Has anyone upgraded their 3rd gen's headlights and/or fog lights? If so, any suggestions and is install straight-forward?

Thanks!

 

I found out the hard way that not all LED bulbs for headlights are created equal. Simply, the difference is the halogen bulb broadcasts in an omni direction whereas the two chip LED are mounted one side of a circuit board. They broadcast differently. The FIT lamp housing shape is designed for halogen bulb, not LED. If do you use them you have to rotate the bulbs in the housing with the chips facing up, not sideways. In the end, I was able to return the LED bulbs for a full refund. I replaced the OEM bulbs with the SilverStar Ultra - High Performance Halogen Headlight Bulbs. You can buy them cheaper in eBay than your retail brick and mortar stores.

 

The other item is whether those LED bulbs come with the electronic gadgetry to prevent flicker and the hardware to prevent the patterning (bouncing) I see in aftermarket LED lights on older cars.

 

Consumers Reports recently made a very negative comment on newer headlight technology:

"Both LED and HID headlights can produce a brighter, whiter light than halogens, and they illuminate the sides of the road well. But how far a headlight illuminates straight ahead, in the direction a car is traveling, is what’s most important, Stockburger says. In that respect neither HIDs nor LEDs have proved to be superior over halogens in CR’s testing."

They're talking about OEM HIDs and LEDs, not even aftermarket plug in replacement stuff which is probably even worse. LEDs do have the advantage of lower power consumption and very long life, but as far as lighting up the road ahead, forget it. I guess the design just isn't very good yet.

 

Most halogen equipped Hondas usually tend to have a fairly dim light out put to be honest. In addition to that, LED fog lights do indeed exist for the face lifted 3rd gen Fit as a accessory (seen that you mentioned them in another post). Here's the part number for them: 08V31-T5A-100B.

What we've done on our various Hondas in the family over time was swap out of the factory bulbs with an aftermarket bulb. Our usual go to is the PIAA Xtreme White which is what I'm running in my first gen as well as what I installed in my cousin's third gen. Simple plug and play install that casts a crisp white light.

 

I got a set of LED headlights bulbs from superbrightLEDs.com it's a night and day difference compared to the stock halogens.I even used the piaa Xtreme whites and they were not this bright. Plus the life on the piaas were horrible. First set burnt out before a year. They sent a replacement set and those burnt out in less than a year. It wasn't worth the hassle to try again. They were plug in play.

I even installed a set in the Odyssey and my wife is happy with how bright they are.

 

Bummer to hear at that! You might have gotten a defective batch... I've been running mine for 3 or 4 years and haven't had an issue as of yet.

Now the discontinued Intense whites, those for sure burnt out once a year for me as well but damn could I see at night. haha

 

It might have lasted longer but I have an 85 mile commute m-f so I'm sure I was using them a lot, but was still a bummer they didn't last as long as I would have liked. I'm happy I went with the LEDs and I should have gone with them sooner, they were like $20 more than the PIAAs haha.

I'm sure going with a projector retrofit would give better results, but that's is a lot more than a bulb change.

 

2Rismo2, did the superbrightLEDs.com H4 bulbs, were both the low beams and high beams nice and bright? And what about DRL mode? Were the high beam "filaments" less bright in DRL mode than in high beam mode, or were they the same?

 

Yes both low and high are brighter than halogens. DRL is brighter than when using halogen halogen bulb. I'm not sure what you're asking on the filament. I have no idea which of the leds are activated in either mode, as it's way too bright to look at them.

Here's a video of how they look at night. You can see me activate the high beams on the car and they go off after a while. Video is clearer if you download and play it locally versus streaming: https://drive.google.com/open?id=1Ro...fRiEG5DgNHWLx3

 

What I am asking is how bright are they in DRL mode? Are they as bright as they are in high beam mode, or are the less bright (due to the lower average voltage supplied by the pulse width modulation module) than they are in high beam mode?

As I am sure you know, with regular halogen bulbs, in DRL mode the same filament that is used for the high beams is supplied with an average of about 5 volts, instead of the normal 12 volts that they would get in nightime high beam mode, so they do no look nearly as bright to oncoming vehicles as they would look if they were supplied with 12 volts. However in DRL mode you are getting the same pattern of light ahead of the car from the reflectors in the bulb housing, as you would be getting when in you are in nighttime high beam mode. They are still focused higher up, into the eyes of the drivers of oncoming vehicles, higher up than they would be if the low-beam filament was activated. So I'm wondering how bright the LED lamps are in DRL mode, what they look like to the drivers of oncoming vehicles, during the day time. Will they annoy the drivers of oncoming vehicles?

I downloaded the video and looked at it in Media Player Classic. I wasn't able to tell when the headlights were in low beam and when they were in high beam. By the way, I think that usually you can not get a good idea of how bright headlights are, from a video, because the camera adapts to the amount of light, so that the picture looks more or less the same with bright light as it does with low light. With bright light the aperture of the lens will get smaller and let in less light, or the shutter speed will get faster (it will open for a smaller amount of time, for each frame, to let in less light for each frame). The only way you can compare headlights of different brightness, or judge how bright any headlights are, is if automatic aperture and shutter speed are turned off, and they are each set to a fixed setting.

 

DRL is not as bright as low or high beam.

 

Fantastick 2Rismo2! Fantastick!

By the way I spoke to a superbrightleds.com rep on the phone I think, or on one of those pop-up message windows, and s'he said using the lamps in DRL mode would not cause any harm to either the car's electronics, or the lamp's. Not sure whether to believe her'im but that's what s'he said.

 

I bought these, they are 10 percent off now, and installed only one. Installed it without the glass cover and without any of the color filters. I tied the power supply section out of the way of things, using only a zip tie. Didn't bother to tape it to a flat surface. I don't think it is going to swing, and bang against anything when I drive. Gonna wait awhile before installing the other lamp, so that I can get to see the relative brightness at night, between the LED and the halogen. The heat sink is small, it is not long, and therefore the rubber seal covers up a large portion of it. It reaches all the way up the conical part until it contacts the cylindrical part..We'll see how hot the heat sink gets, and if it damages the rubber. I don't want to cut the seal. If I did – it wouldn't seal. So far the light from the lamp looks good. Very much whiter than the halogen but not blueish. The light up in DRL mode without flickering, and at lower intensity than high beam.

There was no allen key and 2 support persons insisted it wasn't necessary because you can turn the unit without loosening the screw with the allen head. You can, but if you want the spring-loaded ball to spring into a hole, "detent" into a hole, fixing the lamp's rotational position in one place, you can only adjust the unit in increments of about 45 degrees (the distance between the holes). With the whole assembly outside the car, with the lamp body pushed into the locking ring you can feel the detent when you rotate the lamp body. However with the locking ring in place in the headlamp assembly, the rubber seal in place, and the lamp body pushed into the locking ring – I am unable to feel any detent when I push the lamp body all the way in, or when I rotate the lamp body. Most likely, if the ball is not sprung into a hole, the car's vibrations will cause the lamp body to rotate – although it will stop rotating once the ball reaches into a hole. I think perhaps it is friction against the rubber seal that is preventing me from feeling a detent.

The installation instruction manual is atrocious. It makes installing the lamp appear more complicated than it actually is. You simply remove separate the locking ring from the lamp body, by pulling it straight back, install the retaining ring in the headlight assembly, put the rubber seal in place, then push the lamp body into the retaining ring. Hopefully you feel the detent when you push the lamp body all the way in, but I wasn't able to feel it. The manual does not tell you that you have to turn the lamp body so that the open ends of the cups are facing up, or is it down I forgot – oh, you just look at the halogen bulb you took out and configure the cups the same way. The manual says there is an allen wrench but 2 support people say there is none. The manual shows the allen-head screw being loosened; the supprt people say don't loosen it.

 

Hmm. After I installed one LED headlamp my audio system screen changed. I had it set to audio as opposed to wall paper but now I cannot get either. Went through all the settings and I can't get my RDS (Radio Data System) screen back and I can't get any of my saved wallpapers to display.Anyone have any ideas?

 

Audio display is working now. I disconnected the battery. Had to leave it disconnected for a few minutes (until the security system "armed" light stopped blinking) and then connected it again. Then I got the "hold down the on-off button for 2 seconds" message and after I did that, things were back to normal.

 

Putting silicone lube on the dust cover, where the LED lamp slides through it, made it easier to push the lamp in, and easier to feel the ball snap into a hole, easier to feel the detent.

The DRL function of the car worked remarkably well with this lamp. The high beam "filament" lit up, but a lower intensity than in high beam lighting mode.

Here's my review of how well the H4-HLV5 lamps work, how well they light up the road compared to the original halogens: In low beam the LED lamps light up the road better than the halogens did. In high beam, the LED lamps seem to be no better at lighting up the road and enabling you to see ahead, than the original halogens. In a way, I think they are worse.

The LED lamps have a nice, neutral, white light. Much better than the yellowish light of the original halogens.That is something about them that I really like.

In low beam, the LEDs provide more light than the halogens, but the the beam pattern is inferior to that of the halogens. Despite the inferior beam pattern, you can see better at night with the LEDs than with the halogens, in low beam. There is so much more light, that the inferior beam pattern doesn't seem to matter. They light up the road better. With the high beams, there just isn't enough brightness to compensate for the inferior beam pattern. And the beam pattern of the LED high beam is even worse than the beam pattern of the LED low beam. With the original halogens, the high beam filament puts out more light than the low beam filament. If I recall correctly, the halogens are rated at about 1100 lumens on high beam, and 900 lumens on low beam. Yet, since they spread the light out over more road surface, the high beams still don't look as bright as the low beams. With the LEDs, the 4 high beam LEDs put out the same amount of light as the 4 low beam LEDs. Therefore, the difference between the low beams and the high beams is even more pronounced with the LED lamps, than it is with the halogen lamps. I think this is the thing that most contributes to my subjective perception of them as not working as well as I would like. Also,the splotchy beam pattern of the LED lamp in high beam, makes the problem even worse. I'm driving along, I switch on the high beams, and I can't see much further down the road, than I was able to see with the low beams, if I can see further at all. At least, I can't see as far down the road, and can't see the road as well, as I was expecting to see. The amount of light that is cast further down the road, is too small, the pattern of light further down the road is too splotchy, and the amount of light cast closer to the car, is less than the amount that had been cast there by the low beams. In short, with the LED high beams, I can't see the road any better than I could with the halogen high beams. Because of their inferior beam pattern, it seems to me that the LEDs, despite having whiter light, are even worse at lighting up the road in high beam mode, than the halogens were. That is my subjective perception of the situation, anyway.

Another problem with these units is that the car's dust cover is making contact with the heat sink, interfering with air flow through them, and probably the LEDs are going to overheat, and have a shortened life..The entire conical portion of the tiny heat sink is touching rubber. Only the cylindrical shaped portion at the rear, is exposed all around, to air. There is no point in trimming the dust cover. Simply uninstalling it will accomplish the same thing. Of course if I remove the dust cover I suspect the inside of the headlight assembly is going to accumulate an oily film.

Another problem is that superbrightleds' advertising and instruction manual, both the on-line manual and the manual included in the box, they all show that an allen key is included. The parts list that came with my lamps – it listed an allen key. I did not find an allen key in my box. Everything looked brand new. It didn't look like a resold return where someone neglected to return the allen key. I did an online chat with tech support, and was told the missing allen key was on purpose, because the rotation should be adjusted by simply turning the main unit within the reataining ring. However the main unit can only be reliably held in place if the ball snaps into a hole in the retaing ring, and the holes are placed 45 degrees apart. The ball not only keeps the main unit from rotating out of position as the car is vibrating, but it also keeps the main unit from creeping backwards out of the headlight assembly. So, unlike most other LED lamps, these lamps do not have rotational adjustment, except in increments of 45 degrees, which is useless. There is an allen screw, 2mm, but loosening the allen screw is not going to do anything except loosen the attachment of the heat sink. It would enable me to rotate the heat sink. If there is thermal grease between the heat sink and the lamp body, it may disturb it and degrade heat conduction between the lamp and the heat sink.

 

OK, here we go. According to wikpedia an H4 headlight bulb puts out 1650 lumens high beam, 1000 low beam. The superbrightleds H4-HLV5, rated at 5000 lumens per pair, meaning 2500 lumens each, puts out 1250 lumens high beam, 1250 lumens low beam. In other words, the high beam is actually less brigh than the halogen high beam.I wish I had taken time to do these calculations before I bought the bulb! I bought it, mostly, because fitfreaks reported that it worked well with the Fit's DRL system – which it does. It is my fault for not checking.

Has anyone tried these? GTR Ultra Series. They are rated at raw Lumen per bulb = 3,700 lm. That comes to 1850 lumens per "filament." Meaning the low beams are way brighter than halogens, and the high beams are a little brighter. The superbrightleds bulb is rated at 9 to 32 volts. The GTR is rated at 6 to 18. Will it work with the Fit's DRL syatem? GTR's web page says "DRL compaticle." Anyone tried these?

 

I bought these light bulbs to replace the fog light on my 2018 EX and by coincidence, after using them, my battery drained completely
please don't judge me. (I said by coincidence).
I put the original light bulbs back in, took it to the dealer, and they replace the battery (car still under warranty).
it was my experience only, it may not apply to others.
the car look good with the ambers, but now I am not sure I want to mess with anything other than halogens.
so they really did not work for me.
maybe my battery was a bad one? don't know
didn't have any problems prior to replacing the light bulbs

 

CookieFit2001, The fog lights should not have drained the battery unless they were defective. I suppose something could have shorted out, but in that case, you would have seen that the affected lamp would stop producing light. I can't imagine how they could have been installed so improperly as to drain the battery. I'm looking at the amazon page where they are being sold. The seem rather cheap, but they have mostly good reviews. Are the Fit fog lamps H8 or H11, by the way? In either case, an Amazon where they are being sold says that each lamp produces 1400 lumens and that they draw 8.5 watts. It doesn't specify if that 8.5 watts is for 1 lamp, or the total for both. Typically a LEDs lamp that that produce 1400 lumens draws about 9 watts so that 8.5 number seems about right. A halogen lamp producing 1400 lumens would draw about 60 watts, and about 4 amps at 14 volts. A troubling thing though is the claimed 700 microamp rating for current draw. Watts = volts times amps. 14 volts times 700 microamps equals 0.0098 watts. 12 volts times 700 microamps equals 0.0084 watts. So something is terribly wrong somewhere with the specs. I would expect an 8.5 watt devices to use about 0.7 amps at 12 volts. That is equal to 700 MILLIamps not 700 microamps. With the car running, the alternator is putting out about 14 volts, and the current draw would be about 1 amp (which equals 1000 milliamps). The original halogens would have drawn about 4 amps.

To be fair, Alla Lighting's web page does not claim this incorrect spec. It does, however claim different specs than the amazon page. It claims 1400 lumens for the white version, and 1000 lumens for the yellow and ice blue versions. It claims 9 to 24 volts instead of 12-24, and 9.5 watts instead of 8.5. That's close enough as something drawing 8.5 watts at 12 volts would draw about 9.5 watts at 14 volts.