[marker9911]

on a newer crosstrek sport is it better or easier to upgrade the headlights with bulbs like the Diode Dynamics SL1s or add like a lightbar or something else i do alot of early morning and late night driving with lots of deer just looking for something a little more or better thanks

 

[DieselDorf]

Light bars are illegal for on the road.

There are a lot of leds that are very bright.

Diode dynamics are good but very pricey.

There are a lot of other brands that have good light output and quality for a fraction of the price.

AUXITO is a very good led brand and there’s about a million others.

I’ve found across brands as long as the leds are positioned on the sides of the unit they have an identical cutoff and beam pattern to the stock halogens

 

[CRAZYHAWK]

Amazon.com

 

[Montanan]

Light bars are illegal for on the road.

Just to be clear, the LED retrofits you guys are talking about are also 100% illegal for on-road use.

 

[Bluefoton]

Light bars are illegal for on the road.

There are a lot of leds that are very bright.

Diode dynamics are good but very pricey.

There are a lot of other brands that have good light output and quality for a fraction of the price.

AUXITO is a very good led brand and there’s about a million others.

I’ve found across brands as long as the leds are positioned on the sides of the unit they have an identical cutoff and beam pattern to the stock halogens

That's the issue, precisely. Cheap vendors advertize BS light output values. A headlight shoud NOT exceed 2-3000 lumens, never, ever. You'dre driving on public roads with other drivers facing you A LED source should not be "very bright", it should be better than OEM halonges while respecting the DOT or ECE framework. Especially in North America, with our prehistorical DOT regulations, forcing headlamps to actually have glare (as opposed to ECE), and without mandatory headlamp washers for HID/LED headlamps (as opposed to Europe).

The second problem is the placement of the LED emissive surface. It's not enough for them to be placed on the sides - it's free-space optical engineering. 1 mm of an offset at the focal point leads to signficant beam geometry changes, different cutoffs, and different stray beam patterns.

There's a reason DD charges an arm, a leg and an appendage for their products. I'm not advocating for them specifically, just giving then as an example whereby in a product development cost, prices goes exponentially as you narrow down fabrication tolerances and MTFBs. You could have identical Amazon LEDs with a +/- 1 mm more of manufacturing tolerances, heat dissipation tolerances, or a much wider statistical lifetime variance, and the price will drop by half.. beause they're effectively crap.

 

[DieselDorf]

There’s always a risk with aftermarket leds even with good ones. The bulbs don’t sit exactly perfectly in the housings so a mm isn’t going to make much difference anyways.

 

[CRAZYHAWK]

Interesting article.

How To Test Headlight Brightness: Lux & Lumens Explained

Lux, Lumens, Foot-Candles, Candelas & even Kilo-Candelas - what does it all mean? And how can you test headlight brightness on your car?

gearslap.com

 

[CRAZYHAWK]

From Consumer Reports Talking Cars #371, Jen on LED replacements;

These are projector housings.

 

[CRAZYHAWK]

U.S. Car, Truck, and SUV Headlight Standards to Get Major Update Thanks to Infrastructure Law

We've long been late to allow interesting and potentially better headlight technology, from sealed beams to halogens to LEDs. That's about to change.

www.motortrend.com

 

[Sidney Porter]

Just to be clear, the LED retrofits you guys are talking about are also 100% illegal for on-road use.

true, but you are more likely to be pulled over with a light bar

 

[Bluefoton]

Mods, maybe the two threads could be merged. Especially that both are in parallel
If only the forum had a search function....

(2) Model Year 2018 and Newer - Upgrading Headlights on '23 Crosstrek | Subaru Crosstrek and XV Forums (subaruxvforum.com)

 

[marker9911]

Yea I thought about adding to his but I didn’t want to highjack his thread…and it’s a fine line where I’m trying to walk it’s for the 20-30% of the time where I’m going hunting early in the mornings where it’s dark or on my way to work I have a 40 mile drive 2 lane highway out in the country that’s full of deer..I was thinking the led upgrade but yet I don’t want to piss other drivers off but yet with a light bar I can turn it off and on just like my high beams the leds seem like a better thing but yea they have their drawbacks

 

[yarpos]

I fitted a light bar to my XV (completely legal where I live as long as they are controlled with high beam) and am very happy with the extra brightness and depth of lighting. This is just a small light bar that mounts above the licence plate

I dont know the headlight replacement you are talking about , but in general I have yet to see a bulb replacement that in anyway matches lightbars or spots. Depends on your situation I guess. I live regionally and my main concern is avoiding wildlife, if you live in the city then the bulb replacement path may be fine.

 

[erader]

Yea I thought about adding to his but I didn’t want to highjack his thread…and it’s a fine line where I’m trying to walk it’s for the 20-30% of the time where I’m going hunting early in the mornings where it’s dark or on my way to work I have a 40 mile drive 2 lane highway out in the country that’s full of deer..I was thinking the led upgrade but yet I don’t want to piss other drivers off but yet with a light bar I can turn it off and on just like my high beams the leds seem like a better thing but yea they have their drawbacks

i've been blinded so many time by high beams and yes, even a lightbar on the road, where the other driver probably had good intentions

and, honestly, i have forgotten my highbeams are on and have blinded other drivers too

 

[Jgw]

on a newer crosstrek sport is it better or easier to upgrade the headlights with bulbs like the Diode Dynamics SL1s or add like a lightbar or something else i do alot of early morning and late night driving with lots of deer just looking for something a little more or better thanks

Please note that our ‘17 Xtrek had a devil of a time with LEDs (we had Diode Dynamics). As the brights are also the daytime running lights, the stock halogens will dim, but the DD LEDs won’t — so we were less than popular during the daytime. As for the DDs as headlights, after having the lights on for exactly eight minutes in each night or rain journey, our TPMS light would come on in error mode then stay on. After replacement modules, sensors and five trips to the dealer, they were finally able to diagnose the problem as RFI affecting the TPMS system.