UPDATED- LEAF LED High-Beam upgrade

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OrientExpress

Well-known member
Joined
Aug 8, 2010
Messages
1,651
Location
San Jose, Ca
I recently upgraded the high-beam headlights on my 2014 LEAF SV from H9 Halogens to H9 LED lamps. Having done many of the HID upgrades over the years, with the external ballast, and the beam focus problems that HID retrofit kits have, I have to say that these LED retrofit kits are superior in every way.

The upgrade was very easy and took less than an hour. The difference between the stock high-beams and the LED high beams is quite remarkable, and only set me back abut $55 for the pair of lamps.

I purchased these high beam lamps on eBay, and am quite satisfied with them.

The upgrade process is simply remove the stock halogen lights, and replace them with the new LED lights and their adapter cable. Everything fits inside the headlight housing, and unlike HID retrofits, no cutting or drilling (other some slight filing of a support in the left headlight enclosure described in this narrative) is required. Remember these upgrade kits are generic kits, and may have some extra pieces that you won't need. The kit I used has some extra mounting adapters and a rubber boot to cover the headlight enclosure access port. These are not necessary for using that LED upgrade kit with the LEAF.

UPDATE:
I have updated this post with more info on the various details of this DIY.

First off before attempting to do this yourself, you should have some basic automotive knowledge to be successful with this DIY mod, primarily knowing how to remove and replace an automobile headlight bulb, use of common hand tools, and knowing what the headlight configuration of your LEAF is. Without these three pieces of basic information, then it is probably best to avoid attempting this DIY.

The headlight configurations of the 2011-2015 LEAF are:
2011-2015 LEAF SL: LED low beams, H9 halogen high beams
2011-2012 LEAF SV: LED low beams, H9 halogen high beams
2013-2015 LEAF SV: H13 Halogen low/high beams
2013-2015 LEAF SV w/LED Headlights and Quick Charge Port Package: LED low beams, H9 halogen high beams
2013-2015 LEAF S: H13 Halogen low/high beams

The terms H9 and H13 refer to the type of mounting the bulb uses, and is the type of bulb you will look for when ordering your LED upgrade kit.

Here is what the two types of headlights are used for the 2011 - 2015 LEAF look like:

2011-2015 LEAF SL and SV with LED low beams and H9 Halogen high beam headlights:

leafledlights-16.jpg


2013-2015 LEAF SV and S with H13 Halogen low & high beam headlights

leafledlights-17.jpg


Here is what the two types of headlights look like side by side H13 on the left and H9 on the right.

leafledlights-18.jpg


All headlight bulbs have alignment tabs which must be properly aligned with the headlight housing to properly mount the bulb. For H9 & H13 bulbs there are 3 tabs with the center tab being longer that the two other tabs. The bulb is inserted and then twisted to lock it in place. These tabs must be properly aligned, and must be fully twisted into place. When installing the bulb don't force the bulb. There is enough room that you can look at the bulb from the front of the headlight to properly insert it and twist it into place.

The following narrative describes the installation of a H9 bulb into a LED low beam equipped headlight. Click here for a narrative on installing a H13 bulb into a Halogen low/high beam equipped headlight.

CREE/LTI LED bulb along with my LED city light in the high beam reflector.
leafledlights-01.jpg


Rear view of LED assembly viewed from headlight assembly access port.
leafledlights-02.jpg


Complete LED assembly with heat sink and H9 adapter cable
leafledlights-03.jpg


Rear view of LED assembly with heat sink and H9 adapter cable
leafledlights-04.jpg


Front view of LED assembly with heat sink. Notice the tabs on the base of the lamp. these tabs must be properly oriented with the headlight enclosure to properly install it and the yellow gasket must be fully seated around the base of the lamp.

leafledlights-05.jpg


LEAFLEDlights-new.gif


This is what the lights look like head-on and compared to sunlight.
leafledlights-08.jpg


After I had installed the HID upgrade kit on my LED low beam equipped SV I found a small issue with the right side (left side if looking at the car from the front) high beam enclosure and an interference issue between the enclosure and the bulb that causes the LED bulb assembly to point lower than it should. This causes the beam spread to have a hotspot in the mid-right side.

At issue is an structure in the right side headlight enclosure which interferes with the bulb

leafledlights-09.jpg


The fix is to take a small flat file and remove about 1/64th of the bottom of this piece of aluminum.

leafledlights-10.jpg


The second issue is that the H9 mounting collar tolerance on the LED bulb is a bit loose which can cause the bulb to point off axis if there is interference if the bulb assembly rubs against the enclosure.

leafledlights-12.jpg


The solution that I MacGyvered was to take a plastic Zip-tie and insert it in the mount gaps to tighten the mount up against the bulb globe.

leafledlights-13.jpg


leafledlights-14.jpg


This tightens up the tolerance of the mount so that it does not wiggle in the reflector mounting flange. When the bulb is reinserted into the headlight reflector, make sure that it is not off axis and level in the reflector.

This will give a better (though not perfect) beam pattern. Please note on this photo the car is not pointed straight down this piece of road, it is pointed a bit to the left, hence the left side trees are illuminated more than the right side trees.

LEAFLEDlights-new.gif


With the brighter LED high beams any headlight aiming error will be more apparent, especially on the right (left if looking at the car from the front) headlight. To adjust the vertical headlight aim there is a 8mm adjustment bolt located on the back of the headlight assembly. Simply turn the bolt until you are satisfied with the aim. If you don't know how to, or don't feel comfortable adjusting headlights, then any auto shop should be able to do this adjustment for you.

leafledlights-15.jpg


The left and right headlight enclosures have different bulb mounting flange orientations. These flanges will orient the drivers-side bulb about 30 degrees left off of vertical and the passenger -ide bulb is about 40 degrees off of vertical. Don't worry about that, and how it looks in relation to the bulbs reflectors. This orientation is done intentionally.

The LED high beam assembly draws 30w, needs 2.2 amps@ 12v, and has a color temperature of 6000K. The LED chip is exactly the same distance from the bulb base as a stock halogen filament, so the beam focus is spot on.
 
This is Excellent! I've always thought the yellow high beams looked terrible against the LED low beams. I ordered this immediately and will have it in by the weekend. Awesome documentary.
 
OrientExpress said:
I recently upgraded the high-beam headlights on my 2014 LEAF SV from H9 Halogens to H9 LED lamps. Having done many of the HID upgrades over the years, with the external ballast, and the beam focus problems that HID retrofit kits have, I have to say that these LED retrofit kits are superior in every way.

The upgrade was very easy and took less than an hour. The difference between the stock high-beams and the LED high beams is quite remarkable, and only set me back abut $55 for the pair of lamps.

I purchased these high beam lamps on eBay, and am quite satisfied with them.

The upgrade process is simply remove the stock halogen lights, and replace them with the new LED lights and their adapter cable. Everything fits inside the headlight housing, and unlike HID retrofits, no cutting or drilling is required.

Here are a few photos of the lights:


The LED high beam assembly draws 30w, needs 2.2 amps@ 12v, and has a color temperature of 6000K. The LED chip is exactly the same distance from the bulb base as a stock halogen filament, so the beam focus is spot on.

There is also a H13 kit available for the LEAF S or SV with non-LED low beams, and installs in exactly the same way. Truly PnP.

How does the color temperature compare to the stock led low beams? Is it possible for you to take a picture of the car with both the high beams and the low beams on from the drivers perspective and if you are looking at the front of the car?

Great find! I really want to do this as long as the colors are not too far off from each other.
 
How does the color temperature compare to the stock led low beams?

Both the stock LED low beams, and these retrofit high beams have an identical color temp, 6000K.

The unit is cooled passively with copper aluminum fins. It also has an overtemp sensor in the base so that if it gets too hot, it throttles back the power to the bulb until it cools off. I ran the high beams for 45 minutes inside the headlight assembly, and it only got up to 125 degrees.
 
I have always been disappointed with my high beams. Part of the problem is they are run at 13.1 volts and would be brighter if we had 14 volt alternators like the ICE cars. I wish you would have do a before and after picture but it looks great. I too will order some.

Any idea of service life compared to stock h9 halogens?????? I have heard with the flashlight guys that some of the Cree's go pretty fast.
 
Here is another reason to us LED high beams. I live rural where high beams are used alot. My ICE cars all have halogen high beams and really put out good light. I could not figure out why the leaf had such dim high beams. Then I figured out the leaf 12v system usually runs at 13.1 volt where as my ICE cars have alternators putting out over 14 volts. Check out the chart below on how much light you lose using Halogens running at 13.1 volts. There are hundreds of posts on the forum about the low voltage the leaf runs at. These Cree LED high beams are 3600 lumens each!!!! You must have noticed a vast improvement over you old high beams. Is this true???

Halogen bulb light output is severely compromised with decreased voltage. The drop in light output is not linear, it is exponential with the power 3.4. For example, let's consider a 9006 low beam bulb rated 1000 lumens at 12.8 Volts and plug in different voltages:

10.5V : 510 lumens
11.0V : 597 lumens
11.5V : 695 lumens
12.0V : 803 lumens
12.5V : 923 lumens
12.8V : 1000 lumens Rated output voltage
13.0V : 1054 lumens
13.5V : 1198 lumens
14.0V : 1356 lumens Rated life voltage
14.5V : 1528 lumens
 
so does anyone have long term experience with these bulbs? is my 2012 also H9? (I have LED low Halogen high 2012 SV)
 
The H9 mount is the standard bulb for all LED low beam/halogen high beam LEAFs. H13 is the standard bulb for all Halogen low/high beam LEAFs. I have been using CREE LEDs in many applications for several years without any issues. I highly recommend them.
 
Thanks for the tip, OrientExpress. I received a set tonight and installed them. As you mentioned, their design sends most of the light into the reflector just as the incandescent bulb did, so the high beams point where they are supposed to. The LEDs I was using before consisted of an array of surface mounted devices, which sprayed their light everywhere like floodlights. As a result, I could see absolutely no difference between high and low beam.

One annoyance with these new lights was the instructions for assembly of H9 bulbs, which indicate that the lamps should be partially dismantled and enclosed in big rubber boots. In reality, the lamps come ready to install. Once I had installed the boots, I realized that they would completely cover (and defeat) the aluminum heat exchanger on the back of the lamp, so I had to pull everything back apart and revert to the as-shipped configuration. Doubled the time required to install the lamps, but the process was still pretty quick and easy. One connector was a little sloppy and disconnected after a few seconds of use; I may have to tape or spot-tie it if it acts up again.

-Karl
 
kolmstead said:
One annoyance with these new lights was the instructions for assembly of H9 bulbs . . . . . .
-Karl
Thanks Karl, for posting this, I wondered the same thing on your supplied rubber boots but decided to scan this post before attempting installation. You saved me a bunch of time.
 
The one thing I'm not sure I'm going to like is that the heat-sink is so large and it hangs off the mounting surface so far, it may wobble from road bumps, causing a jittery light. I see this on other cars with upgraded beams and find it annoying. I'll be testing it tonight.
 
It is metal so it should not be too hard to add a reinfOrcwment to stabilize things.
 
One thing to remember is that these kits are universal ones, not just for the LEAF. One of the parts that the kit has are some rubber covers that are for headlight housings that are two shallow to accommodate the LED retrofit and reinstall the access cover. The boots allow the headlight assembly to maintain some level of weather resistance. And yes, for the LEAF the entire retrofit assembly fits inside the headlight housing so the boot is not necessary.

The entire LED retrofit is held in place by the mounting twist-lock flange and as long as that flange is fully engaged the assembly will not bounce or jiggle. The heat sink assembly is right up against the flange, and the CG of the bulb is very close to the flange, so assembly wobble because of vehicle dynamics is not an issue.

One note on the right side (passenger-side) headlight housing. It is a bit tighter inside, and the heat sink may rub very slightly against a part of the housing structure on the outboard inside of the housing. I found that after the bulb is installed, give the LED assembly a little nudge downward so that it is level. Also make sure that all of the wires to the headlight and city lights are tucked out of the way of the bulb so that the wires do not touch the heat sink.

One last item that seems to be present in all retrofit kits are the adapter pigtail connectors. You should not assume that the connector will seat completely on the first try with them. It is best to inspect the connector pins and make sure that they are aligned straight in the connector shell. Also make sure that they are fully seated in the cars connector. I always do a trial fit of the connector before I install the bulb to save troubleshooting later.
 
kolmstead said:
One connector was a little sloppy and disconnected after a few seconds of use; I may have to tape or spot-tie it if it acts up again.

-Karl

I saw that too. But- reverse the connector 180 degrees and it will click into place firmly. Since the bulbs are polarity sensitive you'll also have to reverse the pigtail connector at the bulb assemble too.

Mine came with a defective pigtail, and they're shipping a replacement from China. One LED beam, and one Halogen beam for a week.
 
Glad to hear this. I ordered the same hi-beams and one came broken. They are sending me a replacement, but it takes time to get here from China. Great tips here for me to consider. (My lights did not come with the rubber covers as noted in the instructions.)
 
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