JW Speaker LED Headlight upgrade

[fastback174]

Afternoon-

Have a 89 FJ62, wanted brighter low beams for driving. Had the
Sylvania Silverstar for years, but just not enough. Didn't want to change the lighting harness, or try to fit HID and mess around with ballast, etc.

Looking for a true plug-and-play, and found the JW Speaker 8800s
After a year of waiting, the price finally dropped to a "reasonable"
$280/low beam at fleet discount supply. I know there's cheaper
ways to get more lumens, but this was the easiest.

Took all of five minutes to swap out, although had to change the hot/cold leads on the lights to match the FJ's stock harness. May have been reversed from the factory, don't know.

Once hooked up, I'm very impressed. Truly pure white, nice sharp cut-off, and peripheral wonderful.

Worth the money? Would be nice to wait a few more years for the cost to continue to drop, but....

With the extra candle power, in no rush to go for the high beams. Can't even tell they're on with the JW's firing....

Steve

 

[Big Cruiser Guy]

Wow, looks great. I'm hoping that is $280 per pair, correct?

 

[fastback174]

Unfortunately its per bulb. Has been coming down quite a bit over the last year,
and expect more competitors will help the price drop. Don't have the mechanical
savvy of most on the forum, so I paid the price. Can't say enough to the
fantastic visibility driving and quick install though. JUST about worth it.

Gotta say they'd look great on your new rig...kudos on the new addition

 

[Spook50]

Cool upgrade. I'd much rather have something with an ECE beam pattern though. WAY better when driving at night around here.

 

[Sev65]

Looks great! Can we get a close up shot with the lights off?

 

[robustbambi]

Cool upgrade. I'd much rather have something with an ECE beam pattern though. WAY better when driving at night around here.

Agreed.
Nice lights though!

 

[75CorollaGuy]

I like the outcome, very nice and bright, but that price. Yikes! Hope the price drops even more one day.

 

[fastback174]

LEDs are becoming the standard, give them a year or two. With the stock wiring harness, my Halogens were getting worse by the day, so had to pull the trigger

BTW, Advanced Autoparts has a full line of LED replacement bulbs for the running lights, sidemarkers,
brake lights, backup lights, EVEN the dome light. Run about $10/pair. Very nice.

DON'T get LED replacements for the flashers, however. Their draw is so low the truck thinks a light is burned out and you get "hyperflashing." You need a special LED flasher that has a built in resistor, or could solder one inline yourself...

 

[Spook50]

LEDs are becoming the standard, give them a year or two. With the stock wiring harness, my Halogens were getting worse by the day, so had to pull the trigger

BTW, Advanced Autoparts has a full line of LED replacement bulbs for the running lights, sidemarkers,
brake lights, backup lights, EVEN the dome light. Run about $10/pair. Very nice.

DON'T get LED replacements for the flashers, however. Their draw is so low the truck thinks a light is burned out and you get "hyperflashing." You need a special LED flasher that has a built in resistor, or could solder one inline yourself...

Given that our Avalon has a DOT beam pattern (hate it but I've gotta work with what I got), I'd like to see an LED replacement for its HIDs come to the market. Ideally an ECE beam pattern LED headlight assembly would be groovy.

I would not touch any LEDs sold in parts stores though. I've always been a loyal customer of SuperBrightLEDs and use there stuff. That or anything that uses Cree as the manufacturer of the actual LED components. Cree stuff is the cat's ass.

 

[Big Cruiser Guy]

LEDs are becoming the standard, give them a year or two. With the stock wiring harness, my Halogens were getting worse by the day, so had to pull the trigger

BTW, Advanced Autoparts has a full line of LED replacement bulbs for the running lights, sidemarkers,
brake lights, backup lights, EVEN the dome light. Run about $10/pair. Very nice.

DON'T get LED replacements for the flashers, however. Their draw is so low the truck thinks a light is burned out and you get "hyperflashing." You need a special LED flasher that has a built in resistor, or could solder one inline yourself...

I believe it's called a 'no load' relay.

 

[fastback174]

+1 on SuperBrightLEDs. Actually got the license plate and dome light (mini #89) LEDs from there. Just happened to be at the autoparts store getting some Bleche Wite (great stuff BTW) and went for their in house brand aux lights.

CREE is actually next door to me in the Triangle area. Wonderful company, well run, and look to more great products from them in the future.

 

[Tapage]

I've been lurking around of those for a while now .. just waiting for Low / HI one one headlamp like truck lite did in the 7" rounds ..

This eBay listing have some serious inspirational pics ..

http://www.ebay.com/itm/JW-Speaker-...Parts_Accessories&hash=item3cd0a0b943&vxp=mtr

 

[Spook50]

+1 on SuperBrightLEDs. Actually got the license plate and dome light (mini #89) LEDs from there. Just happened to be at the autoparts store getting some Bleche Wite (great stuff BTW) and went for their in house brand aux lights.

CREE is actually next door to me in the Triangle area. Wonderful company, well run, and look to more great products from them in the future.

Do you remember the part number of the #89 replacements you ordered? All the direct #89 replacements I see on the site look to be too narrow of a beam pattern to illuminate the license plate well at all.

 

[fastback174]

Part Number: 67-x15
15-LED BA15S bulb

On order now, will let you know if actually works.

 

[lugueto]

Interesting.

Can you post beamshots that aren't 2ft from a wall??

I'd love to get these for my cruisers, I think LEDs is the way to go with lighting..

Cheers,

Luis.

 

[fastback174]

More pics, with LED side running lights

 

[Spook50]

Part Number: 67-x15
15-LED BA15S bulb

On order now, will let you know if actually works.

Okay yeah those were one of the ones I saw. Curious to see how well they illuminate the license plate given the sideways mounting of the sockets in our housings.

 

[75CorollaGuy]

Fastback, I was wondering if you have noticed any kind of flickering. I've heard the JW as well as the Truck Lites both have some flicker (some people don't seem to see it), and that using a harness that has a capacitor in it fixes this problem. I think more noticable when idle and having the lights pointed at the garage, or behind another car. My guess is the capacitor is being used as a smoothing capacitor for the current. It's just the nature of LEDs. Dunno why the companies don't just have the capacitor built into the lights.

 

[Tapage]

Fastback, I was wondering if you have noticed any kind of flickering.

I saw something of that in my trucklights when I was winching heavily then I just put a new light harness, wires, relays, connections etc and didn't have that issue anymore ..

 

[fastback174]

Zero flicker so far, and I've admired the lights for extended periods
of time staring at the garage wall