I'm wondering if anyone has converted their factory HID to LED with success? I put a 6000K LED in my high beam and now the HID looks yellow in comparison so I'm thinking a LED conversion may put out better light in the low beam as well.
The colour doesn't tell you a lot about light output. An HID has its best light output at a colour temperature of 4300K so will appear more yellow if that is what you have. I don't know how the power output and colour temperature corelate with LED.
One point to bear in mind with 6000K is that it is very close to sunny daylight, meaning that it is then less visible to other traffic. LED seem not to be available in any other colour temperature though, whereas the HID could be anything from very yellow to purple!
LEDs are available in other colors than the most popular 6000K and can put out more lumens than the factory HID. I like Daylight as it gives more definition for my old tired eyes at night, and I think that next to my Blue bike it stands out more than the yellowish color. I put LED bulbs in the park lights and they are more attention-getting now than the old yellowish stock bulbs in my opinion, so that is why I want all LED lights beside the lower power draw. Just think about the LED DRLs on most of the modern luxury cars and how they stand out in the daytime.
I'm not familiar with the BMW HID system, as mine's a 2002 which started out with a halogen (it now has a HID). HOWEVER, be aware the light emitting part of an LED (at least at headlight intensities) is generally going to be bigger than the light emitting part of an HID bulb -- so the focus will be probably wrong.
Also be aware that HIDs don't mind heat. LEDs will produce less heat for a given amount of light BUT they dislike heat, so you might have to worry about cooling of the LED.
I'm very much of the opinion, if another driver sees your high beam, you are doing it wrong or you are letting them know they are doing something wrong. So color of the high beam vs. the regular beam really isn't an issue to me.
Technology is changing constantly on lighting like everything else. The latest LEDs mimic a regular bulb filament placement to give correct beam pattern and the high powered LEDs have cooling built-in some use just fins and others fins plus a fan. The latest trend is high tech fin systems that do not require a fan. As for color I prefer the 6000K daylight for better definition at night.
I installed the Cyclops high beam LED on mine. Excellent company.
The bulb has a fan. Fits right in.
I like the low beam OEM Xenon as it is.
Also replaced the two side courtesy markers with LEDs.
I put an ADVmonster.com bulb in the low spot. Brilliant with a clean cut off. No complaints here. I have auxilarry lights so didn't bother with the high beam yet,
I replaced all of my bikes lights to LEDs, from Cyclops. They're incredibly bright, and I think they reach as far a couple miles (that I can see the signs reflecting light).
However, they are 6,000K in color. Meaning, they're of a white blueish hue.
The Xenon on the OEM lights are at 4,300K. This is not blue, white or yellow. It's almost yellow but mostly white.
This is why the sky is blue, and water looks blue.
So, when I changed my GS ligths to LED, I was in Costa Rica in a torrential rain. I couldn't see jack. The lights were reflecting on everything like a big blue fog.
So, my high beam is back to Halogen. Same for the other bikes.
On the LT somehow the high beam does work. I think it's because of the Xenon light.
Anyways, I've been trying to find 4,300K LEDs but no luck. They sell them only with a yellow screen.
You shouldn't be riding in any kind of precipitation with your high beams on as the light gets reflected back at you making visibility worse no matter what color the light is.
I just put LEDs in all my turn signals so now only the low beam is not LED. I guess there is no way to use LED bulbs in lights designed for HID, at least I can't find any info.
I found listings for both 4000K and 5000K LED headlight bulbs on eBay so they are available.
You can search eBay just as easy as I can, I didn't save the ones I found as I don't care for the yellow light. just type 4000K led headlight bulb and hit search.
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