Aftermarket LED headlight upgrades?

Aftermarket LED headlight upgrades?

Author
Discussion

gsewell

Original Poster:

693 posts

282 months

Sunday 22nd January 2017
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Hi,

Having recently driven on sections of the A46 between Lincoln and Newark at night, where the cats eyes have not been maintained, I found that visibility on dip beam was rather worse than I remembered and it was difficult to see where the road went. I have recently replaced the OEM bulbs with standard brightness equivalents, so not a consequence of 6 year old bulbs.
I do not believe much of the hype over 140% brighter bulbs as the tech spec still shows the output as 1450 Lumens plus/minus a small margin. I cannot see how one bulb can be significantly brighter if the official output is the same.
So, searching the web, I found http://www.horizonleds.co.uk/exterior-leds/cree-le... at 3500 lumens.
The question I guess is, the bulbs will physically fit OK. But where do I put the ballast box? Does it fit in the headlamp unit? How would I secure it?

gsewell

Original Poster:

693 posts

282 months

Tuesday 24th January 2017
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Thanks cmoose.

Cheib

23,112 posts

174 months

Tuesday 24th January 2017
quotequote all
RPM do a conversion for older 911's. Thread about it here together with some other options

http://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=0&a...


Lox

632 posts

280 months

Thursday 26th January 2017
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anonymous said:
[redacted]
Seem like a bargain. Does the fact that we have projector headlamps mean we don't need to worry too much about beam pattern (just so long as there is one!)?

gsewell

Original Poster:

693 posts

282 months

Saturday 28th January 2017
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I have ordered a set from Hong Kong - will post when they arrive... in 2 months!

Lox

632 posts

280 months

Saturday 28th January 2017
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gsewell said:
I have ordered a set from Hong Kong - will post when they arrive... in 2 months!
Cool, I'll put in a calendar note for late March!

Recently installed some Phillips WhiteVision halogens. Really good upgrade in brightness and whiteness, but if these LEDs are all they're cracked up to be, they should be a step-change.

Look forward to your update.

gsewell

Original Poster:

693 posts

282 months

Saturday 25th February 2017
quotequote all
The LED bulbs arrived from Hong Kong yesterday - a little earlier than expected.
The bulbs have large heat sinks but there was no driver/ballast box.
Fitting was mostly easy with the exception that the heat sink prevented the retaining spring from being moved back into place. The solution was to unscrew the grub screw holding the spring in the headlamp unit, locate the spring into the bulb at approximately the right angle, put the bulb in the headlamp unit, locate the spring under the screw and tighten it down. Sounds worse than it was - took a few minutes.
Then the test drive on my closest unlit road - massive difference. The range is the same for the obvious reason that it is dictated by law in the alignment of the headlamp - but the area was completely lit with little/no fall-off in brightness so in reality you can see right up to the cutoff.
My only concern now regards longevity as the heat sink would imply a lot of heat to disperse, but the headlamp unit is hermetically sealed. I'll have to see what happens next.

Lox

632 posts

280 months

Saturday 25th February 2017
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So far so good! Glad they're working out

lordlee

3,137 posts

244 months

Wednesday 1st March 2017
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Yes the heat issue is a killer with these bulbs for me. You'll not know if the fan fails and all that heat may not melt the headlamp plastic but it will seriously deteriorate all the glued components within. I've had an HID kit in mine for a year or so and its excellent - went for a 55w kit with 5000k bulbs and for me it looks completely stock next to a bi-xenon 987.

Lox

632 posts

280 months

Wednesday 1st March 2017
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lordlee said:
I've had an HID kit in mine for a year or so and its excellent - went for a 55w kit with 5000k bulbs and for me it looks completely stock next to a bi-xenon 987.
Aren't they illegal though? On which subject, what's the legal position on the LED replacements?

gsewell

Original Poster:

693 posts

282 months

Wednesday 1st March 2017
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As far as I can tell, HID's require self-levelling and washers. LED's have no such requirement.

Slippydiff

14,742 posts

222 months

Wednesday 1st March 2017
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gsewell said:
As far as I can tell, HID's require self-levelling and washers. LED's have no such requirement.
http://greyhead.co.uk/are-aftermarket-hid-lights-legal-in-the-uk#h.b8wdgra4q8ph

See the section headed "The bottom line from VOSA".

lordlee

3,137 posts

244 months

Saturday 4th March 2017
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I'm not here to debate the legalities of HID kits but I've personally never seen an MOT tester do anything but check the beam spread of my headlights.

Lox

632 posts

280 months

Friday 7th July 2017
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gsewell said:
My only concern now regards longevity as the heat sink would imply a lot of heat to disperse, but the headlamp unit is hermetically sealed. I'll have to see what happens next.
How are they faring now, a few months in?

gsewell

Original Poster:

693 posts

282 months

Saturday 8th July 2017
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So far, so good. Got through the MOST without issue and no failures that I can see.

Lox

632 posts

280 months

Saturday 8th July 2017
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Cool. And just before I pull the trigger, it was these, right?

http://m.ebay.co.uk/itm/371714456856?_trksid=p2060...

And your car is Gen 2?

Apologies for high maintenance!