LED low beams? Recommendations?

[Wacki]

I have a 2014 Subaru Forester. Anyone got any recommendation on LED low beams?

Any advice?

[Links and product names removed by moderator per Rule 11]

 

[-Virgil-]

The advice in one word is STOP! You are about to make your headlamps unsafe and illegal. "LED bulbs" -- any and all of them -- are unsafe, illegal, and not legitimate. There's a good, recent, detailed explainer here, and more general principles here.

Headlight bulbs are not like household light bulbs. In the house (office, garage, etc) it's pretty much a matter of putting in whatever bulbs put out the amount and type of light you consider adequate and agreeable. Headlamps are life-safety equipment, so they have to work right (just lighting up is nowhere near good enough), and they are precision optical instruments so they can only work right when equipped with the intended type of light source. For your car that means you really need to stick with halogen bulbs. There are better halogen bulbs than the originals, so you can improve the lamps' performance without making safety problems, and if that doesn't improve them as much as you want you can swap in the HID headlamp assemblies that were offered as an option on that car, but "LED bulbs" (and "HID kits") are a big, solid NO. (This is not a point we argue here. The lighting modifications and products you're asking about are both illegal and unsafe, and Rule 11 of this board sharply limits discussion of illegal or dangerous activity.)

 

[Sasquatchian]

Will the 2020 Forester assembly fit? I bought that for my gf a year ago, and it was the headlight performance that swayed us. Among the best lights I've ever used, but I don't know if the new assemblies are compatible. It's almost worth getting a new Forester just for those lights.

 

[-Virgil-]

Just googling pictures of 2014 and 2020 Foresters, it looks like the headlamp assemblies might be a physical swap-in. However, it is likely the wiring would need to be adapted (different connectors and plugs) and the 2014 vehicle's body control module might not recognize the LED headlamps. Or, there might be no such problem at all...it varies from model to model and year to year.

 

[Sasquatchian]

Well, it's a thought and it might be a possibility. Maybe a visit to a Subaru forum would find someone who had tried it or done it. With my 2018 Tacoma, I bought the 2020 LED units from my local dealer ($1400) and found a guy on the Tacoma World forum who sold a plug and play wiring harness for $85. It took half the day to pull the front end apart and install the lights without scratching but it's well worth the effort. $1500 might seem steep for a pair of headlights, but the safety that comes with the added visibility makes that seem like a bargain.

I think that if you can verify that those lights will fit, and perhaps a knowledgeable Subaru parts person might be able to help with that, and you can figure out how to wire them up, you will not regret it. And get 'em aimed correctly as well, of course.