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To those who have a 2016 LX how are the headlights? I was very underwhelmed with the led headlights on an Acura of a friends that I drove last night. The design of the LX headlights seems to be very similar to the Acura.
There are OK, I guess...meaning I don't feel they are lacking. However, not knowing the technical aspects of any of it, they definitely fall short in comparison to my former Land Rover's HID. I am OK with that because I've accepted the fact that Lexus may or may not be "the best of everything", yet reliability and customer service compensate more than enough for it all.
I still have not run across an LED replacement bulb that can project as much light as far as a halogen or HID arrangement...it would be very helpful if LED suppliers actually charted light output like this...
Hella 4000
I like LED's for stuff like tail lights and turn signals, as they're sometimes (depending on design) more visible to other drivers. They also have the advantage of longer life = less maintenance. Even if you like them as DRL's on long 2-lane roads, turning on your halogen or HID low beams allows oncoming drivers to see you at a much greater distance.
I have to say the BMW LEDs are as bright if not brighter than my MB bi xenon, especially for low beams. High beams are a toss up Not to mention, with some coding I was able to activate anti-dazzle. I cannot image why the Lexus LED beams would be any worse. With Acura, I have doubts as they use a different type of bulb it seams, using four separate chips/LEDs, but Lexus and BMW are using two larger chip-on-board chips.
This is how the anti-dazzle works on the BMW by the way.
I have to say the BMW LEDs are as bright if not brighter than my MB bi xenon, especially for low beams. High beams are a toss up Not to mention, with some coding I was able to activate anti-dazzle. I cannot image why the Lexus LED beams would be any worse. With Acura, I have doubts as they use a different type of bulb it seams, using four separate chips/LEDs, but Lexus and BMW are using two larger chip-on-board chips.
The only reason I can suggest may be that the Europeans are generally ahead of the Japanese in lighting technology.
Going back to my '01 LX, oem low beams with fresh bulbs were dismally disappointing. Upgrading to HID's then made the high beams almost redundant. Switching the highs to HIR bulbs made a noticeable improvement there...HID's not possible there as they don't work well without a projector.
The LED headlights are good. Low beams are probably the same as on my 2014 LS, high beams are slightly better. The problem is that 2016 LX headlights are not adaptive. Although they have quite wide pattern which helps, I am still missing the adaptive feature of the headlights while cornering and on some mountain roads. It's interesting that the new RX Lexus you have a choice - adaptive Bi-LED headlights (as on LS) or triple-beam (as on LX).
There is also an auto high beam function which works much better than on most older models (I can compare with Toyota Venza) but surprisingly it's worse than on my LS460.
I still have not run across an LED replacement bulb that can project as much light as far as a halogen or HID arrangement...it would be very helpful if LED suppliers actually charted light output like this...
Hella 4000
I like LED's for stuff like tail lights and turn signals, as they're sometimes (depending on design) more visible to other drivers. They also have the advantage of longer life = less maintenance. Even if you like them as DRL's on long 2-lane roads, turning on your halogen or HID low beams allows oncoming drivers to see you at a much greater distance.
Steve
there are plenty of leds out there much brighter than HIDs. go to cree's website or look up philips luxeon.
I agree with T4Fun, I have had my GX's over the years with halogen projectors, Xenon's and LED's and the LED's are way better. The light projects more to the sides and farther ahead then the Xenon's. I could hardly see 20 ft in front of my GX when I had the Xenon's, I actually had a passenger comment that the lights were horrible and borderline dangerous since you could not see very far in front of the vehicle. I guess if you always drive in very well lighted city areas they were marginally ok but go anywhere where there is no extra lighting around and forget it. Of course Lexus said they are normal. The Xenon's were actually worse then the Halogen projectors on my 2004. The only thing good about them was the color. The LED's are a completely different story, very good daylight color with enough spread to cover the sides of the road and distance. For some strange reason, Lexus did not give the high beams LED's, they are halogen so when you use them it looks very strange with the yellow color of the halogen mixing with the bright white of the LED's.
Hi Hankinid. No, they are not HID's but basic old fashioned halogen lights. I would assume they could be replaced with LED's but I am not sure since I have not looked into it. It probably would require some sort of voltage regulator since I believe LED's are lower voltage than halogens.
Hi Hankinid. No, they are not HID's but basic old fashioned halogen lights. I would assume they could be replaced with LED's but I am not sure since I have not looked into it. It probably would require some sort of voltage regulator since I believe LED's are lower voltage than halogens.
Any led's designed to replace existing bulbs (i.e., any led with a socket to fit a headlight cable) already have the resistor in place...it should be plug and play.
The quality, quantity, and design (size, shape, composition of lens, reflector bowl design - whether only a small strip is reflective or the whole bowl, etc) of the projectors all make a big difference. Check out twin Xenon D2S vs twin D2S+twin S550 projectors paired with 30W LED:
03-30-16, 05:54 AM
2016 headlights
