LED/HID Bulbs Recommended For VLAND FRS Headlights
 

I was able to purchase & modify my new Vland aftermarket headlights for my 2013 Scion FRS for everything to work. After a huge amount of research and modifications to the plugs since they are not plug-and-play, I am now at the last issue which is finding good pair of LED headlights that produce enough lumens to work with the cheap and terrible headlight projectors. I'm more lenient on LED's since I assume they output more lumens than HIDs.



Any LEDs/HIDs suggestions you can recommend for Vland FRS headlights would be appreciated!

Get a D2H HID Kit. It's plug and play. Will output more lumens than LED, and definitely have better beam pattern which is more important than output. You won't see anything if the beam pattern looked like a huge bright spot in the middle and the rest of the area around it isn't lit up. Trust me, I tried H7 bulbs in the VLAND headlights and it looked like ass.

Legit: https://www.theretrofitsource.com/bu...to-xb-hid.html and then get https://www.theretrofitsource.com/am...moto-xb35.html

Cheaper(?): NHK D2H bulb + Hylux Ballast?

FYI: The "official" VLAND HID kit could be these https://tinyurl.com/t9g8hjc but I'm not sure about quality or performance. I would rather spend a little more and get something proven or has reviews online.

If you go with D2S bulbs, it'll mount to the VLAND headlights perfectly but will require a little bit extra wiring/DIY to get the D2S igniter to fit inside the bulb cap. Let me know if you have any questions!

What he ^ said. D2H only and HIDs outperform LEDs. LEDs can provide a saturated field up close, but are poorer at down road visibility, which is what matters.

The focal point isn’t made for LED bulbs.

Also, the projectors aren’t terrible.

Feel free to correct me on this, but don't most aftermarket LEDs on the market perform worse than halogens?

Yes they do. LEDs can often be rated with more lumens, but they can scatter the light so bad that they fail to perform to their potential.

Actually, halogens perform fine in these headlights, but they were made for D2H HIDs, and projectors might do well to focus halogens, but they often aren’t ideal for halogen bulbs. Often, halogens will seem to perform best in reflectors.

led has gotten to the point of having similar overall lumens as halogen, but are still incorrect for the optical layout of halogen/hid housings, which contribute to the light scatter issue.

both halogen and hid have a light source that is very much centered within a very small area. led tech still requires a heatsink design that places the light source about 2-4mm outside of that small area. it doesn't seem like much, but it's an incredible difference when talking about a headlights parabolic reflectors that expect a much more concentrated light source at a central point.

https://image.slidesharecdn.com/para...?cb=1271169660


some led designs get around this by shifting the led back or forth in the housing to account for the less than ideal placement of the larger light source end, but it's heavily dependent on the optical leeway of the specific housings. some, it's close enough, others, it makes it no better.

A few pics of my headlights. As you can see, there isn't light scatter or anything, and they produce a solid cut off line, so the "cheap and terrible" projectors seem to work well. The second pic was the car in motion so it is blurry, but I included it to show the contrast of a dark country area against the brightness of the HIDs and the hot spot in the center. HID>LED

https://i.imgur.com/paJijFh.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/dLRTd0e.jpg

I’m getting the Vland headlights soon. Is the 2 piece combo you linked pretty much plug and play? Or how difficult is the extra wiring / DIY?

Pretty pumped about the look of it, I heard the lighting is kind of bad though.

Thanks for the info!

Bad if you don't buy the right kit.

So, a Chinese D2H xenon kit would be better than OEM LEDs?

Do you mind sharing your kit you bought along with your vLands?
I’m a complete noob when it comes to this kind of stuff lol

The projectors on the Vlands are fine. They have clear lenses versus textured lenses like many OEMs use, so they are crystal clear and make a solid beam. If you don't use the right size bulb then they won't project right like being near or far sighted--out of focus. They are made for D2H bulbs, so get those, but don't be surprised if a cheap HID kit looks bad. I used a Morimoto kit. You might find something cheaper that gets the job done, but don't be so fast to blame the headlights or listen to people who used the wrong sized bulbs or who don't even know.

https://www.vleds.com/shop-products/...ights/d2s.html

Haven't tried them in projectors, but in my halogen housing (Yaris, not FR-S), they are only a little less bright than the Morimoto HIDs they replaced, and give almost the same cutoff as the halogen bulbs. Well, since I kept having issues with the Morimoto HIDs, the warranty replacement isn't VLEDs branded, but Profile branded. I want to say they're the exact same thing (6000k version). If I had a choice, I would have gotten the VLEDs 5000k version since I think the actual LEDs are theirs (I had issues with one of the Profile bulbs that TRS warrantied). My other VLED bulbs have been great, even the strips I have from 10 to 12 years ago are still working.

From my experience, the Morimoto HIDs went from being really good quality to being cheaply made, but still costing more. Before I had the warranty replacement done, I had two ballasts go bad, one bulb stop working, and one bulb exploding in the headlight. I got a set for my bro's car, and it needed a replacement ballast (it's given no issues since then).

I would get VLEDs for my FR-S (pretty much all replaceable bulbs I've swapped out to VLEDs with the exception of a couple), but I don't want to cut and alter the factory HID wiring.

It would be cool to do a comparison video. Vlands with my 5500k Morimotos vs OEM headlights n bulbs vs LEDs in Vlands vs Morimoto LED headlights.