LED vs HID headlight upgrade?

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DwayneR6406

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I have been going through the same research as you, but I am more inclined to do things myself than go to a local shop to get it done. I have watched dozen youtube videos and read 100s of reviews on both LED and HID kits and which route to go in general. Here is my general consensus of the question at hand:
  1. LED - LED headlight technology is still relatively "new" and its rapidly improving. Right now LEDs have the best success when used for DRL lights, reverse lights, fog lights, interior lights, etc.... but lack the true penetrating beam pattern needed for low beam lights. The LED lights do not produce a halogen type light pattern and also the projector housing you have is expecting a halogen bulb to be placed in it. They have designed the headlamp housing to know the halogen filament will be X inches from the tip of the bulb and precisely angled all sides to reflect that light forward infront of the vehicle. The thing with LEDs is most commonly, where the LED lights are on the bulb and are producing the light are not exactly where the housing is meant to reflect light. So a lot of the light is not reflected into the correct direction and light is lost inside the headlamp. Also, the pattern of the LEDs is to push light in only two directions on the bulb, where a filament of HID bulb does it in a true 360*. (there are 360* LED lights also, they are even worse than the normal LEDs that are only on the two sides). So in a brief summary, LEDs are great, they use a FRACTION of the power than HIDs or Halogen, they do not get as hot either, they are straight plug and play, and they go from 0-100% light out put instantly. BUT, they are still lacking in the true directional light and penetrating light. They are better than stock halogen, but not better than HID kit.
  2. HID Xenon Kit - the kit your local shop linked looks nice, but from what I can take in from the pictures, it looks very overpriced. The kit looks like every other $40-60 kit on Amazon/eBay. Ballasts look identical, wiring, plugs, relays, canBUS kit, etc.... The only thing I see that is "better" is they offer a lifetime warranty (which I would like to know what that covers, ballasts? wires? relays?) and they rate the bulbs at 40k hours. I mean lets think about that, 40k hours? Most of the bulbs I have seen are rated around 3-5k, I mean the LED lights are still in the 15-30k hour range. They must be selling some NASA Xenon bulbs. Go do a search on Kensun, Xentec, OPT7 HID Xenon kits on Amazon and look at the pictures compared to the one your local shop recommended. See if you notice much difference in build quality. With all this being said, HID Xenons are still king of the castle. They produce the most powerful light source vs LED and Halogen. They come in 35W and 55W (most people claim the 55W is unnecessary and can be too bright/blinding to oncoming traffic, expect to be ticketed by cops). BUT, with the HID Xenon kit comes lots of wires and other components. It is mostly plug and play and you could EASILY successfully install this yourself by watching a youtube tutorial and a local shop would probably charge you $100+ for 30 mins of work. Colors: 4300k is what people consider "stock OEM" color, 5000k is a white very little yellow, and 6000K is pure white with slight slight tints of blue. I would agree with local shop on going with 6000k, thats what I have in LED and currently in the process of switching to with HID kit. For safety reasons, if you go with HID kit, get the relay harness with it. This will draw power directly off your battery vs your wiring harness. If there ever was a lot of resistance or a short, it was fry the $15 relay harness and not your $3000 wiring harness. HIDs do have a warming up process also, the Xenon gas in the bulbs has to go through a warming up process to reach full 100% light output, usually 3-4 minutes.

TL;DR - LED is easier to install and "safer", but not as bright. HID is brighter, harder to install and more components to fail or cause damage.

The lifetime warranty covers every component of the HID kit, and I bet it's more like 4k hours, not 40k hours. It also comes with a relay harness and supposedly the warm up time is around 1 second and there's no flicker. I'm leaning more and more towards the HID.
 

ezstriper

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did the LED upgrade on my avalanche, all failed within days !! junk
 

ezstriper

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they came from amazon, did low beams, driving lights, reverse lights
 

Colin S

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I bought the vanquish auto 35w 6000k HID kit and it is fantastic. Installation took less than an hour and was very straightforward. I just watched a generic youtube install video and was on my way. I did not end up bolting the ballast, but used zip ties and found it to be much easier to attach them. You will have to drill holes with in the dust covers, but everything else is plug and play. I did receive a bunk ballast and contacted vanquish auto immediately, they had a new ballast at my doorstep two days later and all is working fine now. I love the look of the crystal white lights -- I am kind of wishing I went with the 55w, but 35 watt is plenty for my city driving. I would recommend vanquish auto and would not hesitate to purchase from them -- they have a legit product with service to back it up. Next I am going to do my licence plate lights and possible my rear lights...focused on rims and tires at the moment though. Good luck and PM me with any questions.
 

Denali132

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I have Vanquish Auto HIDS for low beams,LEDs for Highs and 80 watt LEDs for my driving lights. Great product and awesome customer service! HIDs are definitely the way to go for low beams because they project much further!


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