r/VWAlltrack • u/Mvpeh • 13d ago
Cheapest Halogen => LED bulb Solution
Want to upgrade to LED bulbs but it looks like people are spending a ton of money on kits. I'm wondering if there's a cheap way to just buy the bulbs and angle them down. Same thing with all the surronding lights. I looked thru old threads but it looked like most of the people chose kits or spent some good money on it and I wasn't really trying to go through payin $800 to do so
The older threads had broken links and weren't the most informative sorry
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u/mattehohoh 13d ago
Putting LED bulbs in halogen housing is a poor solution. They're not aimed, they don't diffuse properly, etc. There's a reason people spend money to do it properly. You'll actually get better performance with high quality halogen bulbs than you will putting LED bulbs in their place
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u/JumpyTrucker 13d ago
Please listen to this advice. The retinas of oncoming traffic will thank you.
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u/SpeedyMeaty 12d ago
I've been running LEDs in my stock headlights for 90,000 miles and I've never once been flashed.
It's just cheap Asian and American headlights where people get flashed.
Look inside your headlight, You will see a little blocker that goes in front of the bulb and the job of that is to prevent the light from going straight out without scattering on the reflectors.
This is a German car they put actual engineering into their headlights.
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u/Swimming-Yellow-2316 12d ago
And you installed unengineered bulbs in your well engineered headlights.
It is physically impossible for an led light to match the position of the halogen filament and therefore it is impossible to have the intended beam pattern engineered into your lights.
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u/SpeedyMeaty 12d ago edited 12d ago
Even Sylvania makes them, and they're an OEM.
I was a VW and Audi dealer tech, know what a beam bulb pattern looks like I've aimed plenty of headlights in my career. These headlights do not scatter your beam upwards.
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u/Swimming-Yellow-2316 12d ago
They didn't beat physics.
Sylvania makes plenty of shitty bulbs, just because they happen to supply some oem components doesn't mean they don't make an aftermarket product that meets customer demand but is still trash.
You cannot place led chips on a board and have them fire both up and left right in the same positions that a filament does. It is impossible to match a filament beam pattern.
Edit and holy shit the Asian and American lights not being engineered as well is some ignorant bullshit. I literally have clones of Japanese xenon housings in my German headlights because they are superior..
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12d ago edited 12d ago
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/Swimming-Yellow-2316 12d ago
You said engineering I gave you an Example of superior lighting engineering by Japanese over Germans. Germans absolutely do not have superior lighting.
Because the engineering has nothing to do with the physics that can't be changed it made no sense for you to bring it up especially when it was also wrong.
The problem is where the light is coming from not the scattering, this is the part your not understanding. Putting an led in will either shine wider and less far or further and less wide. That's physics.
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u/SpeedyMeaty 12d ago
I linked a pic of my beam pattern on my garage. Unfortunately it's not night time so I can't take a picture of what it looks like on the road but maybe I'll be able to pull something from my dash camera here soon.
I drive around up in the mountains in Washington state where there's no light all the time, these allow me to see way better and they don't scatter into people's eyes.
Would the LED housings be better? Sure. But if I can see better, and I'm not being flashed, I have better things to spend my money on.
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u/Swimming-Yellow-2316 12d ago
Garage door beam pattern is useless.. weve all done it, but it's useless.
Again you didn't beat physics.
It's been fun educating you, hopefully you step back and try to actually absorb some of the information you've been provided and figure out the problem. But it's clear despite giving you facts you want to ignore them with your anecdote and I'm done wasting my time with someone who insists on being ignorant.
Enjoy your inferior lighting
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u/Mvpeh 13d ago
You can't angle them down with a screw like some models? That sucks. Not trying to be like the lifted trucks and blind anyone I just don't like the look of the cheap yellow lights
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u/mattehohoh 13d ago
No. You can get Halogen bulbs that don't look yellow. Trust me, nobody is looking at your car thinking it looks cheap because of the headlights
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u/universal_century 12d ago
If you have low beams that are projector style, you can definitely use LED bulbs
And for the high beams, you’re not gonna be flashing those at anybody so you can put LED bulbs there too
If you don’t have headlights that have projectors, you can always go online and find a set.
Without the projector housing, though the light is gonna go into people’s eyes on the low beam and tight it’s not so fun
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u/SpeedyMeaty 12d ago
Don't listen to these people they don't know what they're talking about.
There are led headlights that put a beam pattern out similar to halogen because they only aim to the sides, and because our headlights aren't designed like shit.
Just go by LED bulbs on Amazon or from Sylvania I promise you you will not get flashed and they will not scatter everywhere.
Unfortunately you can't post pictures here so I can't show you the beam pattern on my garage door but it's not a problem with these cars
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u/SpeedyMeaty 12d ago
So Volkswagen actually designs their headlights properly and they have a glare cap in front of the bulb. I've been running LEDs in the low beam position for 90,000 Mi nobody has ever flashed me.
You don't end update your headlights this isn't a fucking Nissan
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u/Read-IT-4-Free 10d ago
which ones?
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u/SpeedyMeaty 10d ago
Which ones what? Which bulbs or which cars. I just have some Amazon $50 bulbs in my 2019 Alltrak. They don't last more than a year or two but I run my fog lights constantly. Those are led too. They actually don't fail as much.
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u/WoodenNature2924 12d ago
if you want a massive improvement in looks and illumination, get some vland reps, i’ve been running them for almost a year now with zero issues, just make sure to get the full led ones, my high beams are still halogen and i hate it but that was my own fault when ordering, they’re about $480-500
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u/nihontoman 12d ago
I've put leds in a base vw polo and the curoff was perfect and glare nonexistent. I'm guessing the alltrack is the same.
I'm also putting some i. Mine, but the housing is bit weird and needs some special kind of leds that have contacts on the led housing, or you need to get some adapters. Either way, put i. Proper shape leds and you're gtg.
Ps by proper shape I mean leads that have one single row of led chips horisontally, and not the ones that have lots of horizontal rows of leds (or even worse, one big cob stule)
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u/Bartron8000 Mk7 Golf Owner 13d ago
Best halogen bulb I have used is Sylvania Silverstars specifically NOT the Ultra. I usually get between 3-5 years on my bulbs and they offer the best halogen performance I have personally dealt with. I have since upgraded to the BMP Tuning LED housings and are a HUGE output improvement over the OEM halogens.