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Thread: LED Headlight Installation

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    LED Headlight Installation

    I purchased a pair of Sylvania ZEVO LED headlights today. They were $129.99 and come with a 5 year warranty (Canadian Tire stocks them). They are plug and play and function how they should (both high beam and low beam). The only issue is my DRLs no longer work. I presume it due to how an LED bulb is designed and how a DRL module works (sends pulses to the high beam filament). It’s a minor sacrifice for what I hope will be much better lighting at night. I will update the thread as time goes on.


    Last edited by JOEMAMA; 05-06-2022 at 09:56 AM.

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    Post some pics

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    Here are a few pictures. I still haven’t driven at night yet but they look promising. Decent cut off for the low beam. Note that my garage door is black - not a great reflective surface but you get the idea.

    Low Beam
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    Low Beam
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    High Beam
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    i hope ther isnt a frying smell in the drl module...that would freak me out they didnt work


    IS it much better lighting at night...the stock micra bulbs are adequate but not stellar
    2015 Micra S (manual)
    no A/C /no power options/ block heater/4x 2 Ohm speakers...all factory stock in 2015
    Feb 2015 build
    9,999 purchase price + tax..no additional 1600$ because it was a 2015 purchased in 2016
    so receipt says $8,399....+1600 .... so they look good i guess...for a brand new car!

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    Quote Originally Posted by MrMicra2015 View Post
    i hope ther isnt a frying smell in the drl module...that would freak me out they didnt work


    IS it much better lighting at night...the stock micra bulbs are adequate but not stellar
    I have not driven the car at night yet but I presume they are much brighter.

    Why would the DRL module fry? LED bulbs use less power which means they draw less power (14w vs 55w), which is why the DRLs aren’t working (see above for how the DRL module works in the Micra). I believe the DRLs on the Micra are controlled by the BCM and not a separate module. I could have used load resistors (Sylvania sells them) which would have enabled the DRLs but they would have been too bright since they use the high beam. A CANBUS relay/module may possibly dim the high beam but a lot of those modules cause flicker. With a halogen bulb when the DRL module/BCM sends a pulse to the high beam filament it dims the light output and because a halogen filament reacts slowly the pulse is undetectable to our eye. However, because an LED has an instant on the flicker would be pronounced. Many CANBUS LED decoders claim to reduce or eliminate flicker but many do not live up to this promise.
    Last edited by JOEMAMA; 05-07-2022 at 07:58 AM.

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    Zombies (01-31-2024)

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    it might fry because it doesnt understand whats going on....like me

    some dude here fried the taillights...

    and i'm stilll wearing a mask!

    as a weird aside....my honda 2015 fit has a side camera and some car i think are the popo cause the headlight s flicker in the camera but not in real life
    Last edited by MrMicra2015; 05-07-2022 at 10:42 PM.
    2015 Micra S (manual)
    no A/C /no power options/ block heater/4x 2 Ohm speakers...all factory stock in 2015
    Feb 2015 build
    9,999 purchase price + tax..no additional 1600$ because it was a 2015 purchased in 2016
    so receipt says $8,399....+1600 .... so they look good i guess...for a brand new car!

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    I finally drove at night for the first time tonight with the new headlights. These headlights are definitely a huge improvement for both the low and high beam over the stock halogens. I highly recommend as long as you don’t mind losing your DRLs.

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    I've had 3 different brands of LED's over the years. The first 2 sets were really cheap and the DRL's worked, but one of the sets flickered only at low RPM and only the DRL's. So I decided to spend a bit more money and my current set the DRL's don't work, but the light distribution is much better than the cheap sets. I believe it is something to do with the CANBUS, but haven't been able to narrow it down to exactly what about it. My point is though that switching to LED's doesn't necessarily mean you will lose DRL's, but in all the sets I've had, cheap or "less cheap" the quality and amount of light is significantly more than the standard halogens.

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    Quote Originally Posted by Richard View Post
    I've had 3 different brands of LED's over the years. The first 2 sets were really cheap and the DRL's worked, but one of the sets flickered only at low RPM and only the DRL's. So I decided to spend a bit more money and my current set the DRL's don't work, but the light distribution is much better than the cheap sets. I believe it is something to do with the CANBUS, but haven't been able to narrow it down to exactly what about it. My point is though that switching to LED's doesn't necessarily mean you will lose DRL's, but in all the sets I've had, cheap or "less cheap" the quality and amount of light is significantly more than the standard halogens.
    I went with the Sylvania ZEVOs because Sylvania has been a leader in automotive lighting for years and I know they will stand behind the 5 year warranty. I also liked how they have a large heat sink with no fans to fail. The cutoff is also designed to mimic halogens which means I don’t have to worry about blinding oncoming traffic which is usually an issue with the cheaper LEDs. Sylvania is actually in the process of getting their LED headlights DOT approved for halogen housings.

    CANBUS does control the DRLs and I believe the LED driver (varying power consumption) is responsible for why some LEDs have functional DRLs and some don’t. I didn’t bother with load resistors/LED decoders just to have the DRLs because it’s once more thing to fail and they generate a ton of heat. Not to mention many of them don’t resolve the flickering.

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    Quote Originally Posted by JOEMAMA View Post
    I finally drove at night for the first time tonight with the new headlights. These headlights are definitely a huge improvement for both the low and high beam over the stock halogens. I highly recommend as long as you don’t mind losing your DRLs.
    I do a lot of night time driving and the halogens weren't cutting it, even Sylvania's higher priced set at CT. I was leary of switching to LED but came across this thread and it was very helpful understanding the process. I bought the same one's as you, Sylvania Zevo 9003/H4 from CT yesterday and read instuctions and installed in 10 min. I don't know the lumens but they're considerably brighter than halogen so far i'm impressed and wished i did it sooner. Now just hoping they're reliable. If not i will hold them to their warranty.


    Last edited by Zombies; 01-30-2024 at 08:52 AM.

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