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1991 Ranger LED swap


westerman_lucas

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I’m looking to swap to LED bulbs, as I just replaced my headlights and they look goofy with the old halogen bulbs. What bulbs are recommended to put in. I’ve heard it’s best to find LED bulbs that have resistors already built in. I would also like them to be pretty much direct plug in with minimal work required. Any suggestions?
 

Brain75

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I'd actually recommend Hella bulbs instead of LED... there is several threads here on TRS covering headlight upgrades... Hella keeps coming up as the best way to do.

I'm actually in the middle of adding fog lights and switching from 9004 to 9007, waiting to see how much of an improvement that makes first before doing Hella 9007 as the next step.

 

westerman_lucas

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Will those give me a white color or will it have a yellow tint?
 

Brain75

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The hella official store on amazon says they come anywhere between 2900 and 3600k temperature... is that what you are looking for?

 

westerman_lucas

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No im looking for about 6000k
 

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Again, pains me to link to the enemy site.. but..

Led replacement bulbs in reflector housings engineered for halogen bulbs are a bad idea. You blind oncoming drivers, you end up LOSING lighting performance.... They're just shit. This isn't opinion... it's a fact.. the linked thread pretty well proves this.The dude who made that thread spent LOTS of money and LOTS of time testing led bulbs using a bunch of fancy equipment and science. Now that the facts have been presented to you... Don't do it.
 

westerman_lucas

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Again, pains me to link to the enemy site.. but..

Led replacement bulbs in reflector housings engineered for halogen bulbs are a bad idea. You blind oncoming drivers, you end up LOSING lighting performance.... They're just shit. This isn't opinion... it's a fact.. the linked thread pretty well proves this.The dude who made that thread spent LOTS of money and LOTS of time testing led bulbs using a bunch of fancy equipment and science. Now that the facts have been presented to you... Don't do it.
Ok so if I’m looking for the “white” color, I should find halogen bulbs with the blue coating to offset the yellow hue of halogen lights?
 

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Ok so if I’m looking for the “white” color, I should find halogen bulbs with the blue coating to offset the yellow hue of halogen lights?
I do believe that's correct. I remember running Sylvania silver stars(?) many many moons ago.. they had the blue coating on them IIRC and were definitely brighter and were more white than regular halogens. They didn't last as long though.
 

Brain75

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did you read that article linked in post #6.....
"
Note on blue coated bulbs

The vast majority of halogen output is long wavelength yellow light, which is why they have a yellow hue. Halogens produce very little blue light. In order to make a halogen appear whiter, many products like Silverstar will place a blue coating on the bulb to filter out the yellow light to allow the blue light to be more prevalent. Unfortunately since the bulk of the halogen spectrum is yellow, and the blue filter removes yellow light, you end up filtering out the bulk of the light output so that the minority of your light output has a greater influence on the color temperature. This causes significant losses in output and for the bulb to run hotter leading to reduced lifespan. If looking to increase output, coatings should be avoided. Some manufactures place coatings in proximity to the filament on the bulb, but don’t cover it, so that the edge of the pattern has a whiter hue without overly negatively affecting performance. This does not have the same loss effect as covering the filament, though no coating is better. Performance high efficiency halogens will be a little whiter than stock, but it will still be in the mid 3000k range. A halogen will not be in the 4000k+ range without a performance robbing coating.

"

Your never gonna get to 6000+ with halogen, if you just replaced your headlights and you have the receipt I'd suggest returning em and going for what you want... a BLUE light of some sort. 6000 is blue, towards the more yellow end of blue, but still it is a blue light.
 

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I went down this road recently, installing an aftermarket headlight harness and Lasfit LED bulbs in my 89 Ranger. The light scatter from the LEDs was horrendous! I ended up installing the Hella 100w/80w bulbs, and could not be happier with the improvement to night time visibility.
 

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Finding a road legal solution to your problem is a tough one and usually costs some money to do.

While the solution posted by MT_PLS would work, from what I remember, the wattage is out of the road legal range. It has been a while since I've seen a in depth discussion on the subject. So I may be remembering incorrectly. The low beam max watt rating is 65W and high beam is 100W, if I remember correctly.

Swapping housings for ones designed for LED has been mixed in results. Some have been worse that the factory lights as far as the driver being able to see and others have been reported to be good but I do not remeber which were trash and which were good.

Another option that was popular back in day, was projection lamp housings for HID. That one is going to cost more and require more parts and labor since you may need to modify the existing housing to accept the projector assembly if you can not find housings already setup for it.

For what it's worth, even some factory LED light setups are quite blinding to on coming traffic. So, even the vehicle manufacturers haven't got it all figured out yet.
 

Brain75

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Just to make it explicitly clear... the housings you just replaced are halogen housings, they only work worth anything with halogen bulbs. As evidenced by several users and several thread and one dead empirical demonstration from tacoma world. Hence I said to return them and get different housings (something designed for whatever non-halogen bulb you are interested in)... lots of money to do that, but only way to get into that color range you want.

Take the time to read every single post in that thread I linked in post #2... especially paying attention to lil_blue and mt_pls... lil_blue has HAD those non-halogen housings and tells you like it is what the story is on those with both the non-halogen bulbs and halogen bulbs.

Road legal, well that's why I am doing 9007 conversion, it moves you from 45watt ugly yellow to 55 watt nice white. If it isn't enough I might go to 9007's in a shorter life variety, but not really wanting to do that for cost reasons.
 

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(EDIT: Sorry, didn't realize how much I carried on here. Guess I found another soapbox to climb on. Grab some:popcorn: a:icon_pepsi: and read on if you dare.)

This is unusual for talking about headlights, I'm normally the guy advocating for either running stock replacement with a good quality bulb, or go all the way with a proper HID retrofit (not the cheap ebay housings). I'm actually going to be the dissenting opinion here.

LEDs can be a great option, if a proper LED is selected. Run of the mill Amazon or eBay LED headlight "bulbs" (they aren't actually bulbs) are almost never the proper LED regardless of how good the reviews sound.


Again, pains me to link to the enemy site.. but..
No offense but I wouldn't put much stock in applying that thread to a Ranger. Those Tacos used a Projector assembly which focuses and throws light much different than a reflector assembly.

A typical halogen light assembly focuses a light with a reflector. Old school housings then diffused it with the lens, hince the "grid pattern" on lenses. Newer technology started having the diffusion built straight into the reflector with a plain clear lens. Unfortunately either of these designs result in a lot of output from the bulb being scattered and wasted. That scattered wasted light is what blinds oncoming drivers.

Projector headlights don't rely on the reflector to spread, focus, and diffuse the light. Instead the reflector is used to throw the light back at the dome shaped lens in front if it that handles all of that. These do a much better job of focusing the light output. Personally I've found that oncoming projector headlights when properly aimed, appear to be bright, but are actually less blinding than even old yellowed weak halogen headlights. Majority of the HID output is put where it needs to be, on the road, not my eyes.

The reason that a HID bulb doesn't work well in a Halogen housing, and vice versa is because the filament is positioned incorrectly. A HID bulb has the filament positioned such that it hits the wrong parts of a Halogen reflectos, and the reflectors results in a lot more light scatter than the projector would have. A Halogen bulb doesn't have the output to take advantage of a HID projector.

LED gets a bad rep because of the people taking advantage of marketing hype to make money. Making a LED bulb fit multiple housings is a simple matter of changing the adapter. In interest of making profit, most of the cheap LEDs bulbs use one design and swap out the adapter and that causes a few issues.

First issue is that many styles halogen bulbs have the filament positioned differently. If the emitter depth of the LED isn't positioned correctly to match the bulb its replacing, then it is not going to work properly in that housing. So you end up with much more light output scattered everywhere that it doesn't need to be. (Same problem as HIDs in a halogen housing.)

Second issue, (or a continuation of the first) is that unlike a HID or Halogen bulb, a LED bulb doesn't emit in a full 360 degrees. An LED emitter can have a maximum angle of 180 degrees, but most are more like 150 max, and they don't put out full power over all of that angle. Think about your typical flashlight beam, it's exaggerated but similar, you have a central area that is bright then it fades off to the edges. A bare LED emitter does the same, just wider. While an LED bulb has emitters on both sides, there is a "dead spot" in between that has rather low output. As such the LED needs to be aimed in the housing such that the emitters throw light where it is needed on the reflectors. Not uncommon to have to loosen the adapter on the LED (if possible) and reclock it to get the best light pattern.

Third issue is heat. LEDs typically run cooler than Halogen or HID lights, but they still produce it. They are also much more succeptable to degredation from it. Many of the LED bulbs out there aren't built with adequate heat dissipation built in, and many housings not providing adequate ventalation for air flow over heat sinks. Add to that the many low quality LED chips on the market (they run hotter than good ones), a heat becomes a major issue that reduces the performance and shortens the life of an LED.

I can tell you that I have LED bulbs installed in my 99 and they well outperform the Silverstars that used to be in there. They also out perform the previous set of (Amazon Special) LEDs that were in there that had "excellent reviews". I will follow that up by saying that they weren't cheap and weren't a simple bolt in install. I did have to source different, shorter, retaining rings to provide for adequate ventlation for the heat sinks, as well as clocking them for proper focusing. They also cost more than a new set of housing with new Silverstar bulbs. They also did not blind people when the housing were still clear, the housings are pretty faded. I'll be fixing that in the (hopefully) bear future by upgrading to the 01+ headlight assemblies (and grill).

FWIW, the bulbs in the 99 are S-V.4 and I purchased from Headlight Revolution to avoid counterfiets. That was a few years ago and LED tech is constantly changing, so I can't speak to what is available now. I will likely install them in the F-250 in the future. The Kia doesn't need them, it has an excellent reflector design for the Halogens it uses. The older trucks are built for sealed beams and will likely get one of the complete replacement housings intended for Jeeps. The F-100 does have LEDs installed already, but I don't remember what they were and it doesn't get driven much at night (or at all right now) so I don't worry about it too much.

Finding a road legal solution to your problem is a tough one and usually costs some money to do.

While the solution posted by MT_PLS would work, from what I remember, the wattage is out of the road legal range. It has been a while since I've seen a in depth discussion on the subject. So I may be remembering incorrectly. The low beam max watt rating is 65W and high beam is 100W, if I remember correctly.

Swapping housings for ones designed for LED has been mixed in results. Some have been worse that the factory lights as far as the driver being able to see and others have been reported to be good but I do not remeber which were trash and which were good.

Another option that was popular back in day, was projection lamp housings for HID. That one is going to cost more and require more parts and labor since you may need to modify the existing housing to accept the projector assembly if you can not find housings already setup for it.

For what it's worth, even some factory LED light setups are quite blinding to on coming traffic. So, even the vehicle manufacturers haven't got it all figured out yet.
Technically the only road legal solution is the headlight assembly and bulbs that the vehicle left the factory with, or dot approved oem equivalent replacements. Basically if the vehicle didn't come with HIDs or LEDs as a factory option it isn't technically llegal, even then only if the factory parts are used.

The limit used to be 55w for low beam, I think it was 80w for highs. Basically every vehicle with incandesent headlights left the factory with headlights that met the legal limit, even the old incandesent sealed beams. They have gotten brighter over time because of the gasses (halogen, xenon, etc) used inside the bulbs provided for more light output (filament materials that glowed brighter IIRC) at the same wattage, combined with improved reflector technology better focusing that output.

If you were to dig into it, I imagine that you would find the same is true even with the HIDs and LEDs. Atleast for the HIDs the wattages used areabout the same, but the technology allows for much more output at that level. A big part of the problem with headlight technology is that DOT's archaic rules regulating them has not kept up with improvements intechnology. Rather than being free to develop a good headlight assembly, they have to color within the lines for approval.

The only good projector lamp assembly are OEM versions, or Mechanical projector retrofits. All of those commercial aftermarket project or retrofit housings, at least as far as a Ranger is concerned, are worth the plastic they are made out of. Basically the same can be said of the LED retrofit housings. Even many of the sealed beam LED retrofits are no good, but a few are actually decent. Most of the decent ones are marketed for Jeeps or Motorcycles. They either look an awful lot like a traditional sealed beam, or them look like something that would be found on a new high end exotic.

Put in a harness and you may be pleased with the brightness, if you haven't already done so.
Definitely yes to the harness. Not only does it provide better, cleaner power to the headlights, it also reduces the load from your headlight switch. That results in a much longer lifespan for the headlight switch and lower chance of it getting too hot. 🔥

That with a good set of (IMO) Sylvania or Osram bulbs can make a big improvement. The Osram is what my Kia came with from the factory, and they work exceptionally well. I haven't found an Osram package in a local store, but they are resold by other brands. IIRC I found the Osram packaged as Sylvania Xtra Vision. Might try those with new housings in the F-250 before I jump to LEDs.

If the bulbs have a blue tint put them back. Plain Silverstars are the exception, they have a slight blue tint and work good, but I'm not sure they are any better than the Osram. The very blue Silverstar Ultra bulbs, put them back, that's the company cashing in on the "white" light fad. White light fad is actually blue light, while it might produce more lumens, our eyes don't pick up the blue light as well. We actually get more definition from the warmer end of the spectrum.
 
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Brain75

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...
...
...
...
...
First issue is that many styles halogen bulbs have the filament positioned differently. If the emitter depth of the LED isn't positioned correctly to match the bulb its replacing, then it is not going to work properly in that housing. So you end up with much more light output scattered everywhere that it doesn't need to be. (Same problem as HIDs in a halogen housing.)
...
...
...
...
...

I will agree, I have seen this flaw in my research and many commonly available bulbs. But, I will throw out that some manufacturers (chinese included) have figured out the poor filament depth = terrible performance, and started not only putting the emitter in the right spot but also including that in their advertising:

Untitled 1.jpg


Untitled 2.jpg
 

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But, I will throw out that some manufacturers (chinese included) have figured out the poor filament depth = terrible performance, and started not only putting the emitter in the right spot but also including that in their advertising:
They claim it anyway. Whether it's true or not is a different story. Taking a look at that second one, you can see that even in the provided images they are not set at the same depth. The LED emitters would actually need to be moved out (away from the base) to position them at the same depth.

Not knocking your info, you are absolute correct in that they claim that. Only saying that those claims are just as questionable as everything else that they claim.
 

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