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posted by Fnord666 on Tuesday March 17 2020, @03:34PM   Printer-friendly
from the shine-a-bright-light-on-the-subject dept.

Arthur T Knackerbracket has found the following story:

It might be stating the obvious, but your car's headlights are a safety device, and not all headlights are created equal. For a while, carmakers have been fitting powerful LED headlights to their high-end offerings, but more often than not, their cheaper cars—and particularly cheaper trim levels—get saddled with much-weaker illumination. But sometimes a commuter wants to see more of where they're going when the sun goes down. Eventually, they go looking for a solution, starting with their local automotive parts store. But stuffing aftermarket LED headlight bulbs into OEM housings designed for conventional halogen units results in dangerous glare for oncoming drivers. While LEDs can deliver more intense light at a higher end of the spectrum, most aftermarket units also create a hazardous condition.

The major brick-and-mortar auto parts stores know this, which is why they tend to shy away from aftermarket H11 LED bulbs, other than ones clearly marked for use in fog lamps or "for off-road use only." It's a different world online, with off-brand H11 LED bulb listings on Amazon, eBay, and Walmart websites failing to carry the same prominent warnings.

You can get pulled over for non-spec headlamps, and for a good reason. In addition to issuing a citation, the law enforcement officer may have the legal right to force you to remove the bulbs. More ominously, once the officer has pulled you over, you risk a vehicle search. With all that in mind, it would be wise to keep a set of securely packaged OEM bulbs in the glovebox or trunk if you are running aftermarket LEDs.

Although Consumer Reports tests new vehicle headlamps, it hasn't tackled the topic of LED replacement bulbs, despite Consumer Reports' extensive resources. A comprehensive Consumer Reports aftermarket LED replacement bulb test would go a long way to bring clarity to the market. Consumer Reports' testing of conventional replacement bulbs found that while aftermarket units can improve headlight brightness, there's much more to it than that. "Distance and how far a headlight illuminates is governed more by the reflector (behind the bulb) or the lens (ahead of the bulbs). While you can change the bulb, you are not changing the distance, i.e., not necessarily improving safety."

-- submitted from IRC


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  • (Score: 3, Interesting) by PiMuNu on Tuesday March 17 2020, @04:51PM (4 children)

    by PiMuNu (3823) on Tuesday March 17 2020, @04:51PM (#972321)

    > numpties who aim their lights straight forwards or even up

    Unfortunately even reasonably decent bike lights don't offer very good positioning, owing to the wide variety of handlebar diameters and shapes. I often find myself stopping to wiggle my bike lights when they slip around the handlebars. It isn't always obvious that I am blinding other road users...

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  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday March 17 2020, @05:02PM (1 child)

    by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday March 17 2020, @05:02PM (#972331)

    Go back to High School shop class and learn how to secure you light.

    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday March 17 2020, @06:08PM

      by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday March 17 2020, @06:08PM (#972375)

      Back to high school shop class may not be an option for young-uns? Guessing you are a boomer like me, back when high schools had shop class (which I enjoyed greatly). It was eliminated quite a few years ago, at least in my old high school.

  • (Score: 4, Insightful) by captain normal on Tuesday March 17 2020, @06:52PM (1 child)

    by captain normal (2205) on Tuesday March 17 2020, @06:52PM (#972405)

    Around here there seems to be a lot of idiots who wear super bright (like over 1000 lumens tightly focused) on a head band or mounted on their helmets. These lights wind up being higher than even jacked-up pickup trucks and aimed right in oncoming drivers eyes.

    --
    When life isn't going right, go left.
    • (Score: 2) by Grishnakh on Wednesday March 18 2020, @02:05AM

      by Grishnakh (2831) on Wednesday March 18 2020, @02:05AM (#972598)

      The conventional wisdom with cycling is that you're supposed to have a helmet-mounted headlight like that if you're mountain biking, so you can point the light where you're looking. But if you're on a road bike, you're supposed to use a handlebar-mounted headlight instead, and NOT a helmet-mounted one.

      That said, when I've gone cycling at night on the multi-use trail in my city, I don't recall seeing anyone with helmet lights, only handlebar ones.