It is inevitable that you will feel dissatisfied if you drive your car for a long time. Those who have money will choose to change the car, but those who have no money will have no choice but to change the car.
Car owners who know Taige all know that I am a blogger who is very keen on modifying cars. Take my own car as an example, including hubs, brakes, shock absorbers, intake and exhaust, and everything that can move. Many fans want to modify it. Car enthusiasts who are upgrading their cars will also come for consultation.
Recently, Brother Tai received a consultation from a fan brother, saying that the left headlight of his Sagitar suddenly went blind, so he thought about upgrading a set of LED bulbs to make the candle light of the original car brighter.
Judging from the photos he sent, Brother Tai strongly discouraged him from directly installing LED bulbs. If he wanted to change it, it would be best to directly install LED lens light sets, but the cost would be much higher, so he was ultimately advised to continue using halogen headlights. .
It is not recommended to directly install halogen headlights on LEDs
The main reason lies in the form and type of light emitted
My fans come to me and tell me that the headlight is broken and I need to replace the LED, but any normal merchant will recommend the product.
Could it be that Brother Tai doesn't know what to do and doesn't want to do any business he gets? Actually no!
The original car headlights of this car owner are typical curved reflector headlights. The entire headlight source is distributed in a spherical shape. The LED headlight bulbs emit light on both sides of the metal base. They are not like traditional halogen bulbs. The little filament is glowing.
Traditional halogen bulbs are the real "focus light source", while the light emitted by LED is "astigmatism". When you install the LED bulb into the lampshade of the traditional halogen lamp, the reflective bowl cannot adapt to the light pattern at all, and the light emitted is Definitely divergent. Therefore, if your car headlight assembly does not have a lens, it is best not to modify the LED.
So after seeing this, many car owners ask, can I buy LED bulbs without thinking if I have a lens?
Yes, but it may not be a perfect fit!
Let me share with you Tai Ge’s own experience of renovating an overturned car. In 2019, Tai Ge’s family purchased a mid-range GL8 for home and business use.
The original headlights are one-piece lens halogen headlights, and the small yellow light looks like a wreck on the road. So for the purpose of upgrading, I asked a company partner to "test" whether the LED bulbs were good or not.
In order to ensure that there would be no detours in the upgrade, Tai Ge also asked the Buick 4S store in advance. The so-called LED upgrade plan given by Tai Ge was just as Tai Ge expected, which was to replace the LED bulbs. So with the endorsement of 4S, Tai Ge could "buy" with peace of mind. I ordered a set of headlights to be installed and tried out. After the installation was completed, Tagote made a special comparison of the left and right lights, and the effect was actually quite good in the sun.
The result was revealed in the evening! Although the original car's halogen lamp has a low color temperature, the entire high beam effect is very powerful and focused. After installing the LED, although the low beam has a clear cut line, the high beam light pattern is very diffuse.
This situation is more obvious at night. When I raise the high beam in a dim corner of the community, the light pattern is hopeless. The whole beam is slanted to the right and is particularly uneven. Although it can meet the needs of driving at night, it is not suitable for the original factory. The headlights are actually substandard.
So out of reluctance, Brother Tai specifically consulted Dahuyou and found a dismantled car GL8 headlight for disassembly and analysis. Later I discovered that although it is an integrated headlight, it actually shares a reflective cover inside, and uses a mechanical visor to achieve the effect of high and low beams. If you forcibly change it to xenon or LED, after the change, the light will be the same as if Taige changed the car and you drive it. Drivers on the other side of you with your low beam lights will think you have your high beam lights on.
As soon as you turn on the high beam, to use a popular saying, people think they are seeing the sun...
No-brainer modification of LED light bulbs
Light attenuation and heat dissipation are another problem
In the past, when we were still using incandescent and fluorescent lamps, everyone knew that light bulbs were hard to play with.
Because it will burn your hands.
This problem is also true for LEDs, even though it is an LED cold light source.
However, the power of LED lamp bead chips is very large. Although it looks much smaller than halogen, you must know how small the LED lamp bead unit is, and in order to obtain higher brightness in the same volume, it means that its heat generation will not be higher than that of halogen. How much difference does halogen have?
As a result, LED bulbs all have the same problem - light decay.
The academic explanation of the word "light decay" is relatively complicated. I try to explain it in the most "vulgar" language. For example, when the LED light is first turned on, the brightness is very bright. However, as the operating temperature continues to rise, the brightness of the light becomes darker and darker.
Until the light bulb is extinguished and damaged, this process is called "light decay".
The reason why light attenuation occurs needs to be broken down into two parts:
One is that the LED lamp bead chip itself has good or bad resistance to high temperature and light decay. The other reason is that the bulb has poor heat dissipation! Sometimes people think that the LED light sets they buy now all come with heat dissipation modules, which should be able to effectively avoid the problem of light decay. Why can't they still avoid it?
Anyone who has studied DIY computer assembly in their student days knows that air ducts are very important if the computer does not get hot!
Although most mainstream LED bulbs now use a fan-forced cooling system, a heat sink is used to export the LED heat source to the heat sink to increase the heat dissipation area, and then a "violent fan" (usually with a speed of several thousand rpm or even higher) is used to force cold air. "Blow cold" on the heat sink.
This heat dissipation method has high power and can be adapted to higher-power LED lamp beads. However, it has a very fatal flaw, which is that it destroys the cooling air duct of the original headlight.
Most halogen headlights rely on natural convection to dissipate heat within the lampshade. There is no thought that the LED bulb has a violent fan behind it, so there is no excess heat dissipation space for the inspection opening.
If you change the LED bulb, you must throw away the dust cover and run naked, or you must forcibly cover it and the life of the LED bulb will be halved.
Two final words:
Although the technology of LED headlights is now quite mature, the industrial chain is also complete, and the performance and quality are not bad. Most prices range from more than 100-300 per pair. But not all cars can be upgraded to LED. Before you do your homework, you must first clarify what your needs are. Otherwise, if you search online, you will be confused by all kinds of headlights and publicity stunts.
In the end, I bought one out of nowhere. It was uncomfortable to use and I couldn't sell it. It was a trouble for myself and the seller.
