My truck is a 2014. The headlights had been getting dimmer for years and I’d been pretending not to notice.
It’s a slow thing. Halogen bulbs don’t burn out dramatically. They just fade. You go from “this is fine” to “the road feels weirdly dark” to “I’m leaning forward to see the lane lines” over the course of a few years. Then one night you drive your buddy’s newer car and realize you’ve been basically driving blind.
That was me in October. I spent the next week researching LED headlight upgrades and ended up ordering a set of Auxbeam LEDs for about $90 with a coupon code.
What followed was the most embarrassing realization of my driving life. I’d been making my own commute harder for years and I didn’t have to be.
Contents
How Bad Were My Stock Lights Really
I didn’t know how bad they were until I took them out.
Stock halogen bulbs are rated around 700 lumens for low beams and 1,200 for high beams, according to a Jeep Wrangler TJ Forum review of Auxbeam pods. A new halogen bulb produces those numbers on day one. After ten years of heat cycles, road vibration, and slow filament degradation, you’re getting maybe 60 to 70 percent of that on a good night.
Mine were worse. The driver side bulb had a faint yellow tint that I’d convinced myself was just the way headlights look. The passenger side was slightly brighter, which created an asymmetric beam pattern I’d subconsciously been compensating for by aiming further left when I drove.
I pulled both bulbs before installing the LEDs and held them up to a working garage light. The glass was clouded on the inside. Not destroyed. Just hazy. The kind of haze you wouldn’t notice unless you compared a 10 year old bulb to a fresh one side by side.
That haze was what I’d been driving with.
Why I Picked Auxbeam Specifically
I’m going to be honest about the research process because it’s the part most reviews skip.
I started with the obvious premium options. Morimoto headlight bulbs were the brand every Reddit thread pointed me toward. Around $200 to $400 a pair. Excellent reputation. Probably the right call if you have the budget.
I did not have that budget. I needed something that would actually work without being a project.
Auxbeam kept coming up as the “best budget alternative” recommendation. Founded in 2008, they make LED headlight bulbs, light bars, pod lights, fog lights, and switch panels. According to a 2026 review on TrustyReviewZone, they sit in the mid-range tier with IP67 and IP68 waterproof ratings and aircraft-grade aluminum housings. The Trustpilot reviews I read skewed strongly positive, with most complaints centering on shipping delays rather than product failures.
The thing that actually sold me was a professional review by Car Light Reviews that tested the new Auxbeam GX Series in a 2017 Toyota Camry and a 2018 Ford F-150. The reviewer’s exact words. “This is the best-looking LED headlight I have ever tested.” The GX maintained 74 percent of its initial output after a 27 minute simulated commute, which is the thermal management benchmark that separates good LED bulbs from cheap ones.
Heat management is the entire game with LED automotive bulbs. Cheap LEDs are bright on day one and dim on day 90 because they overheat and degrade. The Auxbeam thermal numbers were the real reason I clicked buy.
The Install
Installation took me roughly 25 minutes per side. Not because it was hard. Because I was being careful.
The bulbs are plug and play. They use the same socket as the stock halogen, so you pull the old bulb, plug in the new one, and you’re done. No wiring. No relays. No drilling. The package came with everything I needed including the zip ties and 3M tape for the driver unit.
A few real tips from someone who just did this. Don’t touch the lens with your bare fingers. The oils from your skin can affect the bulb over time. I wore the thin cotton gloves that came in the box. Match the orientation marks on the LED chips to the position your stock bulb was in (filament position matters for proper beam pattern). And for the love of everything, aim them properly after installation. Bad aim is the difference between LEDs that work great and LEDs that blind every oncoming driver while still not lighting the road well.
According to Auxbeam’s product documentation, professional aiming is mandatory after installing high-output lights to ensure safe beam alignment for all road users. I aimed mine in my driveway against my garage door using the standard 25 foot method. It worked.
The First Drive
I waited until full dark. Around 8 p.m. I live on a road with no street lights for the first half mile, which is why I’d cared about this upgrade in the first place.
I pulled out of my driveway and turned onto the road.
I actually said “oh” out loud, alone in my truck, like a person who had just seen something genuinely surprising.
The road was lit. Like, properly lit. I could see the lane lines at the edges of my peripheral vision instead of just straight ahead. I could see the deer warning sign at a distance where I could actually slow down for it, not just register that it existed.
I drove the same loop I drive every night to test the difference. About 14 miles, mix of unlit rural road, two lane highway, and town streets. The unlit rural road was where the upgrade mattered most. Where my old halogens gave me maybe 80 feet of useful light, the Auxbeams gave me what felt like 200. I’m not measuring with instruments. I’m just telling you what it felt like.
The cutoff line was crisp. This is a thing most people don’t pay attention to until they have it. A good LED headlight has a sharp top edge to the beam, so you light the road and not the eyes of the driver coming the other way. My stock halogens had a fuzzy gradient. The Auxbeams have a clean horizontal line you can actually see when you point them at a wall.
What I’d Tell You To Watch Out For
Three things, in order of importance.
Aim them properly or you’ll regret it. This is non negotiable. Misaimed LEDs are why people complain about LED headlights blinding them on the road. According to recent reporting on the LED glare issue, the U.S. has weaker headlight aim regulations than the UK and Europe, which is part of why LED glare has become a complaint. The bulbs themselves aren’t the problem. The aim is the problem. Take 15 minutes to do this right.
Check your housing compatibility. Not all stock headlight housings work well with LED bulbs. Reflector housings sometimes scatter the beam. Projector housings tend to work better with LEDs. My truck has reflector housings and the Auxbeam beam pattern looked clean, but I read enough Corvette and Jeep forum threads to know this isn’t universal. Look up your specific vehicle before buying.
Some vehicles need a CAN-bus adapter. Newer vehicles with computer monitored electrical systems sometimes throw error codes when you install LED bulbs because LEDs draw less power than halogens. Auxbeam includes adapters with some kits but not all. Check your year and model.
What Three Months Looks Like
I’m writing this about three months after the install.
The bulbs are still working. No flickering. No dimming. No condensation in the housings (which is a real complaint with some cheaper LED brands). I’ve driven through two heavy rainstorms and one snowstorm and the IP67 rating held up exactly as advertised.
My commute changed. I don’t lean forward at the wheel anymore on the dark stretch. I don’t squint. My eyes don’t feel exhausted at the end of a night drive the way they used to. These sound like small things. They are not. Eye strain from bad headlights is a real thing that accumulates over miles, and reversing it changed how much I dread night driving.
The cost benefit was almost embarrassing. I spent $90 on a pair of bulbs. I’d been driving with diminished vision for years. The math, in retrospect, was never close.
Should You Do This
If you drive a vehicle older than about 2018 with halogen headlights, the answer is almost certainly yes.
The exception is if you have premium vehicle housings that were designed specifically for halogen optics and don’t tolerate LED retrofits well. Some BMWs, some older Mercedes, and some specific Corvette models fall into this category. A quick search for “[your vehicle] LED headlight retrofit” will tell you if you’re in that category.
For everyone else with a 5+ year old daily driver, this is one of the best $80 to $120 upgrades you can make to your vehicle. Better than new floor mats. Better than fancy windshield wipers. Better than most of the stuff people spend money on in the name of “upgrades.”
If you want to take a look at what they have in your fitment, their site has a vehicle finder that filters by make and model. Took me about 90 seconds to find the right kit for my truck.
I should have done this five years ago.