will LEDs work in 1989 stock headlight

That's good to hear, the 9004 bulbs really stink.

Modern dashboards might give a warning if the CanBus doesn't “see” 50W of resistance. You can easily purchase a 50W 6 ohm resistor and splice it in “parallel” with the bulb.

LEDs are much brighter (4 siders can be 5,000 lumens) than halogen bulbs (typically 1,200 lumens) they replace (9004 with HB1), but the LED bulbs cannot replace sealed beams. That's a whole enclosure change.

As they are brighter, you might have to fashion / fabricate a partial shield / reflector to avoid dazzling oncoming traffic for dimmed beams. For brights, they're fine. Some bulbs have combined low and high beams.

I've never been able to get the lifespan claimed, even with leaving the back off for full fan ventilation. Fans, although noisy, are better at cooling than the heat sink versions.

I thought that I read that you have a requirement for lens cleaners when the lumens exceed 2,000?

Update fire hawk on Amazon claims to allow you to turn the bulb for best reflective use anybody use fire hawks yet thanks

papadiesel said:

Update fire hawk on Amazon claims to allow you to turn the bulb for best reflective use anybody use fire hawks yet thanks

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The Easy Eagle do that as well.

Think if it was me I'd get high wattage bulbs from Hella and build a relay kit for them.

I see a lot of people around here with drop in LED bulbs and seems like they are either dimmer than the factory halogens or the light is just going off into outerspace instead of on the road where you need it.

A lot of people get brighter light right in front of the truck and think they can see better. As was mentioned earlier in this thread, a bunch of light up close in front of the truck ruins your long distance vision. It reminds me of the modification that the chevy guys do to their trucks, by activating the low beams and the highbeams at the same time when they hit the highbeam button. They are getting more light, but not were it's needed. Sort of the same as driving around at night with your domelight on. There is more light but it's all in the cabin and ruins your vision outside the vehicle. You do have to think about how our eyes work.

So I got the Easy Eagles today for my 89. They are supposed to fit the 9004 housing, but the lock ring that keeps the bulb in the socket hits the heat sink housing on the bulb:



But after some mods with a utility knife it'll go, and while it's still a PITA to install it all goes in ok. Just a tight area and picky plastics.

Unmodified lock ring:


Modified lock ring: (note the larger relief cut at the bottom, that is needed for the wire that comes out the back of the bulb housing.



Obviously this is day time and doesn't show a ton, but you can see how much brighter they are. It's hardly comparable, it's like cheating lol. And of course the LED is brighter in person compared to this picture.

It's just about dark now so I can get a better idea of how much waste light they produce soon. But the preliminary results are good, I'm mostly worried about the glare to other drivers and beam pattern.
However the beam on my XC90 is actually pretty good. There is a good amount of glare but it's hard to say where the problem lies. I'd say the majority of the glare is just from the light itself being so bright, that the glare from the halogens would be very similar if they were suddenly putting out double or tripple the lumens.

Food for thought.

You installed them the hard way. The mounting collar (the part with the o-ring) comes off the bulb, the you install with the lock ring, and put the bulb back in. The bulb is just held in with the friction of a couple smaller o-rings inside. I guess what you did should be fine, But definitely post some pics of the lights at night.

I do wish somebody would make a 9004 bulb that's significantly brighter on high beam, and close to stock on low. The Hellas are way brighter on both, not really what I want for around town.