With the use of car headlights for a long time, the bulbs will be consumed (especially the halogen lamps accelerate the aging of the lampshade due to the high temperature). Not only does the brightness drop significantly, but it may suddenly turn off or burned. At this time, we need to replace the headlights bulbs.
If you want to increase the brightness of the lights, want to experience the fun of installation as well, you must firstly understand the structure of the lights and know what kind of lights you can do the installation by yourself.
Which exact model of the bulb of my vehicle? If you don’t know the model of the headlight bulb’s adapter, you can remove it and see it by yourself. The adapter model is printed on the base of the bulbs. The ways to find out the model of adapter for your car:
1. Open the hood (cover of engine), taking off the back dust cover of headlight (if there is back dust cover), checking out the adapter model of the original halogen (e.g. H1, H4, H7, H11, 9005, 9012, etc.) / HID Xenon bulb (e.g. D1, D2, D3, D4, D5, D8) on the base.
2. Ask the mechanic of car modified /retrofit / repair shop to check the adapter model for you (by the method 1).
3. Check out the owner’s manual of vehicle, the part number on your original bulbs.
4. Please search “automotive bulb look-up” online.
A. Select your vehicle model (year, make, model) in the filter system of the product detail page to double check the fit.
B. Refer to the “Notes” Such as: “Notes: Low Beam Headlight (w/halogen capsule headlamps)” means our bulb fits your car as Low Beam only if your car comes equipped with halogen capsule headlamps.
Warm Tips:
A. The filter system may not be 100% accurate or up to date, if you are not sure about the size, please confirm by method 1 or 2.
B. Our BULBTEK LED headlight bulbs can function as Low Beam, High Beam or Fog Light as long as the bulb size matches.
C. Most vehicles take separated bulbs for Low Beam and High Beam function (total 2 pairs (4 pieces) bulbs), they may be two different bulbs’ size.
But we highly recommend you to open the hood, take off the dust cover at the back of headlight kit, take off the bulbs and check the exact adapter model by your eyes.
There are many models of car light bulbs. The main differences are the base shape, socket type and external dimensions. The common models are H1, H4, H7, H11, H13 (9008), 9004 (HB2), 9005 (HB3), 9006 (HB4), 9007 (HB5) and 9012 (HIR2), etc. .
H1 is mostly used for high beam.
H4 (9003/HB2) is high & low beam, The high beam LED chips and low beam LED chips are combined on the same bulb. H4 is widely used for all vehicles’ models all over the word, it’s the best seller of high / low beam models.
The other high & low beam models are H13 (9008), 9004 (HB1) and 9007 (HB5). all of them are mostly used on American vehicles, such as JEEP, FORD, DODGE, CHEVROLET, etc..
H7 is often used both of the low beam and high beam separately. The common combinations are H7 low beam + H7 high beam, or H7 low beam + H1 high beam. H7 is mostly used for European(especially the VW) and Korean vehicles.
H11 is commonly used for low beam and fog light, it’s the most popular model, best seller always.
9005 (HB3) and 9006 (HB4) are mostly used for the high beam and low beam collocation of Japanese and American vehicles. The combination of 9005 (HB3) high beam and H11 low beam is most popular.
9012 (HIR2) is mostly used for headlights with Bi Lens Projector which is switch high beam and low beam by moving the inside metal shield / slide, 9012 (HIR2) itself is single beam as same as H7, 9005(HB3).
Conclusion: There are actually two main installation methods, one is the metal spring clip which is used for fixing the bulb models of H1, H4, H7. The other one is the knob / rotation type which is used for H4, H11, 9004 (HB2), 9005 (HB3), 9006 (HB4), 9007 (HB5) and 9012 (HIR2). But nowadays there are some vehicles use H1 and H7 bulbs without a fixing metal spring clip but with a special fixing adapter, we have lot of these adapters for our LED headlight bulbs for your reference.
The several specific situations of installation after you open the hood:
1. Replace the bulbs of the knob / rotation type of H4, H11, 9004 (HB2), 9005 (HB3), 9006 (HB4), 9007 (HB5) directly only.
2. Open the dust cover, replace the H1, H4 or H7 only, then put the dust cover back.
3. Take out the whole headlight kit before replacement due to the tiny installation, no room for hands or eyes’ vision.
4. Take off the bumper (and grille if necessary) firstly before you take out the whole headlight kit, or the headlight kit maybe stuck by the bumper.
We highly do not recommend that you replace the bulbs by yourself under situation 3 or 4, because it’s not easy to do so and may cause other severe problems.
We BULBTEK wish you enjoy the fun of DIY installation. Freely contact us anytime.
Post time: Sep-03-2022