Upgraded Headlights Again With Holley RetroBright LEDs

MikekiM

TJ Addict
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East of Montauk, NY
After only two nights of driving with the Holley RetroBright LED Headlights, I can say these are an absolute winner.

My LED headlight experience has been less than stellar. Fortunately I have never had to deal with the stock lights. The first replacement set, installed by the OP were a feeble excuse for headlights. I found something similar to them on Amazon for $29. The second set, highly recommended by the folks here and a knock-off of the TruckLite headlight, had a pattern that pointed straight up I hated them. I am trying to keep a period-correct appearance and both looked severely out of place on a 2000.

I switched to the $45 Koito / Toyota H4‘s and that was a vast improvement over any of the prior sets for a crazy cheap investment and an absolute steal for the price. For many of you this would be a great place to stop. With the addition of the HD harness and 100/80 bulbs, the output was far better and the pattern was fairly clean though a bit blotchy. I added Lamin-X film to protect the glass lenses which were the period correct look I wanted, but at 3000 kelvin the color was far too warm for my eye. I searched for replacement bulbs that were a cooler temp, but in the end everything I found was a kin to making a silk purse from a sows ear. The color change was achieved via coatings which no doubt reduced output (while I craved more) and LED replacement bulbs all had horrible reviews.

When I came across the Holley RetroBright housings I found what I was looking for (I purchased from Summit Racing). The output far exceeds any of the options I had tried thus far. The daylight 5700 kelvin temperature is spot on and visually these look like very much the same as the Koito and IPS H4 conversions I’ve used in the past. Visually, they appear to be classic sealed beams, until you turn them on.

Installation was a ten minute job. Maybe twelve since I refreshed the Sema Trim Black paint on the trim rings. I plugged into the heavy duty harness that was installed to run the upgraded bulbs in the Koito H4s. Surely overkill for the low draw on the LEDs but too much work to remove and better off feeding power direct from the battery.

The pattern is great with a clean upper cutoff with a gentle rise on the passenger side. Gutter illumination to the right is great. There are absolutely no dead spots and no annoying extraneous hot spots illuminating the under of the trees.

Switching on the high beams has no negative impact on the low beams, which surprised me.

The LED modules are replaceable in the event a different color temperature is in order or if an LED burns out.

The only negative is that the lenses are polycarbonate and hopefully will have longevity. The subtle Holley logo in the center of the lens is raised slightly and that likely will prevent any kind of Lamin-X protection and no heat to reduce ice freeze in winter.

The Koito H4 in 100/80 on the passenger side and Holley RetroBright on the driver side.. 3000 Kelvin for the H4s and 5700 Kelvin for the Holley.

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Housing with integrated cooling fins is made by Philips, where ever Philips makes housings and the removable light module is made Morimoto. Plug-n-play three prong plug works in the stock harness or in the ungraded harness for the Koito H4 housings.

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They look period-correct to a 2000 and even up close you can’t tell they are LEDs, until they are illuminated.

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Those look really good! (y) They're so bright that they make your other lights look yellow. ;)

p.s. I might have to try a set. I blew the high beam on one of my cheapo LEDs.

Can’t lie.. I love them. Heavy construction unlike the prior two LED headlights I have tried that felt like helium filled balloons. And most impressive to me is the low beam doesn’t go on vacation when you switch on the high beams.

I took a flyer on these because there aren’t many reviews and only one member here has them (that I can find) but hasn’t installed them yet.

Between the Hella 500FF driving lights and the old H4’s, I had a lot of ‘yellow’ going on.

Guess I’ll sell the H4s with all the extra bulbs I bought.
 
I am not a fan of the “transformers” look of almost all of the aftermarket LED headlights out there. They look, feel, and perform cheaply in my opinion.
And why does it have to look like a headlight off of a space ship?

The Holley retro’s are much better at filling the gap between 90’s/2000’s headlights and the performance from the LED headlights of today.

Love that the Holley’s can be had in the classic yellowish halogen output or a modern white LED output.
 
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I ordered a set of those last week and I'm still waiting for them to get here, I can't wait to get ride of my current headlights and go with these as well! Glad to hear you are liking them so far!
 
have only had the toyota headlights for a few months and are a great improvement over stock sealed beams. can’t stand the typical led look myself but, these have the factory oem look to them. had i not already purchased the toyota lights i’d be looking at a set of these.
 
Do they have a sidelight function?
I have no real response to this. Sidelight function? Is that like drilled and slotted brake lines?

To the rest of you, and no offense to @TheBoogieman (once you add pink shackle dampeners, pretty much anything goes ;)), if you're trying to keep a period correct look, nearly all 'bug-eye' looking LED headlights feel and look out of place. If you're not interested in maintaining that classic look... carry on.
Love that the Holley’s can be had in the classic yellowish halogen output or a modern white LED output.
Also available in euro yellow. if that's your thing.
 
To the rest of you, and no offense to @TheBoogieman (once you add pink shackle dampeners, pretty much anything goes ;)), if you're trying to keep a period correct look, nearly all 'bug-eye' looking LED headlights feel and look out of place. If you're not interested in maintaining that classic look... carry on.
No offense ever taken, but often given. ;) Pink was red, before I sold the Jeep over 5 years ago. If I preferred the "dated" classic look, I would have left my Jeep stock.
p.s. My Chameleon was deeply offended by your "bug eye" comment and wants you to publicly apologize on FJB.com.
Chameleon crazy eyes.jpg
 
This is really cool. The "transformer" look is exactly what I'm going for on the tj... But on the little gpw... These will be much better
 
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