2013 CX9 Lowbeam LED replacement for HIDs

Marion

Member
I searched the forum as I'm sure this has been previously discussed but was unable to find anything. If there is another thread that answers this please refer me to there.

Last year I replaced our low beans with the Sylvania ZXE golds as they were suppose to be the brightest available HIDs as per Google for H11s. We have struggled to see well with the previous bulbs. I also cleaned the housing with tooth paste, but wasn't really that pleased with the overall output of the new HIDs. They didn't last a year, which I expected because often they are left on during the day while driving unfortunately.

After they burned out I was discussing this with the gentleman at advanced Auto, and I asked about LEDs. He sold me the Sylvania H11 fog LEDs and said they would work for the low beans just fine but I may have an issue with inspection? I went to replace the bulbs and the new LEDs have a dongle attached (maybe a transformer) that does fit into the low beam housing. My question is this legal? Dangerous in someway? And is it okay to stuff all of the dongle into the low beam housing? Or should I leave the back of the housing off?

I don't understand how the existing low beans are so brutally dull and making that better isn't safer. I've tested them in the evening and they are brighter, and from another drivers perspective (I don't want to be blinding others for my own convenience) they seemed no different then any other newer LED low beam car on the road.

Any thoughts or advice would be much appreciated.

Thanks.

edits were made to fix typos.
 
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Sylvania ZXEs are not a true HID bulb. They have a blue tint on the glass to mimic how HIDs look. Also when it comes to HID lights, whiter isn't necessarily more light. The color temp that actually outputs the most lumens is somewhere around 4300K (color temp of the sun).

The dongle might be the circuitry for the LED bulb. Other LED headlights also have a heatsink with a small fan for heat dissipation (my beater has them).

As for safety and inspection, do they look under the hood? As long as everything is secured inside the housing and it won't rattle or disconnect, I'm sure you will be fine.
 
HIDs comes with a ballast and works well if used with a projector housing. Problem is projector housings are bulb specific, if it was designed with a halogen, it wont work well with an HID and vice versa.
I have the Kodo Bi-Xenon Headlights and they are amazing. I upgraded the stock D4S Osram Nightbreakers with Osram Nightbreaker lasers and I could never be happier with the light output.
 
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