2014moparam
Senior Member
- Joined
- Nov 17, 2015
- Posts
- 255
- Reaction score
- 80
- Ram Year
- 2014
- Engine
- 3.6 V6
So, about 6 months or so ago, when I still worked for the Dodge dealership, i had a customer of mine come in with his work truck, and he had installed LED headlight bulbs.
I did my research, and not knowing much about them, I decided to give them a shot. Ordered the New Brights LED bulbs off of amazon, and installed them. One of the MAJOR drawbacks to the New Brights bulbs were the depth. Once installed, the caps for the back of the headlights BARELY fit back on.
This was the comparison between the halogen(left) and LED (right). HUGE difference in brightness, however, there was a significant amount of scatter present.
Naturally, I had to re-aim the lights downward to stop being flashed. A SIGNIFICANT amount lower. I also had installed the LED lights into the fog lights as well.
I drove with the led lights for about two months, zero issues whatsoever, and then, all of a sudden, the passenger side bulb started making an awful amount of noise. I ordered a replacement set, and replaced the passenger side, and all was well. Turns out the fan was just about dead.
Another two months went by, no issues, and then again, wham, fan started going out in the passenger side bulb again. At this point, I decided I was going to completely get rid of the LED lights, and go for DDM's kit.
I don't have any install or product pics due to the amount of time I had to install them this evening, but the DDM kit is literally plug and play(minus having to attach a ground strap for each ballast.) I went with the 4500k temperature, as that provides the most amount of lumen output compared to the higher kelvin, bluer bulbs.
MAJOR difference between the HID and LED kits. The first thing that i noticed, right off the bat, was that I had to re-aim the headlights back up, they were nearly pointing to the ground from having the LED bulbs in. Also, the color temperature, at least for me, was a HUGE improvement as well, as the LED bulbs had a VERY blueish tinting to them, and seemed to get bluer as time went on.
Here is the comparison, top is the DDM 4500K Ultra Kit, bottom is the New Brights LED bulbs. I do realize that comparing headlights to fog lights is difficult, because the light beams between the two are designed to do different things, but if you compare from the first picture i posted(amount of scatter) and this pic, you can tell the difference.
I will get some comparison of light output later, as I came home from work, installed them, took a quick drive, and parked the truck.
My initial thoughts are this though; I wont have to deal with a fan making noise and going out, the bulbs fit in there properly, and the caps fit without having to force them back on(not sure if other brand led lights are the same way), and the color temperature suits my liking much better than the led lights. The blue tinted led lights actually hurt my eyes driving longer distances at night. The light beam itself between the LED and HID seems significantly different. I had to aim the headlights way down when i put the led lights in, and when i put the hid kit in, i had to re-aim back up. That tells me that HID lights dont scatter nearly as bad as HID lighting.
More pics to come, just wanted to share my thoughts and opinions.
I did my research, and not knowing much about them, I decided to give them a shot. Ordered the New Brights LED bulbs off of amazon, and installed them. One of the MAJOR drawbacks to the New Brights bulbs were the depth. Once installed, the caps for the back of the headlights BARELY fit back on.
This was the comparison between the halogen(left) and LED (right). HUGE difference in brightness, however, there was a significant amount of scatter present.
Naturally, I had to re-aim the lights downward to stop being flashed. A SIGNIFICANT amount lower. I also had installed the LED lights into the fog lights as well.
I drove with the led lights for about two months, zero issues whatsoever, and then, all of a sudden, the passenger side bulb started making an awful amount of noise. I ordered a replacement set, and replaced the passenger side, and all was well. Turns out the fan was just about dead.
Another two months went by, no issues, and then again, wham, fan started going out in the passenger side bulb again. At this point, I decided I was going to completely get rid of the LED lights, and go for DDM's kit.
I don't have any install or product pics due to the amount of time I had to install them this evening, but the DDM kit is literally plug and play(minus having to attach a ground strap for each ballast.) I went with the 4500k temperature, as that provides the most amount of lumen output compared to the higher kelvin, bluer bulbs.
MAJOR difference between the HID and LED kits. The first thing that i noticed, right off the bat, was that I had to re-aim the headlights back up, they were nearly pointing to the ground from having the LED bulbs in. Also, the color temperature, at least for me, was a HUGE improvement as well, as the LED bulbs had a VERY blueish tinting to them, and seemed to get bluer as time went on.
Here is the comparison, top is the DDM 4500K Ultra Kit, bottom is the New Brights LED bulbs. I do realize that comparing headlights to fog lights is difficult, because the light beams between the two are designed to do different things, but if you compare from the first picture i posted(amount of scatter) and this pic, you can tell the difference.
I will get some comparison of light output later, as I came home from work, installed them, took a quick drive, and parked the truck.
My initial thoughts are this though; I wont have to deal with a fan making noise and going out, the bulbs fit in there properly, and the caps fit without having to force them back on(not sure if other brand led lights are the same way), and the color temperature suits my liking much better than the led lights. The blue tinted led lights actually hurt my eyes driving longer distances at night. The light beam itself between the LED and HID seems significantly different. I had to aim the headlights way down when i put the led lights in, and when i put the hid kit in, i had to re-aim back up. That tells me that HID lights dont scatter nearly as bad as HID lighting.
More pics to come, just wanted to share my thoughts and opinions.
