Siting a Federal safety standard is far from statue and quite the blanket.
Have you ever read the entire Federal vehicle safety standard?
With all the standards written there is pretty much not a single vehicle on the road that can't be sited for something.
For Ky specifically headlight illumination brings in specific distances and measurements that a headlight can or cannot shine. No mention of bulbs or how the light is contrived. While yes the state does somewhat mirror the Federal code one is not going to be written a ticket if they are properly aimed and not blinding other vehicles.
If this is not done that is a whole mother story as one can get a ticket for vehicle being a nuisance. But again taking the time to properly aim and adjust them you don't have anything to really worry about.

quote:

Originally posted by Black92LX:
Siting a Federal safety standard is far from statue and quite the blanket.
Have you ever read the entire Federal vehicle safety standard?
With all the standards written there is pretty much not a single vehicle on the road that can't be sited for something.
For Ky specifically headlight illumination brings in specific distances and measurements that a headlight can or cannot shine. No mention of bulbs or how the light is contrived. While yes the state does somewhat mirror the Federal code one is not going to be written a ticket if they are properly aimed and not blinding other vehicles.
If this is not done that is a whole mother story as one can get a ticket for vehicle being a nuisance. But again taking the time to properly aim and adjust them you don't have anything to really worry about.

That's good to know for future reference - since I sold that vehicle it's not an issue any more. My current vehicle has great stock lights. When I was looking into it, I took into account that I have a 45 mile commute each way to work every day and it's always dark in the morning and a couple months out of the year it's also dark on the trip home. I usually pass at least 3 or 4 LEOs on the trip, so I was a little wary of spending that to convert and then getting stopped and having to take it all out.

quote:

Originally posted by cas:

quote:

Originally posted by Gibb:
If a HID conversion is not done correctly, it will blind the oncoming drivers.

Even when they are done correctly..... ugh. I'm not sure, but I think "H.I.D." stands for "fuck everyone else, I want annoying bright lights!" or something like that.

Yup!

When done properly with a projector lens HID headlights have a very clean cutoff that is often less blinding than crappy OEM halogens in non-projector lenses. The picture below isn't mine but this is exactly what my wife's 2007 4Runner looks like with a quality HID kit in the factory projector lens housings. If they are aimed correctly they do not blind oncoming traffic.




My 2014 Tundra on the other hand had non-projector lens housings and HID's in those headlights are a mess, they bleed light all over the place. The factory headlights are so bad that they were really unsafe so I have been looking for some other solution. This is where some of the newer LED upgrades can help. I found a Gen 3 LED bulb that has reflectors on the bulb to eliminate the bleed and provide a clean cutoff. The lights are now much improved and no flashing brights from oncoming traffic as I have them properly aimed down, hopefully they stay reliable.

quote:

Originally posted by Tuckerrnr1:So how did they turn out for you?

Put them in as they were offered as direct replacement for my car. The light was scattered all over the place and on high-beam there was a dark "tunnel" down the road. I called CarID and told them the problems and sent them some pics.
They got back to me and said any vehicle with the reflectors in front of the bulbs will have this problem.

They did not list anything on their website about this, so they took them back for a full refund. It's a shame because the light output and color was amazing. Went back to the Silverstar Ultra halogen bulbs now as nobody makes true HID or LED housing for my car.

I have a 2000 Jeep Cherokee with the old style sealed beam headlights. The light output was bad. Did some research. They make a plug in harness with relays that hooks up to your existing headlight plug and directly to your battery. Giving you more power to your headlights, really made a difference for me. I just googled, XJ headlight harness upgrade, works for older cars/trucks,ford/chev/jeeps, ect... I bought mine from Amazon from a company called Octane Lighting, read some of the reviews and it will give you a better idea...

Just purchased a 2017 Jeep Cherokee. Not happy with headlights. What are my options?

The LED retrofit kits IMO are not ready for primetime. I would not use them in low or high beams as those are critical lighting elements that I would not want to lose to component failure. Fogs, sure give them a shot but I'm not a fan of the built-in fan assemblies on them that are prone to getting water/sand/salt etc up into them particularly in a fog light role in the northeast.

HID retrofit kits have been around for YEARS. Yes, it's true, certain housings just aren't appropriate for them. But the majority are just fine with proper aiming and a little common sense. The main issue is most cars come from the factory with absolutely horrendous headlight alignment and people throw the kits in without checking the elevation adjustment. This is what leads to the super bright blinding HID problem.

I've put retrofit HIDs in every vehicle I've ever had that didn't come with HID from the factory, and only had a problem with one, which was my own damn fault (had a bi-xenon kit on my old 98 cobra that I didn't ground the harness properly so it would go into high beam all the time unless I pulled the stalk to flash and break the circuit. I was young and stupid so I never spent the time to fix it properly.)

9mmnut, that jeep has factory projector housings. Does it have factory HID or are they halogen? If halogen, an HID retrofit kit would work but you need a CAN-BUS compatible kit. Plenty of them out there. I also strongly recommend using the proper dual relay harness rather than just relying on the factory wiring. It's a much safer and more fault tolerant setup that way. If you need help finding a kit or installing, don't hesitate to email me.

quote:

Originally posted by hvyhawler:
I have a 2000 Jeep Cherokee with the old style sealed beam headlights. The light output was bad. Did some research. They make a plug in harness with relays that hooks up to your existing headlight plug and directly to your battery. Giving you more power to your headlights, really made a difference for me. I just googled, XJ headlight harness upgrade, works for older cars/trucks,ford/chev/jeeps, ect... I bought mine from Amazon from a company called Octane Lighting, read some of the reviews and it will give you a better idea...

I have an XJ too. If you really want to upgrade them, there are a number of companies that make plug and play LED upgrades that are REALLY, REALLY good. I don't know what kind of money you want to spend on it, but JW Speaker, Trucklite, and Hi-Beam Offroad Predators all have very large followings. I have the Trucklites myself, and I would put them up against anything on the road right now for output and cutoff. Best upgrade I've ever done to the Jeep, and I would recommend them to anyone., Plus, those 3 are DOT approved, so you are legal with them.

I completely agree with "cas"..... but then isn't that attitude the attitude of society in general these days? There have been times that I would STOP my truck in right in road so that oncoming traffic with bright headlights could pass before I continued on my way; and I'm thinking that THAT probably isn't a safe thing to do. But neither was it safe to continue on when the tailhole in the oncoming vehicle was blinding me with his headlights. I'm thinking that if your mindset is one that demands that you have these impossibly bright headlights so that you can travel at unsafe speeds at night... well maybe you ought to consider slowing down a little and giving "the other fellow" a break. As I said, I see this as an offshoot of the "me first & to hell with everybody else" attitude of modern society. DLI?? Tough.

quote:

Originally posted by jcat:
The LED retrofit kits IMO are not ready for primetime. I would not use them in low or high beams as those are critical lighting elements that I would not want to lose to component failure. Fogs, sure give them a shot but I'm not a fan of the built-in fan assemblies on them that are prone to getting water/sand/salt etc up into them particularly in a fog light role in the northeast.

I agree that LED kits with fans are a no-go, and that in general HID kits have a proven reliability. However the newest generation of LED bulbs no longer use fans. They have a solid state sealed heat sink and a separate mini-ballast similar to HID's.

Here is the GT Racing Gen 3 bulb that I used in my 2014 Tundra. Note it also has a reflector right on the bulb to create a clean cutoff in non-projector lenses.

https://www.headlightrevolutio...dlight-bulbs-h4-9003




These new Phillips X-treme fog light LED bulbs are the same. Sealed solid state heat sink, no fan, mini ballast. These are the best fog light bulbs I have ever seen. They are very bright, have a clean cutoff and a very wide pattern.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/prod...ilpage?ie=UTF8&psc=1

So far they have both been 100% reliable and I believe they will hold up well over time.

Brett those are cool, but I still think the heatsink is too big to fit in the majority of factory headlamp housings.

Add to that, $239 is a LOT of cake for something like that. Especially when DDM HID kits work perfectly well for years on end at about $50 a piece. You can get the premier Morimoto HID kit for lows and fogs for not much more money.

I ended up going with anither set of Kensun 6k HIDs for the new Sienna for the headlights.
Reading seems to suggest that LEDs just aren't quite their for primary illumination.
I am very happy with the Kensuns in the Highlander and since the projector is identical in the Sienn just a different shaped housing it should be good to go.

As for the fogs I much prefer yellow fogs. I don't like HID fogs as when you are in torrential rain or snow one gets nothing but reflection and can't see at all.
So I went with very low wattage LED that is nowhere near as powerful as a primary bulb so a heat sink is not needed.
Found the one with the best reviews and user pictures on Amazon. I think the are made by Calais. Don't mind testing them in the fogs. If they are a bust I will get halogens.

Should be here this weekend.

I was able to get the Calais yellow LED fog light bulbs in today and the are quite nice. These are a low wattage bulb unlike a headlight bulb so there is not a large heatsink. The exposed part is just like a standard bulb just the plastic connector. The LED portion can actually be rotated on these to give the best light output based upon your housing.
The have a great light and very crisp cut offs for a standard halogen fog housing.
The camera and then being on a tan garage door give a green hue but the lights are very much yellow.
The headlights are just standard halogens as I did not get a chance to install the HIDs.
I think I may get a white set of these for my daytime running light bulbs.

quote:

Originally posted by cas:

quote:

Originally posted by Gibb:
If a HID conversion is not done correctly, it will blind the oncoming drivers.

Even when they are done correctly..... ugh. I'm not sure, but I think "H.I.D." stands for "fuck everyone else, I want annoying bright lights!" or something like that.

You can flip the rear view mirror but you can't do anything to the side mirrors when they are behind you. When I have someone behind me with bright lights, I just move over or pull off the road at a safe place if possible.

Around here, they never check the headlight alignment during the yearly inspection like they did in past years. Also there are the others that have lights out of alignment.

Fog lights have saved me many times from people or animals along the side of the road at night and that is all I need.

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