LED headlight replacement for tungsten

I hate to say it, but don't do it. There are plenty of aftermarket LEDs on the market but they're all gimmicks and I feel for the poor saps who buy them with high hopes. The Prius' projector headlights (like all projector lights) require a properly focused point source of light shining in just the right way. None of these aftermarket products will have a useful beam pattern for nighttime driving. Believe me, I've tried quite a few and returned them all.

 

What HID heat issue? Just don't go crazy with 55w HIDs, 35w HIDs put out more than enough light.

 

There may be a point in the future where drop-in headlight LEDs accurately reproduce the output of a halogen filament and its placement, but we aren't there yet--even with depth-adjustable LED headlight bulbs like VLEDs' LMZ series, which can replicate the fore-aft placement of the filament but are still limited by chips in discrete planes, not 360 degree output. What happens when you use LED bulbs in a headlight housing designed for halogen is, yes, the bulb itself puts out more light, and they can seem brighter right in front of the car, but it's because there's so much foreground lighting--which reduces your ability to see in the distance because of the increased contrast.

If you want LED headlights, the only safe way to do it is to retrofit LED projectors from a production car. There are several to choose from today, if you can find them: Toyota Corolla, Prius, Prius c, Prius v, Camry, 86; Nissan Murano, Rogue, Leaf all use Koito LED or Bi-LED projectors; Honda and Acura use arrays of LED projectors or reflectors (Civic Touring) which would be much harder to retrofit.

The Retrofit Source still has closeout Corolla projectors for $100, a tremendous deal.

Here's my retrofit thread, so you can see what's involved.