Oh, for sure. I don't know why they even bother. It's not like LEDs are even that expensive to put in these days. It was the very first thing I did to my 2019 when I bought it new a couple months ago. Changed out all those bulbs to LEDs. I couldn't stand the yellowish halogens. I mean, if you HAVE to put in halogens, ya couldn't have sprung for like some Silverstars or something that at least get you a little closer to pure white?
YESSSS! I dropped in Diode Dynamics Fog, side marker, 3rd brake, cargo, and license plate bulbs immediately. I'm still waiting for their headlight options, but I'm running some decent (see LED headlight thread) LED's in the headlights for now.
It's quite common for people to think they're seeing better than they actually are in the presence of distractions like foreground glare. It's easy to fool the brain, but the standards were developed for reasons and were based on testing rather than perception.
LED replacements for halogens are another area where perceived light quality just doesn't match actual light quality. If the housing was designed for incandescents there isn't an LED on the market that will perform properly because physics.
This 100% - just bc it's LED, doesn't mean it's better. The Cibie housing and Osram bulbs in my 87 actually put out more lumens and have a better beam pattern than my LED OEM headlights on our CR-V and Dad's Ram truck.
The problem is, people buy them for "looks", and aren't aware that the rest of us get blinded by them or have to drive around people unaware that they aren't actually seeing very well.
It doesn't help that vendors can get away with saying almost anything in their ads and, boy, do their claims look good.
Well, again, I have to disagree. I am an Architect and I studied lighting in college and deal with it in my practice all the time. Color temperature and lumen output are two factors that help visibility. I'm not sure where you're thinking that "perceived" light quality differs from actual light quality when what you see in light is quite literally what really matters. If you can see better... well... you can see better. There's not really any tricks you brain is really playing on you. Yes, the lumen count is important, but the color of light goes a very long way to helping the human eye to distinguish shapes and details which can improve reaction times. Beam pattern certainly helps, but if more area is lit up... well, all the better. I replaced my stock halogens with LEDs and they fit perfectly and the beam pattern pretty much matches the stock, so I'm not sure where you're coming from that the physics would be off. The "better looks" factor is a very nice bonus, too. I'll never go back to halogens when my LEDs are such a huge improvement. I wish I had taken some pictures of down the road with the yellowish stock halogens so I could post some pictures of the before and after, but it really was a drastic and much-welcomed change.
Yeah, I was kind of surprised to see LEDs on the interior already. First car I've owned that has them. Everything else has always had halogens on the interior. I do want to replace all the marker and license plate lights with them, too. Do you have a link the the bulbs you bought to replace those? My low, high and fogs are already all LEDs, so those are fine. Another thing I like to do is replace the license plate bulbs with red ones so it illuminates the license plate red. Then, at night, the whole rear (with tail lights) is red and uniform color. Not quite sure if it's legal exactly, but I ran that on my last car for two years with no problems.
Same. Such a good touch.
No.
Yeah, well, that's pretty typical for people who are sure their LED bulbs are great.
Lighting up a road isn't the same as lighting up a room, is it?
The trick is that your brain is telling you that you're seeing great because of the foreground illumination, but in testing you aren't actually seeing more distant objects well at all. Given that you can't react to things if you don't see them until they're up close, increasing the foreground illumination is pretty useless. The tricks of perception are similar in concept to the principles that drives double-blind testing--your perceptions introduce biases that most people can't overcome. In this case since you can see the foreground your brain is absolutely certain that you can see well, and it's very hard to convince it that the stuff you can't see in the distance is more important. I guess it's possible that your particular eyes and brain work different than an ordinary person, but it's extremely unlikely. The only way to test this yourself would be to set up a course and measure distances and times to react to different objects with both types of lights. Just being sure you see better is not the same thing, especially if you want to justify a purchase and think the different color is cooler--confirmation bias is a powerful force--and it's hard to double-blind test a dramatically different color light. It's probably easier to just rely on the existing research than to assume that your eyes must be different.
Definitely not. If your eyes are adjusted to a bright foreground, they can't see dim background objects. Just about as bad, a poorly focused headlight produces glare that makes it difficult for other drivers to see when approaching. These are the reasons shaped beams were invented, and made mandatory all over the world.
How, exactly, did you test this? I'm guessing not through any kind of approved procedure. Here's a question: if a cheap LED bulb can make such a dramatic difference and so greatly improve the headlights with zero downside and make for happy customers because the color is so much nicer, why don't the manufacturers just put them in at the factory? Why did they even bother designing a different LED headlight? Answer: because the drop-in LED bulb can't pass the regulatory testing that the headlight had to undergo before the car could be sold.
It's extremely common for people to really like the way their bulbs look and just not want to hear anything to the contrary.
What are your answer(s) as an alternative to those of us who find the stock halogen bulbs and reflector housings to be lacking in effectiveness and close to dangerous at times?
Yeah, this topic is gotten way off, but I still didn't read anything in your post there that convinces me the other way. I'll tell you how I can tell that my bulbs allow me to see better and that my fog lights help to light up the road better. Because I DID have the yellowish halogens in my truck for the first two weeks, and coming from a car that I had replaced the headlights with LEDs, I cursed the halogens every night I drove the truck because I couldn't see things nearly as well. THEN I replaced the stock halogens with new whiter/brighter LEDs and... low and behold... my vision was changed. EVERYTHING (on the side of the road and down the road) lit up and I could see SO much better. I also can manually turn my fog lights on and off, of course, and I have done so multiple times just to see the difference. EVERY single time I turn them off, I just confirm my decision to always keep them on. I can simply see better. I guess you just don't want to believe that, but that's not my fault. Like I said, I wish I could take before and after photos, but as far as I'm concerned, it's a moot point for me now. Just because you think you can't see with headlights coming at you doesn't mean I'm going to jeopardize my safety by not allowing me to see very well from turning off my fogs or dimming my lights back down to yellow. Sorry about your luck.Yeah, well, that's pretty typical for people who are sure their LED bulbs are great.
Lighting up a road isn't the same as lighting up a room, is it?
The trick is that your brain is telling you that you're seeing great because of the foreground illumination, but in testing you aren't actually seeing more distant objects well at all. Given that you can't react to things if you don't see them until they're up close, increasing the foreground illumination is pretty useless. The tricks of perception are similar in concept to the principles that drives double-blind testing--your perceptions introduce biases that most people can't overcome. In this case since you can see the foreground your brain is absolutely certain that you can see well, and it's very hard to convince it that the stuff you can't see in the distance is more important. I guess it's possible that your particular eyes and brain work different than an ordinary person, but it's extremely unlikely. The only way to test this yourself would be to set up a course and measure distances and times to react to different objects with both types of lights. Just being sure you see better is not the same thing, especially if you want to justify a purchase and think the different color is cooler--confirmation bias is a powerful force--and it's hard to double-blind test a dramatically different color light. It's probably easier to just rely on the existing research than to assume that your eyes must be different.
Definitely not. If your eyes are adjusted to a bright foreground, they can't see dim background objects. Just about as bad, a poorly focused headlight produces glare that makes it difficult for other drivers to see when approaching. These are the reasons shaped beams were invented, and made mandatory all over the world.
How, exactly, did you test this? I'm guessing not through any kind of approved procedure. Here's a question: if a cheap LED bulb can make such a dramatic difference and so greatly improve the headlights with zero downside and make for happy customers because the color is so much nicer, why don't the manufacturers just put them in at the factory? Why did they even bother designing a different LED headlight? Answer: because the drop-in LED bulb can't pass the regulatory testing that the headlight had to undergo before the car could be sold.
It's extremely common for people to really like the way their bulbs look and just not want to hear anything to the contrary.
Hey...I resemble that remark!
I can understand that. However, GOOD LEDs, like the ones I have installed right now, have the same beam pattern as the stock halogens. The light is just whiter, brighter and much more useful. I installed them in the garage so I could make sure the beams were spread correctly when projecting against the garage wall. The cut-off at the top is correct and there doesn't seem to be any bright or dark spots through most of the spread. I think I just picked the right ones. Ya just gotta do your homework on them and can't be afraid to return bad ones.
