3 Tips on What to Check before you Upgrade Halogen Headlight Bulbs to LED or HID.

1. Headlight Bulbs Adapters.

On around 1% of vehicles headlight bulbs are fitted into an “adapter” before they are fitted into the headlight housing.
Normally, headlight bulbs sit directly into the headlight housing and are either held by a retaining clip or are pushed in and twisted in to lock into the headlight housing.
When you buy a led kit or hid kit, check how the bulb is retained in the headlight before you purchase them. If they need “headlight bulb adapters”, make sure your supplier gives you the bulb adapters for free with the kit, or has them available for purchase.

2. Bulb Type.

The best way to check the bulb type that your vehicle has in its headlights is to check your manual, call your dealer with the VIN number, or check to see if a part number is written on the bulb.
Some websites may not be accurate for the bulb type in your vehicle as they vary from country to country.
The most common bulb types will have part numbers such as H1, H3, H4, H7, H9, H11, HB3 9005, HB4 9006. If you call your dealer for the part number, make sure they give you this OEM number, and not their stock keeping number.

3. Can-Bus Decoders.

On vehicles that where your lights turn on automatically, you will need to get can-bus decoders.
Can-Bus is where your vehicles computer turns your lights automatically when you open the door, put the key in the ignition, or when you go through a dark tunnel and the lights switch on automatically.
Make sure when you buy a LED or HID headlight bulb kit your supplier has can-bus decoders available or has them available for purchase.

LED Bulbs for Headlights - What You Need to Know.

LED Headlight Bulbs are starting to flood the market and there are a few things you need to know before you buy them.
Below are a few tips on LED Bulbs that will be helpful, and we will concentrate on H7 LED Bulbs and H4 LED Headlight Bulbs.

H4 LED Bulbs for headlamps replace a "Double Filament" halogen bulb, and the H7 LED Headlamp Bulbs replace a "Single Filament" halogen bulb.

H4 LED Globes can also be called "H4 H/L LED Globes". The H/L denotes a High/Low beam, this is where one halogen bulb has two filaments in them serving to do both Low and High Beam in the one bulb.

H7 LED Globes replace the H7 halogen globes with a single filament, which denotes that the single beam does the job of one set of lights, either Low Beam, or High Beam. In other words you would need 4x bulbs to do both high and low beam.

Can-Bus LED Bulbs.
Can-Bus is a technical term for when the vehicles computer controls when to turn your lights on. This can be when you put your keys in the ignition and start the car, the headlight come on automatically without having to manually switch them on.
When you get an LED Conversion Kit to upgrade your bulbs from halogen to LED, you will need to make sure you get Can-Bus Decoders with the kit. This is so that the computer can recognize the lower wattage LED Bulbs you have put in the headlights, and will switch them on automatically and not give you an error code telling you that the bulbs blown.

LED Headlight Bulb Adapters.
On some vehicles, instead of having a normal metal retaining clip, the bulbs plug into a plastic or metal adapter, and then is secured in the headlight housing by the adapter.
You will need to check if you bulbs are held in by a normal retaining clip or an adapter before you purchase you led kit, and make sure that the supplier is able to provide you with the extra adapters to suit your vehicle.

Plug & Play LED Bulbs.
Some headlight bulb housings are small, and some led bulb kits can be too long, or too wide to be able to fit them easily in your car headlights. Make sure when you buy an led kit that you check out your headlight housing and then look at the dimensions of the led bulb kit that you have your eyes on so you can see if it will fit in easily.

Low Beam LED Headlight Bulbs for Projector Lights.
As i mentioned before about the difference between H4 and H7 bulbs, different led bulbs can react differently with different headlight reflectors.
A projector style headlight is a small "fish-eye" style light that gives you good cut-offs and most led globes are made for "reflector" style headlights.
If you buy led headlight bulbs for projector lenses, make sure you get them from a supplier who makes led bulbs for projector lenses. this is so that they react correctly with the projector lens and still give you more light and good beam cut-offs.

For more information visit our Pro Vision Lighting website or contact us via E-Mail.

Lex Boyle, Director,

Pro Vision Lighting & Electrical,

(Arco Imports Pty Ltd),

444 Jones Street,

Ultimo, NSW, 2007,

Australia.

Tel: +61 2 9698 2543.

Mob: 0438 654 765.

Web: www.pro-vision-lighting.com

Web: www.hidlighting.com.au