LED vs Halogen Headlight Comparison

Post by **MrAl** » 20 Oct 2019, 07:47

Hello there,

Here is a brief comparison of an LED headlight vs a stock Halogen.
For the test the passenger side halogen was replaced with an LED unit while the drivers side was not changed and so has the stock halogen that had been in the car ever since i had it. This means the right side of each pic depicts the brigntness from the LED light while the left side shows the halogen. The target was a set of garage doors painted a yucky green color. The photos were taken with the flash turned off.

As we can see from the photos the right garage door appears a little brighter and has a bright spot (that is the LED headlight) while the left door is a little dimmer but is more evenly lit.
Also note that the lighting just out in the immediate front of the car appears to be about the same on both sides.

I did not get to do the color rendition tests yet i was feeling a little under the weather yesterday/last night.

Post by **MrAl** » 20 Oct 2019, 14:03

Hello again,

Here are the white paper tests. You can easily tell which one is the Halogen because it's orange yellow while the LED is bright white with a tiny bit of blue tint.

There were six files so i put them in a zip.
The last pic has a and b suffixes, because 'a' is the real pic and 'b' is modified to look like the way it really appears to the human eye when you are standing out there. The camera can not capture such a bright source. Next time i'll stand way back farther away to get the direct on pics.

Post by **MrAl** » 22 Oct 2019, 07:47

Hello again,

I got the other LED 'bulb' in today but now after looking at some far away pics i can see that a big part of the problem with me seeing at night is that my headlights are adjusted too high. Only a small portion of the actual road is lit up in front of the car even though the distant objects are lit sufficiently.
I looked at several other cars as they passed by at night and i see this adjustment varies a lot per car, but most of them have a beam that is adjusted so they can light up at least i'd say 30 feet out in front of the car, and this means the actual road surface not an object that sticks up from the road like a garbage can. The garbage can would be lit nicely but the bottom of the garbage can would be dark, almost completely dark.

So a big part of the problem i was having at night is due to the headlight adjustments.
I found RobertDIY video for this this and it made it clear what has to be adjusted to get it better.
Thanks for the video Robert

Post by **Eddystone** » 22 Oct 2019, 09:00

Anytime you do a comparison or evaluation of headlight effectiveness, you always need to specify the condition of the reflectors BEHIND the light source. Even with standard stock Halogen bulbs, the difference between headlight assemblies that are brand new with a mirror reflective surface and old headlight assemblies with old, gray worn out reflectors is astounding. I don't know how every light source function, but if the light source is intended to use the optically shaped reflector to focus, direct and enhance the headlight beam, the reflector is very likely to be more important than the source of light you are using.

Post by **MrAl** » 23 Oct 2019, 01:48

Eddystone wrote: ↑22 Oct 2019, 09:00 Anytime you do a comparison or evaluation of headlight effectiveness, you always need to specify the condition of the reflectors BEHIND the light source. Even with standard stock Halogen bulbs, the difference between headlight assemblies that are brand new with a mirror reflective surface and old headlight assemblies with old, gray worn out reflectors is astounding. I don't know how every light source function, but if the light source is intended to use the optically shaped reflector to focus, direct and enhance the headlight beam, the reflector is very likely to be more important than the source of light you are using.

Hi Eddy,

Very good point. I keep forgetting to check that when i go out there.
The car is a 1998 after all, so i would think the reflective part is not all too well.
I do have a hard time seeing inside the enclosure though because the front is hard to see through even though it's not that foggy.
My older cars all had an encased bulb with reflector so when you change the bulb you change the reflector.
Also, unfortunately new enclosures for the 1998 v70 are 70 dollars each.

Post by **Eddystone** » 23 Oct 2019, 08:20

MrAl wrote: ↑23 Oct 2019, 01:48
Also, unfortunately new enclosures for the 1998 v70 are 70 dollars each.

Yes,they are about $70 but mine came with the bulbs and all. I wasted money buying "brighter" bulbs which did absolutely nothing, and those are not cheap either.

Check this thread with photos that I posted a few months ago.

viewtopic.php?f=1&t=88189&p=494830&hili ... ts#p494830

If the reflectors are bad (they need to be like mirrors, not just silver) not replacing them is a waste of any other money you spend.

Replacing them with junkyard lights from a C70 is often suggested since they are better lights.