LEDing the way

The headlights on my '95 Impala SS are just awful.  The combination of poor lens design and barely adequate wiring makes for little light down the road.  They are so bad that I can drive around with my high beams on without passing drivers flashing their lights at me.  Generally speaking, upgrading the headlights is a lot of work.  The wiring is sized just big enough for standard wattage lamps, switching to higher watt bulbs requires relays be added or risk melting the wiring.  I'm also on my 3rd dimmer switch in this car, the previous two melted.  I've avoided upgrading the headlights partly because of cost, and mostly out of laziness.  But I came across a new solution, LED bulbs.  The price of LEDs has dropped significantly over the past few years, and they now make drop in replacements.  LEDs also use much less power for the same(or more) light output than standard bulbs, which greatly reduces strain on the wiring and switches.  So I took the plunge and bought some.

To my surprise, the headlights already in the car were already upgraded to PIAA "Star White" bulbs(which explains my melted dimmer switches).  Far from being white, they put off a fairly standard yellowish beam.  You can also see that around the base of the bulb the plastic is charred and melted a bit.  These bulbs run HOT.  I bought the LEDs on e-bay for around the same price as many of the "upgraded" standard bulbs.  They are 80w 8000Lm bulbs, that's an entire 50 watts less than the PIAAs, and they put out more light.   Here's what the new bulb looks like.  The old bulb is on the left, the new LED bulb on the right:

Installation is as simple as removing the old bulb, putting in the new one, and plugging the harness into the existing plug.  It's immediately apparent that the new bulbs are brighter.  Once again, old on the left, new on the right:

So, how do they actually work?  Well, the jury is still out on that one.  There is no question that they put out more light, but how they put it out leaves me a bit underwhelmed.  The pattern is much more diffuse with the LEDs.  They light up the sides of the road better, but don't seem to project out as far.  Since half my driving is at night down country roads, my biggest concern when driving is deer jumping out in front of me.  Having the sides of the road illuminated better could help avoid them.  Though the highs are definitely brighter, there isn't as distinct a difference between the high beams and low beams either. 

Lows:

Highs:

I'll give it awhile to get used to them, but for now I'd call it a wash.  On the plus side, I shouldn't melt any more dimmer switches :)