Many low-end car owners have the idea of upgrading their car lights, but the lighting modification market is relatively deep, and the level of various modification shops is uneven, making it difficult to start. Based on my personal practical experience, I will talk about conventional car light modifications.
1. Classification of conventional car lights
Currently, the commonly used car lights are divided into three types: halogen, xenon, and LED.
Halogen headlights: An improvement of incandescent bulbs, yellow light. Generally, the mid-to-low-end configurations of economical family cars are halogen lamps. The characteristics of halogen lamps are simple structure, low price, and strong penetrating power in rain, snow and fog. The disadvantages are poor light brightness, relatively short life, high wattage, and high power consumption.
Xenon headlights: The xenon gas in the bulb is ionized to produce an arc and emit light. After turning on the power, the 12V power supply is instantly raised to a high-voltage pulse voltage of more than 20,000 volts through the transformer, activating the xenon gas in the xenon bulb to emit light, generally white light. Its advantages are high brightness, long life and low power consumption. The disadvantages are that it has poor penetration in rain, snow and fog, is reflective, and is expensive. It is generally equipped with high-end models of economical family cars.
LED headlights: The advantages are high brightness, longest life, lowest wattage, least power consumption, various colors, and wide range of uses. They can be used for low beam, high beam, brake lights, and daytime running lights. It can produce yellow light with strong penetrating power, or white light with weak penetrating power. The disadvantages are that it is too expensive and the heat dissipation is not good. In the past, it was mostly used in high-end cars, but now it is also used in mid-to-high-end configurations of some economical family cars.
2. Modification
1. Modification of halogen headlights generally involves adding a lens to make the light linear and improve penetration; or replacing a high-wattage bulb to increase the brightness by two degrees; or installing a relay to increase the voltage and increase the brightness. However, this modification method It is a safety hazard and is not recommended.
Halogen lamp modification lenses generally use single-light lenses. The modification cost is not high. The beam linearity and penetration are improved, and it can cope with various weather conditions. The disadvantage is that the brightness and irradiation distance are limited in improvement. The cost of replacing light bulbs is even lower. A pair of Osram Night Walkers costs about 250 yuan, and you can replace them yourself. The disadvantage is that the beam is still scattered and the brightness is increased by 20%.
2. Xenon headlights can be modified with or without lenses. We strongly resist modifications without adding a lens. Xenon lamps are inherently brighter. Without a lens, the light beam will be very scattered. Oncoming vehicles will be shaken and cannot see clearly, and you will still be unable to see clearly, which is harmful to others and not to yourself.
The lens is the main component of hernia lamp modification. There are many lens brands. The more common ones are Hella, Q5, Valeo, Bosch, AES, APA, etc. Valeo and Bosch are imported lenses; AES and APA are domestic lenses; Hella and Q5 are divided into imported and domestic products, with obvious differences in performance and price. Imported Hella has the best effect, but the price is higher and there are many fakes. Currently, imported Hella on the market is divided into Hella 5 and Hella 6.
The minimum price for the imported Hella 5 modification kit is around 4,000 yuan.
The imported Hella 6 modification kit costs around 5,000 yuan.
My SUV-modified imported Hella 5 is a package jointly launched by Autohome and Osram (China). The minimum configuration is 3880 yuan. The low beam is 50-70 meters (visual inspection), and the high beam is about 150 meters (visual inspection). After the modification, I have basically never driven the high beam, and I feel that the low beam is enough, which is 80% higher than the halogen of the original car.
The domestic Q5 lens modified for the hatchback is a modification package from Apa, priced at 1,399 yuan. The low beam is about 30 meters (visual inspection), and the high beam is about 50-70 meters (visual inspection). High beam must be turned on on national highways and highways. Compared with the original halogen lamp, it is 40% better than nothing.
It is recommended that car enthusiasts choose modification kits from regular manufacturers when modifying. The price is higher than that of modification shops, and the quality can be guaranteed. Choosing a kit of about 2,500 yuan should be enough for daily use.
Osram and Philips are better choices for xenon bulbs. The price is about 600 yuan. The best color temperature is 4300K. The light color is yellowish and has good penetration in rain and snow. 5000K-5500K light color is whiter and brighter than 4300K, but its penetrating power in rainy and snowy weather is not as good as 4300K. It is not recommended to choose xenon lamps with a temperature above 5500K. On the one hand, it is too dazzling, and on the other hand, there is almost no light in rainy and snowy weather.
3. LED headlights. In the past two years, many friends have modified LED headlights. Most of them do not have lenses, and the effect is the same as xenon lamps without lenses. The light is scattered, not very bright when you look at it, and dazzling to oncoming cars. LED heat dissipation is a big problem. Most LED headlights on the market are produced by small factories and have no good solutions for heat dissipation. They have a short service life and pose safety risks. We recommend products from major professional manufacturers such as Osram and Philips, which cost around 1,000 yuan.
Some also use original halogen lenses. Because the focus of the halogen lens is different from that of the LED lens, the beam is linear, but the effect is not ideal.
Nowadays, LED headlight modification packages are relatively expensive, costing around 6,000 yuan. They are better than xenon headlights, have lower power consumption, longer life, and stronger color selectivity.
The above is the lamp modification knowledge and experience I learned during several modifications. It is not comprehensive and accurate in many places. I just hope it can give some small help to friends who are new to car lamp modification. Friends who are interested can leave messages to communicate and tell us everything they know.
