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Curiously enough the IIHS rates the 2018 Fit headlights as "Poor", their lowest rating.
They rate the 2019 headlights as "Marginal" which is their second lowest rating, so we've moved up a notch.
I'm not aware of any changes made to the headlights in 2019 (different bulbs, different lenses etc) so I'm assuming the improvement might have been simply an alignment improvement. Anyway the 2019 owners should be happy to see that their headlights have improved, for whatever reason, from "really dismal" to just plain "dismal". Rejoice!
The thing to remember is that in general the bulb life goes down in life expectancy as the lumens (light intensity) increases for the same wattage. The basic Honda 9003 H4 bulb may get 30-48 months where as the top high end light bulb that's Xenon Charged might get 6-24 months of regular use. This I can attest to on my former 2002 CRV mule. After a few years of using Silverstar Ultra (average of 13.4 months before one bulb failure) - I returned to the old Basic bulb (40.7 months until one bulb failed). OEMs seem to lasts longer - it might be that the OEM bulb is of better quality to make it through the 5 year warranty or lower light intensity (lumens).
One of the first things I did when I bought mine on 11/11, was replace the headlights, and fogs with LED's, big difference. The halogens were so yellow I couldn't stand it. My 08 CRV has all LED, so I am forever spoiled and will never be able to drive with halogens again.
Considering my last car was a 13 year old Accord with fogged over headlights, I find the Fit's lights to be a fantastic upgrade (with the fogs on of course). Standalone lights are pretty weak however
Please keep us updated ok your leds. The are cheap so I got might buy one soon if It improves visibility and reliability is good.
Thanks in advice.
It’s been almost two years since I installed the “Superbright LED” headlamp bulbs. They’re still working like new, no diminished performance that I can detect and no failures to report. I’m still satisfied with them.
I have a 2019 Sport Fit and I find the headlights lacking but mostly on high beam. I also have fog lights on my model so they come on when ever I turn on the lights. They are still the factory halogen bulbs.
If it weren't for the fog light I would have already change them out for something else. On low beam and with the fog light I find it adequate. The spread is nice and they distance is about right. Now when
I turn them to bright, I consider them almost useless. They aren't bright enough and they point up into the trees. There is no light directly in front of you. I only use them when going down hills. Driving up hill
is like driving with a flash light. If the fog lights could be made to stay on all the time it might be better.
I don't know if changing to an LED bulb would help much. Now if the LED bulb would still power the low beam chips along with the high beam chips, I could see changing to LED. That way it would cover both
close and far. Does anyone know if this is the case with LED bulbs?
I don't know if changing to an LED bulb would help much.
I don't see much point in putting an LED bulb into a halogen reflector housing. The best case scenario for that is that you *might* have a brighter view, but it won't be any longer a view than before, and if you're lucky you'll be able to aim the beam without introducing glare.
I'm going to wait before I do anything.
Drive for a while to see if I can deal with what I have, and continue to do research. There must be a reason why Morimoto is about to change its design, and maybe waiting to see what they've done is the best idea.
I don't see much point in putting an LED bulb into a halogen reflector housing. The best case scenario for that is that you *might* have a brighter view, but it won't be any longer a view than before, and if you're lucky you'll be able to aim the beam without introducing glare.
I'm going to wait before I do anything.
Drive for a while to see if I can deal with what I have, and continue to do research. There must be a reason why Morimoto is about to change its design, and maybe waiting to see what they've done is the best idea.
I bought a set of Hikari bulbs which are adjustable. I have them tweaked so they are the same light pattern as the halogen bulbs. They look good. No crazy light refraction. But another brand I had was terrible, and I had to return them. I have the Hikari in both my CRV and Fit.
I don't see much point in putting an LED bulb into a halogen reflector housing. The best case scenario for that is that you *might* have a brighter view, but it won't be any longer a view than before, and if you're lucky you'll be able to aim the beam without introducing glare.
I'm going to wait before I do anything.
Drive for a while to see if I can deal with what I have, and continue to do research. There must be a reason why Morimoto is about to change its design, and maybe waiting to see what they've done is the best idea.
Putting a LED lamp into a reflector designed for the standard halogen bulb was probably not a good idea with the early models of LED lamps but supposedly manufacturers of some lamps are designing the placement of the LEDs to closely mimic the placement of the filaments in halogen bulbs. Does it work out in practice? I don't know. I am going to buy some LED lamps and find out. These I think. They are the brightest H4 LEDs that superbrightleds.com sells. They have the same voltage rating as this model, which .Uncle Gary reports, above, works well with the the Fit's daytime running light PWM modulated voltage. Uncle Gary how bright are your superbrightleds lamps are in DRL mode? I would guess the DRLs are just as bright as the high beams, no, that it is like having your highbeams on in the daytime – because the DRL circuit sends power the the high beam filament. I wonder if it is not best to remove the DRL fuse and, in the daytime, turn your low beams on. To get low beams during the day you'd have to do it manually instead of relying on the automatic headlights on-off feature.
Last edited by nomenclator; 12-09-2019 at 06:39 PM.
It’s been almost two years since I installed the “Superbright LED” headlamp bulbs. They’re still working like new, no diminished performance that I can detect and no failures to report. I’m still satisfied with them.
I'll admit it. All this discussion of headlamp alternatives has piqued my curiosity to the point where I sprang for some LED replacement lamps to try in my '15 Fit. These are the ones I bought:
These LED lamps attempt to mimic the style and placement of the filaments in an H$ halogen lamp, so I was curious to see how well they would duplicate the beam pattern.
Installation was as easy as replacing a standard halogen bulb, and I was able to retain the stock dust cover. I didn't need the headlight load resistor kit for the Fit, everything worked fine without it.
DRLs worked! I'm not sure how the Honda achieves the voltage reduction, although I suspect it's done by pulsed DC. However it works, the LEDs light up on high beam at reduced brightness. If there's any flickering, it's too fast for the human eye to detect. Will it shorten the life of the LEDs? I don't know. I've had them in the car for less than a week, so I can't say for sure. The heat sinks get quite warm, not too hot to touch, but hot enough that you wouldn't hold you hand on them.
Color is a nice cool white color, and low beam performance I would rate as excellent. Even without adjustment, these lamps throw a nice bright beam down the road. Cutoff is sharp, though there may be a bit more glare than the halogen bulbs. That's the limit of this technology at present, where you're trying to duplicate a cylindrical filament with a series of flat LED elements. I can say I've been road testing these all week, and so far, nobody has flashed their high beams at me, so they are probably pretty good.
High beam performance is more mixed. The high beam elements are the same power as the low beam elements, so the high beam is "higher" than the low beam, but no brighter, in fact, it seems as though the light is more diffused and less focused. To be sure, the high beams pick up distant road signs, but they don't seem to light up the road as well as I'd hoped, at least to these 65 year old eyes. One thing I did notice, they do seem to be better at filling in the "dark spots" that the halogen bulbs always seemed to have on high beam, that is, the light is spread more evenly with the LEDs.
To be sure, I've only had them on the car for a few days, so I can't rule out "confirmation bias" in my findings. More research is necessary.
Also, my lawyer says I have to remind you that modifications to your headlamps may be illegal under state and federal motor vehicle laws, and vehicles so modified may be restricted to off-highway use in closed-course competition use only. YMMV, void where prohibited and all other disclaimers apply.
After I bought superbrightleds H4-HLV5 bulbs, and was disappointed in the amount of light they put out, see this, and this, I found, in wikipedia that halogens put out 1650 lumens on high beam, 1000 on low beam. Superbrighleds rates the H4-HLV5 bulbs at 5000 lumens per pair, so 2500 each bulb, and since the high beam "filaments" put out the same amount of light as the low beams, they therefore put out 1250 lumens on low beams, 1250 on high beam. In other words they put out less lumens on high beam than halogens. And the H4-HLV4 bulbs that you purchased, put out 1000 lumens on low beam, and 1000 on high beam. I wish I had checked all this out before buying!
I am now looking at these, which cost only a little more than the superbrightleds, but put out more light, 3750 per bulb (supposedly), so 1850 lumens each "filament." Voltage requirement between 6 and 18 (superbrighleds is rated at 9 to 32), and the web page says "DRL compatible."
Last edited by nomenclator; 12-21-2019 at 06:34 PM.
If you don’t mind me asking where did you get the bulbs from? I need something a little brighter for my fit and the ones I’ve been using from the auto stores just aren’t bright enough for me and they aren’t lasting long. Do you have any recommendations?
Originally Posted by Uncle Gary
I'll admit the stock headlamp bulbs were nothing to write home about. I put in some Phillips "ChrystalVision Ultra" bulbs, and now I have no complaints about the headlamps at all. Best $20 I ever spent.
Best of all, they're legal, unlike the HID kits and LED bulbs.
If you don’t mind me asking where did you get the bulbs from? I need something a little brighter for my fit and the ones I’ve been using from the auto stores just aren’t bright enough for me and they aren’t lasting long. Do you have any recommendations?
I suggest skipping high powered halogen bulbs that don’t last long, and spending a bit more for Philips Ultinon LED bulbs. I posted a thread on this recently: Philips Ultinon Pro5000s on my 16EXL
12-19-2018, 09:45 AM
