[rmorris7]

So im thinking about replacing the OEM halogen headlight bulbs with an H7 cree led kit. Have anybody on here ever done this? If so what brand did you use and was an H7 bulb adapter needed. Im thinking about purchasing these https://www.amazon.com/OPT7-Headlig.../B00VNBEUMO/ref=cm_cr_arp_d_bdcrb_top?ie=UTF8. Any thoughts?

 

[sh30469]

There have been several threads about this and I forgot what they said, I suggest you try to find a few. If I remember correctly the H7 didn't properly fit for some reason or required some other mods (wire splicing + resistors or something). I'm not super knowledgeable in this area but think it required rebuilding the light housing or something as well. Check posts from people like Yooshaw and Scynthyace.

 

[Yooshaw]

Personally, I'd recommend against it. Remember that brighter isn't necessarily better. Optics are way more important that bulb brightness. Your H7 Halogen projector was designed to work with a halogen bulb, which emits light along a long-ish filament at 360 degrees. The led bulb emits from a point, and tries to simulate 360, but is usually not quite right. Plus the intensity varies.

Lots of people perceive PnP LED bulbs as brighter, because the foreground is bright - but in reality it is far worse because it provides no distance lighting - where you really need the light (not directly in front of the car).

Also, the added length of the heatsinks/fans of these PnP bulbs may not allow you to close the dustcap.

Some options, in order of expense (most to least):
1. Purchase OEM HID headlights
2. Retrofit an HID projector/ballast/bulbs
3. LED bulbs
4. Swap in OSRAM H7 Rallye Bulbs - these are H9 bulbs re-based to H7, and produce 700 more lumen than a normal H7 bulb.

Depending on what you want to spend, I'd pursue options 1,2, or 4 before I went with an PnP LED bulb.

If your dead set on an LED bulb, I've heard not so good things about OPT7. TRS sells a newer Morimoto LED bulb (called 2Stroke) that has relatively good reviews. It's hit or miss really on how well it works - comes down to optics. Haven't heard of anyone that's tried an LED bulb in a Kia H7 Projector.

 

[sh30469]

Aaaaaaaaaaand that's exactly why I referred you to Yooshaw lol.

 

[rmorris7]

Personally, I'd recommend against it. Remember that brighter isn't necessarily better. Optics are way more important that bulb brightness. Your H7 Halogen projector was designed to work with a halogen bulb, which emits light along a long-ish filament at 360 degrees. The led bulb emits from a point, and tries to simulate 360, but is usually not quite right. Plus the intensity varies.

Lots of people perceive PnP LED bulbs as brighter, because the foreground is bright - but in reality it is far worse because it provides no distance lighting - where you really need the light (not directly in front of the car).

Also, the added length of the heatsinks/fans of these PnP bulbs may not allow you to close the dustcap.

Some options, in order of expense (most to least):
1. Purchase OEM HID headlights
2. Retrofit an HID projector/ballast/bulbs
3. LED bulbs
4. Swap in OSRAM H7 Rallye Bulbs - these are H9 bulbs re-based to H7, and produce 700 more lumen than a normal H7 bulb.

Depending on what you want to spend, I'd pursue options 1,2, or 4 before I went with an PnP LED bulb.

If your dead set on an LED bulb, I've heard not so good things about OPT7. TRS sells a newer Morimoto LED bulb (called 2Stroke) that has relatively good reviews. It's hit or miss really on how well it works - comes down to optics. Haven't heard of anyone that's tried an LED bulb in a Kia H7 Projector.

Thanks for the help. Yea I was thinking on pursuing a brighter halogen as my first option. LEDs were just something I read on the optima forums where users had really good experiences. I currently have the H7 Osarm Nightbreaker bulbs and they are bright just not as bright as I want. Ill probably shoot for the OSRAM H7 Rallye Bulbs instead.

 

[Yooshaw]

Here's a good example of what I'm talking about. The three beam patterns you see in the pic below are using the same Halogen projector (from a WRX in this case, but don't know if it's H7 based).

Top - Halogen
Middle - LED PnP (Morimoto 2Stroke)
Bottom - HID adapted to fit

You can see that both the halogen and HID have a hot-spot towards the top middle of the cutoff (at the step). This is where you want the most intense light output, as it equates to distance lighting on the road. You can see the LED PnP has no hotspot.

You may want to try a re-based H7 HID bulb in your halogen projector - you may get results like this, which look really good. But you never know what results you'll get, as halogen projector designs vary from manufacturer to manufacturer.

 

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I'd recommend our brand of LED low beam kit but we don't carry a H7 bulb...

https://www.k5optimastore.com/produ...000-lumen-cree-led-headlight-or-fog-light-kit