Morimoto 2Stroke 2.0 LED Retrofit

In the past 15 years with this car I've used 35W HIDs, 55W HIDs, and most recently went back to the stock 9006 incandescent bulbs during my rebuild in the hopes of getting to my aero project that will redo the entire front end soon. Well, that's not going to happen for awhile, so I saw these Morimoto LED bulbs below and thought I'd give them a try:

23W
2440 lm raw
5700k
Copper and aluminum heatsinks with magnetic levitating fan for longevity

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07N95KBYW/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o02_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1


They are kinda pricey and heat is the enemy of LEDs, so I didn't like the idea of sealing them up behind a dust cap. Therefore, I cut some thin aluminum sheet to fit the diameter of the stock dust caps, and also to fit around the metal bulb socket. To provide a seal against the metal bulb socket, I slit some R/C silicone fuel tubing as shown below. The below pic was to prove the concept, so now I need to run a thin bead of sealant around the aluminum edge where the OEM dust cap used to seal. The bulb and projector housing are totally sealed from the elements AND my LEDs can circulate ambient air.

Good thing too because the fans are temperature-controlled. On high speed they do make a unique whirring sound that you can hear when the car is off. The heatsink is doing it's job because it does get a little warm to the touch. I'll have to take some surface temp measurements later when these have been on while they're aligned.

I did have to bend the bulb retaining tabs as shown with the red arrow to allow it to pass over the large fan/heatsink housing. Unfortunately, that is the problem with this design and doing a retrofit like this. The six LEDs per bulb (three on each side of the board) are at exactly the same spot as the filament on the incandescent bulb to keep the optics similar. The problem with the large heatsinks LED or those with big fans is that the OEM bulb retaining ring won't pass around them. Some manufacturers provide you with an adapter. However, that places the LEDs further back in the housing and the optics suffer (too much light on the ground right in front of the car and not enough projection).

These bulbs were borderline too big for the bent OEM retaining rings. While they are held in securely and won't come out, there does seem to be a very slight wiggle to them if I try to forcibly move the heatsinks around. It's more of a force than they would receive on the road, so I think I'll be OK.

Also, you'll note from the picture below that the electrical plug isn't weatherproof because it normally sits behind the sealed dust cap. With this setup it's now exposed, so I had to wrap it up a bit with electrical tape. No one will see it (I hope).

I don't have any before/after shots. Obviously, there's no comparison between these 23W LEDs and the stock 51W incandescents. I would guess they are similar to my old 55W HIDs but without the HID drawbacks. These LEDs are double the price though, but do come with a 3-year warranty.

View attachment 160406

very interesting. why did you switch from the 35w and 55w HID kits?

Just wanted to try something new basically.

In the past I've used DDM kits and they've worked fine. However, the salts seem to break down causing loss of output. Furthermore, HID "slim" ballasts are a good three times bigger than these LED drivers, the LEDs use less than half the current of the HIDs, no cold start issues with LEDs, LEDs are instant on and seem to do a bit better with "abuse" (on/off cycles), etc.

The housing heat sink gets a bit warmer to the touch than I thought. I measure the heatsink about 50F above ambient and it has reconfirmed the importance of letting these dissipate heat as efficiently as possible (ideally not insulated behind a dust cap).

Also, I've adjusted the alignment and the beam pattern is acceptable. I don't drive this thing at night anymore, and all my other cars have factory LED headlights with awesome beams. I guess compared to those it's a bit disappointing, but not enough for me to remove them and go back to something like DDM HIDs.

Mac Attack said:

The housing heat sink gets a bit warmer to the touch than I thought. I measure the heatsink about 50F above ambient and it has reconfirmed the importance of letting these dissipate heat as efficiently as possible (ideally not insulated behind a dust cap).

Also, I've adjusted the alignment and the beam pattern is acceptable. I don't drive this thing at night anymore, and all my other cars have factory LED headlights with awesome beams. I guess compared to those it's a bit disappointing, but not enough for me to remove them and go back to something like DDM HIDs.

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knowing what you know now, and assuming you still had the DDM HIDs installed, would you go LED again?

I_M_Legend said:

knowing what you know now, and assuming you still had the DDM HIDs installed, would you go LED again?

Click to expand...

No. I still like the instant on and lower current draw of the LEDs compared to HIDs, but the poorer light output and double the cost of a 55W HID setup just doesn't make sense.

Going from memory when I had 35W and 55W HID setups on this car, I would say these expensive LED bulbs are probably "better" than 35W HID bulbs, but not as good as the useable light output (beam quality and lumens) from a 55W HID setup.

This Morimoto design with the latest small LEDs was supposed to do the best job of all other LED retrofits as far as replicating a halogen filament. Bummer....

That's too bad, but thank you for sharing your honest opinion to help the community.

They do look like little chain saws.