98 Mark VIII Base........I've been reading it's no longer necessary to use a ballast when replacing HIDs with LEDs is this right?.......... Been looking at Firehawk 2021 9006/HB4 LED headlamps as a replacement........Any comments?........Bruce L. Hansen......Senior Citizen......Alive by the grace of GOD. Just turned 81.....Still not older then "Sunnyday out"
From what I understand
- Thread starter bhans40
- Start date
xtriggerman
Well-Known LVC Member
I thought about the LED's also when I looked into fixing my low beams. The big problem I see with that is they generate alot of heat and they would take up alot of room inside the plastic shell that keeps the bulb assembly and internal light housing from weather intrusion. So, that creates 2 issues. 1) there simply would be little room inside the bulb housing shell to fit the large heat sink attached to the back side of the LED bulb along with wire connectors and 2) the heat generated by these hi intensity bulbs would turn the all ready old brittle plastic housings into fragile uselessness over a short period of time. Not to mention if they over heat inside the enclosure, they would burn out in short order. All those cooling fins on the back side of those bulbs are extremely important to longevity.
So it would be better to install a ballast long with an LED bulb correct? I don't have a problem with a ballast I just don't want to spend some money and have short longevity. Thank you both for the response. I'll go with the ballasts.......Bruce L Hansen.....Senior Citizen.....Alive by the Grace of GOD
xtriggerman
Well-Known LVC Member
The LED bulbs dont require any ballasts, I believe they run right off the 12v power as you originally suspected. My basic outline and suggestion to put Low beams back into your car are,
Cut the power wires leading into the OEM ballasts. Solder a connector onto that power lead to feed this ballast DDM Tuning . Cut the OEM wires coming off your OEM ballast (bulb feed) and solder a connector on that so it can plug into the outlet connector of the new above ballast. Basically putting the new ballast in place of the old one. Then use the bulbs in the kit to put in your housings by soldering in the matching connectors, But you will still need bulb adapters to get the selected 9005 or 9006 bulbs to seat into your head light housing. Incidentally, as I pulled up that DDM link, I noticed they dumped their old slim line DC ballast (junk) for what looks like the larger built AC ballasts similar to the ones I bought off Ebay. Those are working perfectly in my car after about 4 bad DC slim line replacements.
Since no one is making the adapter rings any more, I'm thinking of turning out a half dozen pairs and throwing them on Ebay. Its a shame these cars dont have the production numbers to have enough demand for patch parts.
Cut the power wires leading into the OEM ballasts. Solder a connector onto that power lead to feed this ballast DDM Tuning . Cut the OEM wires coming off your OEM ballast (bulb feed) and solder a connector on that so it can plug into the outlet connector of the new above ballast. Basically putting the new ballast in place of the old one. Then use the bulbs in the kit to put in your housings by soldering in the matching connectors, But you will still need bulb adapters to get the selected 9005 or 9006 bulbs to seat into your head light housing. Incidentally, as I pulled up that DDM link, I noticed they dumped their old slim line DC ballast (junk) for what looks like the larger built AC ballasts similar to the ones I bought off Ebay. Those are working perfectly in my car after about 4 bad DC slim line replacements.
Since no one is making the adapter rings any more, I'm thinking of turning out a half dozen pairs and throwing them on Ebay. Its a shame these cars dont have the production numbers to have enough demand for patch parts.
joegr
Dedicated LVC Member
LEDs do not run at 12V. 4V is more typical for white LEDs. Often, with low power LEDs, you will see three of them in series to add up to 12 volts. Still, those will have a small current limit resistor to provide a slight voltage drop. The higher powered ones (like headlights) have switching power supplies built into the bulb assembly. (LEDs are really "current driven" devices, not so much "voltage driven" anyway.) The power supply generates a very slight amount of heat, but it is really the LED itself that is making all that heat that requires the big heatsink and cooling fan.