LED vs HID headlight upgrade?

[DwayneR6406]

Hey everyone, I'm a new 17 SLT Yukon owner and new to the forum. Seems like there's a lot of useful info here! I hate the halogen bulbs on my yukon and was wanting to change them out to something that would match the DRLs. I'm told I want something in the 6k range. I've called 2 local custom auto stores and one has told me I should go with the Heise LED kit, $230 installed, and one told me I should use the Oracle HID conversion kit, $360 installed. I'm new to the automotive lighting world and would be interested to know what yall's thoughts are on the two? Pros and cons of each besides the obvious price difference? I'd like to avoid drilling or cutting into my new Yukon if possible. Thanks!

 

[jsams22]

I have been going through the same research as you, but I am more inclined to do things myself than go to a local shop to get it done. I have watched dozen youtube videos and read 100s of reviews on both LED and HID kits and which route to go in general. Here is my general consensus of the question at hand:

1. LED - LED headlight technology is still relatively "new" and its rapidly improving. Right now LEDs have the best success when used for DRL lights, reverse lights, fog lights, interior lights, etc.... but lack the true penetrating beam pattern needed for low beam lights. The LED lights do not produce a halogen type light pattern and also the projector housing you have is expecting a halogen bulb to be placed in it. They have designed the headlamp housing to know the halogen filament will be X inches from the tip of the bulb and precisely angled all sides to reflect that light forward infront of the vehicle. The thing with LEDs is most commonly, where the LED lights are on the bulb and are producing the light are not exactly where the housing is meant to reflect light. So a lot of the light is not reflected into the correct direction and light is lost inside the headlamp. Also, the pattern of the LEDs is to push light in only two directions on the bulb, where a filament of HID bulb does it in a true 360*. (there are 360* LED lights also, they are even worse than the normal LEDs that are only on the two sides). So in a brief summary, LEDs are great, they use a FRACTION of the power than HIDs or Halogen, they do not get as hot either, they are straight plug and play, and they go from 0-100% light out put instantly. BUT, they are still lacking in the true directional light and penetrating light. They are better than stock halogen, but not better than HID kit.
2. HID Xenon Kit - the kit your local shop linked looks nice, but from what I can take in from the pictures, it looks very overpriced. The kit looks like every other $40-60 kit on Amazon/eBay. Ballasts look identical, wiring, plugs, relays, canBUS kit, etc.... The only thing I see that is "better" is they offer a lifetime warranty (which I would like to know what that covers, ballasts? wires? relays?) and they rate the bulbs at 40k hours. I mean lets think about that, 40k hours? Most of the bulbs I have seen are rated around 3-5k, I mean the LED lights are still in the 15-30k hour range. They must be selling some NASA Xenon bulbs. Go do a search on Kensun, Xentec, OPT7 HID Xenon kits on Amazon and look at the pictures compared to the one your local shop recommended. See if you notice much difference in build quality. With all this being said, HID Xenons are still king of the castle. They produce the most powerful light source vs LED and Halogen. They come in 35W and 55W (most people claim the 55W is unnecessary and can be too bright/blinding to oncoming traffic, expect to be ticketed by cops). BUT, with the HID Xenon kit comes lots of wires and other components. It is mostly plug and play and you could EASILY successfully install this yourself by watching a youtube tutorial and a local shop would probably charge you $100+ for 30 mins of work. Colors: 4300k is what people consider "stock OEM" color, 5000k is a white very little yellow, and 6000K is pure white with slight slight tints of blue. I would agree with local shop on going with 6000k, thats what I have in LED and currently in the process of switching to with HID kit. For safety reasons, if you go with HID kit, get the relay harness with it. This will draw power directly off your battery vs your wiring harness. If there ever was a lot of resistance or a short, it was fry the $15 relay harness and not your $3000 wiring harness. HIDs do have a warming up process also, the Xenon gas in the bulbs has to go through a warming up process to reach full 100% light output, usually 3-4 minutes.

TL;DR - LED is easier to install and "safer", but not as bright. HID is brighter, harder to install and more components to fail or cause damage.

 

[Tahoe14]

You may want to contact VanquishAuto who advertises on this site. They claim to have the best lights for our vehicles.

 

[Vanquish Auto]

Hello and welcome to the forum! Please be aware that led technology for projectors is not even close to be comparable to a true hid system and it won't be for a while or will never make it. It's not even close even on led projectors. You are lucky to have great projectors on your headlights which is kinda hard to find on American made vehicles. Look a civic that comes with halogen projectors and clear lenses, the lights are not great with halogen bulbs. Change it a true hid system with bulbs that have a corrected Oem beam pattern and suddenly you have something amazing. Leds just don't have the reach and block the light on your projected creating a dark spot in the center. There are pictures in the forum we posted to show this on the new yukons.


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[DwayneR6406]

Hello and welcome to the forum! Please be aware that led technology for projectors is not even close to be comparable to a true hid system and it won't be for a while or will never make it. It's not even close even on led projectors. You are lucky to have great projectors on your headlights which is kinda hard to find on American made vehicles. Look a civic that comes with halogen projectors and clear lenses, the lights are not great with halogen bulbs. Change it a true hid system with bulbs that have a corrected Oem beam pattern and suddenly you have something amazing. Leds just don't have the reach and block the light on your projected creating a dark spot in the center. There are pictures in the forum we posted to show this on the new yukons.


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Could you possibly link me to those photos/threads?

 

[Vanquish Auto]

I'm having trouble finding them within so many threads and posts but I will try to look on my computer and get back to you.

 

[Vanquish Auto]

check this in the meantime


LED Comparison

 

[DwayneR6406]

check this in the meantime


LED Comparison

Do the HID require a warm up time or tend to flicker?

 

[Vanquish Auto]

Only when they are low quality or don't have integrated fast start technology.


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[cmc76]

different housing naturally. but i put high and low vanquish LED in. amazing. i dont even use brights anymore