SNOW & LED HEADLIGHT issues

[Teqsand]

Has anyone come up with a solution, DIY or commercial, for the OEM LED not melting snow?

Can halogen lights be swapped for winter use if you order the OEM LED pkg?

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[whysoserious]

My DIY solution was to move to a city that rarely, if ever, gets snow...

But seriously, there are plenty of folks on here that switched from halogen to led. So it would make sense to be able to switch from led to halogen. I think all you would need, in addition to the halogen lights is a programmer like Tazer, JSCAN, etc. I am sure someone can confirm this.

 

[Mr._Bill]

Has anyone come up with a solution, DIY or commercial, for the OEM LED not melting snow?

Can halogen lights be swapped for winter use if you order the OEM LED pkg?

There are heated LED lights available. Part of the problem is the design, which catches and holds the snow. In heavy snow, it's also a problem for the halogen lights.

 

[Teqsand]

There are heated LED lights available. Part of the problem is the design, which catches and holds the snow. In heavy snow, it's also a problem for the halogen lights.

I don't plan to swap out my existing OEM LED ..... need a different path

 

[Chief_jeep]

@Teqsand Have you considered adding a better sae fog such as the Baja squadron sae or diode dynamics sae? I drive a lot in the snow and haven’t had any issues like you’re having but I have found that the factory leds reflect a ton of light when it’s snowing hard. Those put out a lot of light and in theory should do much better in snowy conditions.

 

[HankB]

The factory LEDs on my wife’s Audi, my Porsche and our Gladiator don’t retain snow. If you convert a HID headlight to LED snow is going to accumulate because the original bulbs generate enough heat to take care of any weather related issues.

 

[Teqsand]

The factory LEDs on my wife’s Audi, my Porsche and our Gladiator don’t retain snow. If you convert a HID headlight to LED snow is going to accumulate because the original bulbs generate enough heat to take care of any weather related issues.

I have OEM LED currently

 

[HankB]

That on your jeep, or another vehicle?

 

[JDP_1988]

I had the icing issue here in Montana twice last year. I ended up purchasing the Diode Dynamics ss3 max fog light kit with their black friday sale this year. I saw a test on tacomaworld that showed they operate at a housing temp of 210 degrees, and lens temp of 160 degrees, so I'm hoping that I'll at least have some light output from those. They just got delivered so I can't tell you how they work with icing, but figured it would at least be worth mentioning.

 

[Dew.J]

I haven’t had any issues yet after 3 winters in Minnesota. I have noticed snow build up on the lights though. I have LED bulbs in the standard housings.

I came up with two options if you want to keep the LEDs: drill a whole for a small cartridge heater and hook it up to the Aux switches or add some halogen KC lights on the bumper. I went the second route as I got lazy. Whenever we get a snow storm I just pop the covers off and turn on my aux lights in case the headlights clog.

 

[Lunentucker]

I saw this issue posted before and actually made an inquiry to a commercial 3D printer about printing in clear material. I was thinking about a printed cover that would fit into the OE housing and make a slanted flat exterior for the entire thing, so snow couldn't get in there and accumulate, but be blown off by travel speed winds.
Think Ford GT or similar.

 

[bd100]

Had some flat clear covers on my old 4-eye car. They snowed over. The snow was being kept away from the hot headlight bulb. And by the way those were some of the best in terms of light quality, but a pain to change the big glass cubes.

 

[Lunentucker]

 

[Gatorized]

I saw this issue posted before and actually made an inquiry to a commercial 3D printer about printing in clear material. I was thinking about a printed cover that would fit into the OE housing and make a slanted flat exterior for the entire thing, so snow couldn't get in there and accumulate, but be blown off by travel speed winds.
Think Ford GT or similar.

This would be the answer if it had a defroster grid on the cover piece.

 

[ShadowsPapa]

there's a bunch of threads on this covering pages and pages - there's really nothing that can be done with STOCK LEDs.
They are big funnels, they are recessed, and they don't get hot.
There's no solution to date other than getting rid of the factory LEDs, but then I've had other headlights get iced over and snow packed as well......... just that these are recessed snow catchers.
I've had to stop and scrape off heavy ice accumulations from my WJ and other vehicles in the past.

"more light" isn't the solution for fog lights - those are for nearby - right up close to the vehicle and off to the sides. Go swapping to "brighter, farther" lights and they are no longer fog lights.
A good quality selective yellow fog light like DiodeDynamics offers gives good light, good color and better coverage. But brighter is just going to make people coming the other way road rage.
If it was legal I'd shoot out a few of those "fog lights" as they approach.

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