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Aftermarket LED or HID headlights on 2016 Honda Pilot

404K views 1K replies 222 participants last post by  jimsta 
#1 ·
I realize that OEM is still the best option, but with Honda product planners making asinine decisions of making LED headlights available only on the Elite with captain's chairs, has anyone thought about getting aftermarket LED or HID headlight bulbs for the 2016 Pilot? If so, would you be able to share where these can be sourced from?
 
#2 ·
I would think that Honda would use a standard type of halogen bulb (though I'm not sure what type) in the new Pilot. HID kits for these types of bulb fitments are available all over the place, so you can pick and choose where to buy from.

LED headlight bulbs are new in comparison to the HIDs, so they aren't as prevalent in the headlight replacement market. LED bulbs have started to pop up on Amazon. The Retrofit Source is also starting to sell LED headlights. I think they currently offer the H7, H11, 9005, and 9006 fitments. You'll probably have to wait for the 2016 model release and see which bulb type the new Pilot uses.
 
#4 ·
Just keep in mind that none of those options are technically street legal. The bulbs themselves may be DOT approved as they are the same bulbs that can be used in cars that came with HID headlights from the factory, but the assembly itself is not road legal. The entire headlight assembly has to be tested to meet all the various requirements including beam pattern, etc.

Do not just go out and buy one of those HID kits and throw it in your halogen projector headlights. The light output is significantly higher and the projectors are not as finely tuned so you will be blinding oncoming drivers with stray light.
 
#20 ·
I wouldn't bother with HIDs in the highs... If you want to flash to pass or flash for other reasons, high beams take awhile to warm up and you're going to fry them switching on/off quickly. LEDs or a decent set of halogens is fine.

HIDs in the fogs is usually overkill-- OEM fogs are usually fairly useless other than for running lights anyway. Again, a nice set of yellow halogens is what I usually run. LEDs are an option, but for $1xx, might be a bit spendy.
 
#26 ·
What can make them useless, IMHO, is the fact they can't be used without the headlights being on. I recall many times as a young person driving in very heavy fog with only my fog lights on as the fog was so thick that all the headlights did was to reflect in the fog making visibility worse. With just the fog lights on, I could easily see the lines and edge of the highway.

On my Mercury Capri years ago I had a fog light on the right side and a driving light on the left. Boy, did that driving light throw a light way down the highway. I had to be sure to turn if off as soon as I saw headlights from an oncoming car, no matter how far away.
 
#21 ·
I'd agree that high beams would be a waste of money to do in HID. Kind of surprised that the high beams aren't LED from honda. Usually it is just a matter of turning off some of the LED units or using a shutter to limit the light output direction. Guess Honda's LED lights aren't as good as the germans as of right now.
 
#22 ·
How do you access the fog light compartment on the 2016 Pilot Elite? Is it located within the wheel well area?
 
#24 ·
I figured it out. Was able to access from the wheel well after turning the tires inward. Nice to have matching fog lights with headlights and LED daytime.
 
#29 · (Edited)
#36 ·
Hid

Just put HIDs in the headlights and fogs. An amazing amount of light. The fogs illuminate houses 75 feet to the left and right side of the vehicle. The headlights illuminate road signs well in the distance and do not blind oncoming traffic.

I put a Xenondepot H11 4,300k kit in the headlights and a 4,300k H8 kit in the fogs. The fogs were a little harder since you had to go through the wheel wells but I got everything done in an hour. The kits are top quality. I did have to reverse the prongs though. No big deal, it took an extra 16 seconds.

I would definitely recommend LEDs for the high beams instead of HID.
 
#45 ·
So far, so good. I didn't put a thermal gun to them but the heat coming off of the enclosures feels the same to me with HIDs as it did halogens. But if it does melt I would definitely let you know.

On a side note: I also have a 1998 Corvette and it uses DRLs. The factory halogen bulbs actually melted the enclosures to the point where water was running in and burning out the bulbs. I ended up replacing both enclosures and slipping in some LED bulbs with resistors down the line. Major pain as the car only has about 3 inches of ground clearance, impossible to locate jack points, and the entire front undercarriage has to come off to even see the enclosures, but the outcome was well worth it. The point of this story was that the enclosures are about the same size so I will definitely monitor it closely.
 
#39 · (Edited)


I got these. Figured for the price I couldn't go wrong. Work well. Not HID bright but I wasn't aiming for that. I don't want to blind folks as I have been a victim of this a few times and its not fun on a windy dark highway at speed. They provide a nice blue glow...comparable to the bulbs in the grand Cherokees and Explorers.
 
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