Cucucachu

Has anyone replaced their H7 halogen bulbs with LED bulbs and resistors? I'm aware of the HID Conversion Kits but curious about using LEDs instead. What are the Pros and Cons?

AsianR350

Pros: Nice white / blue color, last longer and consume less energy.
Cons: low intensity compares to halogen bulb.
How did I know? I have tried H7 Led bulbs on the fog lights (Nice white color) but replaced with HID xenon (much better in term of intensity than halogen or LED bulbs).

Cucucachu

So you're saying LEDs are equal to the halogens in intensity?

AsianR350

Led bulb produces around ~500 lumens compares with 55 watts halogen bulbs 1200 - 1500 lumens. 35 watts HID xenon bulbs produces ~3100 lumes.

Acura introduces new jewel eye LED head light which might be equal or better to HID and they consume less energy.

Cucucachu

Thank you. That pretty well answers that.

AsianR350

I think there is a new CREE LED bulb can produce up to 1800 lumens.

ghenry

Cucucachu ---- VLEDS H7 5K CXA 2000 lumen at vleds.com --- Found this yesterday and thought you might be interested. I installed Miromoto HID's (canbus resistor etc) but they would not work with the engine running. Engine off-- they had a really NICE white light but.............no worky.

Cucucachu

I used to use a Light & Motion Arc on my mountain bike for night riding. It has that cool blue glow of a 6000k to 8000k HID and probably 1200-1500 lumens. It cost $400 about 8 years ago. The battery used to last 6 hours, but now only powers the light for 30 minutes from a full charge. The light itself still kicks ***, but Light & Motion no longer supports it. The NiCad Battery is very complex and the only substitute is a LIon with a new charger ($200).

I typed in LED Bike Light on EBay and found Cree 1000 lumens bike lights for under $30 from China. It's a Magicshine MJ-808 knockoff. This thing is nearly as bright as the Light & Motion Arc. It puts out almost no heat. If the simple a battery pack looses its longevity a trip to Batteries Plus and done.

The VLEDS H7 is only available for pre-orders. Looking at the cooling fins and considering it will be going in the "R's" sealed headlight housing with no ventilation, I'm concerned about a meltdown. Thanks for the feedback, ghenry. I'm gonna keep an eye on this. MTech HID seams to be what's working best for now.

AsianR350

I saw on youtube, the Cree LED bulb has the cooling fan mount at the end of led light.
I am still having Mtec 35 watts HID on fog lights for 4 years and still working. For the low beam, i have 55 watts HID and still working too.

ghenry

AsianR350- You mentioned your low beams were 55w HID's. Are those MTECH also? Did you have to do anything special to keep them from making the R's canbus mad? I really thought I thought I had this Miromoto HID in the bag but when I started the engine POOF out they went. Shut the car off poof theyre on. Was it a plug n play and no extra resistors etc?

thanks

AsianR350

You may have wiring problem. When switch off, the HID should not be on.(check your wiring positive and negative of ballast and OEM wiring connector)

First use manual switch not AUTO, You might need warning canceller or use capacitor connected between + / - of terminals either at HIS ballast or at OEM connector. When I had MTEC on low beam, no problem at all. Once in a while it gave me warning light so I used capacitor connected to +/- terminal.

Cucucachu

Ghenry, keep us informed. I'm a hard believer that LED head lights will become common place. A
sian, thanks for the HID feedback. Also in another thread, thank you for the cabin filter change instructions. I just ordered the Carbon cabin filters from Amazon.

AsianR350

Sorry Henry,

My low beam is 55 watts and it is not Mtec (they do not make 55 watts HID).
I bought this 55 watts kits from someone here who sold his R class.

ODIOUS

Looking to do a Miromoto HID retrofit on the R.
Any updates on this problem engine-off problem?

Thanks!

ghenry

ODIUS--Be sure to try using the relay harness (which I did not do) which will wire the lights directly to the 12VDC bus-----located up near the hood hinge on the pass side---- instead of the H7 bulb connector at the light. The bulb connector will still be used for signal/relay actuation. More than likely a resistor of some sort will be needed for the headlight circuit to fool the system. As stated in Asian350 earlier post don't use Auto just turn them off/on manually. These Miromoto lights were very nice and bright white but as I stated they just wouldn't work with the engine running. Another note on install--there are several modified H7 bulb clamps with some being "not so good/flimsy" but I believe the retrofit source has a good one . Keep us informed on the install.

ODIOUS

Thanks for that. Are these issues exclusive to the mirimotos or all retrofit HIDs? I'm chatting with the fellows at MTEC now and they claim to have a kit designed for the R-class with gives you no problems what so ever.

http://www.mteclightingusa.com/MTEC_...p/hid-w251.htm

It's much pricier but if it gives me no problems I'll gladly consider it. Changing the bulbs in the R class is a major pain. I spent nearly an hour getting my hand in there.

Not happy at all wit the genius who thought that was a good idea. I read somewhere someone was complaining that the dealer needed a day to change the headlamp bulbs. I totally believe it!

starbound01

Take the air snorkels out and it will be easy to change the bulbs. Don't forget to put them back in

AsianR350

I agree. MB should redesign the headlight housing so it is ease to access.

ghenry

HIDConcept.com has a new H7 LED headlight conversion kit. Looks different than any others out there due to the fact the H7 bulb holder is swapped out BUT it would be hard to do with the limited work space in the R's headlight housing. If I could just get my hands on a headlight housing and take it apart.............................do some measuring etc.

ODIOUS

I want to like these headlights...

Why should I not like these headlights?

http://hidconcept.com/index.php?l=product_detail&p=119

ghenry

Still gonna need a resistor on ea bulb ....

AsianR350

I am not sure about the brightness compares with HID bulb.
It actual better than halogen bulb but the lumen is still lower than HID (1800 lumen vs 3200 lumen 4300K HID bulb).
It is good and better than halogen bulb for sure. (1200 - 1500 lumen halogen bulb vs 1800 lumen LED bulb)

ODIOUS

Fair assessment.
With regards to brightness then the pricetag cant be justified.
But LED headlight just look really awesome so... there's that.

matt79

I've been testing my 50W H7 LED bulb kit for past week. Although its brighter, I am not able to get the light focussed properly.

Basically, the cut-off is *NOT sharp*, and there is no significant light up front without high beam.

The high beam itself is not well focussed, so throw at moderate-to-long distance is not helpful.

I believe it will work better with some focus adjustment, but I dont know how to do that. I've rotated some screws in car and they move beam left-right or up-down. I'm not sure if there is a way of moving bulb fwd-reverse to allow to focus it.

supernsx

Not sure it is much more you can do. The focus issue is due to the projectors themselves that are designed for halogen lights.