LED sidelight bulbs

Author
Discussion

Tinkshusband

Original Poster:

280 posts

102 months

Wednesday 29th June 2016
quotequote all
Well, a sidelight has gone in the GV - again - and seems as its such a faff to replace them( have to take the whole front grill assembly off and headlight out - headlight bulbs you dont have to mess around with that though, go figure) , i was wondering about putting some LED bulbs in there. would it pass MOT or get any hassle from the plod for having them? are there any road legal led sidelight bulbs?
Thanks in advance for your advice guys.

Edited by Tinkshusband on Wednesday 29th June 10:28

laters

324 posts

113 months

Wednesday 29th June 2016
quotequote all
On all of the cars we have owned for a good while I tend to change the stock side lamp bulbs for white led type bulbs.

Some are better than others but since changing to led sidelamp bulbs I have never had to change one while we owned the cars.

Never had a issue come MOT time with the led sidelamp bulbs either.

Had to get canbus compatible ones for the merc or they triggered the bulb out warning lamp but the canbus compatible led's are cheap enough now.

Loads of choice on ebay & other places.

Tinkshusband

Original Poster:

280 posts

102 months

Wednesday 29th June 2016
quotequote all
Im looking on ebay, and there are loads to choose from - which ones are best? am thinking about upgrading all bulbs ( apart from headlights which will eventually get some nightbreakers or similar) to to led so they last longer and are a bit brighter. ( nothing blue and chavvy obviously)

IanCress

4,409 posts

165 months

Wednesday 29th June 2016
quotequote all
The only problem is that LED sidelight bulbs show up how yellow your standard headlamp bulbs are, unless you have Xenons or LED's.

Tinkshusband

Original Poster:

280 posts

102 months

Wednesday 29th June 2016
quotequote all
IanCress said:
The only problem is that LED sidelight bulbs show up how yellow your standard headlamp bulbs are, unless you have Xenons or LED's.
I always found nightbreakers/the Philips extreme one whiter than standard h4 bulbs. I'd rather it look missmatched than the sidelights be as dull as they are now, they are like dying tealights !

BenLowden

5,968 posts

176 months

PH Marketing Bloke

Wednesday 29th June 2016
quotequote all
Quite like the CREE LED bulbs myself, always put these on any car I have with Xenons with 6K bulbs for a decent colour match (look a bit naff on halogen bulb cars). Have these on my TT: http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/2X-BAX9s-H6W-434-CANBUS-...

Alex_225

6,234 posts

200 months

Wednesday 29th June 2016
quotequote all
IanCress said:
The only problem is that LED sidelight bulbs show up how yellow your standard headlamp bulbs are, unless you have Xenons or LED's.
I was finding the other way round that as my old E class has Xenons the sidelights look a bit pants. I'm waiting on some 'error free' LED sidelights to arrive. At least they'll be nice and white.

I've tended to go LED regardless of the headlights though purely as I'm in a habit of popping my sidelights on when the weather is a bit dull so at least they look quite smart.

Tinkshusband

Original Poster:

280 posts

102 months

Thursday 30th June 2016
quotequote all
anyone got any recommendations for 501 fitting led bulbs then? there is waaaaay to much choice out there lol

sleeky

112 posts

116 months

Thursday 30th June 2016
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I can highly recommend the philips ones:

http://www.powerbulbs.com/product/x-treme-vision-t...

I have had them for over a year no issues and nice and bright. A lot of the cheaper ones on eBay etc... are overdriven or have poor regulation resulting in a short life span.

Brigand

2,544 posts

168 months

Thursday 30th June 2016
quotequote all
Some years ago I upgraded the headlights of my 200SX S14a to Xenon, and changed the sidelights bulbs to white LEDs so that the colour of the beams were similar. Only issue I had was one MOT where they failed me on the sidelights claiming they had a "Blue Colouration" (They did have a slight blue / purple tinge, I don't think white LEDs were very good back then). Might be something worth bearing in mind, but as this was about eight years ago I imagine LED technology has improved somewhat, and white LEDs are better quality.