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Well, I was surprised with the results, but the older bulbs, in this particular fixture, perform better than the ones I had high hopes for.
For the cargo lamps, these ones work fantastic, much better than the other bulb compared here, but for reverse lights, I hate to say it, but the iJDMtoy lamps make much better use of the reflectors and cast a longer, more even light than the JDMastar's.
The reason that I hate to say that is because my experience with the iJDMtoy's customer support is absolutely **** poor. I bought some of these back in April, and the projector lenses literally fell off on their own. My correspondence with them gave me three possible scenarios/solutions to my issue:
1) It might have been a bad batch
2) They recommended that I put some clear silicone or epoxy to reattach the lens
3) I was outside their warranty period, which is apparently 90 days, so they doesn't look like they're willing to stand behind their products.
So, that being said, I will let you all be the judges. The iJDM's look and perform a bit better than the JDMastar's (why they both use the same initials eludes me.) Also, the newly tested bulbs I saw actually touch the housing, I did not notice any heat from outside the lens, but it does bother me that they touch the chromed portion of the inner lens.
Pictures show the driver's side with the challenging bulbs on that side, the original replacement on the passenger side. Even the path of illumination on the ground is better with the bulbs I originally went with.
So that eludes me to the magnifier and perhaps the type of diode being used behide the magnifier. Touching the housing would also not be good IMHO. What I can tell you is if they did preform better, by design you could prob trim them just a little to make them fit more into the housing.
I would need to study a close up of the PCB board to see if it an be trimmed carefully by a dremel or other electronics snips.
But I would say then, the ones below are a bust for sure, hmmm, need to do some more research, thanks for testing them for all of us.
Last edited by ingenuitor; Sep 16, 2016 at 07:03 AM.
If it helps any I bought the Phillips based on a recommendation from an earlier post and they are terrible. I notice NO light increase when I put the truck in reverse. It looks like it would be bright taking pictures of it at night from behind the truck but from the drivers seat I might as well be using a candle back there.
I have the phillips ones above and idk if I was all that impressed either, but I'm questioning of I'm going to be happy with anything in those housings... I think a dedicated reverse light pod is what is needed
I agree, so what about these ^? The sales rep over at Retro Fit Source says they are the same as the OSRAM but much much cheaper, can that really be or are they all wrong?
You — Please update your info
so you are saying the D3S: MORIMOTO XB HID are a dead on match ?
Support @ TRS
Yeah if you have your OEM D3S bulb, a Osram CBI D3S, and a Morimoto XB D3S, they are all the same shape and size since they are all D3S. That's how you size bulb replacements basically
You — Please update your info
ok thank you
Support @ TRS
You're welcome!
Support @ TRS
Yeah they've been around for about 10 years as well I believe http://www.morimotohid.com/ They are prob the best aftermarket bulbs we've seen
But yeah some people prefer one name to another just like any products.
Osram and Philips are fantastic, but being OEM you are paying mostly for the name
I don't want to derail this thread too much more as people are getting pissy, however I think The Retrofit Source guys eluded to mention lumens on their bulbs versus the CBI's. Kelvin is the color temperature of the bulb, lumens is the actual light output. I'm a huge fan of TRS and I have been buying from them for years for all my projector retrofit projects, but I think there's probably a reason they didn't compare the lumens in their email to you. At 6500k those bulbs are probably dimmer than stock. At that point just stick with stock. If you really want brighter headlights either buy a back up pair of hid headlights and swap the projectors out for better (fxr, evoxr, tl, mini d2s 3.0, etc), or invest once in a quality pair of bulbs (CBI), or both. If you ran a set of FXR projectors with D2S CBI bulbs and some quality ballasts you'd smoke a stock truck, or even mine with my CBI's being D3S. D3S projectors are junk in a nutshell, and I'm confused as to why ford used them.
Done derailing the reverse light thread, feel free to pm me if you have any questions about HID bulbs, I've been active on hidplanet forums for 7 years, and done too many projector retrofits to count.
If it helps any I bought the Phillips based on a recommendation from an earlier post and they are terrible. I notice NO light increase when I put the truck in reverse. It looks like it would be bright taking pictures of it at night from behind the truck but from the drivers seat I might as well be using a candle back there.
Yeah so maybe there is nothing worth buying? Expect cubes of some sort, but can you buy plug and play cubes what worth of the trailer package somehow?
I have the phillips ones above and idk if I was all that impressed either, but I'm questioning of I'm going to be happy with anything in those housings... I think a dedicated reverse light pod is what is needed
Agreed.... seeking more information for best practices with the least amount of modification. Thanks
I don't want to derail this thread too much more as people are getting pissy, however I think The Retrofit Source guys eluded to mention lumens on their bulbs versus the CBI's. Kelvin is the color temperature of the bulb, lumens is the actual light output. I'm a huge fan of TRS and I have been buying from them for years for all my projector retrofit projects, but I think there's probably a reason they didn't compare the lumens in their email to you. At 6500k those bulbs are probably dimmer than stock. At that point just stick with stock. If you really want brighter headlights either buy a back up pair of hid headlights and swap the projectors out for better (fxr, evoxr, tl, mini d2s 3.0, etc), or invest once in a quality pair of bulbs (CBI), or both. If you ran a set of FXR projectors with D2S CBI bulbs and some quality ballasts you'd smoke a stock truck, or even mine with my CBI's being D3S. D3S projectors are junk in a nutshell, and I'm confused as to why ford used them.
Done derailing the reverse light thread, feel free to pm me if you have any questions about HID bulbs, I've been active on hidplanet forums for 7 years, and done too many projector retrofits to count.
-Mike
Derailing is good if we all can learn from it, I'm new to all this, so here is a new thread, just on this subject at hand with a ref to the this thread, so people can follow.
So this thread has me thoroughly confused now. So far what 921 LED reverse lights have been determined to be the brightest without installing additional hardware?
I'm looking to pull the trigger soon. I have GOT to be able to see behind me at night, but am not ready to install some aftermarket lights yet.
Thanks
