Hey everyone,

brand new to the fit family. Got a white 2016 EX.
vehicle is currently stock.
wanted some help on LED headlights, whether to just swap the bulb or change the whole housing?

thank you!

 

Change the whole housing? That would excessively expensive even if that is a solution. However, you have to be careful with the orientation of the plug and play LED bulbs. Not all are created equal. Check out some of the internet videos. Some recommend that the chips should be oriented side ways, and other recommend them up and down when the bulb is installed. I returned the LEDs that I bought because they didn't broadcast light "correctly" in the OEM housing. Are there any success and happy installations out there? I did like the brightness of the LED when compared to the OEM bulbs.

 

You just swap the bumps. There are no LED housings made anyways.

 

Check out headlightrevolution.com for a good rundown of what makes a good LED headlight bulb and what makes a terrible bulb.

 

I installed these after some members had good feedback on them and I have no regrets: https://www.superbrightleds.com/more...set/3929/8565/

No one's flashed me since I installed them and the beam pattern looked pretty good. They are very bright and I bought a similar set from the company for the Odyssey.

 

I bought these. Superbrightleds describes them as being just a bit brighter than the superbrightled model that 2Rismo2 refers to.

n low beam I found them to be an improvement over the original halogens. They were much brighter and the color temperature was much better. They had a pretty good cutoff. However I was disappointed with the highbeam function. They lit up reflective roadsigns better than the original halogens. The problem was: you switch on your high beams and you expect to see light that reaches further down the road, and that lights the road at least as brightly as the low beams. The LED highbeams reach further down the road, but they are actually less bright than the high beams. Why? Simple. They are the same type of LEDs, each having the same brightness, as the low beam LEDs, and there are the same number of high beam LEDs as low beam LEDs. So the put out the same amount of light spread out over a larger area. Every time I switch to high beam I am disappointed. A little checking turns up the fact that all or almost all LED replacement lamps have this same problem. Goodness gracious.

 

I've been happy with these from Philips. Ultinon Essential LED They make an H4 size and you can find them on ebay or aliexpress for around $50-$60.
The cut of is very good, not quite as sharp as the original halogen bulb but better than some other LED headlights I've tried. Philips has 3 levels of LED headlight; Ultinon Essential LED, Ultinon Led, and X-tremeUltinon LED. This is their lowest priced one. Good performance and great price. Plus the DRL work.

 

I spend a lot on Phillips H4 fanless LED's. Super happy with them.

 

Great to hear the DRLs work. Apparently the X-tremeUltinon is not available in H4 though.The specs for the Ultinon make it seem like it isn't any brighter than the original halogens, just whiter. How are they working out in real life?

 

I just got my car inspected and they didn't say a word about the superbrightleds that have replaced my halogen incandescents They switched between low beam and high beam a few times, probably checking to make sure the aim was somewhere in the ball park, and then they went on to the next thing. This was an independent Honda and Acura speciality shop and I think they would have known that Fits in the US come with yellow-tinged halogens. I'm sure they realized that the halogen ncandescents had been replaced by LEDs. I carry the original incandescents around in the car just in case one of the new headlight lamps fails at night – or an inspector says please put take out the LEDs and put incandescents back in. They checked all the lights except the backup lights.Then they checked one windshield wiper (the one on the passenger side). Last year they jacked up the car and wiggled things – maybe hoping to find worn tie rod ends or wheel bearing. This year they skipped doing that. Last year they pumped the brake pedal a few times but not this year. There was no spongieness. The booster worked. I know that at 34,000 miles my front brake pads are still less than half worn – but they don't know that – they have never checked my brake pads. I know there are some people who cut off the squealers instead of buying new pads. They don't know that I'm not one of those people.

 

Philips H4 Xtreme Ultinon LED's are still available from Philips, eBay, Amazon (Canada)……. Still happy with mine.

 

I have the Ultinon Essential and they are working out quite well. They are a bit brighter than halogen. I like the color temperature of 6000k. It matches the white color of my switchback LED turn signals. The halogens were really yellowish compared to the turn signal white LED. I really just wanted an LED headlight bulb that had a decent cut off and wouldn't blind on coming cars. Have a color temp that matches my turn signals. Isn't too expensive with good brightness. I'm happy with the brightness. It isn't super bright but good enough for me. I'm hoping they they last me a while since they aren't as bright and have passive (no fan) heatsink with copper braids.You can pay twice as much for the Xtremes but these Essentials are pretty good.

Original halogen

Ultinon Essential. Not quite as sharp as a cut off than the halogen but pretty close. Brighter. Different phone camera but you get the idea.

Now my headlight and turn signal are the same color. It switches to amber when turning.

Here's a review of the H4 Philips X-treme Ultinon LED Gen2. Sounds tempting, but I think I'll stick with the Ultinon Essentials.

Oh and it looks like Philips has a newer version of the Ultinon Essential G2. G2 version
But its cooled with a fan. I'm not sure I would risk a fan getting all dirty and fail then burning out the LED.

 

Well, they cost about 2x as much as the superbright LEDs., plus there appear to be at least 2 "X-tremeUltinons, Xtreme Ultinon and . This last gen 2 lamp is labeled 5800K and +250% brighter. Of course plus 250% brighter means the original brightness of the halogens, which equal 100% as bright as the halogens, plus 250% the brightness of the original halogens,which comes out to 350% of the brightness of the halogens. Are they really 3.5 times as bright, or is the plus sigh before the 250% designation the result of someone who doesn't understand either English or math and thinks that plus 250% is the same as 250% – which it is not.

Here is the regular X-tremeUltinon. It is labeled as being 6000K and plus 200% as bright. Here is another X-tremeUltinon, which is labeled as being 6500K, and plus 200% as bright. Then looking at the fine print I see "up to" plus 200%. So "up to" is a real "dodge the facts" word. The lamps might only be 150% as bright. I'm also seeing "up to" 6500K! Which is a ridiculous statement altogether. So much for Philip's truth in labeling.

What I noticed in all 3 lamps is that it looks like the high beam has the same 3 LED units for high beam as low beam. And nothing is said about the relative brightness. That suggests that very likely the high beam, unless the LED's are driven at a higher current, are the same brighness as the low beams yet, because they cover a larger area, they do not provide the same amount of light on the road. Meaning when you switch from low beam to high, the amount of light, the brightness of the beam, gives the appearance of being lower than the brightness of the low beams. All halogens have more watts being used by the high beam filament, and brighter light being produced. High beams that look less bright – I find that to be a major flaw that is common to most H4 LED headlamps.

Manufacturers are not using uniform ways of measuring and describing brightness, so the only way to really compare any 2 brands is to buy them and measure the light with a light meter, or communicate with people who have done that and are reporting honestly. Yes you can perhaps use a camera, or buy a light meter app for you smart phone, or even buy a dedicated light meter.

 

Since the same bulb does 3 functions (high, low, DRL), does any of these LEDs flicker when on DRL mode?

 

Using the SuperBrightLED ones here as well. The biggest thing is making sure you align your lights when you install them. LEDs don't have the exact same beam patterns as halogens, though the SuperBrightLED ones were CLOSE. When I first installed them, they were a couple of degrees too high, and I did get flashed. After aligning them based on Honda's recommendations, they are much brighter and no complaints from other drivers.

 

I bought this superbrightleds headlight pair.

The review with the title "Nice product but high beam is not bright enough" is my review.

These particular lamps do not flicker in DRL mode.

The review text box at superbrightleds limits the number of characters you can type, for your review. So in making things as concise as possible, my review did not come out as clear as I would have liked. I phoned support to ask about the allen key I have a lot of electromechanical knowhow and experience so I managed the installation despite the rather poor instructions. I think someone with less experience would have been baffled by the instructions and have a very hard time putting in the lamps correctly. This particular model has detent holes that spring-loaded balls go into. So if you rotate the lamp in its socket, you have a choice of only about 6 positions – unless you want to leave the lamp in place without the balls snapped into the detent. If you did that, I predict that vibration would cause the lamp to rotate or pull out, or both. So the assertion in their advertising that the lamps are rotatable to adjust the beam is false.

The low beam was more than adequate. The high beam had the same number of LEDs per lamp as the low beam,apparently supplies with the same current to effect the same brightness for each LED,, but because high beams have to cover a larger surface area of the road, the result was that the high beams did not appear as bright as the low beams. I found this very annoying. My expectation from years of driving and using the high and low beams correctly, I expected the high beams to look brighter than the low beams – but they looked dimmer.even though the amount of light was the same.

Just about all incandescent lamps have a high beam that gets more current than the low beam and is brighter In just about all LED replacement lamps. the high beam has the same number of LEDs as the low beam, and my assumption is that, like the superbrightleds lamps, they are given the same amount of current as the low beams and are no brighter.

Trick to getting the rear portion of the lamp (with the heat sink) to more easily go through the center of the rubber dustcover – put a very thin layer of silicone lube on the dust cover before pushing the lamp in. Just spread a little on with a small brush. I spray a bit of lube into a small cup and dip brush into cup. The front part will already be clipped in place so you won't get any lube on the LEDs.

But no, no flicker in DRL mode with this particular lamp The highbeam set of LEDs.Ilight up less brightly in DRL mode than in high beam mode.

Company could have used more LEDs for high beam, or driven them with more current, but apparently they didn't. Also, the low beam had fairly even lighting, even more even than the orig incandescents, but the light on the roadway from the high beam was a bit splotchy looking. Not so bad that it was unusable, but not so wonderfully even as the low beams.

 

I installed Katana LEDs in my wife’s 2018 EXL today and they look great. I posted a thread with pics and videos but since I have a low post count I’m waiting for it to be approved.

One online source ranks these as the best budget bulbs for a reflector housing and so far so good. If you search my handle, llebcire, on YouTube you’ll see the videos but I can’t link them here yet.

-Eric

 

Found your handle. llebcire, on youtube, but not any video about LED headlamps.

How are the DRLs working on wife's Fit?

 

They flicker. In the last video you can see them on camera, however to the naked eye you can't see them flickering - must be how the refresh rate on the camera interacts with the LED.

Here are the videos I've posted:




-Eric

 

LLEBCIRE, why do you have the engine running while you are rotating the LED lamps?

I'm not surprised you can't see the headlamps flickering in DRL mode, with one's naked eyes, and that you can see them flickering while watching videography of the DRL I'm not sure how a video camera works but a flat screen video display refresh the entire screen about 60 times per second. The DRLs work by pulsing the voltage supplied to the lamp. Pulde Duration Modulation. I have no idea how many times per second the lamp switches between getting voltage and not getting voltage, but the intensity of the lamp is controlled by the average voltage over any period of time. If the pulses per second are more than about 30 per second, you won't see them. Eye-brain can't perceive pulses that happen at that fast rate. However as you probably know, if the video display refreshes at a different rate than the lamp voltage gets refreshed, it seems to me that you will have interference beat rates produced, produced at a rate equal to the difference between the rate of the 2 devices. If the difference is small enough, it will be perceived by the naked eye. Example, video display refreshes 60 times per second, lamp gets 75 pulses per second, there will be a beat rate of 15 pulses per second – which is small enough to be visible to the eye. I'm pretty sure that is what is going on here.

One of the advantages of LED headlights over inky-desk-sand headlight, that you don't hear people talking about alot, is that because the LEDs are likely to produce plenty of light whilst requiring considerably less electricflow than the ink-can-deck-hand lamps, the LEDS can be left on longer, before they drain the battery. With LEDs you maybe you just might be able to start your car in the morning even though you left your headlights on all night.