[PLP]

Could you be more specific what is the DRL LED replacement?

EDIT:

OK, I think I know what you are talking about.
Is it this assembly?



You see, my “complaint” or maybe more of a concern is lack of information about the light distribution of the low and high beams, and the light intensity for turn signals.
I came across a few aftermarket assemblies that had very poor light distribution from the low beams making it almost impossible to drive.
Then, the reflector for turn signal was poorly designed (or poorly mimicked the OEM) and it seemed dim. Well, way dimmer than the OEM had.

If I had someone to shoot a few pictures of OEM light pattern vs DRL LED and the face on comparison/side by side of the turn signal, I could say what I think. But the problem is the camera – as in automatic mode the white balance, shutter, and exposure will adjust themselves. Add WDR and any pictures are pointless.


Not all projectors are good. There are many that will have lots of foreground light and very little or poorly defined hot spot.
Let me put it into perspective and explain the terms.

Foreground it the light right in the front of the car. Yes, you want it to be there, but not so much. Too much foreground will blind you. It may seem weird… so imagine, you are standing in a dark room looking through a window. It is dark outside. Any light outside will be visible. Now, turn a lamp next to the window, inside the room. The same light you saw just a moment ago cannot be spotted anymore. Move the lamp in the front of the window (outside) – just in case it still did not convince you. The result will be same.

It is like driving with fog lights all the time. You feel you see more and actually you miss items which are far away, but they could have been seen if you had less light right in front of your eyes.

Now, the hot spot.
Take a camera, digital camera. Park any car that has projector headlight an light up the low beam in the front of a white wall at night.
Move the camera to take a picture of the light pattern on the wall. Start lowering the aperture and limit exposure as much as you can, till the moment you will start loosing light around and the tiny bright spot will emerge. It should be about in the centre of the headlight.
This is the hot spot.
Very important fact about is that it seems small here, but at 100 yards it will be very large blob that actually is very crucial to see far away.

I hope it makes more sense now.

I had done a few headlight conversions. Many hours of testing and learning. There is still a long way to go.
But I can tell you a few things.
Avoid putting HID retrofit into any headlight housing, unless it is a projector style. This one can handle the extra light, but requires good comparison tests as described above – first halogen OEM setup and then HID retrofit.
Any PnP LED is worthless. Just take my word – they do not work. If you do not believe – perform tests as I described above.
Never every go above 6000 K for any “white” light. I would say – stick to 4300 K (+/- 200 K) as it will provide way better visibility than “cool blue” lights. Simply put – blue light is not good for human. It is distracting and tiring. You operate much better with yellow than blue.

Light brightness has nothing to do with light intensity. You may have 2700 K (yellow) light at 3500 lm and 6000 K (quite blue) at 2000 lm – while 6000 K will seem much brighter, guess what – the 2700 K will light up far better and you can actually see way more.


Sorry for long post… but I wanted to lay it out for you.

One last thing.
If you do not drive at night at all and the turn signal is intense enough – got for cool LED assembly.
Match it with 718 style rears and the car will transform drastically.