LED H4 and H7 bulbs legality

Found these in a magazine and looked them up:
http://www.electricalconnection.com/other-lighting/led-hl-h4.htm

There is a "bulb" with 2 180 degree LEDs, fan, controller, and wiring meant to be installed into a stock halogen housing. I thought the reflector had to be designed specifically for an LED to be legal? There is no mention of DOT anywhere on the site.

On that note, does anything like that exist or are we counting on auto mfr's to phase them in slowly with factory designed headlights?

No, those are not legal.

The only legal LED headlamp 'bulbs' are the complete LED headlamp assembly. There is no "drop-in" or "kit" to turn any automotive headlamp, whether a halogen reflector-based or projector-based assembly, or an HID reflector-based or projector-based assembly, into a legal, effective, or safe headlamp.

Never mind legal/illegal (though it's illegal), on the technical level this is a total joke of a product. No way it can put out the right amounts of light distributed correctly to produce anything like an acceptable beam pattern.

Here is a comparison of the original halogen I found on an automotive forum:


This is misleading on the output because, while it does look brighter, you can also see that the "hotspot" is larger and extends down to the bottom of the output. This translates to increased foreground lighting and can actually reduce your night vision by constricting your pupils.

Not to mention, 22 watts of constant output with that tiny little heatsink is likely going to overheat that LED quickly. Even with that small fan, it will all be locked inside of the headlight housing with no airflow to let the heat out.

Erik1213 said:

This is misleading on the output because, while it does look brighter, you can also see that the "hotspot" is larger and extends down to the bottom of the output.

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The digital camera may have also done an automatic white balance or other exposure making the halogen side look dimmer. You can also see how the notched section for lighting overhead signage is missing from the LED side, showing again how drastically the beam is changed with these kind of toys.

You're right about foreground light and overheating LEDs. Also, this is a projector headlamp, which will produce more or less the same cutoff shape no matter what kind of light source is crammed into it.

Photos of beam patterns really don't tell much of anything useful. A photogoniometric plot is the only way to get a realistic idea of the performance of a lamp.

Nevertheless, photos like these are going to sell a lot of "LED kits" like those, and people are going to get hurt and killed because of it.

...but having said that, I did some googling and found this review which seems to hit all the performance-related problems. And while photos can't show us if a headlamp is really good, they can show us it's really bad, see here, yikes!

Further googling reveals a whole slew of "LED kits" under different brands and labels, but all apparently identical. I wonder if Cree knows their name is being used this way.

I did a reverse image search of the picture in the ebay listing and found one of the sources to be from the site "blindinghid.com". How fitting!

Erik1213 said:

I did a reverse image search of the picture in the ebay listing and found one of the sources to be from the site "blindinghid.com". How fitting!

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Nice

Scheinwerfermann said:

...but having said that, I did some googling and found this review which seems to hit all the performance-related problems. And while photos can't show us if a headlamp is really good, they can show us it's really bad, see here, yikes!

Further googling reveals a whole slew of "LED kits" under different brands and labels, but all apparently identical. I wonder if Cree knows their name is being used this way.

Click to expand...

Oh God that is bad...

If the above beamshot is accurate, the one I'm mentioning actually isn't as bad as I thought. I've seen much, much worse.

Cree LED 9003/HB2 High/Low headlights - several photos

Thread Merge - Norm

Re: Cree LED 9003/HB2 High/Low headlights - several photos

How can that possibly focus properly, and without two filaments isn't the (poor) beam pattern going to be the same for "high" and "low" beam? I vote just convert to HID using factory parts if you can, and if you can't look into a relay harness and some good H4s.

Re: Cree LED 9003/HB2 High/Low headlights - several photos

A sucker is born every day.

Re: Cree LED 9003/HB2 High/Low headlights - several photos

One can only guess who didn't search the forums before posting...

chaosdsm, you should remove those unsafe LED toys from your headlamps before you get someone injured or killed with them. The SilverStar Ultra are not the "best for sale locally"; if the store you were at carried the Sylvania XtraVision +30, those would have been better bulbs by far, and cheaper.

The GE NightHawk Platinum 9003 would be an excellent choice for mail-order.

Re: Cree LED 9003/HB2 High/Low headlights - several photos

N8N said:

How can that possibly focus properly, and without two filaments isn't the (poor) beam pattern going to be the same for "high" and "low" beam? I vote just convert to HID using factory parts if you can, and if you can't look into a relay harness and some good H4s.

Click to expand...

No way in hell I'm using HID, they are the most annoying lights to see coming at you... ever...

When it comes to the Silverstar Ultra's or any bulb for that matter, I rely only a little by what my eyes see, but primarily by what my camera sees.

Re: Cree LED 9003/HB2 High/Low headlights - several photos

Uh…yeah, no. JMSinMD nails it. chaosdsm, the lighting modifications/products you're asking about or recommending are illegal and unsafe. Rule 11 of this board prohibits advocating illegal or dangerous activity. Stop now.

Re: Cree LED 9003/HB2 High/Low headlights - several photos

chaosdsm said:

These headlights are IP65 rated

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OK, that's it. This is not the place to come spewing random nonsense. Take it elsewhere.

Alaric Darconville said:

No, those are not legal.

The only legal LED headlamp 'bulbs' are the complete LED headlamp assembly. There is no "drop-in" or "kit" to turn any automotive headlamp, whether a halogen reflector-based or projector-based assembly, or an HID reflector-based or projector-based assembly, into a legal, effective, or safe headlamp.

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if above statement still correct NO H-4 drop-in are street legal.. this puts one at risk from sharp lawyers which insurance companies have in abundance. right or wrong perception is insurance companies will not pay unless forced by a court of law and/or mandated by law.

latest gen of H-4 LED drop-in claims to mate LED output to existing reflector by position.
seems advancement in LED efficiency has solved the problem of putting enough light out the front.

cy said:

is this statement still correct .. latest gen of H-4 LED drop-in claims to mate LED output to existing reflector by position.
seems advancement in LED efficiency has solved the problem of putting enough light out the front.

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i clam i travaled to the moon and solved world hunger problem, all happened in the same dream, true story, lol

think of it as , transplaning a pigs heart into a goat, the goat may live, but it wil sure feel like crap all his short remaning life, no matter what kind of pig or goat you use, no matter where you bring animals from, result will be the same.

cy said:

latest gen of H-4 LED drop-in claims to mate LED output to existing reflector by position.
seems advancement in LED efficiency has solved the problem of putting enough light out the front.

Click to expand...

The problem is not "putting enough light out the front". The problem is generating a compliant beam pattern. This has been gone over ad nauseum in many threads here.