#HID VS LED VS HALOGEN VS XENON MANUAL#
#HID VS LED VS HALOGEN VS XENON FULL#

Going to replace with led yellow bulbs, which will cut through fog, snow, and rain better then white. I'm researching replacement fog lights for my Subaru, they are H16, but only 19 watts and are very dull. Since I drive more at night then day, I wanted bright reliable bulbs. Since I love bright headlights, I bought OSRAM hid replacement bulbs, better then the stock, still 4,300 kelvin which looks great but they were the nightbreakers, $190 for two bulbs. Since my Acura was a pain to change the bulbs because you had to take the bumper off to get to them easily, I had my mechanic do it. HID bulbs are light halogen, you don't touch the glass, only with gloves. are used when you first turn on your HID's, and that can kill. You can change the HID bulbs yourself but you need to disconnect the battery because of voltage shock, 25,000 volts approx. If the high beam housing is projector, then I would go with LED's, and the color would be a very close match to your low beam HID's.

My last car, Acura TL, had bi-xenon, low and high beams like my new Crosstrek is low and high beam LED's. I didn't know your vehicle was only low beam HID's. and bonus, i think it'll look better in terms of colour, too! so for the moment, i'm only going to experiment with led replacements for the halogen highbeams, which is a (cheaper) technology that i more or less understand. (you're kidding, right?) which means i'd rather not burn them out.

#HID VS LED VS HALOGEN VS XENON MANUAL#

I'm a little nervous about the cost of replacement hid bulbs, and the ominous warning in the owner's manual about letting a mechanic replace the bulb. (congrats to the engineering team at subaru, for doing something reasonable.) normally, i would just turn on my lowbeam headlights during the day, which would be brighter, but the automatic light feature is nifty, and it seems like a better idea to burn out the (cheaper) halogen higheams than the hid lowbeams. I'm finding the daytime running lights (the halogen highbeams on reduced voltage) a little dim, based on how many cars cut me off, presumably because they don't notice the glare in their rearview mirror. I personally think they look neat doing that, and anybody who actually has an issue with that is nuts. I say who cares about that, when you first turn on HID's, they have the blue color and go to a bright white light in about 30 seconds. People write reviews comparing the HID and LED bulbs and use the line for LED's that there is no warm-up time like HID's have. They look easy enough to replace though when and if the time comes. Time will tell how well LED's will hold up.

I never had a ballast issue with my Acura's, only changed the bulbs after six years because they do get duller like halogens.

LED's will replace HID's for everything in the future because they are cheaper, last longer, easier to replace, etc. Early LED's for a few years ago weren't bright enough, but today LED's look like HID's driving, both great bulbs. They are great, and just look about the same as HID's.

#HID VS LED VS HALOGEN VS XENON FULL#

Upgraded to the 18 Crosstrek two weeks ago and got the full LED headlights. Bought a 16 Crosstrek that had halogens and hated them. I had HID's in my two Acura's for fourteen years, and they were incredible. I wanted HID's but weren't available in the US. Also, please don't be the fool who gets 8000K or higher color temperature bulbs thinking it is brighter, you will actually end up seeing less. Color choice for human eyesight is probably best kept at around 3200K to 6000K, though I personally think 6000K is unnecessarily-blue for fashion reasons. The LED bulbs, based on limited pictures I've seen, seem to have better use of factory reflector housings than HID bulbs, which spew light everywhere and can actually worsen vision at night.Īnother thing to add since you're asking about bulbs, Kelvin color temperature doesn't mean higher light output, it just means higher color rating.

IMO, if you will inevitably swap bulbs using the stock headlamp assemblies, don't waste your money on HID's and get LED's. This thread on legality also echoes some of my thoughts on the unfortunately-common bulb changing modification: The reflectors in your headlight were designed for halogen headlight bulbs so those are best considering the engineering resources to optimize its use for halogen bulbs. For headlights, it is best to stick with the factory option.

Hid vs led vs halogen vs xenon