Hey guys, Andrew Esquivel here back with another review.
Today, I'm going to be reviewing the Yitamotor's LED Headlight Conversion Kit to convert your
halogen headlights into LEDs.
First off, let's go over the specs.
We are once again working with the infamous 9007 socket headlight, which is known for
having compatibility issues with aftermarket products.
This particular light bulb has a color temperature of 6,000 to 6,500 Kelvin, pulls 120 Watts
as a combined units, produces 12,000 Lumens combined, meaning it's 6,000 Lumens each and
is estimated to have a 50,000-hour lifespan.
Now that we've got the specs out of the way, let's talk about the product itself.
One of the reasons why 9007 tends to be a bit of a problem is because of the gasket.
Normally, when you plug a light bulb in the car, your halogens would go in the car but
then you would have your circular retainer lock go over that, lock into the place and
then you'd connect the power.
But as with all LEDs that have a heat sink, can't really do that because the heat sink
blocks you from being able to put the retainer lock over.
But don't worry, a lot of LED manufacturers have noticed this issue and have come up with
a solution.
In this case, the gasket can be twisted and then pulled off like so and that allows you
to put the retainer lock in.
I have two retainer locks, one's a modified one and one's unmodified.
We're going to try the unmodified one first for my 2003 Mitsubishi Outlander LS.
We're going to see if it works, got any issue.
Surprisingly enough, this one actually has enough clearance to make the unmodified gasket
work.
A lot of times we have an issue because there are little parts of this gasket that are few
millimeters thick and sometimes there's not enough distance in between the gasket and
the heat sink to accommodate for that thickness of this particular retainer.
We don't need to modify anything; this is true plug-and-play.
Let's talk about the design really quick, the LEDs themselves.
I've tested a lot of different LED light bulbs and this is the first one I've gotten to try
this, a four-sided COB light that has 90-degree angles.
In other words, it's got four lights, one on each -- the four sides and it is a perfect
square, not a rhombus.
I've tried the rhombus design ones and I think it was GP Power and the gasket couldn't come
off because it was epoxy and in place.
I didn't actually even get to try it because it wouldn't stay in the headlight socket so
this one should be interesting.
The reason why this is interesting is because LEDs have a hard time mimicking a halogen
headlight.
You see, a halogen headlight from the very base emits light in every direction, all 360
degrees and this is important in my reflector unit.
My reflector unit was designed for halogens, so it needs that 360 degrees of coverage.
A lot of LEDs have only two sides and they try to compensate with special reflectors
on the LEDs themselves instead of utilizing the reflectors in the reflector unit itself.
We're going to see if maybe this design works.
Now, a little discrepancy here of information.
Before I purchased it, I was told that on the low beams, all four lights light up and
the high beams all four lights light up.
However, I've also gotten information that says on low beams only two of the lights light
up and on high beams, all four light up.
We're going to find out and we're going to see.
It would be nice if all four lit up all the time and just got brighter on the high beams,
but we're going to figure this out.
Let's go ahead and install it in the vehicle.
All right, we're here once again at my 2003 Mitsubishi Outlander LS.
Right there is where the headlight goes in.
It's just a simple as pushing it in, make sure it fits the keying and then locking it
in place with the retainer lock.
Let's go ahead and do that.
As you can see, the lights is now in place, it is in the socket ready to go.
We have the other light right over here, because like I said, we need to see if low beams only
turns on half the lights or if only high beams turns on all four.
Kind of the same thing I just said right there, but you get the point.
Let's go ahead and test this out.
Okay, so the lights are on and I can indeed confirm that only one-half of the lights turn
on on the low beam.
It's upsetting, but hey, we're going to see how well it works.
On high beam, all four do light up.
I just tested both of them, they seem to be functional.
You can hear the fan.
Let's get this little guy plugged in and go see how it works in the real world.
We are looking at the low beams right now on the garage that I used to see if there's
any patchy spots or scattered beams and I'm actually kind of surprised.
It might be slightly patchy in some areas but just barely.
Let's try it on high beams, with all four lights on all four sides.
That's high beams.
Low beams.
High beams.
Okay, everything looks pretty decent so far, but of course, this is not a realistic test,
so let's bring it on the road and do the test drive that we do.
All right, we're on the road that I test every single conversion kit that I get.
We're going to talk about how the lights look going forward.
Looking forward, I'm actually really surprised.
It seems to be pretty well diffused.
I can't readily see any patchy spots or even any scattered beams and this is low beam.
Let's go ahead and turn on high beam.
I'd say high beam is really, really well diffused as well.
Now the question, does it throw the distance further down like a halogen in my car does?
That's the question, can it mimic the halogen with throw distance?
Well, what we're going to do is drive around the neighborhood and we're going to go once
again to the spot in the neighborhood where there is no assisted light, whatsoever.
What I mean by that is as you can see we have streetlights.
The streetlights, although they're not all that bright, are a form of assisted light.
We're going to make sure we get just the head lights going, nothing else so we can really
gauge how well these perform.
As I'm driving down the road, the one thing I immediately noticed is -- I apologize, my
camera just cut out there, but we're going back, continuing where we were.
Like I was saying before, it's not all that bright, which is disappointing.
For something that claims to be 12,000 lumens, I just don't see it switching back and forth
between the two, even on high beams.
But okay, any who, we are at the spot where there is no assisted light whatsoever.
Let's take a gander here.
Take a look-see at what I'm looking at and think to yourself, "Is that really bright
enough for me to see at night?"
Honestly, it's not.
What about if we turn the brights on, because this is a dark area?
The brights, marginally better.
I have to hand it to them though, this design, as far as beam pattern and diffusion goes,
I don't think I've ever tested another light bulb that is as good with diffusion as this
four-sided COB light, which is pretty interesting.
I was thinking to myself, "What designs mimic a halogen?"
I really thought this would be the one to do it and it does it really well because reflector
units are really picky about what kind of lights you throw on them.
If they're designed for halogens a lot of times you're not going to get any better performance
that with a halogen, but these mimic a halogen pretty well.
We're going to continue driving, and since this is a dark road, I'll keep my high beams
on.
The throw distance just really isn't all that impressive, which -- it's one of those things
where a company can claim a certain brightness as much as they want but at the end of the
day, there's no independent verification to prove how bright any of these lights are.
Unfortunately, I don't have a special meter that can tell me that.
I wish I did, otherwise, I would tell you exactly the truthful output.
Just got cars coming.
I'm going to put my lights back on low beams, which really are pitiful in terms of their
brightness.
What I'm going to do is I'm going to turn on a street that I always turn on and we're
going to go back and forth between the two so you guys can get a good idea of the difference
between high and low beam.
Let's go ahead and do that.
Turn on this street.
This is low beam, high beam.
Low beam, high beam.
You get a good general sense of what to expect with these bulbs.
Now, I did position these bulbs in a specific manner because part of my reflector unit requires
that some light faces downward because there's more reflectors facing downward to assist
with the low beams or the high beams.
There's obviously reflectors everywhere else as well.
Final thoughts on these set of lights.
If it just had a better throw distance, I would say this would be a hands-down winner
but the throw distance just isn't there like it is with my halogens, not quite.
I think they vastly exaggerated how bright the lights are because here's the thing, I've
never tested another set of bulbs that diffuse light in my reflector unit as well as these
do.
I'm really, truly impressed with just how good it actually is with diffusion.
There's no scattered or patchy or slightly patchy when you're driving.
It is properly just light everywhere, which is exactly how it should be.
Now, it begs the question though, driving like the way you saw me driving, it feels
like this amount of brightness should be a low beam and then it should be even brighter
for the high beam but what you're seeing right now is high beam.
Then I go back to low beam and it begs the question, is this bright enough?
Unfortunately, because it has to split power between four lights and only two of them light
up when it's on low beam instead of all four just getting brighter when you turn on high
beam, it sucks up a lot more power.
Like I said, it's 120 watts, which is a lot more power than most bulbs I've tested.
The amount of light that could be dispersed at any given direction is really limited because
of that.
I think the cone COB four-sided design is a great design for light diffusion in a reflector
unit that takes halogens.
But until we see increased efficiency of the LEDs to actually output more light, I still
feel these bulbs are not adequate enough to safely drive just because they have to split
so much power between four diodes.
Unfortunately, that results in poor light output.
On that note, it's going to also have bad throw distance but we're getting closer.
We're getting closer.
I think this is a route that more companies should be considering, this design for reflector
units.
If you have a projector unit, the whole equation changes but reflectors definitely need something
like this design.
With that being said, do I recommend them?
It's really hard to say.
I like them and I don't like them at the same time.
Let's not also forget this was the least expensive set that I have tested yet.
Let that roll around in your head for a minute.
It's got me torn.
Best light diffusion I've seen but not enough output.
Would I recommend them?
It's a maybe, it’s a maybe.
I would say try them out in your own reflector unit and see.
If not, hopefully you have Amazon Prime and you get free returns.
I think this one is actually worth a try just because it works almost like a halogen.
That being said, thanks for watching guys.
Don't forget to comment, rate, subscribe, show your friends, check out my other videos,
I got plenty of them.
Stay tuned because there are more LED headlight tests to come.
As always, I'll see you next time.
Drive safe.