Does Subaru Legacy have led headlights?

Let me be more specific I was driving an outback rental and now a legacy rental while my car is worked on. My car is a 2018 legacy. It does not have led white bulbs it has regular incandescent bulbs... well oh my God I can see so much better with these white bulbs in the 2020 I am driving. Its incredible. Is this something that could be swapped out ... what kind of bulbs would I buy? Do the 2020 legacy white bulbs fit a 2018 legacy ears or something different in the wiring... I'm sorry if that sounds stupid but I am just amazed at how much better the clarity is with these bulbs. It's the first time I was ever in the car with one of these white LEDs...

There are two answers to this question

- Our Sponsoring Vendor Diode Dynamics has invested a lot of engineering into creating a line of LEDs that are aligned to properly project in standard housings. Many of us have them and love them

- Lots of other places are offering LED replacements that fit electrically, but just don't produce the proper lighting pattern. Most are just too badly aligned, and they scare oncoming cars. The NTSB has consequently outlawed all of these, including the well designed ones from Diode Dynamics. Which I'm sure they never even knew about.

My personal solution is to keep with my Diode Dynamics LEDs which I love, but swap out at the time of my annual inspection.

Sure. You can order them online from any number of sources... you can also replace the incandescent on the Forester, too.

Note that there are hundreds of bulbs out there to buy - some work really well, and are designed to "mimic" the placement of the halogen filament and have a correct alignment with the factory designed reflection surface of the headlamp unit. Some just slap a bunch of LEDs on a fixture and call it a day.

Some companies are stopping the sale of the LED bulbs due to some NHTSA regulations in place or coming soon.

Diode Dynamics is (was?) one of the premier providers of replacement LED swap bulbs but have pulled the sale of their SL1 (or SL2?) bulbs due to the NHTSA rulings/findings.

@bbottomley - lucky for me I live in a state without annual inspections and no "lookie-loo" at the headlamp bulbs....

IMO, I'm glad they are cracking down on these illegal retrofits, etc. It's not that they "scare" other drivers but the simple fact is that they can blind, dazzle, cause glare, etc. for oncoming traffic which is downright dangerous. I had to deal with this for years on my commute which included 25+ miles of busy canyon roads at night coming home.

Personally, I had less of a problem back when people were retrofitting HIDs in projectors as you could typically still achieve a decent cutoff of the beam pattern to avoid this issue. ......not so in a reflector housing though.

LED's are a bit more unique but still, as @FozzieBalou pointed out, they can only try to "mimic" the light source of an incandescent bulb. An LED array simply doesn't have the same characteristics of a filament in a bulb which the optics were originally designed for.

I agree with the point however that not all of these retrofits are designed the same but most (if not all) will not be street legal and really never were. .....they are simply cracking down harder on the aftermarket producers. However, some manufacturers / suppliers are at least putting in the research into their designs to help deliver products that perform appropriately. I have no experience with Diode Dynamics but I have heard good things about their effort to produce products that arguably could meet legal standards otherwise.

That's not to say that legal, "DOT approved" and even SAE tested, alternative lighting solutions for headlamps don't exist but I don't think I've seen any retrofits (e.g. LED bulbs placed in halogen applications) that legitimately claim they are. It's typically new replacement housings designed for LEDs.

My personal solution is to keep with my Diode Dynamics LEDs which I love, but swap out at the time of my annual inspection.

If I had incandescents and were in a location subject to inspections, and I thought LED bulbs might cause an inspection problem, the above would be similar to my solution, except I would try to find a product that didn't have cooling fans.

And if I did get an inspection and left the LEDs in, and failed due to the aftermarket bulbs, I would just swap back for the reinspection, and then swap back to the LEDs.

Because so many people buy LEDs that don't mimic the incandescent properly, there is a huge prejudice against LEDs. People may even flash their high beams at you just because the light from your headlights isn't incandescent colour. But their prejudice should be directed at people buying poor LEDs.

Thank you all... just catching up. In fact diode Dynamics got back to me because I had purchased a new dome and trunk lid for my wife's Forester... something brighter. In fact they sent me a 31 mm bulb for the dome light that seemed too big and now they're sending me a slightly smaller one. Their customer service is wonderful.

If I understood them they're saying the same thing ...technically they're bulbs will work in my low beam h2 socket but technically that is illegal. However the selL them as fog light bulbs. I guess I can do what I want and swap or not swap for inspection.

My more technical question would be...well... I'm beginning to understand that I can't just go out and buy the same bulb that's in a 2020 legacy and stick it in my 2018 legacy... the socket is going to be different I guess.. or the 2020 has fans or something...?

The last thing I want to do is do something that's going to cause damage to my car, a fire etc....or blind I'm coming traffic.

All I can tell you is I was stunned how well I could see in the 2020 legacy with these white LED bulbs. I'd be really curious if the Diode Dynamics installed in the 2018 legacy would look the same to oncoming traffic, be safe and offer me the same visibility as the owOEM bulb in the 2020...or if it's something a little different.

Well, as I understand it, there is only one LED retrofit bulb DD sells for the H1 application and yes, they say recommend them for fog lamps but they do not recommend them for headlamps. That's not for because they are illegal as they still offer HID retrofits as well, but it's because the light output isn't adequate. They refer to that kit as "decorative" on more than one occasion.

Personally, I would suggest a high efficacy halogen bulb for your application (perfectly legal and designed for your headlamps) but if you're dead set on LED, you're going to have to look elsewhere for your solution as the one DD has doesn't look to be what you would be interested in.

btw, is your 2016 projector or reflector housings?

It's an 2018..not sure what I have. The parking lights that wrap the headlight are LEDs the headlights are incandescent is there a brand you recommend?

Phillips X-Treme Vision are decent bulbs:

You just need to keep in mind that they are still halogen bulbs and will only be so much brighter than a long-life equivalent. They also won't last as long. ......perhaps a couple years.

However, these are the ones I used in my wife's old '08 Forester that had H1 headlamps and they were a decent improvement over stock.

It's not going to be anywhere near HID or LED headlamps but it is what it is. I have factory HIDs in my own car and love them and my wife has LEDs in her new Forester and they perform similarly so I can appreciate the attraction.

From the images I can see on-line, a 2018 Forester without the LED headlights (which use Projector housings) appear to have old style Reflector headlights. The curvature and facets in the backplane were designed to shape a tungsten filament halogen (considered a point source that radiates in all directions) bulb, and are ill suited to a substitution. Most LED bulbs have a central post with very directional surface mounted LED devices, and don't play well with Reflectors.

Projector housings that were designed for halogens still have a back bowl and cutoff shield with a specific shape and position to match the filament characteristics, but they tend to be more 'forgiving' to the errors presented by retrofit bulbs. Repositioning the cutoff tab and lowering the aim might be sufficient with some of the aftermarket parts.

The component missing from virtually every retrofit is the LEVELING assembly. Without that, it's just too easy to blind other drivers.

Ah - but you CAN level the light housings if you go with LED bulbs - but this is for the non-projector style lamps -

There is a bolt head on the back (with a toothed washer) that raises or lowers the aim of the light from the reflectors. So by replacing the halogen bulb you CAN put in an LED bulb that mimics the placement of the element by LED chips.

Note that the domed 'cap' built in to the head-lamp housing is designed to reflect back light to the rest of the reflector housing - which is shaped and designed to then project the light forward.

Some of the LED manufacturers (like Diode Dynamics) engineered their LEDs to use those same reflective surfaces to provide a brighter and whiter light output from the Halogen and provide a sharper light beam than most other LEDs out there and was more than comparable (in shape and glare) to other LEDs and was even more of a mimic of the traditional Halogen light output/shape.

My bulbs came from a German mfg and when I did the swap, I did one bulb, saw the output, adjusted the housing (down) and then found the light shape and output was just about the same as the halogen (in shape and distance) but was brighter and whiter, providing better nighttime visibility. Then I swapped the other bulb and and adjusted the housing and - it worked. I do not get flashed by others (unless I forget to turn off my off-road lighting) at night.

I did a lot of purchasing when I did that "upgrade" - I think I bought like 6 pairs of bulbs (or more?) before I found the best fit and most "normal" looking light.

You can adjust the headlamps but that does nothing to change the optics or the beam pattern.

I agree with @Fibber2 that projectors are much more forgiving with these retrofits than reflector housings for the reasons mentioned. Glare above the beam pattern isn't as much of a concern simply because of the shield producing a sharp cut off. .....reflector optics just aren't that tolerant.

As for Diode Dynamics, they don't have a feasible H1 option currently so it's kind of a moot point. .....and to be honest, even if DD was (or is) that committed to creating an LED bulb that could meet SAE and DOT specifications if given the chance, many others are not. .....and that's the situation the OP is in currently.

Personally, I would stick with a legal, high efficacy bulb from Osram, Phillips, etc. It's not a dramatic improvement better better than stock nonetheless. ......my wife and I lived with H1 incandescent bulbs in her '08 Forester for about 13 years and those more efficient option really helped.

May be that as I have an older Foz (SJ , 2014) that the reflectors and all are able to better be used. I remember that DD did have a perfect retrofit LED (was it the SL1 or SL2?) for the ... H11 that fits my Foz...

Ah - but you CAN level the light housings if you go with LED bulbs

Sure, you can make a one-time adjustment to get then level when you put them in. But many high brightness systems (HID and many LED headlights) have an AUTO Leveling system built in that responds to how low the tail of the vehicles sits as passengers & loads change to keep that extra intensity from blinding other drivers. I doubt that you get under the hood and adjust your lights when you load up!

My Challenger R/T equipped with OEM with HIDs doesn't have auto leveling suspension although some models with Nivomats did. I have the Super Track Pack option on mine and it also came with Bilsteins instead.

Do all the Foresters auto level? I never heard anything about it on my wife's 2020 Premium with LEDs.

I'm not talking about an auto-leveling suspension...

Our Toyota Sienna Limited Premium with HID headlights has a dash dial for manual headlight height adjustment. I believe that manual control is pretty rare.

Our 2018 Forester with LED headlights has auto-leveling control (in addition to steering responsive positioning).

Yeah, apparently my wife's 2020 has it. I thought that was only with the steering responsive option but sounds like it may be with all LED headlamps.

Not so sure about my Challenger though. There's no mention of it anywhere in the manual or elsewhere.

I just realized something, so hope I didn't 'fib about the auto leveling on the LED lights. The service manual that I purchased was originally downloaded early in the life of the SJ series, so the leveling system troubleshooting guide was probably associated with a HID system (?) and not LED.... Now I would hope that Subaru carried this feature over to the LED system, but after sleeping on it, I can't say with certainty. I really do need to download some tech data specific for my 2018.

Subaru has only included a self-leveling function in their upper trim 'upgrade' headlights, if available.

For the SK, for example, all 2019-2020 headlights are LED, but only the limited and touring trims are steering-responsive and self-leveling.

2021+ Foresters all trims now have steering-responsive headlights, and I assume self- leveling as well, but would have to check the latter.

Here's what it says in the 2020 manual. .....so either it means by "if equipped" that if you have the LED lights or if you have the feature. However, I cant find anything that points to the beam leveler as a separate feature and it doesn't look to be mentioned as a part of others like high beam assist or the steering responsive option.

3-13. Headlight beam leveler
(if equipped) S03AT
The LED headlights produce more light
than conventional halogen headlights.
When the vehicle is carrying a heavy load
and the headlight beams are angled
upwards, the driver of an oncoming vehicle
may experience glare.
To prevent this, the automatic headlight
beam leveler adjusts the headlights to the
optimum height automatically depending
on the load the vehicle is carrying.