How To change H7 LED Bulbs?

Most German automotive cars Mercedes-Benz, Volkswagen, BMW, and South Korean automotive cars Hyundai, and Kia are use H7 bulb in the forward lighting.
People have no ideas about how to install the H7 bulb into the housing when they get a new H7 LED bulbs.
This article will list some tips before we change and install H7 bulb. These are guides that have helped us know everything about H7 bulbs so we can change H7 bulbs in any cars easier.
Let’s get started.

 

Contents

1. H7 Fitment
2. What comes with H7 bulb?
3. H7 bulb replacement guide
4. H7 LED bulbs installation guide (step by step)

H7 Fitment

H7 bulb fits which cars?

H7 bulb is most common used on German automotive cars Volkswagen, Mercedes-Benz, BMW, and Audi, South Korean automotive cars Kia and Hyundai, some Japanese car Lexus, Subaru, Mazda, and Mitsubishi and American vehicles Chrysler, Ford, Chevrolet, and Lincoln.
Volkswagen Tiguan
Volkswagen Passat
Volkswagen Jetta
Volkswagen Golf/ GTI
Volkswagen CC
Volkswagen Rabbit
Volkswagen EOS

Mercedes-Benz C-Class
Mercedes-Benz CLK-Classs/ CLS-Class/ CL-Class/ CLA-Class/ CLE-Class
Mercedes-Benz E320/ E340/ E350/ E430/ E500
Mercedes-Benz GLK-Classs/ GLS-Class/ GL-Class/ GLA-Class/ GLE-Class
Mercedes-Benz Sprinter
Mercedes-Benz ML250/ ML320/ ML350/ ML400/ ML430/ ML450/ ML500
Mercedes-Benz Metris
Mercedes-Benz R320/ R350/ R500/ R550

BMW 3 Series/ 5 Series/ 7 Series
BMW X1/ X2/ X3/ X5

Audi A3/ A4/ A5/ A6/ A8
Audi Q5/ Q7
Audi S4/ S6/ S8

Kia Sorento
Kia Optima
Kia Sedona
Kia Forte
Kia Forte5
Kia Soul
Kia Sportage

Hyundai Sante Fe
Hyundai Veloster
Hyundai Elantra/ Elantra GT
Hyundai Tucson
Hyundai Kona
Hyundai Genesis

Mitsubishi Outlander
Lexus ES300/ ES350
Subaru Impreza
Subaru Legacy
Subaru Tribeca
Subaru Outback
Mazda 3
Mazda CX-7

Chrysler Pacifica
Ford Fusion
Lincoln MKZ
Chevrolet Malibu
Chevrolet Traverse

 

Is H7 bulb high or low forward lighting?

The H7 bulb is a single filament bulb. It's used on high or low forward lighting applications. It popular with low forward lighting on European cars. H7 bulb is located in the low or high forward light housing on each side - driver side and passenger side, so we will need at least 1 pair of H7 replacement bulbs when we replace the factory bulbs. If the low and high forward lighting are both use H7 bulbs, then we need 2 pairs of them.

 

How do I know what light bulb I have? H7 or not?

There are so many different ways to find what light bulb do we have in our car.
#1 Use bulb finder
#2 Check vehicle owner's manual
#3 Take out and check the bulb number on factory bulb
#4 Use google search online

Use bulb finder will be the most recommend way. Check the owner's manual or factory bulb will be the best way to know the right bulb size of our vehicle just because you will not get the wrong bulb by the misleading message online, however, those don't work if we don't have the owner's manual any longer. It's a little hard work for us to check the factory bulb because we have to take out the bulbs from the housing.
If we take out the bulbs from the housing, the bulb are identified with a letter or a number to indicate the bulb size (bulb number).
Check this article "how to find the right bulb size for my vehicle" for more step by step guide.

 

What comes with H7 bulb?

Halogen H7 bulb

We have figured that we used H7 light bulb in our vehicle. When we remove the bulbs from the housing, we will get 1 pair of H7 bulbs. However, we will get 2 pairs of H7 light bulbs if the low and high forward lights are both use H7. The H7 light bulb looks like this:

It has a two-pronged plug and one collar for one bulb. Other kinds of bulbs have three prongs and different shape of collar. You can't switch them with a three prongs bulb.

 

H7 bulb adapter

H7 bulb is used in different vehicles, they are a little bit different. For most German automotive cars and South Korean automotive cars, it usually takes an adapter to mount the H7 bulb in the housing. The H7 bulb adapter look like this:

 

H7 bulb replacement

H7 halogen bulb

The H7 halogen bulb is the light emitted by the tungsten filament heated, the color temperature value is generally 3,200K, the halogen H7 bulb is 55W, and the brightness is about 1,000LM. The irradiation distance is 50M, and the service life is 500 hours.

 

H7 HID bulb

Xenon bulbs emit light through high-voltage activated gas. The color temperature of the light is generally 4,200K, the power is 35W, and the brightness is about 2,500LM to 3,200LM. The irradiation distance is 100m, with more than 3,000 hours lifespan.

 

H7 LED bulb

LED bulbs use LED luminous sources as automotive lighting sources. The color temperature is generally 6,000K. The illumination distance is 200M to 500M. The brightness is 2,000 to 5,000LM, and the service life is 30,000 hours.

LEDs are the alternative and best way to halogen H7 bulb. They are brighter, consume less energy and unlike the HIDs, will last a good long time. LEDs work by using electric energy from the vehicle to produce illumination through light-emitting diodes. The LEDs are in a solid state. In fact, you could use LED bulbs for many decades without worrying about maintenance costs.

 

LED H7 bulb Installation Guide

Due to the different H7 bulb adapters type used on H7 halogen bulb, you may finally found that the H7 installation guide would be totally different for different vehicles. So how to install the H7 bulbs and the H7 bulb adapter into the housing? Do I need the H7 bulb adapter or not?
The H7 bulb adapter are common used on Volkswagen, Mercedes, BMW, Audi, Hyundai and Kia. With a better understanding of how to change the H7 bulb with H7 LED bulbs, we're going to show you the installation by dividing standard H7 socket into 3 situations.

 

Type 1: Standard H7 socket (wo/ H7 bulb adapter, w/ spring on the housing)

Tools and materials needed:
H7 LED bulbs

Step by step installation guide:
Step 1. Disconnect the power between factory H7 bulb and factory H7 power socket.
Step 2. Unlock the spring to take out factory h7 bulb from housing.
Step 3. Take out the base collar from the LED H7 bulbs.
The H7 LED bulbs are always with a cooling fan on the back, the spring could not go through the fan to lock LED H7 bulb into housing so we have to take out the base collar from the LED H7 bulbs.
Step 4. Lock the base collar of LED H7 bulb with the spring, then put H7 LED bulbs into the housing.

 

Type 2: Standard H7 socket (wo/ H7 bulb adapter, wo/spring on the housing)

Tools and materials needed:
H7 LED bulbs

Step by step installation guide:
Step 1. Remove the dust cover.
Step 2. Take out factory h7 bulb from housing.
Step 3. Disconnect the power between factory H7 bulb and factory H7 power socket.
Step 4. Connect the plug of LED H7 bulb and factory H7 power socket.
Step 5. Aligned the H7 LED bulb to the housing and lock it.
Step 6. Put the dust cover back on.

 

Type 3: Standard H7 socket (w/ H7 bulb adapter, wo/ a spring on the housing)

Tools and materials needed:
H7 LED bulbs
Aftermarket universal H7 adapter

Step by step installation guide:
Step 1. Take out factory H7 bulb and H7 bulb adapter from power socket.
When you take out the factory H7 bulbs from the housing, you will find an adapter between H7 halogen bulb and power connector.
Step 2. Take out the base collar from the LED H7 bulbs.
Step 3. Put the universal H7 adapter on the LED H7 bulbs and put the base collar of H7 LED bulb back on.
The universal H7 bulb adapter is between the H7 bulb base collar and H7 bulb cooling fan. The factory H7 adapter will not fit the H7 LED bulb, that's why we need an aftermarket H7 adapter.
Step 4. Insert the H7 LED bulbs into the housing.
Step 5. Connect the plug of LED H7 bulb and factory H7 power socket.

If we use the H7 LED bulbs and H7 adapter (universal one) to replace the factory H7 and factory H7 adapter, we will find that it's very hard to lock the LED H7 bulbs and the adapter in place. They are not perfect fit due the the universal design.

We recommend all-in-one LED H7 bulbs, with a custom design adapter on the LED H7 bulbs, the installation is fast and easy.

Tools and materials needed:
Custom H7 LED bulbs (with a custom design adapter on it)

Step by step installation guide:
Step 1. Take out factory H7 bulb and H7 bulb adapter from factory power socket.
Step 2. Insert the custom H7 LED bulbs into the housing.
Step 3. Connect the plug of LED H7 bulb and factory H7 power socket.