Amazon Headlight Bulbs are Getting Out of Hand

Do the popular LED headlight bulb replacements you see on Amazon really make, 10, 12, 36,000 lumens? Are they at least brighter than halogen? We find out by testing the most popular and most outlandishly lumen rated examples vs Sylvania halogen options commonly found at auto parts stores.

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[TorqueTestChannel]

I think a lot of you haven't caught on yet that we always mispronounce Amazon brand names, because it's fun :D We tested these because of their silly lumen claims you guys wanted to see those, but whether they are actually useful and not totally annoying in most headlamps is debatable - *WE FEEL IN MOST CASES NOT WORTH IT*

[PedroDaGr]

Even small amounts of extra light above the cutoff = glare. For that last LED brand, the amount of stray light was massive and they would blind EVERYONE in the oncoming lane.

[volvo]

36, 000 lumens is what it fells like to oncoming drivers as the cheap LED bulbs blind them....😂

[eden]

Pro tip: if you see incoming headlights that are blinding you, don’t look at the road, but instead look at the shoulder of the road where the line is 👍🏼

[aygwm]

Shopping car LED bulbs has been the most challenging and bewildering process of my life

[thebeetalls]

I think part of the reason the lights with the external ballast were drawing more power is because that "ballast" contained a resistor that just draws extra power. Some cars will throw errors or cause the lights to flicker if they don't draw enough power, so sometimes people with aftermarket LED or HID kits have to add resistors to trick the car into thinking the bulbs are halogen. It would be interesting to have someone open up that little "ballast" and see what's inside. 🙂

[JamieStuff]

Trucker here. We try all kinds of stuff on our trucks, and headlight bulbs are no exception. I always ran the Sylvania Ultra bulbs; readily available everywhere (including BigBoxMart). I run with headlights on whenever moving, and I had to replace a low beam (H11) bulb every 3-4 months. Two bulbs, 50 hours/week, so 1200-1500 hours for a bulb.

I tried a few of the LED replacements, but never found one I liked, or lasted very long. In fact, I had a couple sets where one died within the Amazon return window...

[Athenor]

I know it's tough, but I would love to see if there's any way you or another company could do objective "blindness" tests - IE setting up the headlight at a standardized fixed position somewhere with little light (like inside a warehouse or long hallway) and seeing how the light behaves... and more importantly, what those lumens translate into for oncoming traffic. I have grown to hate "cool" looking headlights because they are always so bright and look like someone has their high-beams on all the time. Heck, I didn't even know you could rotate LED bulbs to help align them better -- and I doubt many others do either!

[orangetruckman]

You and Project Farm are hero’s for the average DIY folk! Keep up the great work 👍🏻

[wiggenvan]

The unfortunate effect of using LED bulbs like that in your halogen housing is that you get quite a bit more scattering of the light since they have different light scatter patterns. The real kicker is that scatter light means light that blinds oncoming traffic and mirrors ahead of you. It's cheaper and you do get to see better, I get it, but the right way to upgrade your light without using the same type of bulbs is to update the whole housing.

[leslieq]

The ballast is actually a parallel resistor to draw more current, It keeps the headlight warning light in your dash from coming on.

[Disneyforlife]

The reflector and housing of the headlight are designed for a specific bulb/beam type. If the focus the the light coming from the bulb is different from the reflector/housing design it will effect the light output at the focal point.

[venturebro]

I work 2 seats down from the senior lighting engineer at a major OEM and spend alot of time talking with him. There are alot of factors that go into beam projection and whether or not they cause "glare" with oncoming traffic. I can go over testing procedures for how we benchmark glare with you in a non-public forum if you'd like.

[austinmiller]

Would love to see the difference of the bulbs in a projector style housing over the reflector style

[griter]

that collar is meant to be tightened and is used to position the LED diodes SIDEWAYS after installation. If they are not positioned exactly east and west in the housing, they do not perform as well as expected. Also, LED headlight bulbs work best when used in diffuser headlamps. Regular headlamps allow the LED light to spray too wide, blinding oncoming traffic and uselessly illuminating the trees.

[TEENOFTITANS]

I'd like to see some more Halogen brands compared. HELLA makes a high wattage bulb that looks interesting, and Phillips has the Xtreme vision and the Night guide bulbs that both could be pretty bright.

[ATomRileyA]

Would love to see these vs some cheap 35w or 55w HID kits as i think even the 35w HID's would be putting out more light with better color rendition.

Thanks for testing these i have been wondering what they really put out.

[williameldridge]

Sylvania now makes an LED bulb of very similar make to those Amazon ones. Didn't look too closely as they cost about 100 bucks for a pair, but I'd be curious how they stack up against various bulbs.

[bad__syntax]

Morimoto 2Stroke 3.0 are about as top tier as you can get with OTS led automotive bulbs, would enjoy seeing a comparison.

[colinshrom]

So glad you’re testing headlights!! Just keep in mind any light over the top line is blinding other drivers
Also doesn’t matter how bright they are when they burn out in a year because they’re cheaply built
Also also would love to see the morimoto headlights along with the salvinia led headlights