[oonowindoo]

Just to be fair, almost all of us have had other cars before the current car and i would assume we all have had experience with HIDs in the past.

My car is F36 Pre-LCI Adaptive LED and i also raised mine and the result is better but still not something to brag about. So i can only imagine how bad the LCI, Non Adaptives are.

My previous F30 335i HID was also adjusted, and while the output is not as bright as the LED, but the visibility was significant better.

Could a dual projector solve the issue with LED, maybe. Since F3X do not have projector LEDs, then it is not relevant.

That is why i am curious how the LEDs on the new 5 are.

[natesi]

I have a 2016 328i with LEDs. I don't like the color temp, but once I raised them up a bit the standard LEDs are REALLY GOOD -- especially with the fog lights on, which are amazing at lighting up areas to the side of where the headlights shine (helps me see people walking in the dark when I'm making left or right turns, at night).

Just don't aim the headlights too high. Blinding oncoming drivers is really dumb, of course.

[metallicpea]

Originally Posted by natesi

I have a 2016 328i with LEDs. I don't like the color temp, but once I raised them up a bit the standard LEDs are REALLY GOOD -- especially with the fog lights on, which are amazing at lighting up areas to the side of where the headlights shine (helps me see people walking in the dark when I'm making left or right turns, at night).

Just don't aim the headlights too high. Blinding oncoming drivers is really dumb, of course.

Exactly. Mine are now too high and I need to drop them a bit. But they sure are nice and bright now.

[Mauricio Palacios. MD]

Originally Posted by x5mad

I worked out that the first number is the low beam and second number is high beam.

I.e.
Adaptive low - 36w
Non adaptive low - 22w

Efficiency of leds nowadays are approx 100 lumens / watt or more. So assuming this we get 3600 lumens vs 2200 lumens. For reference hid approx 3200 lumens

So now perhaps why we see people so divided on this led vs hid debate. Some saying so much brighter than hid and others saying it's rubbish vs hid.

Now remember the numbers above refer to the source light and not the "road" lumens i.e. what you actually get on the road

Excuse me but I haven't seen a single person saying that LED headlights are "much brighter than HID headlights"...

I think it's generally accepted that HIDs are better and more powerful than LEDs. The only reason for BMW and all other brands to change the front lighting to LEDs is the same as always: Costs reduction.

I think this video is from your beautiful country...

[metallicpea]

Originally Posted by Mauricio Palacios. MD

Excuse me but I haven't seen a single person saying that LED headlights are "much brighter than HID headlights"...

I think it's generally accepted that HIDs are better and more powerful than LEDs. The only reason for BMW and all other brands to change the front lighting to LEDs is the same as always: Costs reduction.

I think this video is from your beautiful country...

You may be right about HIDs being brighter than LED - I have not compared in same vehicle. This thread was titled LED, adaptive vs non adaptive. HID were not an available option on my model. I guess the OP went there later, but I wonder how many people have spent considerable time with the 5 or more headlight options the F30 has - it seems silly to have so many.

It may be cost, but I would more likely think style. I know buyers think the LED lights look cool, and probably expect them to have a reasonable function as headlights - to light the road ahead. I would say the non adaptive LED are not reasonable as stock. They light the road worse than any car I can remember - dating back to early halogen.

[BMW11]

The standard LED's may be brighter (more LUX then HID) but for some reason the THROW is better and further with the HIDs. This is comparing my 328 HID vs 340 std LED. I see the throw is less on my 340 however the area that it does light seems Brighter then the HID's maybe the HID's threw light further because it has a narrower "cone" of light projection I dont know

[RPM90]

I have non adaptive LED's in my 340i and they are fine, no complaints as far as having enough light, and I drive in country a lot where there are little to no street lights.
Compared to the adaptive HID's I had in my F30 335i, I don't notice any dimming, but I do notice a difference in the lights color temperature.

I like the HID's better, but mostly because I prefer that that color temperature vs the LED's. I don't like really cold blue color temp that some HID's and LED's have, it's very unnatural at night, and the contrast they create is awful even though they are bright.

There is NO WAY I'm giving BMW that much more money to put brighter LED's, when I was perfectly find with the previous HID's. BMW can suck on it for that one. There should have been an option to have HID's like they were on the pre LCI F30.
Also, I greatly preferred the FULL ring "angel eyes" vs the new "smiley" LED.

[GCinFLA]

About a year ago, there was a very detailed thread with actual lux levels between all the different versions by way of a BMW Engineer on an European (UK iirc) forum.

The major difference was between the LEDs on the F30 vs the F32.

Did not mention Adaptive v Non-Adaptive.

[oonowindoo]

The issue with LED vs HID is not about the LUX.. LED is brighter to our eyes, but it does not spread well which is why you need to have multiple bulbs just to have some reasonable illumination at night.

For BMW, you have all 4 headlights serve as low beam, pointing at different direction to form a pattern (still sux)
Acura you have a line of small LED projectors or in other brand you have 1 projectors with multiple LEDs inside of them.

All these are due to the natural limitation of LEDs themselves. But LEDs still have its advantages.

In BMW's case, the reflectors really made things worse.
But we should not conclude HID is better than LED or LED is better than HID based on BMW. Because there are good LEDs (Acura's, even tho they are not adaptive) or you have bad HIDs (my old G35's reflector type HID) or you have some of the best lighting and they happen to be HID and they are not even bi-xenon (S2000, TSX).

[x5mad]

Originally Posted by Mauricio Palacios. MD

Excuse me but I haven't seen a single person saying that LED headlights are "much brighter than HID headlights"...

I think it's generally accepted that HIDs are better and more powerful than LEDs. The only reason for BMW and all other brands to change the front lighting to LEDs is the same as always: Costs reduction.

I think this video is from your beautiful country...

Are you kidding? There are plenty of threads out there with hid vs led and there are definitely people out there who think led is much brighter than HID.

You can do a search but here's one of many.

http://f30.bimmerpost.com/forums/sho....php?t=1230507

On a side note I have noticed that over time (1 month) my adaptive LEDs have improved. E.g. When new I noticed a lot of hot spots on the road which have now disappeared and light is now more even. When my car was new I would say the led was not as good as my previous hid. Now I'm not so sure, the light is now more even and brighter than when it was new.

Anyone else noticed their led changing over time?

[oonowindoo]

I have heard of break in period for engine, but this is the first time i hear break in period for headlights.

If anything i would assume the newer the headlight, the better it would be since light bulbs themselves do get burned overtime.

[x5mad]

Originally Posted by oonowindoo

I have heard of break in period for engine, but this is the first time i hear break in period for headlights.

If anything i would assume the newer the headlight, the better it would be since light bulbs themselves do get burned overtime.

I did find it strange but my eyes are not deceiving me. I did see someone else mention something similar, could be in the link I posted earlier.

It does seem possible though as the LED can change the light output. Also the camera that does the HBA is scanning a lot of variables including the lights reflected on the road surface, signs, other cars. So not a stretch that the computers are analyzing all this and adjust the light output.

For those with adaptive led shine your lights in auto against a wall. Now move the light switch to position 2 and you will notice the drivers side headlight beam move up then to the middle and finally you can see the light output increases. It's very noticeable. I will post a video when I get a chance.

[GCinFLA]

Originally Posted by x5mad

I did find it strange but my eyes are not deceiving me. I did see someone else mention something similar, could be in the link I posted earlier.

It does seem possible though as the LED can change the light output. Also the camera that does the HBA is scanning a lot of variables including the lights reflected on the road surface, signs, other cars. So not a stretch that the computers are analyzing all this and adjust the light output.

For those with adaptive led shine your lights in auto against a wall. Now move the light switch to position 2 and you will notice the drivers side headlight beam move up then to the middle and finally you can see the light output increases. It's very noticeable. I will post a video when I get a chance.

Yes, that is a stretch. As anyone who's paid attention to LED lights in the home knows, LEDs that dim are more expensive and those that change color are through the roof.

I have yet to see any evidence that even suggests that dimmable LEDs are used in BMW (or other) Auto Headlights.

As for the angel eyes, absolutely, as they can be adjusted in the coding - but they do not have the high light output that the Headlights have.

[x5mad]

Originally Posted by GCinFLA

Yes, that is a stretch. As anyone who's paid attention to LED lights in the home knows, LEDs that dim are more expensive and those that change color are through the roof.

I have yet to see any evidence that even suggests that dimmable LEDs are used in BMW (or other) Auto Headlights.

As for the angel eyes, absolutely, as they can be adjusted in the coding - but they do not have the high light output that the Headlights have.

See the attached link. Scroll to bottom and click on matrix led. It's definitely dimmable, although I think the matrix led is used in the Audi. It's same principle though and I will attach video evidence to show that the f30 led headlight is indeed dimmable.

And if you look at my first post you can see the wattage of the ring lights is up there with the non adaptive headlights.

https://www.hella.com/hella-com/Headlamps-620.html

[oonowindoo]

Originally Posted by x5mad

See the attached link. Scroll to bottom and click on matrix led. It's definitely dimmable, although I think the matrix led is used in the Audi. It's same principle though and I will attach video evidence to show that the f30 led headlight is indeed dimmable.

And if you look at my first post you can see the wattage of the ring lights is up there with the non adaptive headlights.

https://www.hella.com/hella-com/Headlamps-620.html

I remember seeing that feature in some BMW tech article but i also remember it was for EU only. So if you live in the US, your low beams are not "Adjustable" Since your in AU, yours might be different, who knows.

Also LEDs obviously are dimmable (see your interior LED), but it does not mean your car's headlights are programmed to do so. As for all headlight, when you drive in a darker area, your light seems to be brighter and when you drive in a city with street lights, it would seem your can't see as well. That has nothing to do with your headlight but 100% to do with the environment.

However, the movement you described from AUTO to position 2 is because Auto enable the adaptive feature and position 2 disables it, so naturally the light will center themselves if they were not 100% centered when goes from adaptive to Non-adaptive.

[SilverGrey]

I took delivery of an LCI 4 Gran Coupe recently and last night I took it for a spin as it was getting dark.

I was expecting the worst but I was pleasantly surprised how good they were. I'm sure the adaptive LED's are better but the standard LED's are way better than halogens (I'm coming from Mk7 Golf with halogens which are really poor) and I would say comparable to the xenons I used to have on the Z4 coupe I owned years ago.

[GCinFLA]

Originally Posted by x5mad

See the attached link. Scroll to bottom and click on matrix led. It's definitely dimmable, although I think the matrix led is used in the Audi. It's same principle though and I will attach video evidence to show that the f30 led headlight is indeed dimmable.

And if you look at my first post you can see the wattage of the ring lights is up there with the non adaptive headlights.

https://www.hella.com/hella-com/Headlamps-620.html

Some good info. Thanks.

The USA DOT has very strict regulations on Headlights and it is very slow to change.

Notice i8 Laser Headlights not available in EU but not in North America.

You would need to check your local regulations in AUS, but I would think they would most likely follow U.K. Regulations.

Googling Hella Matrix BMW I can find no reference that BMW is using, though that means nothing.

On the same note, REALOEM lists the same LED Part Numbers for the USA and EU Models.

[x5mad]

Finally found it! For you US guys here is the US adaptive LED specs.

So for the LB/HB and DRL they are the same as the EU ones.

[x5mad]

And US non adaptive LED.

[401FlaGATOR]

Originally Posted by natesi

I have a 2016 328i with LEDs. I don't like the color temp, but once I raised them up a bit the standard LEDs are REALLY GOOD -- especially with the fog lights on, which are amazing at lighting up areas to the side of where the headlights shine (helps me see people walking in the dark when I'm making left or right turns, at night).

Just don't aim the headlights too high. Blinding oncoming drivers is really dumb, of course.

I have a 2016 with the non adaptive, they produce a very coherent light that mostly illuminates the floor as bright as daylight for the 50 feet directly in front of the car with complete blackness after. My eyes adjust to the well lit road (50 foot region) pupils constrict, making it that much harder to see the dark region from 51 to ∞.

I have been searching this forum to no avail for some DIY to re-aim the LED's, how is this done?

[oonowindoo]

Originally Posted by SilverGrey

I took delivery of an LCI 4 Gran Coupe recently and last night I took it for a spin as it was getting dark.

I was expecting the worst but I was pleasantly surprised how good they were. I'm sure the adaptive LED's are better but the standard LED's are way better than halogens (I'm coming from Mk7 Golf with halogens which are really poor) and I would say comparable to the xenons I used to have on the Z4 coupe I owned years ago.

almost anything is better than Halogen... i think my LED flash light can see better than Halogen

[oonowindoo]

Originally Posted by 401FlaGATOR

I have a 2016 with the non adaptive, they produce a very coherent light that mostly illuminates the floor as bright as daylight for the 50 feet directly in front of the car with complete blackness after. My eyes adjust to the well lit road (50 foot region) pupils constrict, making it that much harder to see the dark region from 51 to ∞.

I have been searching this forum to no avail for some DIY to re-aim the LED's, how is this done?

http://f30.bimmerpost.com/forums/sho...1359816&page=3