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[DIY] Change Low Beam Headlight to LED

84K views 82 replies 20 participants last post by  evioniq 
#1 · (Edited by Moderator)
This is a @nateads style [DIY]. Without his post here I will not be able to do this. Thanks a lot @nateads.

This MOD is for ioniq that doesn't come with HID lamp (Blue and SEL in the U.S.)

*Disclaimer: I am not responsible for any damage that occurs to your vehicle if you decide to follow this procedure. I attempted to remove and install new bulbs the easiest and best way possible, but everyone's vehicle may be different in respect to parts being seized or flaws in manufacturing or quite simply using brute force when you shouldn't be.*

*Tools Needed*
1. Rubber Gloves
2. H7 LED bulbs (2 bulbs). Beam pattern is a very important concern when changing headlight. Do your research and choose your LED bulbs wisely.
3. Warm weather, heat gun or hair dryer, if you have to do this mod in cold weather.
4.TOMALL H7 LED Headlight Bulb Retainers Holder Adapter for Hyundai 2017 Mistra New Tucson KIA Carnival
5.3D printable Extended dust cap
6.Screwdrivers
7.Electrical Tape and/or shrink tube
8.DIY plastic holder removal tools (will show you haw to make this later).

Step 1.
Make sure car is off.

Step 2.
Find headlight dust cap which is located under the hood, behind the headlight housing. The low beams are the furthest and unfortunately the hardest to get access to.

Step 3.
Rotate the cap in a counter-clockwise direction. Their is a rubber seal that will make it feel tight, but it will move slowly. The cap rotates 45 degress then will stop.

Step 4.
Use finger nails or something thin to pull the cap from the headlight housing as rotating it will not pull it away from the housing.

Step 5.
Make a DIY plastic holder removal tool. I use plywood scrap and two wood screw place them 20mm (3/4 inch) apart from each other.


Step 6.
Use the DIY tool to remove the plastic holder by turning it 45 degree counter-clockwise.

Step 7.
Ware a glove, pull the plastic holder out of the housing and remove the halogen bulb.

Step 8.
Dissemble the connectors from the plastic holder. The plastic base has plastic tab/knob to hold the connector in place. You have to ply the connector while pushing it till it come out of the plastic base.

In this photo you can see the tab/knob in the plastic base that hold the connector in place.


you will need a flat head screwdriver for plying and another Philip or hex or Allen key to push the connector out of the plastic base.


It might be harder if you have to do in on your car under the hood. If it is too hard then just cut it and make a new connection.


After the connectors came out wrap them with electrical tape and/or shrink tube.


Step 9.
Put the LED in the adapter.


Step 10.
Plug the LED into the connectors and test if it working? If not, rotate the connector. Unlike the halogen, some LED bulbs are polarized.


Step 11.
Make sure the car is OFF!!!

Step 12.
guide the LED into the housing. Rotate the LED adapter back and forth back in the headlight housing. You will feel the notches fall back into place and you will be able to rotate the adapter 45 degrees and it will click into place. This step will also be easier if the plastic bulb holder is warm. Not hot, but warm.

Step 13.
tugged in all the wires. and check your beam pattern.


Step 14.
Close the dust cap.


Step 15.
wait until night and enjoy your work.
 

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#2 ·
More photo after dark.
 

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#4 ·
Update: after a few days driving at night, last night I have a warning on my dashboard to check the Right Low beam headlight. This happen after a long drive, so I think it might be an overheat problem. I've ordered another LED with fan and it is on the way. I will try it out and post the result here.
 
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#7 ·
We will have to ask someone with the Limited to take a photo of their dust cap for us.

BTW, the headlight housing of the limited is different, there is only one bulb (HID) in projector housing, and a moving shade to create high/low beam
 

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#8 ·
update: I had a long night drive again tonight, and again I got the same warning on the way to my destination. However, on the way back, I remove both of the dust caps and everything was fine. I'm pretty sure it is the overheat problem because of the fan less design.

It make sense though, the heatsink should have more room than the small space in the headlight housing. Maybe this is why they design it with the fan in the first place.
 
#9 ·
What a pioneer you are, I wish you lived where I am so I can pay you to do this mod for me. I hope you eventually find a LED or solution that works long term without over heating. The difference in LED is substantial. I don't know why Hyundai would put halogens instead of LED
 
#11 ·
I didn't feel any loose between the bulb and the adapter. However, when you put the adapter in the headlight housing it doesn't tight fit like the original bulb holder, which I like. I think the original bulb holder is too tight in the housing.
 
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#13 ·
OK, this is how I did it.

The problem is because the adapter is lacking of notches to keep the bulb in place, so let's create some notches.

In this photo, you can see the tabs on the right is very slant, with the lack of notches this will force the bulb base to slide upward and out of the adapter.


While holding the bulb base in place, use sharp knife mark where the bulb base touch the adapter. Mark everywhere it touches.



Remove the bulb base, and make a grove, DO NOT CUT THROUGH!!!! JUST MAKE A GROVE!!!!


Now the bulb has something to hold onto.



Now it sit in place.
 

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#14 ·
Problem solved! I’ve been driving with the Hikari Ultra LED for a few days and I just have a long night drive today. No warning, everything working nicely, Actually the Hikari is brighter and the beam pattern is better (at least in my opinion). I will write a side by side review on both of them this weekend.
 
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#17 ·
I use Hikari Ultra H7 LED ($89.99 off Amazon), be careful and don’t be confused with the Hikari ($49.xx) one.

So far so good, perfect actually. No problem what so ever.

I’ve design and printed out the extended dust cap, the link is in the original post. However, before I have the Hikari ultra, I use Beamtech which has fabless design thus, has overheating problem. I have to drive about a week with the dustcaps opened, in the storm and sun. I haven’t had any issue doing so. However, again, I felt uncomfortable knowing I have no dustcpa on, To answer your question, I think it is ok not to have the dust cap in place, but you have to be careful don’t let someone pressure washing the undercarriage or the engine bay, or don’t be clumsy overfilled the windshield washer fluid.
 
#23 ·
Yep, a little.

First of all, on the pro side, the Hikari bulb almost completely remove glares above the cutoff line which is better for on coming vehicle.



compare to this photo (Stock Halogen on the left and Beamtech fanless LEDon the right). Notice the glares above the cutoff line.



However, on the con size, I've notice a shadow line on the road created by Kikari bulb. This shadow line is almost un noticeable when driving straight, but when you make a turn you would feel like your car has a long wiper blade sweeping the road as you turn.
 

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#24 ·
I just experimenting on turning the bulb to change the pattern. Now the shadow disappeared. I browse through old photos and found out that the original bulb base on the right housing is on 90 degrees angle, So I rotate the right LED 90 degree and the shadow was gone.

I also tried rotate both of them around to have the best pattern.
 
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#59 · (Edited)
Thanks very much to Cha for the detailed instructions for the LED upgrade. I will be performing the upgrade, but would not have tried it without this thread.

I just experimenting on turning the bulb to change the pattern. Now the shadow disappeared. I browse through old photos and found out that the original bulb base on the right housing is on 90 degrees angle, So I rotate the right LED 90 degree and the shadow was gone.

I also tried rotate both of them around to have the best pattern.
Cha, when you say that you rotated the bulbs 90 degrees, you mean that the LEDs on each side of the bulb are now facing up and down?
Or said differently, does the wire on your bulb point down or sideways when installed?

Thanks again!
 
#29 ·
#34 ·
#30 ·
This looks like an excellent review of LED bulbs showing test results, not just comparing specs like other reviews do. Thanks for sharing. The video attached the review of the top-rated Hikari bulbs recommends the Hikarin Ultra as the best or the Katana as a close second for projector headlights, as we have in the Ioniq. I live in Canada and, surprizingly, the Katana are more expensive than the Hikari (on Amazon.ca).

I am looking to replace the halogen bulbs in the high beam (for now). Has anyone tried the Hikari Ultra or the Katana bulbs in the high beams ?
 
#31 ·
I am looking to replace the halogen bulbs in the high beam (for now). Has anyone tried the Hikari Ultra or the Katana bulbs in the high beams ?
In my opinion, I prefer fanless design in the high beam because it does not get overheat. Another reason is, in my opinion, when you use pass signal (flashing the high beam a few time) the fan on the LED will try to start on each and every flash, I don't think this is a good idea. So, in my opinion, I prefer fanless design for the high beam.
 
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#35 ·
I finally replaced the stock halogen bulbs in the low beams with LED's. I purchased the Katana LED's from Amazon.
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07FFS4JZJ/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o00_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

A while ago, I replaced the high beam halogens with Nineo LED's https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07JCSRS7H/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o02_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

Both bulbs look to be very good quality and are well packaged. Both can be rotated. I suspect the both are made by the same company as the packaging is identical and the power supply is identical as well.

For the low beam LED conversion, I had to purchase this bulb holder to fit the LED's into the housing. https://www.amazon.ca/gp/product/B074ZMQTMR/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o02_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1 I can't say that I'm real happy with this holder. It fits snugly into the housing but the bulbs does not fit very solidly into the holder. It's difficult to rotate the bulb once installed without it becoming loose from the holder and having to pull the entire thing out to start over. In any event, the conversion is done, I have no Canbus errors, and I now can see the deer at night. The increase in brightness and visibility at night is significant in the low beam and even more so in the high beam. It's a nice improvement, and I recommend doing it.
 
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#36 ·
For what it is worth ...

I had a little trouble finding something to work as a 'removal tool'
Then struck upon the BS 1363 (UK Power) adapter than comes with many multi-voltage devices


Cut off the bottom plug & the two others almost perfectly fit the Ioniq Headlight
(Adapting to fit a ratchet would be my next plan)
 
#37 ·
thanks Sithra. That's a good tip. It's incredibly tight in there so a custom-made tool would have been handy. I believe someone posted earlier that it helps to apply some heat to remove the plastic holder and reinstall the new one. I found this was really helpful. On an cold day, it would not budge until I took a hair dryer and heated it.
 
#39 ·
Hi ngolf. Yes I had to modify the dust cover. The bulb I used (Katana) fits nicely inside the cover and I suspect the Hikari's you plan to use will as well. But there is no room for the power supply to fit inside the cover. I experimented with an extended dust cover and I did not like the quality (very loose fit) of it. Even then, the power supply still did not fit inside this extended dust cover. So here's what I did:

The OEM halogen H7 bulb plugs directly in the OEM plastic bulb holder. See Cha's pictures and description at the start of this thread. You have to remove the OEM plastic bulb holder to remove the halogen bulb. I replaced the OEM plastic bulb holder with this adapter https://www.amazon.ca/gp/product/B07...?ie=UTF8&psc=1. It looks like the same one Cha used. The new LED bulb is mounted to this adapter.

I then pulled the two wires that connected to the OEM plastic bulb holder using the technique explained by Cha. I drilled a small (about 3 mm) hole in the OEM dust cover to pass both wires. With both wires now on the outside of the dust cover, I reconnected them to the OEM plastic bulb holder on the outside of the dust cover. Essentially, I am now using the OEM bulb holder as a female plug for the LED power supply.

I plugged in the LED male power supply into the female plug of the OEM bulb holder on the outside of the dust cover.

I then drilled another hole (about 6-7 mm) in the dust cover to run the cable from the power supply back to the LED bulb.

So after doing all this, I end up with the power supply and OEM bulb holder on the outside of the dust cover, with 2 holes in the dust cover. I reinstalled the dust cover and applied clear caulking around the holes to keep water out. I tied down the power supply using a tie wrap.

Hopefully that's clear. Ideally, I would have taken pictures of this when I was doing it but it's all done now and I'm not taking it apart again (it is extremely tight to work on).
 
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