDs is due to the heat degrading the plastic lens cover over the diode itself. This has largely been addressed with better heat management and better materials. HID degrades, too, and there is little that can be done about that.
Auto headlamps simply aren't used that many hours, so it's typically a non issue. An HID bulb will run 2,000 hours before it's down to 2/3 output; that's 80,000 miles of nighttime driving.
The cooling systems have gotten good enough that there are now 50W bulbs, meaning they match the halogen power and don't use a load resistor to satisfy the CAN bus.
It does not 100% fit the LED bulbs but it did fit the low beam socket with the usual struggles. Use the dremel to 'adjust' the adapters to fit. Started on the driver side first and it took longer as I did not know how much to grind it plus I'm a righty, installed the LED with my left hand was a bit of a challenge.
The LED bulb have a ring that can be removed. It's the ring that needs to fit the adapter. Trying to install the whole bulb with the adapter is not easy, so I installed the ring with the adapter first then just insert the bulb in the socket. Closed the dust cover and done! Was worried that the LED might get too hot but the previous owner must have installed HIDs since the dust cover already had a nice hole drilled.
The installation on the passenger side was much faster since I knew roughly how much to grind and with my right hand. Checked that both lights came on and took it for a spin.
Well, it wasn't as bright as I though it would be. The light beam was well spread on the outer side but seem to have little illumination towards the center of the car. The beam also does not reach as far as I thought it would go. I had LEDs on a non-Mercedes and the illumination was very good but the LED bulbs were not enclosed in a 'lens' within the headlight though. This low beam has a fish-eye projector cover (not sure what it's actually called). Would that affect the spread of the light? Checked the alignment it looks good but I did not adjust anything else. Not sure what else to make the illumination better towards the center of the car? Maybe change the parking lights to LED too?
Congrats on the install. You had the insight that the plastic ring needs to fit the adapters first; that's key. Those little brackets are a pain, but if you get them right, they're fantastic.
I hate to throw a wrench into your project, but your beam pattern may be due to the design. The projector lens is looking for a point source. The H7 filament is maybe a quarter inch long. Yours is more distributed along the longitudinal axis. The result may be that the set of LEDs fore and aft of the center are outside the focal point.
I installed these
and the beam profile is perfect. The little square of diodes is behind a lens, and on each side they appear to make a nice hemisphere of light.
I had to cut the tips off, though, or there was a round dark spot in the center of the projection. Dremel ftw. Once I did that, the beam pattern is perfect. Amazing.
Food for thought. You could try another one and if it's better, send back the ones claimed to be good for projectors.
These guys look similar to what I have. Probably want to cut at the blue line, though.
Really irritates me they haven't gotten this straight by now. At least they've all settled on fan cooling.
Good luck; let us know what you settle on.
P.S. Not only does the light need to be coming from a point source, or close to it, the point source needs to be at the correct spot in the projector. The distance from the flange to the point must match the H7 bulb which it is replacing. Take one of your old H7 bulbs and compare to your LED lamps. The LEDs that are not at the correct distance are splashing light around, mostly to the sides and bottom.
Last edited by eric_in_sd; Oct 9, 2020 at 07:16 PM.
[QUOTE=eric_in_sd;8175637
P.S. Not only does the light need to be coming from a point source, or close to it, the point source needs to be at the correct spot in the projector. The distance from the flange to the point must match the H7 bulb which it is replacing. Take one of your old H7 bulbs and compare to your LED lamps. The LEDs that are not at the correct distance are splashing light around, mostly to the sides and bottom.[/QUOTE]
The point on the old H7 bulb would be at the filament itself, correct?
I experimented with the HIKARI Ultra LED Headlight Bulbs Conversion Kit -H7. See product link here: https://amzn.to/34HeZGu
They worked pretty well and no need to cut off the tip.
See comparison photo below with Hikari LED on left and HID on the right. In the end I went with HID but they both worked very well. If I had known that our eyes our more sensitive to blue light, I would have considered the LEDs more strongly.
I experimented with the HIKARI Ultra LED Headlight Bulbs Conversion Kit -H7. See product link here: https://amzn.to/34HeZGu
They worked pretty well and no need to cut off the tip.
See comparison photo below with Hikari LED on left and HID on the right. In the end I went with HID but they both worked very well. If I had known that our eyes our more sensitive to blue light, I would have considered the LEDs more strongly.
LED on left HID on right
Thanks for the info from product experience.
It really depends on your needs. Do you drive in very dark areas, e.g. off road, and need the absolute maximum illumination? Then 6000K would be better. Or do you want better color rendering, so the road ahead looks more natural? Then you'd want 5000K.
Note the Hikari you linked to are 6500K. That is noticeably bluer than 6000K.
Thanks for the Amazon Prime Days, I bought 3 different LED lights to test them out.
They all worked much better than the initial install. I compared the Pulilang with a Hikari, Aukee and Car Rover. Their point source are almost the same but the Pulilang has LED components in a cyclical arrangement whereas the rest have the LED components at 3 and 9 o' clock arrangement.
The 3-9 arrangement gave a wider and farther beam pattern. The Pulilang is 60W and 16000 lumens and the rest are all 50W 10000 lumens. So I'm not sure if the numbers means much.
I also bought these H7 adapters for the high beam. They are slightly smaller in size as compared to the original adapters but they do fit.
Overall, I installed the Car Rover in the low beam and the Hikari in the high beam.
I had forgotten to take pictures of the differences when I was driving around with 2-3 different LEDs in the low beam.
Side note, I had modified the H7 adapters for low beam to fit the Pulilang. The adapters still fit the Hikari, Car Rover and Aukee but with more room. I would suspect that all 3 LEDs might have fit into the adapter w/o much dremel work.
Yes, took some photos when it was dark out. For the low beam, the previous LED lights (pulilang), the light did not even reach the last line before the grass. Low beam only. Low beam with high beam.
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