LED Headlights

[GC8]

ChimpOnGas said:

I started this post back in 2014 and I'm still running my reflector friendly shielded gen 4 LED H4s, I would not consider returning to traditional incandescent bulbs, after careful adjustment I do not get flashed or cause issues to other drivers.

The improvement in light output my gen 4 LEDs offer was well worth the £50 I paid and I've seen no real evidence to say the way more expensive alternative from Philips offers any genuine advantage over what I have.

My LED H4s are way brighter, offer much better visibility, draw a lot less current and have 10 times the life of a traditional incandescent bulb.

Can you link us up Dave, please?

[ChimpOnGas]

Sorry guys I bought my LED H4s years ago, I started with the fan cooled type but later went to gen 4 that rely on heat finned sinks, what I can tell you is:

• They came from Ali Express

• They have shielded LEDs

• They're freaking powerful

The transition from main beam to dip is also wider than a traditional incandescent H4 which meant I needed to adjust my headlights down, without adjustment the dip beam was too high causing dazzling of oncoming drivers.

Once adjusted this issue was resolved although the reach and light spread to the edges of the road did suffer, its surprising how helpful it is to have a wider spread of light illuminating the roadside verge to the left as it assists in placing the car correctly on an unlit A/B road and so significantly increases confidence allowing you to safely up your pace.

To claw back the reach & spread I fitted Piaa LP270 driving lights which are tiny but amazing.



I actually think I can make the setup even better, my latest idea is to replace my indicators with a set of Piaa LP270 fog lights and build a set of indicators into the recesses in the the body below them, I plan to wire these a dip beam improvers to give me even greater spread and my current LP270 driving lights to support the main beams by giving a better pool of light 6ft in front of the car.

My final point would be while these LED bulb replacement units can be made to work extremely well in a reflector headlight designed for a traditional incandescent bulb there are a few compromises, to get the greatest benefit from LED technology you either need a reflector designed specifically for LEDs as with my Piaa LP270s or a projector type design also specifically designed for the LED used.

If you want a complete engineered LED solution where a 7" headlight is used as with my Chimaera Mk3 faired headlight conversion you really want a specific LED 7" headlight unit such as those offed by JW Speaker, Trucklight or my personal favorites from Nolden.



The Nolden projector LED headlights were used by Land Rover in the 70th anniversary edition Defender, personally I think they do a great job of incorporating a modern projector lens in a 7" headlight while keeping it looking very close to a classic traditional reflector bowl headlight unit.



But at £450.00 a pair they're not cheap.....

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/LAND-ROVER-DEFENDER-90-...

[Zener]

Sadly those light units above may give fantastic light output .... just they look bloody awful

[dogbucket]

I fitted these last year (loads on eBay) with newly refurbed reflectors.

Nighteye 2X H4/H7/H11/9006/9005 50W

MOT man barely gave them second look and the cut off looks fairly decent. They are however ridiculously bright and the natural scatter above the cut off illuminates road signs like nothing else.

[ChimpOnGas]

Zener said:

Sadly those light units above may give fantastic light output .... just they look bloody awful

Truth is you'll simply never notice them behind the Mk3 faired in headlights I run.

And if you haven't got Mk3 faired in headlights you needn't apply, simply because you haven't got 7" units!

[mk1fan]

Just released for Chimp drivers:-

https://thomasperformance.co.uk/store/led-headligh...

[indigochim]

nawarne said:

Thanks for that!
Did they really take 40-50 days to ship? A slow boat to China?
Nick

Items form AE and China in general are hit and miss. Some comes within the week others months. I don't remember how long they took to ship but I don't recall them being too long.

[Zener]

mk1fan said:

Just released for Chimp drivers:-

https://thomasperformance.co.uk/store/led-headligh...

[fieryfred]

I bought all my bulbs from classic car LEDs
Not cheap but after 2 years all the bulbs are fine.
Even have plug & play H4 bulbs.
Again not cheap but they do work
.https://www.classiccarleds.co.uk/collections/12-volt-collection/products/latest-led-headlights-h4-philips-z-es-hi-lo-beam-conversion-9-32v

[Loubaruch]

Another convert to Classic Car LEDs

They have a huge variety and cater especially for the Classic Car market.

Having just fitted HI LEDs to the Griffith headlights they have made a tremendous difference even Night breakers were very poor.

There are cheaper LEDs on eBay etc. but I prefer to pay a little more to avoid pratting around. So many owners in another car club have experienced

problems with cheap LEDs: flickering, poor beam patterns, short life etc.

www.bertram-hill.com

Edited by Loubaruch on Saturday 25th January 22:29

[SILICONEKID 357HP]

These are supposed to be designed to work with standard bowls .I've purchased stop and tail leds from them and they work well .

[SILICONEKID 357HP]

Loubaruch said:

Another convert to Classic Car LEDs

They have a huge variety and cater especially for the Classic Car market.

Having just fitted HI LEDs to the Griffith headlights they have made a tremendous difference even Night breakers were very poor.

There are cheaper LEDs on eBay etc. but I prefer to pay a little more to avoid pratting around. So many owners in another car club have experienced

problems with cheap LEDs: flickering, poor beam patterns, short life etc.

www.bertram-hill.com

Edited by Loubaruch on Saturday 25th January 22:29

Did you buy these ?

[Loubaruch]

No,

The Griffith uses H1 headlight bulbs so these:

https://www.classiccarleds.co.uk/collections/12-vo...

The beam pattern though not as sharply defined as the original Halogen bulbs is pretty close and is a huge improvement .

[SILICONEKID 357HP]

There not the premium ones ,there latest are 70 quid which I think are to expensive .

[Kitchski]

Worth pointing out that the MoT rules have changed, and that running LED or HID bulbs in housings designed for halogen is now an instant fail.

FYI: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/special...

[LLantrisant]

Kitchski said:

Worth pointing out that the MoT rules have changed, and that running LED or HID bulbs in housings designed for halogen is now an instant fail.

FYI: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/special...

i´m sayging this since ages....those conversions are "dangerous" as they can blind other motorists.

thats why those conversions have been never legal, already in the past, in most other EU countries....glad that UK has also changed the rules.


edit:
For class 3,4,5 and 7 vehicles, the defect ‘Light source and lamp not compatible’ only applies to vehicles first used on or after 1 April 1986.

Should a vehicle be presented for an MOT test with conversions before 1 April 1986 they must not be failed with immediate effect.

Vehicles presented with converted halogen headlamp units first used on or after 1 April 1986 will continue to be failed.

Headlamps must comply with all other requirements of the test and headlamp aim.

The cars and passenger vehicles inspection manual will be updated shortly.

[LucyP]

But how are they going to know for sure? How could they see a bulb in a Chimaera to definitely confirm that it has been changed to an LED. It might just be one of those more white halogen upgrade bulbs that are legal. The tester can only fail it, if he can see that it is clearly an LED.

[Kitchski]

LucyP said:

But how are they going to know for sure? How could they see a bulb in a Chimaera to definitely confirm that it has been changed to an LED. It might just be one of those more white halogen upgrade bulbs that are legal. The tester can only fail it, if he can see that it is clearly an LED.

Either by the colour (because most aren't 'warm white') or by the way it illuminates. LEDs are instant, can easily see the difference when you watch them switch on.

[Sir Paolo]

I wanted to fit LED’s until they were banned by the MOT gestapo.
I’ll probably fit the Philips Racing Vision GT200.

Has anyone had experience of these?

[Zener]

IME generally a tester wont give a monkey's what bulb tech you have fitted so long as it gives the correct beam pattern , and with LED bulbs your taking a chance with that point