Lighting upgrade

[Spike555]

I've done this on other cars I've owned as well as my wife's Sedona.
Now I have done it to my Cruiser as well.
I swear by these lights, they light up the road like it's daylight, they cut through fog, rain and snow as well as cast clean light farther down the road than halogens, and they're plug-n-play.

OPT7 is the brand, Amazon is where I buy them, you can also buy from their website, same price.

I then zip tied the wiring up and in a safe place, it's water proof so you don't have to, but it makes me feel better.

I also did the fog lights and the "running" lights, I lucked out and got it all on sale, it was $175 shipped, that's high and low beam, running lights and fogs all switched to LED's in cool white.

Here is the before pic.

And after.

 

[Spike555]

I had a burnt out license plate bulb, so I went to replace it but one of the retaining clips on the light housing broke, so I searched and couldn't find them, so I went with LED, $15 shipped off of eBay.
Again white light.



And to finish it off super bright LED reverse lights.

 

[November Sun]

I replaced the lighting on my 04 Corvette with LEDs and had to place some type of resistor to keep the lights from rapid flashing. Any issue like that with the 100?

 

[SHAGGY101]

yes, you will need to place them with a higher resistance relay. Superbright has them on their website. The relay for the blinkers is located under the dash above the steering column. It is easily accessible if you put your head on the pedals.

 

[November Sun]

yes, you will need to place them with a higher resistance relay. Superbright has them on their website. The relay for the blinkers is located under the dash above the steering column. It is easily accessible if you put your head on the pedals.

Thanks,Good to know.

 

[Spike555]

I replaced the lighting on my 04 Corvette with LEDs and had to place some type of resistor to keep the lights from rapid flashing. Any issue like that with the 100?

I did NOT replace the blinkers, only the "constant on" lights and NOT the tail lights.
OPT7 includes the resistors for the headlights in the box, but you do not need them for the headlights.
If you replace your turn signals make sure you buy the LEDs with the built in resistors and make damn sure that you get bulbs that project the correct light in the correct pattern.
To many people buy LED stop/tail/turn bulbs from the auto parts store and they do not give out enough lumens or the correct light pattern and you cannot see those idiots.

 

[lhommec13]

Can you go into more detail about the LED reverse lights? I bought what I thought was a decent pair of LED bulbs for my reverse lights, but the light output was much less than expected. Wound up putting the old bulbs back until I figure out what works best. I have a 2002 Land Cruiser; not sure if the newer models have a different light housing that makes a difference.

 

[Spike555]

It is all in the lumens and the shape of the bulb.
The lumens is the light output, the higher the number the brighter the light, wattage means power used.
So higher watts does NOT mean brighter, it is the lumens, especially with LED's.
The shape of the bulb is what's second in importance. If you look at the bulbs I bought they have LED's all around the sides to utilize the reflectors inside the light housing.
They also have a projector lens to give the light distance.
The way I shop for LED's is to find the OEM bulb size/bulb number and then search for that. i.e. bulb number 912, search for 912 LED.
Do the same for headlights, interior lights, etc.

Anyway, here are the bulbs I bought. When it comes to LED's you must pay the money and get quality, if you buy cheap that is exactly what you get...cheap not going to do what you need it to and not last very long.

https://www.amazon.com/JDM-ASTAR-Ex...oyota:land+cruiser&refinements=p_89:JDM+ASTAR

 

[2003lx470]

I had a burnt out license plate bulb, so I went to replace it but one of the retaining clips on the light housing broke, so I searched and couldn't find them, so I went with LED, $15 shipped off of eBay.
Again white light.

Is it me? LED lights are too bright to see the license plate

 

[nmatcek]

Probably just the photo.

 

[Wres157]

How do they fit? Did you have to cut the dust covers?

I tried these in a LX470 Amazon.com: Car Rover 40W 9,600LM 6,000K Super Slim All-in-One CREE LED Headlight Conversion Kit (from HID or Halogen) - H1 - 2 Year Warranty: Automotive
While they seemed brighter, I'm not sure they throw light as well as the bulbs that replaced them.

 

[Spike555]

Is it me? LED lights are too bright to see the license plate

In the photo they are to bright to read the plate.

 

[Spike555]

How do they fit? Did you have to cut the dust covers?

I tried these in a LX470 Amazon.com: Car Rover 40W 9,600LM 6,000K Super Slim All-in-One CREE LED Headlight Conversion Kit (from HID or Halogen) - H1 - 2 Year Warranty: Automotive
While they seemed brighter, I'm not sure they throw light as well as the bulbs that replaced them.

You get what you pay for with LED's, the OPT7's are perfect, direct fit.
As far as the dust covers go, my truck has these flaps that hang down to cover the backs of the lights/bulbs. On my wife's van I left the dust covers off. On my Corolla I cut a slit and fed the wire harness through it and then plugged them in.
I have had a set of these bulbs in a car for over a year, 15,000 miles of DRL and real world driving. These lights give off the correct light pattern.
The color of the light is daylight, it is a true white light. The bulbs have a 50,000hr life span and are 100% waterproof.
My ONLY complaint, and it's relatively minor...because these bulbs produce almost no heat, while driving long distance in the winter, snow will accumulate on the headlight lens and will eventually need to be cleaned off where as halogens produce heat and keep the headlight lens clear of snow.
BUT the light these put out is bright and clear and clean enough that it cuts through the snow, even in a blizzard you can see as well as halogens in the rain.
You can see so well that you can drive to the limits of the ability of you, your vehicle and your tires.
I cannot recommend these enough, I really really can't.
My wife's van has projectors, it eats bulbs. Every 6mo and it doesn't even have DRL's. I put these in last fall, still going strong.

 

[LCHardriver_02]

@Spike555 - How are those OPT7 headlamps holding up? I tried HIDs and those would not last more than a year, so I was thinking of going to LED, when I found this thread. I actually had been looking at the same bulbs on Amazon and THEN searched the MUD and found this thread. Just curious how they are lasting... any issues?

Would you believe that once the HIDs went out the second time that I put the original halogens back in... yeah, the ones from 2002 and they are STILL burning... not bright, but still going.

 

[DirtDawg]

@Spike555 - How are those OPT7 headlamps holding up? I tried HIDs and those would not last more than a year, so I was thinking of going to LED, when I found this thread. I actually had been looking at the same bulbs on Amazon and THEN searched the MUD and found this thread. Just curious how they are lasting... any issues?

Would you believe that once the HIDs went out the second time that I put the original halogens back in... yeah, the ones from 2002 and they are STILL burning... not bright, but still going.

A quality HID set will last a lot longer than a year. My dads had his set from TRS in his car for over 4 years.

 

[LCHardriver_02]

@DirtDawg - I understand your liking of the HIDs, but right now I am not looking into a large modification of the light housings. Thanks though.

I am interested in the LED bulb option IF the longevity is there, as I definitely want better light than what I currently have and the price point ($100 per set of bulbs) looks fairly enticing.

 

[DirtDawg]

@DirtDawg - I understand your liking of the HIDs, but right now I am not looking into a large modification of the light housings. Thanks though.

I am interested in the LED bulb option IF the longevity is there, as I definitely want better light than what I currently have and the price point ($100 per set of bulbs) looks fairly enticing.

I'm not stating that you modify your housings, TRS offers regular HID kits, not just retrofits. One of their kits will out perform any LED bulb on the market and will last longer as well at a comparable price point.

 

[LCHardriver_02]

I'll take a look at what they offer. Thanks.

 

[Matserelli]

One of their kits will out perform any LED bulb on the market and will last longer as well at a comparable price point.

Not necessarily, I got a lot of flak about my LED bulbs on another thread. I was persuaded to give a Morimoto kit (50w) a shot. My results were very simple. Head to head without a housing the LED will throw more lumens further and outperform the HID in that sense. I am not putting projectors in this discussion because that's another topic. This is also my results for a factory unmodified 98-05 LC glass housing. The problem that limits the LED bulbs is that they don't throw light in every direction evenly. When put in a housing designed for a halogen bulb which does throw light in every direction, the results end up being different. The LED bulbs were bright, but at a large cost that's simply not acceptable for road driving (dead spots). HID's utilize the stock reflectors in the housing just like halogens would, only much brighter of course. The LED's may have been brighter, but this is useless if you can't get the proper beam pattern with them, HID is the clear winner. As far as reliability, you simply can't argue this, LED's consistently prove to be more reliable. Every manufacturer across the board has already converted to LED's because of this (I'm not talking headlights, but in general) LED's win this aspect. I would still recommend HID's for your low beams, they are not unreliable to the point of sacrificing dead spots, far from it. For high beams and pretty much every other bulb I would recommend LED's (HID's don't like to be flashed, LED's can take it). BTW, I have a handheld LED flashlight (Surefire P3X Fury) for its size, it destroys both types of bulbs in any housing and it only uses one diode with 3 small batteries. LED's are the future anyway you look at it, just not on a low beam stock LC housing.

 

[DirtDawg]

As far as reliability, you simply can't argue this, LED's consistently prove to be more reliable. Every manufacturer across the board has already converted to LED's because of this (I'm not talking headlights, but in general) LED's win this aspect. I would still recommend HID's for your low beams, they are not unreliable to the point of sacrificing dead spots, far from it. For high beams and pretty much every other bulb I would recommend LED's (HID's don't like to be flashed, LED's can take it). BTW, I have a handheld LED flashlight (Surefire P3X Fury) for its size, it destroys both types of bulbs in any housing and it only uses one diode with 3 small batteries. LED's are the future anyway you look at it, just not on a low beam stock LC housing.

I think you took what I said out of context.

After reading your whole post it seems you agree with me, no? Where the LEDs win, they have no use (outside the housing, who cares?). The HID out performs (light output) the equivalent LED bulb any day IN HOUSING. Looking at the bigger picture here.

All that you stated is subjective and very little relating to headlights, which is the main topic here. I'm not arguing that an LED diode CAN be brighter than an HID bulb, but in the same application, the HID wins as you stated. And LED headlights have proven to be very unreliable. I am not discussing the diodes, I'm talking about the fans, resistor packs, control modules. I've had my fair share of experience with ALL headlight options, and the tech just isn't there for LED plug and play systems.

As for the high beams, my can bus operated HID kit warms up in less than 2 seconds. Noticeable as soon as I flip the switch, so IMO I'll stick with those. No problem flashing them. But I do agree that LED bulbs are capable of instantaneous on/off function.

You seem to think that I'm poo-pooing LEDs when the reality is im running them in every socket possible on my vehicle except for my headlights. In fact recently I've been researching a quad diode headlight retrofit for my LX, but the output vs. cost doesn't make sense right now. Once I get my front bumper on I will be installing these: Universal: Morimoto XB LED Fogs - Complete Housings from The Retrofit Source . I don't disagree they are the future, but we're looking at PAST vehicles.

Flashlights aren't relevant... but I do have 3 different surefire's as well as a plethora of other lamps. I'm a light enthusiast. Flashlights use a simple reflector bowl because you don't have to worry about precise aiming or blinding other drivers. Same with off-road LED lights.

With all this being said, I NEVER suggest putting an HID bulb in a halogen housing (even though I suggested a product). If you really want unsacrificed light output and to be courteous to others, a projector retrofit is the way to go.