2012 pro4x led headlights
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Headlight bulb upgrades are discussed quite a bit here
http://www.clubfrontier.org/forums/f10/headlight-fog-light-bulb-upgrades-298466/
After a good amount of research I decided to hold off on LEDs for now. A company called Diode Dynamics has a new LED bulb that is supposed to work better with the stock reflector housings we have. The 9007 version is said to come out around February of next year. I think the current one is called the SL1 if you want to look it up, but the 9007 version will be SL2. Looks like some effort went into making it work with stock housings as opposed to a cheaper LED bulb.
http://www.clubfrontier.org/forums/f10/headlight-fog-light-bulb-upgrades-298466/
After a good amount of research I decided to hold off on LEDs for now. A company called Diode Dynamics has a new LED bulb that is supposed to work better with the stock reflector housings we have. The 9007 version is said to come out around February of next year. I think the current one is called the SL1 if you want to look it up, but the 9007 version will be SL2. Looks like some effort went into making it work with stock housings as opposed to a cheaper LED bulb.
I believe just about any of the LED bulbs out there will require you to trim the ring a little. I think it's discussed in the link previously posted. If not, just search on here for LED bulbs. I discussed it a few years ago when I tried LEDs in my Frontier.
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Guys, no matter which LEDs you put in those reflector headlights, they aren't going to work as well as halogen bulbs or a complete retrofit. It will end up with glare, dark spots, bright spots, and worst of all, not safe for oncoming drivers. There has been much discussion about this. There is a guy around here that purchased like $250 or so LEDs and even those were terrible. Just my 2 cents.
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Our engineering team is still working on the SL2 (dual-filament option), but expects it to be available in early 2018.
We are big fans of the Frontier here (Operations manager has had two!) so we should be able to get some helpful videos made when the time comes.
Thank you for your support!
Nick C.
If you need some one to be an early tester... let me know :angel: I think these LEDs will sell like crazy among the frontier/xterra crowd. Especially if they are anything like the SLF fog light bulb.
output from only the SLF LED fog light.
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I'd volunteer to test them, I'd like to see if/how you can solve the reflector issue simply by bulb design.
Subscribing for updates from nick. I’ve ran their bulbs in my last two mustangs (various lights, not the headlights) and DD has good stuff. I’ll be swapping many out to their stuff if/when I get a Frontier.
That said, one thing I’m worried about is the headlights. After running HID’s in my last two vehicles (near 10 years, mustangs, was an xterra before that) I am concerned about not having as good lights. Sure, they work just fine, I’m spoiled. So some better lights that aren’t an expensive upgrade would be nice.
I ran silverstars in the xterra and, while a nice improvement over stock, they just aren’t HID’s or good LED’s.
That said, one thing I’m worried about is the headlights. After running HID’s in my last two vehicles (near 10 years, mustangs, was an xterra before that) I am concerned about not having as good lights. Sure, they work just fine, I’m spoiled. So some better lights that aren’t an expensive upgrade would be nice.
I ran silverstars in the xterra and, while a nice improvement over stock, they just aren’t HID’s or good LED’s.
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Show a shot of the light distribution on a wall......FTW.
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raine,
what is the issue with the reflector? I was looking to upgrade my headlights, but not sure which path i want to take. P.S. been following your build thread on here for a while, phenomenal work. Everytime i get on here i check for an update from your thread haha
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Pretty sure @shift_RUSH meant "when installed on an OEM Frontier headlamp housing", not a 2015 F-150.![]()
Nick C.
There's nothing "wrong" with OEM headlamp reflector except that it is designed for halogen bulbs only. So far everyone here (including myself) who keeps trying to put HID/LED in the OEM housings always ends up with brighter lights, but with really bad light scatter and a horrible beam pattern... so I'm curious as to if Diode Dynamics figured something out that hasn't been discovered in the last 3 years. If they did, it would be a guaranteed sale for sure.
P.S. thank you
Projectors are only on certain trims/packages of F150. They also have standard halogen reflector housings
Also, not that this pic is the greatest... here is the cutoff of the DD LED foglights. The cutoff is as good, or better than the halogens they replaced. And thats with the tiny reflector opening of the foglight. I raised the fogs up a bit, and could have messed with the adjustment a bit more but they've been great.
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Yeah I looked more into it after my reply. I've edited my last post after seeing that... but I'm still pretty sure @shift_RUSH meant "in a Frontier".
I've seen other make/model halogen housings work pretty good with LEDs... unfortunately the Nissan Frontier housing was never one of them (so far).
I've seen other make/model halogen housings work pretty good with LEDs... unfortunately the Nissan Frontier housing was never one of them (so far).
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That's a 2015+ F-150 with the reflector style housing. The premium models are factory-LED equipped.
Our engineering team has spent the last two years developing the SL1 using an advanced optical modeling software program. We will have a lot more information available shortly, but this is not another imported product. It's made right here in St. Louis, Missouri. They also typically perform better in reflector style housings.
They will maintain the same output pattern as the OEM halogen bulb, but produce more hotspot lux and provide greater distance.
Thanks!
Nick C.
Sorry if my post came off as correcty, I thought they were all projector with LED projector optional until I looked into it.
And yea, I've seen other makes come out OK with LEDs in reflector housing. A friend's 2013 RAM uses them pretty well. I think he adjusted the up/down some though. I thought it might be due to the size of the headlight vs the size of the Frontiers.
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Excellent answer, all clear ::smile::
Yeah, we do have a really large lens area on our Frontier headlamps compared to other vehicles
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Fixed it. -heh-
I tip my hat to those brave enough to do a projector retrofit mod...or to those who drop the required serious coin to purchase retrofit projector housings.
If I drove at night much (which I don't), pretty sure I'd invest in one of these two routes.
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Speaking of LEDs in reflector housings, check out this video. I'm not sure if this guy is a member here or not but the low-beam "performance" of these LEDs he used is just outright dangerous. Watch from around the 10:35 minute mark. Yikes.
https://youtu.be/n7NImRP1g-U?t=10m35s
https://youtu.be/n7NImRP1g-U?t=10m35s
And those "OPT-7" LEDs are at the top of some lists as far as PnP LED bulbs. They even say they work with reflectors, with tons of people saying they do. I actually thought a couple times about throwing down the money just to try them... but I really don't want to waste money.
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