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Keith from Flyin' Miata has written a good review of some GE LED 7' headlights on the big forum....verrry interesting.

http://forum.miata.net/vb/showthread.php?t=527546

J.

I hope people here don't buy them.
I get blinded enough by cars with the aligment way out, let alone ones with a LHD beam cutoff.


I wonder why they don't make LEDs with a more halogen like colour, or even a small flip up filter.
My biggest hate with HID and other white light is just how little contrast they have. A slight bit of fog, or rain, and you may as well not have them on.

Hids can be ordered in a variety of colour temps, so warmer light is possible.

Can't comment re led "colour"


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USA took up the rear guard for automotive lighting for decades- all the forward steps were made in the Eu. Long range lighting has almost nothing to do with low beam lighting. There is unfortunately a lot of nonsense pushed around about HID and other lighting and all about colour but almost no understanding about photometry and what actually works for people being able to see and not to interfere with other road users.

They look sensational.
If I still had the NA8 I would splash the cash...
Great find OP

fastfreddygassit wrote:They look sensational.
If I still had the NA8 I would splash the cash...
Great find OP

Must be time to upgrade to a NA then

If I recall correctly a study showed that Halogen lights produce a light spectrum similar to sunset. This was shown to induce tiredness in drivers. LED lights operate on a different spectrum and so do not make drivers tired. This has influenced a shift to LEDs

I've been running a set of the Trucklites for 14months now.

http://mx5cartalk.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=57&t=49130&start=75

I actually look forward to driving at night with these and the cutoff is awesome.

The beam is symmetrical so there is no issue with with the fact these come from the US. The only issue is that they are pricey and if anything have surprisingly gone up since I purchased my set.

There is no way I would revert back to Halogens.

Euro and Au lighting etc is assymetric( by our lighting laws) - because its the safest approach and less of an annoyance to other drivers. The point about USA was that they stuck with outdated lighting standards when the rest of the world had moved on. USA was the exemplar of sealed beams when we were well and truly using halogen lights. The Capri of the early 90's was sold into USA with rectangular SBU's whereas the Au market had halogen inserts - the same size as the recent bulk buy. The SBUs were just about useless- dreadful performance. If anyone wants good lighting don't think about USA. We take for granted a good cut off on quality headlamps including 7in round lamps which are for both low and hi beam. Driving lights are of course not an issue- any quality driving lamp is going to perform beyond a high beam. Also good lighting does not have to be expensive. LED lighting for headlamps is pretty much an unknown in Au at this stage- not sure if any cars have them?

Well I've used sealed, ebay halogen and led and beam pattern, cutoff and brightness the Trucklites win hands down. The reflector unit was purpose designed for the LED, it wasn't retrofitted. If the units were glarey I would definitely not be using them as I also can't stand crappy retrofitted HIDs. Hellas come close for cutoff but not for brightness.

As for other LEDs - Lexus, Audi and Mercedes have all got cars in production using LED's

I have converted my forester (I know, ƒü¢k off it's not a mazda) to 4300k hid in RHD projectors and they are great in all conditions. I have hid 3000k projector fogs too bet they coat the bulbs yellow to get that colour temp so there is a loss of output.

wassup wrote:As for other LEDs - Lexus, Audi and Mercedes have all got cars in production using LED's

Indeed - the new model S Class does not have a single conventional light bulb in it.

Seems quite clear that the Trucklite 7in unit is for US market ie it is not an asymmetric lamp the same for GE. The Eu / au lighting is a different system. The eu system is a better one. I would be interested to read about some Oem led headlight systems though road tests rarely mention lighting. Technology moves on and led has some pluses for certain lamps esp drls.

Mr Morlock wrote:Seems quite clear that the Trucklite 7in unit is for US market ie it is not an asymmetric lamp the same for GE. The Eu / au lighting is a different system. The eu system is a better one. I would be interested to read about some Oem led headlight systems though road tests rarely mention lighting. Technology moves on and led has some pluses for certain lamps esp drls.

For the most part I agree. But there are no EU/AU equivalent 7" LED units so these are the better options for NA owners by a long shot (for now anyway).

Lucky NB and NC owners have the option of hitting up the likes of the retrofit source to improve their headlight performance. Regie's NC is a great example of this

Mr Morlock wrote:Seems quite clear that the Trucklite 7in unit is for US market ie it is not an asymmetric lamp the same for GE. The Eu / au lighting is a different system. The eu system is a better one. I would be interested to read about some Oem led headlight systems though road tests rarely mention lighting. Technology moves on and led has some pluses for certain lamps esp drls.

Yes, confirmed that they are symmetric beams when dipped. A proper RHD dipping pattern has a kick up to the left, sort of like \____ instead of the symmetric beam _____. That extra lighting up to the left is really important to me. Most of my night driving is country roads and I have to watch the verges on my side constantly for the likes of wombats and wallabies. Even in the city though it helps you keep track of curbs, roads edges, kids, dogs, street numbers, etc, etc.