LED's the new HID upgrade?

[Krikkit]

Triumph Man said:

832ark said:

Krikkit said:

Dunno about replacing dipped beams with them, but I'm going to be replacing side and foglights on my W211 with them to colour-match the OEM HIDs.

Already have a set of sidelights on another car and they're great - a set of Ring ones for £10 and they're both brighter and a nicer match than the previous incandescent bulbs.

Why bother colour matching the foglights? Surely you use them so infrequently it doesn't matter? Unless they're used as cornering lights of course!

He might be a foglight wker

Actually it's because the car lights up the fog+sidelights when you unlock it... I only use them when appropriate.

[Justin S]

I stuck a pair of LED replacements in my Westfield , as the uprated Osram bulbs were pretty woeful


I drove about 60 miles on them Saturday night/ Sunday morning and on roads with no lighting. The dipped was much better and could see for once. Main beam was an issue, as I had uprated LED sidelight bulbs and think the alloy casing defracted the light as they stood proud in the reflector. I have since change the sidelights to normal filaments as shorter. Picture is dipped beam. Bulbs were those cheap £26 jobbies and didnt flicker and leave me in the dark when switching on or changing to main beam, but there is no canbus issues with a kit car like mine, which may cause an issue.

[ensignia]

Don't fit LED light sources in headlights designed for halogen or even xenon. The LED needs to be in a specially designed projector unit which is usually rectangular as opposed to xenon projectors which are round.

Xenon, in a lot of cases, outperforms current LED applications in most tests too iirc. It's a shame that the relentless march of technology means that xenon bulbs were so short lived. They only became mainstream in the late 90s, and have already been replaced.

Has anything else been superseded so quickly in car terms?

[Fore Left]

ensignia said:

Don't fit LED light sources in headlights designed for halogen or even xenon. The LED needs to be in a specially designed projector unit which is usually rectangular as opposed to xenon projectors which are round.

Oops... :




Not had any complaints so far

[anonymous-user]

I've got adaptive 'Icon' LEDs on the 3 Series. 80 miles around the Dales last night, they are pretty amazing. Driving behind cars and overtaking, thinking "why are they driving on dipped beam?", Only to realise they had main beam on and the light from mine seems 50% brighter. Might in part be the way it can spread the main beam around an object and leave a dipped beam in the middle.

[carl_w]

Alucidnation said:

According to that reg, it says that they do have to be fitted with LED or HID headlights of 2000 lux or more.

Yes but LED headlights like the ones on my wife's 3-series don't have washers, so presumably must be <2000 lux by whatever measurement the manufacturer uses.

[untakenname]

Due to the light source of the LED's being more like normal filaments size wise than the long filaments of HID's they don't seem to have as many issues when used with older housings, I got my dad an LED replacement bulb on his 1970's motorbike (electrical system was being overloaded by the 35w halogen) and there's surprisingly little light scatter even in fluted lenses.

I have LED's as my main beam and they project further down the road than the 55w halogens that it replaced, as it's main beam the beam pattern doesn't matter as much as I dip them for oncoming traffic.

There's a shoot out here of 15 different LED's which is worth a watch if you're considering buying a pair as price doesn't always correspond to output or beam pattern https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SQF5ESBHLrw

[Filibuster]

carl_w said:

Alucidnation said:

According to that reg, it says that they do have to be fitted with LED or HID headlights of 2000 lux or more.

Yes but LED headlights like the ones on my wife's 3-series don't have washers, so presumably must be <2000 lux by whatever measurement the manufacturer uses.

The new W213 is the same. Since they are sealed headlamps, they are measured with the housing and thus are measured lower than HID projectors which are not sealed headlamps and are measured without the actual headlamp housing. Or so I understand it at least.

[Wait Here Until Green Light Shows]

untakenname said:

Due to the light source of the LED's being more like normal filaments size wise than the long filaments of HID's they don't seem to have as many issues when used with older housings, I got my dad an LED replacement bulb on his 1970's motorbike (electrical system was being overloaded by the 35w halogen) and there's surprisingly little light scatter even in fluted lenses.

I have LED's as my main beam and they project further down the road than the 55w halogens that it replaced, as it's main beam the beam pattern doesn't matter as much as I dip them for oncoming traffic.

There's a shoot out here of 15 different LED's which is worth a watch if you're considering buying a pair as price doesn't always correspond to output or beam pattern https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SQF5ESBHLrw

I think you'll find the source of the light is actually in the same spot more or less. There is no filament in HID's of course, it's a spark gap. The LED offerings emit light on two sides of a rectangular pillar, so they are in fact vastly different to filament and HID bulbs. LED upgrades seem to work better in traditional reflectors as opposed to projector style lights because the pillar that the LED's are mounted on casts an unwanted shadow in the beam (apparently).

Having watched lots of different YouTube video's, it seems they all emit unwanted light scatter and/or muzzy low beam cutoffs just like HID's, so I won't be bothering.

[Bradley1500]

A friend of mine has just fitted them to his Passat and from his feedback I will be trying them in my Supra soon. He reckons it has much improved nighttime visibility, they definitely look better and more modern compared to regular Halogen bulbs, and there isn’t much noticeable light scatter.

They have built-in cooling fans which are a little noisy, but otherwise they seem much better than aftermarket HID kits we’ve fitted previously.

Apart from light scatter, one of my annoyances with aftermarket HID kits was the messy wiring and ballasts in the engine bay. I don’t like clutter or messy wiring, the LED bulbs seem a much more compact and neater solution.

I’m looking forward to trying them out.

[shakotan]

Bradley1500 said:

A friend of mine has just fitted them to his Passat and from his feedback I will be trying them in my Supra soon. He reckons it has much improved nighttime visibility, they definitely look better and more modern compared to regular Halogen bulbs, and there isn’t much noticeable light scatter.

They have built-in cooling fans which are a little noisy, but otherwise they seem much better than aftermarket HID kits we’ve fitted previously.

Apart from light scatter, one of my annoyances with aftermarket HID kits was the messy wiring and ballasts in the engine bay. I don’t like clutter or messy wiring, the LED bulbs seem a much more compact and neater solution.

I’m looking forward to trying them out.

The fans are tiny, you can't even hear them running with the bonnet open.

[Otispunkmeyer]

dorset_clive said:

Stenasev said:

A very brief review would be that the short range brightness is much better but maybe they lack the throw of halogens?

There has been a lot of discussion in rallying circles about the pros and cons of LED auxiliary lights. Your review pretty much sums up those pages and pages of discussion - great for near-distance, wide spread, no where near as good as HIDs or halogen for long distance.

Personally don't even think HIDs are all that better than halogen bulbs, particularly when it comes for high-beam/full-beam. I have a 2006 Civic and a 2015 Mazda 3. The latter is fitted with a Bi-Xenon HID lamp. I find I use the full beam often when coming home on the country lanes at night. The HIDs do seem to pierced a bit further in the dark but seemingly at the cost of a bit of spread. The Civic might throw the light 95% of the distance but the actual view ahead appears more "lit up". And the Civic supposedly has terrible headlamps.

[spyder dryver]

Justin S said:

I stuck a pair of LED replacements in my Westfield , as the uprated Osram bulbs were pretty woeful

Agreed. Factory fit Westfield headlamps are atrocious. I'm surprised you have been able to find LED bulbs to fit inside the housing. I assume the ballasts are outside the headlamps. Do they have fans on the back or heatsinks?

[Bradley1500]

shakotan said:

The fans are tiny, you can't even hear them running with the bonnet open.

With the kit my friend has fitted you definitely can, I've heard them with my own ears!

[tannhauser]

Fore Left said:

ensignia said:

Don't fit LED light sources in headlights designed for halogen or even xenon. The LED needs to be in a specially designed projector unit which is usually rectangular as opposed to xenon projectors which are round.

Oops... :




Not had any complaints so far

No consideration for all those people you've dazzled?

[tannhauser]

janesmith1950 said:

I've got adaptive 'Icon' LEDs on the 3 Series. 80 miles around the Dales last night, they are pretty amazing. Driving behind cars and overtaking, thinking "why are they driving on dipped beam?", Only to realise they had main beam on and the light from mine seems 50% brighter. Might in part be the way it can spread the main beam around an object and leave a dipped beam in the middle.

Another tosser with overly bright headlights, by the sound of it?

[RS Grant]

ensignia said:

Has anything else been superseded so quickly in car terms?

MiniDisc players?


Cheers,
Grant

[chow pan toon]

tannhauser said:

janesmith1950 said:

I've got adaptive 'Icon' LEDs on the 3 Series. 80 miles around the Dales last night, they are pretty amazing. Driving behind cars and overtaking, thinking "why are they driving on dipped beam?", Only to realise they had main beam on and the light from mine seems 50% brighter. Might in part be the way it can spread the main beam around an object and leave a dipped beam in the middle.

Another tosser with overly bright headlights, by the sound of it?

Another needlessly aggressive internet tosser by the sound of it

[irony fully noted].

[shakotan]

Bradley1500 said:

shakotan said:

The fans are tiny, you can't even hear them running with the bonnet open.

With the kit my friend has fitted you definitely can, I've heard them with my own ears!

Must be a particularly cheap and nasty kit then. I can't even hear mine if I put my ear next to the headlamp rear with them on.