JL LED owners that have seen snow....

Are you guys experiencing the same issues older JK led lights had, where the snow wouldn't melt while driving and it built up to where you got no light after 10-15 minutes of driving in a snow storm? Pics I've seen are pretty bad, and it would be a big oversight on FCA's part, with a recall coming if this is the case. Just curious what you've experienced.

NFRs2000NYC said:

Are you guys experiencing the same issues older JK led lights had, where the snow wouldn't melt while driving and it built up to where you got no light after 10-15 minutes of driving in a snow storm? Pics I've seen are pretty bad, and it would be a big oversight on FCA's part, with a recall coming if this is the case. Just curious what you've experienced.

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LED'S don't give off heat so they won't melt the snow when it builds up

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I drove through a big storm last night. I didn’t have any issues.


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Dale72 said:

LED'S don't give off heat so they won't melt the snow when it builds up

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Not the question I asked. Second, LED drivers give off plenty of heat, which is why they have heatsinks. The issue is on the headlights is the heatsinks are at the rear, and the front element gets none, so the cavity of the headlight mount in the grille packs with snow. This isn't really an issue on vehicles with flush headlights, but the JK/JL with the recessed ones cause the snow to collect and pack in there.

NFRs2000NYC said:

Not the question I asked. Second, LED drivers give off plenty of heat, which is why they have heatsinks. The issue is on the headlights is the heatsinks are at the rear, and the front element gets none, so the cavity of the headlight mount in the grille packs with snow. This isn't really an issue on vehicles with flush headlights, but the JK/JL with the recessed ones cause the snow to collect and pack in there.

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They do it similar to JKs yes but not quite as badly. It takes the special kind of snow/slush to do it. I wouldn't call it oversight, it's the nature of LEDs unfortunately.

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13_gecko_rubi said:

They do it similar to JKs yes but not quite as badly. It takes the special kind of snow/slush to do it. I wouldn't call it oversight, it's the nature of LEDs unfortunately.

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This ^^^ The snow we get out in my neck of the woods is very wet and heavy. It can build up for sure and it's why I run heated Truck-Lites on Moby. That being said, I didn't think it was as bad on our JL running standard LED's. I never found it to be a problem or at least, not in the snow I saw so far.

Here's a video we made last winter of our JL in the snow. Granted, it wasn't a heavy snow like we can get but you can see that the headlights are free and clear of ice.


Of course, here's a shot of Moby back before getting heated LED headlights. This is what we're used to getting.

I guess just for sh!ts and skittles we can have people update their experience as the winter progresses. Around here, we have wet and sticky snow, and I noticed out west often you guys get the nice and light powdery stuff.

NFRs2000NYC said:

I guess just for sh!ts and skittles we can have people update their experience as the winter progresses. Around here, we have wet and sticky snow, and I noticed out west often you guys get the nice and light powdery stuff.

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Actually, it's only light and powdery in Utah. Up in the Sierra Nevada's, our storms come in from the Pacific and we get what we call, "Sierra Cement". Would be good to see what others are seeing/experiencing for sure.

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LED lights need frequent cleaning in snowstorm

Anyone else notice this? Love the Led’s but unexpected consiquence.

In 6 years or more with Truck Lites on my JK, I had it happen only once, but it was pretty bad. I think the snow or freezing rain and the outside temp has to be just right for it to happen, so it should be very rare in most places.

Still, I ordered a set of Hella Black Magic 500 driving lights to put on the bumper, just in case. They are 55 watt and street legal, and they should look great. They are about 78 bucks at Walmart.com. I thought about the Rallye 1000 version, but just can't swing the $240 or so they cost with Christmas coming.

Anyway, they will be cheap winter insurance. My JK still has incandescent fog lights and when the headlights froze over, I had a couple Baja Designs off-road lights. They more than did the job, but I had to turn them off for oncomimg traffic. The Hellas won't be great for output, but they'll get me through a good snow storm, if conditions are right again.

The problem would be a nonstarter if the front lens cover of the headlight was glass and not plastic. The plastic just doesn't conduct enough heat. I HAVE had the same issue with my HID projector setup, despite running bulbs at 55W, in REAL cold with wet snow, it's just not enough heat. Having said that, it happens rarely.

Well, the Hella 500's arrived today! I'll install them sometime this weekend and will post some pics. Walmart.com shipped those suckers VERY quickly!

Principal Skinr said:

Well, the Hella 500's arrived today! I'll install them sometime this weekend and will post some pics. Walmart.com shipped those suckers VERY quickly!

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Are they Jk swaps or aux lights.

So it’s a blizzard here this afternoon. Needed to run around for some errands since we just got back in town from Thanksgiving.

A quick snap while at a stop light. About an inch an hour with high winds of heavy wet snow.




You can see that the fog lights packed over.


Even though the headlights were icing over I think the bigger problem was the bright white blinding effect caused by the leds and the snow. I had better luck turning my headlights off and fogs on. I only did this to see how it looked since I was driving in town.

I will say that the Rubicon handled amazing in 4H.


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As I suspected. The unique cavity of the Wrangler at the headlights creates a very unique situation that other vehicles don't have to worry about. This is definitely an issue, especially for those in colder climates. I'd chalk this up to a glaring oversight by Jeep engineers, and something tells me it's an issue that will need to be addressed. You can't have people get out of their cars every 10 minutes to clear their headlights.

In my first picture you can see that the leds are still projecting good light in front of you. There is a lot of light from street lamps but the white light in front of the Jeep is the leds. I think if anything the leds are still way brighter and now the snow may create more of a frosted lense that you would see in residential lighting. So in a bad storm that will likely cause this issue you will be driving slower and the light output in my opinion was not a problem. The bigger problem was the blinding from light shining off the falling snow.


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I agree with what has already been said about these LED headlights being garbage in a snow storm. Today I drove 5 1/2 hours through the Illinois blizzard. With the headlights on, visibility was 0 feet! All we could see was a bright, BLINDING sheet of white in front of us. I could not see to even drive 10mph. Fortunately, plenty of people passed us and we followed them.

After about an hour of driving <20 mph through the blizzard, the head lights and fog lights were so packed with snow that it was bearable to have the on. I made the mistake of cleaning them off when we stopped for the accident blocking the road. The whole front of the Jeep was a solid sheet of frozen snow. It took 5 minutes to clear them.

These lights are DANGEROUS in a heavy snow storm! They do not give off enough heat to keep them clear. They also illuminate the area above the hood too much. These need to be angled down more to see the road, not the sky.

It's ridiculous that 10-year-old RWD cars were passing us in the storm because they could see and we could not.

The first picture was taken through the windshield driving 10mph in the storm. I think it looks really cool but it was truly HELL to try to drive like this!

The second was after driving 30 minutes in the storm after I had cleaned them out once already. The third is the same as the second with the lights on. The lights aren't completely packed in these pictures. I'm going to need to spray them with PAM in the morning to keep the snow from sticking.



I must say that I'm truly shocked that these lights perform so poorly in the snow!


It's not just a Jeep, it's an amusement park on wheels.