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H11 LED Fog Lights vs. Halogen Yellow Bulbs (Comparason Pics)

Discussion in 'Gen 3 Prius Accessories and Modifications' started by SDM44, Feb 19, 2010.

  1. SDM44

    SDM44 Señor Member

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    I finally got my 30-SMD LED H11 bulbs in today and decided to take some comparison pics. Most of you were already aware that LEDs in the fog lights don't emit much light, and that's right. Since I got these pretty cheap and they were a newer/better design using brighter SMD LEDs, I decided to pick them up anyways and test them out.


    This is what I'm using now. Nokya H11 2500K 80W bulbs (not my pic, but the same thing). I had them as left over fog light bulbs after getting rid of my Audi a few years ago. And I don't think they're really 80W, or are any risk of overheating the wires since I ran them for almost 2 years already and they've been running fine in the Prius for the past week now.

    [​IMG]



    Here's what I got today. 30-SMD LED H11 bulbs in a 'super white' color.

    [​IMG]



    Here's how it looks in the fog light housing. The bulbs are pretty big and it's a tight fit, but still fit fine in there.

    [​IMG]



    Here are some comparison pics of how the LEDs look compared to the halogen "2500K 80W" bulbs. You can see the difference in how bright one is. Similar to putting a 'super white' LED into the headlight housing, these are also more blue looking when in the fog light housing.

    [​IMG]

    [​IMG]



    You can see how the ground is lit up in the above pics, and in this pic. When sitting in the car, the Nokya bulbs really light up the road pretty good in the Prius and I can definitely see the difference on the road when driving. With the LEDs, I can't see any difference from the driver's seat when I turn them on.

    [​IMG]




    So there you have it. Just some more pics showing that LEDs (even the newer, more powerful & brighter SMD LEDs) are still not as bright as halogen bulbs. Don't get me wrong, these are still very bright when I turned them on, but not nearly effective as halogen bulbs when used as fog lights. And if they were more white looking and matched my LED headlights, I would use them just for looks. Even if I got some brighter LEDs, I still don't think they'll be as bright as halogen bulbs.

    If you want bright fog lights, stick with halogen bulbs or look into an HID kit (I may get one later, but I'm fine with my setup now).
     
  2. hlkc

    hlkc New Member

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    I've been thinking something similar. Do I need the fog light or additional lights from my fog light? If I change the bulb for my fog light, do I want yellow for better fog visibility, like your Nokya or same color as my headlight? After few days thinking, I think I will go for exactly same color fog as my 6K HID headlight now. I guess time for another set HID conversion kit now :)
     
  3. JimboPalmer

    JimboPalmer Tsar of all the Rushers

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    Somehow, I came expecting comparison pictures of how they worked. All I got were fashion pictures.
     
  4. usbseawolf2000

    usbseawolf2000 HSD PhD

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    Great pictures!
     
  5. SDM44

    SDM44 Señor Member

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    LOL. What do you mean "how they work?" Most people know what LEDs are, and have a basic understanding how they work and operate - using less voltage & current needed to power the bright SMD LED panels (search google for more technical details). But also most people want to see it in a real-world application (the "fashion pictures") to get a better sense of how it looks on the car. So that's what I provided for them, and now they have a better idea of what to expect if they were contemplating whether to go this route or not.
     
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  6. SDM44

    SDM44 Señor Member

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    BTW, I should've added.... the reason I did this was because all of the other "LED vs Halogen" bulb comparison pics I've seen were with the older LED bulbs, like what you see below. Those 'standard' LEDs are not as bright as the SMD LEDs, like the comparison pics by a user from 2 years ago. Technology changes every year so the SMD LEDs are supposedly the 'latest & greatest' LED lights right now.


    [​IMG]
     
  7. JimboPalmer

    JimboPalmer Tsar of all the Rushers

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  8. SDM44

    SDM44 Señor Member

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    Since you completely missed the point, the pictures of the car that I posted were to show the difference in brightness of the LED vs. the Halogen in the fog light housing, and how much illumination they emitted and how bright they are compared to each other. Obviously the factory LED headlights are more powerful than the halogen headlights, but that's a completely different subject altogether. I didn't buy the LED lights for their "look" but for testing & comparison use. My post was to show the difference with today's technology of brighter SMD LEDs vs regular halogen bulbs.
     
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  9. Tideland Prius

    Tideland Prius Moderator of the North
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    Thanks for the comparo pics!! Definitely a helper! So basically if you want your fogs to be driving lights.. kinda like "hey I'm here, don't crash into me", go with LEDs. if you want your fogs to be functional, go with the yellow Nokyas.


    @Jimbo, I think you're missing the point here. He's just showing us how each type of bulb would look and function inside the foglight housing. Clearly, the LEDs are "brighter" and give "the look" but as you can see in the last picture, they're definitely don't give the range of illumination that the yellow Nokya bulbs present hence his conclusion is that "...these [LEDs] are still very bright when I turned them on, but not nearly effective as halogen bulbs when used as fog lights. And if they were more white looking and matched my LED headlights, I would use them just for looks. Even if I got some brighter LEDs, I still don't think they'll be as bright as halogen bulbs."


    Put it this way. If you want to use the fogs as DRLs, feel free to stuff the LEDs in there. It'll definitely work since it uses less power (always a concern with people running DRLs apparently) and don't give the illumination thus you still need your low beams (I've seen way to many lazy people using fogs as night-time illumination. They clearly don't know how foglights work).
     
  10. blittle

    blittle New Member

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    Where are the H11 LED's that you used available?
     
  11. SDM44

    SDM44 Señor Member

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    You can do a search online for them, but just make sure you look for the current SMD LEDs and not the older ones like I posted above. Look at the pictures I posted to see exactly how they look. Mine came from China, which is the only place making them right now.
     
  12. Lamboalex

    Lamboalex Hyper-Miler in training

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    I don't get it. If you don't like the pics he posted then just move on? Why feel the need to complain just to complain....:confused:

    Thx for the pics, they help to put in perspective how they LOOK on the car as well as how they light up the road.
     
  13. GrumpyCabbie

    GrumpyCabbie Senior Member

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    I thought it was a facinating example. The yellow really gives good visibility and might be something I'll consider for my car - it's foggy quite a lot over here.

    Can you get led headlight bulbs for the Prius or can you only use them in the fog lamps?
     
  14. SDM44

    SDM44 Señor Member

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    I put 3000K HIDs into my fog light housings. The light on the ground is more & brighter than the Nokya bulbs, but it's spread out all over the place where as the Nokya bulbs shined more "in front" of the car in a centralized area. The HIDs, no matter how much I adjust the aim, just scatter all over the place and actually don't help as much as the Nokya bulbs when lighting up the ground in front of you. I might switch back to the Nokya bulbs, but I'll probably try a different temp HID bulb first and see how they work out.

    As for the 'look' on the car, the HIDs shine bright yellow on the ground (same as the Nokya pics above) but they look bright white like the LED headlights when you look at them from a distance. Much brighter looking than the Nokya bulbs, but just different looking if you're expecting them to look yellow in the housing. If anything, they look very faint yellow since they're so bright.

    Just a FYI.
     
  15. wick1ert

    wick1ert Senior Member

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    I've heard that yellow light also doesn't reflect off the water molecules as much as the halogen/white light does. I wonder how the amber/yellow LEDs would look in comparison to the Nokya bulbs.

    I had some PIAA fog lights installed into my Maxima when I had it, and they did a great job of providing light when it was raining. In fact, they were almost bright enough to use as a replacement for the actual head-lights!
     
  16. Tideland Prius

    Tideland Prius Moderator of the North
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    SDM, what yellow bulbs would you recommend for the fogs? The Nokyas that you have? or something else?
     
  17. hsiaolc

    hsiaolc New Member

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    HIDs are brither in the fog than those LEDs you've installed.
     
  18. exbauer

    exbauer Active Member

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    thanks for the pics and showing the difference between the halogen bulb and led bulb. in terms of looks the led does look nice and match your led headlights. but, the nokya do a better job of lighting the front of the vehicle and a wide beam pattern.

    while i agree hid is brighter. when you put hid in a housing not designed for hid then there is a lot of glare. it presents a safety hazard. i hate driving towards cars that have hids when they are not suppose to. it is really distracting.

    i might have to look into the nokya yellow bulbs. i am just afraid of the wattage they put out. i don't want it to fry the factory harness. i says it just draws a certain wattage and then puts out more wattage. but, i rather be safe than sorry.

    the beam pattern for fog lights are suppose to just light up the front of the vehicle. it is a down and wide pattern.
     
  19. SDM44

    SDM44 Señor Member

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    Either Nokya or Luminics H11 bulbs will work. They're basically the same thing, same color, same wattage, same price. Just get which ever one is available to you.

    The yellow bulbs "look" better when you look at the car. But the yellow HIDs I have in there now perform better illuminating the ground ahead of you at night.



    Yes, but you can adjust the aim on the foglight housings and point them down and away from other drivers. I tested this out with my wife driving the car back & forth towards me on the road while I was either walking or driving my other car. No glare at all, and with 3000K HIDs it's actually less glare as you get closer to the car.


    I ran the same Nokya bulbs in my Audi for 2 years and never had any problems, and then another 1.5 years in my BMW, since they both used the same H11 bulbs. I put the same bulbs into my Prius and used them for a month before I upgraded to HID's. Never any problems with any of the cars.
     
  20. Tideland Prius

    Tideland Prius Moderator of the North
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    Considering I probably have to order from the US (no idea where I'd get them in Canada), I'll just flip a coin.

    Thanks!

    How's their lifespan? same as other "high performance" headlight bulbs (like Silverstar) or are they just regular bulbs that just happen to be yellow?