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Close call. Need better lighting

PunkST

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#1
Had a very close call with a deer tonight. Has me kinda rattled seeing as im still fixing stuff from the first hit.

I could really use a better set of headlamps and foglamps. I know i can get different foglamp assemblies. But for headlamps options seem slim.

Is it possible to have a road legal-ish led low and high beam bulb setup thats quality?
Or should i look at an HID retrofit to get the lighting i want. I really dont want to bust up the car with another deer strike again. Because insurance will total it.
 


TyphoonFiST

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#2
Retrofit* That is the route I am going with Perfectcreature. he has a couple of options also. Check out his build thread.
 


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#6
Looked at the LED replacements thread yet? I did the recommended bulb, and it definitely makes a difference. Not as clean as a projector HID retrofit will be, but doesn't cause any major glare issues (at least as far as oncoming drivers have noticed so far).
 


Ford ST

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#7
Just put LEDs in it.
I didn't agree with about 75% of what Dan said or recommended but when it comes to LEDs he knows his stuff.




Sent from my LG-LS997 using Tapatalk
 


CSM

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#8
Just put LEDs in it.
I didn't agree with about 75% of what Dan said or recommended but when it comes to LEDs he knows his stuff.


Sent from my LG-LS997 using Tapatalk
Agreed.....to an extent. It definitely helped but I still get flashed on occasion because of scatter.

I decided just to go with retrofit with @PerfectCreature
 


Ford ST

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#9
Agreed.....to an extent. It definitely helped but I still get flashed on occasion because of scatter.

I decided just to go with retrofit with @PerfectCreature
Did you lower the beam any?
On my daily driver I would get flashed with the premium halogen bulbs until I lowered it some.

Sent from my LG-LS997 using Tapatalk
 


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Location
Maine
#10
Had a very close call with a deer tonight. Has me kinda rattled seeing as im still fixing stuff from the first hit.

I could really use a better set of headlamps and foglamps. I know i can get different foglamp assemblies. But for headlamps options seem slim.

Is it possible to have a road legal-ish led low and high beam bulb setup thats quality?
Or should i look at an HID retrofit to get the lighting i want. I really dont want to bust up the car with another deer strike again. Because insurance will total it.
Technically speaking, any modification to the headlamps is, by definition and on the books as illegal.
However, a properly done retrofit will not draw any negative attention and will be less likely to cause an accident as opposed to the LED lights you put sun your halogen projector. This is especially true with the newer technologies and headlamp advancements in newer cars. They probably won't even notice.

However, LEDs in a reflector housing is more dangerous than you running your lights.

A rough and dirty reason why:

1) Halogen projectors have a cap, or a a painted tip if you will that helps develop a particular beam pattern and scatter when placed in the reflector bowl, if you look in all halogen setups, there is a reflector and then there is a reflector bowl. The light disperses into the reflector and then back onto the bowl and that is what you see on the road. Hence reflector.

2) LEDs are in no way shape or form meant, nor should they ever go into a reflector setup. You will a vasty majority of differing opinions one way to the other and somewhere in between. Having come from the retrofitting world, my opinion is a firm no.

3) You are actually getting less usable light then you were before. Your brain perceived the color change in light, from the yellow to the white as increased visibility when in fact, your beam is scattered everywhere and not controlled and this the amount of light you have is not controlled. Your hotspot is no longer controlled in front and is really all over the place. This equates to reduced distance and width visibility. Just because drivers are not beaming you does not mean you are not blinding them and risking you hitting more than a deer.
This brings me to my next and final point.

4) A proper projector retrofit, not an LED or an HID in a halogen projector, but an actual HID projector which was purpose built is the best and only safe option. This is because the intense beam pattern is controlled and there is a clear cut off so you get all the usable light. The difference is a night and day. Your low beam is easily better than then the low and high beam combo you had before.
 


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#11
Did you lower the beam any?
On my daily driver I would get flashed with the premium halogen bulbs until I lowered it some.

Sent from my LG-LS997 using Tapatalk
Definitely had to spend some time tweaking the alignment afterwards; it will not be where you left it when you're done. Of course the upshot is if you don't like it, or it turns out to not work as you expected, reversing the mod is cheap and easy.

The main thing to understand with LED replacement bulbs is that no two are exactly the same, and a bulb that works well in one housing will not work the same in a different housing. There is no standard, which is why it's dangerous to just put any replacement LED bulb in your OEM housing. Don't do that.
 


OP
PunkST

PunkST

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Thread Starter #12
Does ron still sell the euro projectors?
 


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Weed, CA, USA
#13
Smoking a deer in a car is always bad. Personally I travel on a deer superhighway and have to constantly scan both sides of the roads at the very edge of where my headlights reach. So far no fiesta deer harvesting.
 


OP
PunkST

PunkST

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Thread Starter #14
Smoking a deer in a car is always bad. Personally I travel on a deer superhighway and have to constantly scan both sides of the roads at the very edge of where my headlights reach. So far no fiesta deer harvesting.
Tell me about it. Im still fixing the damage That wasnt caught right away.
 


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Oswego, IL, USA
#15
Deer don't run from lights. Not sure why. My dad lived in South Dakota and they have a lot of deer there. I was running from Spearfish to HillCity one night, about 50 miles, in his 280Z and I counted 50 deer standing on the side of the road. Except for the two standing in the middle of the road. Some people use these little whistles that scar them off. Haven't seen them recently but luckily I had a stone or something in the brake pad. I hit them with the high beams and they just stood there staring at me, you know deer in the headlights, seems it's true. I hit the brakes and that squeak lit up and they where gone.
 


OP
PunkST

PunkST

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Thread Starter #16
Those whistle things unfortunately hurt my ears 🤕.

My plan is better light so i can see them a lot sooner. And better brakes so i can stop quicker.
 


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Location
Washington D.C., DC, USA
#18
Had a very close call with a deer tonight. Has me kinda rattled seeing as im still fixing stuff from the first hit.

I could really use a better set of headlamps and foglamps. I know i can get different foglamp assemblies. But for headlamps options seem slim.

Is it possible to have a road legal-ish led low and high beam bulb setup thats quality?
Or should i look at an HID retrofit to get the lighting i want. I really dont want to bust up the car with another deer strike again. Because insurance will total it.
If you hate your fellow man. Sylvania Zevo H11s (not the fog version) are the stupidest bright lights I've seen. Coupled with Diode Dynamics SS3 Sports there was not a deer I didn't see or fox, possum, skunk, hell even the frogs. I just put depo Euros with Autobeam Lights in today so I'll see what a a difference I have. IMO the Diode Dynamics SS3 are the best light upgrade you can make. Even on stock halogens
 


TemecFist

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#19
I've been using the "Eye of Megatron" led bulbs for thr headlight and fog lights. They are adjustable, and excellent. For late night "testing" I actually have a full offroad led light bar that magnetically attaches to the hood. It wont get any better than that.
 


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