There’s probably no end of “YMMV” points to this – converting any, some, or all bulbs to LED from OEM.
I’m quite sure it’s car specific. I haven’t had to replace an OEM headlight bulb yet, so I haven’t looked at this issue with my car. With my wife’s car, the LED swap … works. There’s also aftermarket LED headlight units available for hers.
On my BMW motorcycle (since moved along), I installed two HID kits that didn’t alter the beam pattern but made a tremendous difference in the quantity and quality of light thrown down the road.
I think I’ve replaced maybe three interior bulbs on mine with LEDs. I bought an entire kit and replaced probably 10+ interior (map lights, dome lights, vanity (mirrors on visors) lights, lower door lights, rear cargo lights) and exterior (IIRC, puddle lights, license plate lights (because reasons), and reverse lights) bulbs on my wife’s car.
A few QC problems that eventually got resolved. Couldn’t be happier with the upgrades in every case, otherwise.
In general, non headlamp bulbs can be replaced with LED modules. Backup lamps in particular can show a great improvement in output. Turn signal and stop/tail lights are also generally replaceable. These bulbs don’t throw a particular beam pattern, so replacing an incandescent filament bulb with LED modules should present issues. As always YMMV.
Also be aware that LEDs are polarity sensitive. So if it doesn’t light, reverse it in the socket.
I’ve seen a few old cars around with sealed-beam headlights (Old VW Beetles, for example) that looked like they had LED headlamps. I assume since with sealed-beams you’re replacing the whole unit, including reflectors and lenses, it’s possible to just plug in an LED sealed-beam lamp in place of the old incandescent one.
With over 300,000 miles on my Prius (Toyota stupidly programmed the odometer to stop counting at 299,999), I noticed one of my headlights was off. It would come back on if I turned the headlights off and turned them on again. Someone here said that’s a failure mode, soo I had both headlamps replaced. Toyota is very proud of their headlamps. They’re $150 each.
Last year I had a brake light replaced. The only light in the cluster that can’t be replaced is the LED array, so I had to spend $400 on a whole new assembly.
I looked up a video on how to change the headlamp. It started, ‘First, remove the wheel.’ As it happened, they had a guy with skinny arms at the dealership, and he was able to replace the lamps without removing the wheels.
My experience with halogen bulbs (the insert type, not the sealed type) is they burn out around the same time, almost remarkably how close they burn out together. I used to only replace the one that burnt out, but the second one burnt out so close to the first one so often that I ended up changing them both together when one blew out and saving the extra bulb. This way when it does burn out I can swap out this old one to get by a bit and get a new set.
That sounds more like a problem with how the headlamp is aimed rather than how bright it is – or if they have their “bright” light on too close to you. The “bright” light isn’t just brighter, it’s also aimed higher so it lights the road farther ahead.
But if the on-coming vehicle is a larger one (e.g., SUV, or any “raised” vehicle), all bets are off.
Just replaced my headlight on one car.
Have to replace a brake light on the other once it get’s back from the shop. I hate dealing with brake lights. Mrs. Cad was stopped by a trooper for no brake lights, a guy driving next to me got me to stop and reported no brake lights and I’ve had people run up on my ass when I’m braking like they’re out but every time I have Mrs. Cad test them while I watch from the back they work fine. Last time I one of the bulbs had burnt out but like I said, I’ll replace it when I get it back this weekend.
I’ve replaced my headlight assemblies in the past, it was simple.
I bought someone new headlights for Christmas. For a 2008 Nissan Versa two of the headlight assembly bolts are on top and nicely accessible. But one is down in the lower corner and it looks like the whole front bumper cover needs to be removed to access that bolt. Lucky me is usually the person that helps them with car repairs.
My wife’s Traverse blew a headlight recently and the mechanic said the whole front of the car and most of the quarter-panel would have to come off and would be several hundred $$$ and a couple days to replace. YouTube to the rescue: the plastic upper wheel well cover is held in with plastic screws; take them out, bend the cover slightly, reach up in there and unscrew the plastic bulb seat dealie and then reverse the process after replacing the bulb.
I need to fix a leak on the windshield fluid tank on my 2008 CRV. Need to remove the front bumper and grill (it’s all one piece) and a headlight to get to it. Luckily, YouTube has videos and it doesn’t look particularly difficult.
Last September, the turn signals on my Ford Ranger stopped working. All of them. The flasher was good. Found a blown fuse, replaced it, and all was working again. Now, I hate this because I know that I didn’t actually fix anything by replacing the fuse, just treated a symptom. Sure enough, a day later the turn signals were out, and the fuse was blown. Finally found the old Haynes manual and dug up the wiring diagrams. The only other circuit on this fuse were the back up lights. I crawled under the truck, and unplugged the connector from the back up light switch on the transmission (luckily I knew where this was due to replacing that switch about five years ago, after driving for years without backup lights). Tossed in a new fuse, and the signals were working. Pulled the backup light switch, and found that it failed to ground, so putting the truck in reverse blew the fuse. Now I am back to not having backup lights, until I get around to replacing the switch. It’s a five minute job, but I keep forgetting to buy the part.
There are so many sensors and indicators in modern cars that I just assumed there was one for every critical light. This has been reinforced for my 7yo car since I never detected an outage, and all maintenance is done at the dealer. If I didn’t notice a dead light, it would at least be automatically fixed at my next checkup or oil change. My dealer seems pretty good at regular inspections.