[Ziyang]

Hi all,
Last week I purchased a pair of 9005 LEDs but was rather disappointed due to bad beam pattern. The brightness was much higher compared to stock halogens, but it didn't aim at correct angles for high beam.
Then I researched and found the Hella 100W high wattage halogens which look worth upgrade.
First, they are cheap. I ordered a pair from Amazon at only $13.43 before tax. Second, better illumination. This model is rated high on bulbfacts.com, giving 29% more high beam illumination compared to standard ones. The improved brightness is what I'm looking for.

Today I received the package and replaced on my car. See the picture below:

Driver side replaced with the 100W High Wattage, passenger side stock bulb. The improvement is clear even in day time.

A few concerns I had to resolve in researching:
1. Will 100W damage the circuit? I read the reviews with keyword 'Honda', and see no Honda owner had this issue. Plus, I only use high beam intermittently on hwy night driving, making the overheat less likely to happen.
However, I should note that if you drive overnight with high beam on, that's a different story.
2. They are specified 'off-road use only'? Worry about law regulations?
For the purpose of avoiding blinding traffic, the automatic high-beam function can handle this. @mtts60 raised the law limit concern, but I didn't find any law saying 'it is illegal to make your high beam more than 65 W'. That 65W law is more like 'for 9005/HB3 bulb the maximum power is 65 W'. More input is welcome here.

Therefore, I think this can be a good budget option for people who are looking for stock halogen replacement/upgrade, if you don't care about halogen's color.

I will update after 6 month / 1 year of use, to see if they prove to be long-lasting and compatible with housing/circuit.

 

[mtts60]

You could have problems if the wiring is not the proper gauge for 100 watt lamps, and it most likely is not.

When volts = 13.8 and power (watts) = 100, that gives us a current draw of 7.2 amps.

13.8v and 65 watts (street-legal high beam), the amperage is 4.7. Quite a bit less.

 

[Ziyang]

You could have problems if the wiring is not the proper gauge for 100 watt lamps, and it most likely is not.

When volts = 13.8 and power (watts) = 100, that gives us a current draw of 7.2 amps.

13.8v and 65 watts (street-legal high beam), the amperage is 4.7. Quite a bit less.

I understand your concern. As I stated before, Based on hundreds of reviews 100W is ok for the wirings, at least for occasional use.

There is always 1.5~2 times redundancy in car design. For example, despite 80 lb ft rated torque, wheels are safe to go even though many unprofessional guys tighten lug nuts with an impact wrench...

Could you cite the law regarding ‘65 watts (street-legal high beam)’? I tried but didn’t find it.

 

[mtts60]

look in your owner's manual, under specifications. I just did, and I was wrong. I thought high beams were 65 watts, in my car they are 60. If they could be higher they probably would be, so 60w must be the limit.

 

[Salle2061]

so overheat doesn't matter for me.

It may not matter to you but it will to the plastic housing holding the bulb.

Going from 65W to a 100W adds 35W or about 55% more. This not only adds to the current draw as already stated above but also adds 35w of heat to the interior of the housing. Can the plastic around there handle 55% more heat? It does not take much time for the plastic to melt and deform. Also, there is a decent chance you can fry your computer due to the higher current draw. (we are talking big money there)

Wishful thinking that manufacturers provision for this kind of modification. They provision for profit, plain and simple, and using higher grade plastic or thicker copper wire, than needed, is highly unlikely.

We all like to pretend here that the stock alternator can handle 1000W sub amp.... but it cant

 

[Ziyang]

We all like to pretend here that the stock alternator can handle 1000W sub amp.... but it cant

The A/C of a modern car easily goes to 3000 W, plus 800 W from audio system. Why would you worry about a 80W increase in headlights?
The major concern lies in the overheat of bulb housing, and I said for intermittent use this is ok...

 

[Salle2061]

I think you have made up your mind on keeping the 100W bulb. I hope for your pocked they do not cause any issues.
Happy 4th of July.

 

[Ziyang]

To some extent, yes, after I've done research for a while.

Honda is the most to be blamed. If an Accord owner is unhappy with the night view, what else can he do with these 'acceptable-rating' high beam bulbs? LEDs are a dead end. I hate it that Honda doesn't make the good-rating full LED (on Insight, even a lower-end car than Accord...) standard for 10th Accord.

Thanks for all replies! I'll definitely update after 6 month/1 year of use. Just add this thread on your watch list.

 

[Salle2061]

Have you researched HID lights? A 35w HID build will have more light output than 65w halogen by a fair margin. Plus they can be had in a 4300k, 5000k etc colour choices. Not a plug and play scenario but about 30-60 minutes work. I had them on my last car, (Sonata) worked great. Never did the research for Accord

 

[Ziyang]

Have you researched HID lights? A 35w HID build will have more light output than 65w halogen by a fair margin. Plus they can be had in a 4300k, 5000k etc colour choices. Not a plug and play scenario but about 30-60 minutes work. I had them on my last car, (Sonata) worked great. Never did the research for Accord

Yeah I've heard of HID's excellent performance. However, as you said it's much more than plug-and-play, and I really cannot find a perfect fit for 10th Accord...

 

[RCarlL]

To some extent, yes, after I've done research for a while.

Honda is the most to be blamed. If an Accord owner is unhappy with the night view, what else can he do with these 'acceptable-rating' high beam bulbs? LEDs are a dead end. I hate it that Honda doesn't make the good-rating full LED (on Insight, even a lower-end car than Accord...) standard for 10th Accord.

Thanks for all replies! I'll definitely update after 6 month/1 year of use. Just add this thread on your watch list.

The full LED headlights on top-end Accords get worse reviews from experts than the halogen high-beams on LX, Sport, EX, and EXL Accords. (IIHS rates the lower-end trims as "acceptable" while the Touring trim gets a "marginal rating" because the LED high beams don't illuminate as well around curves as the halogen high beams on lower trims.

I have a 2.0t Sport with LED low beams and halogen high beams. They are the best stock headlights that I've ever had in a vehicle.

Honda is the most to be blamed. If an Accord owner is unhappy with the night view, what else can he do with these 'acceptable-rating' high beam bulbs?

They could have taken their car for a test drive later in the evening and tested the headlights out. When I bought my 2007 Camry new- they even let me keep one overnight because I wanted to be sure the headlights were decent (the headlights in my previous 1998 Camry were awful)

 

[Ziyang]

The full LED headlights on top-end Accords get worse reviews

Full LEDs on Honda Insight was rated ‘GOOD’. Please read my full sentence before questioning...

 

[RCarlL]

Full LEDs on Honda Insight was rated ‘GOOD’. Please read my full sentence before questioning...

Yes, the headlights on the Insight were rated good. That said, the current Accord is really a very good car when you consider the whole car. Is it perfect? Nope. But in reality, for the price that Honda charges for the Accord, customers are getting a lot. If less than perfect headlights are the cost of making the rest of the car so good... well, that's a good trade-off in my book. There are lots of aftermarket lights to choose from- and it seems like you found a pair that you're willing to try. Hopefully they won't melt the housings.

The standard headlights are pretty darn good compared to most competitors. The halogen high beams are pretty good too. Maybe Honda will address your complaint with the 2021 refresh.

In the meantime, you seem to be discounting everyone's responses to you and have already made up your mind. So with that, good luck and I hope your Amazon headlights work out for you.

 

[Ziyang]

you seem to be discounting everyone's responses to you

Interesting, you quoted my sentence out of context, and then blame me for discounting your response.

the current Accord is really a very good car

If I were Honda or any manufacture there, I'd be more than happy for consumers like you who stand for car manufacturers. What if, say, public agencies like IIHS never released headlight testing? Do you expect manufactures to cut their profit and give you even 'acceptable-rating' headlights?
Of course Accord is overall a good car, but that's because otherwise nobody is going to buy it. This, however, has nothing to do with that Accord falls SHORT in some areas where competitors are doing GOOD. The ONLY way to let Honda improve is to convince them that sale number would otherwise DROP.

 

[Guest]

What the hell is that garbage you just wrote? Throwing out highlighted words doesn’t make up for crappy grammar.

 

[Markus]

What bulb type is the high beam? I'm almost sure there are safer and better alternatives to a 100w bulb with its large and imprecise filament.

Hella don't make their own bulbs. They source them from whomever is cheapest and slap their own branding on them. Often they are not very good and that 100w bulb will be short lived.


Edit: re-read the OP and they are 9005 bulbs.

The best upgrade is a 9011 bulb.

9011 as 9005 upgrade

The 9011 will give just as many lumens as the 100w Hella, will have a controlled and proper filament placing and size, and will draw 65w. OP, send the Hellas back and get the 9011

 

[UnknownJinX]

Interesting, you quoted my sentence out of context, and then blame me for discounting your response.


If I were Honda or any manufacture there, I'd be more than happy for consumers like you who stand for car manufacturers. What if, say, public agencies like IIHS never released headlight testing? Do you expect manufactures to cut their profit and give you even 'acceptable-rating' headlights?
Of course Accord is overall a good car, but that's because otherwise nobody is going to buy it. This, however, has nothing to do with that Accord falls SHORT in some areas where competitors are doing GOOD. The ONLY way to let Honda improve is to convince them that sale number would otherwise DROP.

And competitors fall short on areas Accords don't. There is no such thing as a perfect car, it's about the compromises you are willing to accept.

Personally I would just do the 9011 mod or use a high-performance 65W 9005 like Philips XtremeVision.

And I mean, if you think it's fine to run the 100W lights, go for it. Your car, so if something goes wrong it's your problem.

Sent from GM1917, technology or something like that.

 

[icspots]

Like you and others have said there are several concerns with the setup you have.
-legality.... personally I wouldn’t care so much about this one. It’s for the high beams and you aren’t likely going to be driving around with them on all the time. I doubt a simple lamp swap would get caught by an inspector. Just don’t be an A-hole and high beam someone with a 100w lamp.

-wire capacity.... as noted the 100w lamps are drawing a lot more power. Yes, the manufacturer builds in some wiggle room when they design things, but it’s wiggle room for variation on what’s supposed to be in there. You couldn’t throw in a roof mounted bat-signal search lamp which draws significantly more power and just say “well they build in some redundancy so it’ll be fine”. Wiring is designed to handle the current it’s designed to handle plus a little margin. This is why you don’t run 20a appliances/tools off 14ga circuits with 15a breakers. They get hot and they melt. If you want to eliminate this concern then you need to use a relay harness. Pull power directly from the battery, hook it to a relay, let the stock wiring for the high beam lamp trigger the relay to power the lamp, and use large enough wiring to easily handle the power without overheating.

-heat generation.... similar to the wiring concern it’s totally a thing. The housings are designed to work within the designed capabilities of the stock lamps. That doesn’t mean they won’t withstand increased heat from higher wattage lamps, but they may not. And the lamp melting the housing would be expensive. You’d probably get breakdown of the chrome plating on the reflector before anything else, and then your light output would decrease. There are some mitigating factors..... if you only use them while driving you’ll get some air cooling (what amount I’m not prepared to say). Also in general you’ll be using your high beams for brief periods. Just be aware heat is a real concern.

Other ideas people have brought up are good places to start:
-HID kit. Not hard to install.... lamp, wiring to ballast, connection to stock wiring. Upside, more light output than halogens for less power draw and heat, plus you can select whatever color temp you’d like to match or contrast the LED lamps. Downside, HIDs take a little time to warm up (similar to fluorescent lamps), so if you’re just flicking them on/off quickly you: 1) won’t get full output, and 2) could decrease the overall life of the lamps and ballasts. Other downside is in general one shouldn’t put HIDs in a reflector housing, but as noted above if you’re only using these in high beams when you aren’t around other people anyway that issues goes away.

-LED lamps. I know you said you got a pair of cheap LED lamps and they sucked.... often that’s what you get for cheap products. I put a pair of Morimoto LED lamps in my wife’s commuter low beams. They don’t do much in the way of increased output, but that isn’t why I was getting them. Her car has been blowing low beams very frequently for awhile now. No issues I can see on a multimeter, and I’ve been very careful when replacing the lamps. She commutes 100 miles/day so I wanted something which would not continuously burn out. The Morimoto 9005 lamps (not what I have in her car btw) are specced at 2,440 lumens vs. the 1,9XX of the hella 100w.

-9011/9012 HIR lamps. Much higher output, same wattage, less concern for heat damage to the housing or wiring. Pretty inexpensive to try out.

If you really want to get into this with people who know what they’re talking about I suggest you go lurk on the candlepower forums.

 

[Ziyang]

Thanks for your input! Appreciate it.

I used to get good results from LEDs on a 2017 Civic. I’m not sure if you noticed that for low beams with projector-type housing, upgrading to LED is much more likely to yield good results. The reason lies in that the lens in the projector housing do the light convergence.

Reflector housing really adds challenge for the upgrade. Imagine how different the LED chips are compared to a halogen filament, while all reflecting surfaces are designed for the latter. I recall I also got good beam pattern out from the 2017-Civic reflector high beam, but this time the same brand LED just failed...it’s not cheap; it costs near $50.

The work for HID is more than connecting things around. An example is that in EU one must have lens for upgraded HID, because the beam would be actually harmful for night view. That’s why I gave up on HID. They are likely to yield undesired beam pattern for high beam—just like that pair of LEDa.

 

[icspots]

Thanks for your input! Appreciate it.

I used to get good results from LEDs on a 2017 Civic. I’m not sure if you noticed that for low beams with projector-type housing, upgrading to LED is much more likely to yield good results. The reason lies in that the lens in the projector housing do the light convergence.

very true, different housings, and different projectors/reflectors will yield different results from different light sources.

Reflector housing really adds challenge for the upgrade. Imagine how different the LED chips are compared to a halogen filament, while all reflecting surfaces are designed for the latter. I recall I also got good beam pattern out from the 2017-Civic reflector high beam, but this time the same brand LED just failed...it’s not cheap; it costs near $50.

Again, very true. Depending on what reflector it’s in front of you mayor may not get a good beam pattern out of the LED. It’s possible your $50 LEDs were fine but the positioning and direction of light were unsuitable in the accord’s high beam reflector. It’s also possible that maybe those LEDs were unsuitable in the reflector housing and a different one would be better. The Morimotos I got were ~$120 and have performed very well. Again this was a H11 replacement in a projector low beam, so not exactly apples to apples. I’ve had good luck with that seller for years, so I was willing to do the buy in for them. Plus that manufacturer makes some really nice lamps and projectors.

The work for HID is more than connecting things around. An example is that in EU one must have lens for upgraded HID, because the beam would be actually harmful for night view. That’s why I gave up on HID. They are likely to yield undesired beam pattern for high beam—just like that pair of LEDa.

Well, yes and no. The work for installing HIDs is literally install the lamp (the lamp having the correct base to connect to your housing), plug in the ballast, secure the ballast near the headlamp, connect the ballast wiring to the stock wiring. Unless you wanted to wire in a relay harness that really is it for the actual install, though some cars can be more problematic for fitment, etc.

As for the extra steps you refer to in upgrading lenses...... you’re already using lamps not DOT for on road usage, so I’m assuming you’re fine not following the strict requirements here. Totally possible the additional light spill in that reflector housing could cause so much backscatter that it would impinge on your night view, then again I’d think if more light from the reflectors is going to hinder your view you’d be getting it with the hellas as well.

Another option you could try if you really want to get into it would be pulling your lights housings, cracking them open and installing a mini projector in the high beam reflector. Obviously that would be a lot of work.