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General Car Related Discussion.To discuss anything that is related to cars and automotive technology that doesnt naturally fit into another forum catagory.
Thinking of upgrading my headlight bulbs. Currently they are standard H7 halogens. Was just going to get some Osram night breakers or similar but while browsing through noticed you can now get LED's for your headlights that are a direct replacement for the halogen bulbs.
Has anyone gone down this route?
If so what are they like?
Are there any issues with the light beam given that they're being used with the halogen reflectors?
LED lights only work properly if the reflector and lens arrangement is designed for LED lights. Otherwise they don't spread the light properly.
Same with cheap HID upgrades everyone used to do.
If you want to see where you are going then you need to replace the whole headlight assembly with a the proper thing. If you want to "look cool" then fit the conversion bulbs but be aware that everyone who sees them will think they are shit.
Well I've been in touch with Classic Car LED'S and here's' the response. I recon they're worth a go so just ordered the top of the range one's. Hopefully they'll be ok. I'll keep this thread updated with how I get on with them.
Hi Nick,
Thank you for your email and sorry for the delay in replying, we get a lot of enquiries over the weekend.
The difference between our H7's are the top range ones have a longer and wider beam. They also have the external control unit that needs to be mounted but is fully waterpoof. We can supply 40cm extension leads if you have no room in your headlight housing. Both produce very defined beam patterns and we've had no MOT issues with them in reflector or projector headlights.
Canbus issues are hit and miss on German cars, most are fine but some of the same model will throw an error. The German systems are highly sensitive and unpredictable as a result. We do carry warning cancellers should you need them.
We've no experience with the space for the dust cover on your headlights so cannot advise if this would be an issue. The heatsink on the top range ones is reversible to give you options on length dependent on what you need. The overall length in short mode behind the mount is the same as a standard H7 with the wiring block attached .Dimensions are given in the pictures.
Finally, regarding adapters, we don't think you would need one but if you can send a picture of your current fitting, we can advise further?
Please let us know if you need any more information.
Kind regards
Duncan
Here's the ones I've ordered:
https://www.classiccarleds.co.uk/collections/headlight-led-bulbs/products/led-headlight-conversion-bulbs-h7-4600-lumen-philips-z-es-main-dipped-glb477
I tried the LED bulbs but they were not as bright as the standard halogen bulb and looked like side lights only from the drivers seat so ended up putting a HID Kit in and lights are good now.
I'll do a full write up with pictures when I get and fit them. I've spoke to my mechanic and he's going to let me take the car over to the garage and put it on the mot test rig for some before and after pics of the beam pattern. I'll post these up as well.
I'll do a full write up with pictures when I get and fit them. I've spoke to my mechanic and he's going to let me take the car over to the garage and put it on the mot test rig for some before and after pics of the beam pattern. I'll post these up as well.
That's awesome Nick ..a proper way of testing them ..look forward to the results .
Well they arrived today and first impressions are very good. Really well packaged and the build quality looks very good. Allen keys are included for the heatsink and for the adjustment of the bulb. There are even cable ties included for the control boxes. Communication and customer service is so far faultless. When I placed my order I only ordered one extension lead as I assumed they came as a pair. This was communicated to me in an email, but they said they'd throw in another one free of charge.
Just got to get them installed and tested now!
If buying leds headlight from eBay make sure you buy night eye cob leds I used them in my sprinter van and they lit up the road they dont blind other road users like hids do I recommend https://m.ebay.co.uk/itm/Nighteye-90...wAAOSw7ChZeYeJ they do a perfect job shames there not cambus
Right, today myself and a friend installed my new H7 LED's. I have done a comprehensive right up on a BMW forum as I no longer own a Ford which took me ages to do. Call me lazy but I simply can' be bothered to write it all up again on here and other forums I'm on. Follow the link below and hopefully it'll take you to the thread. There is also another review on there from another member who installed similar ones to me. For your information these bulbs were fitted to a 2010 E91 BMW 330d that has halogens fitted as standard.
Apologies for not doing the write up on here as well and I'm sure some of you will think it's a hangable offence to visit a BMW forum, but do go and have a look at my findings as I believe they are very informative.
For those of you who don't want to go and have a look, let' just say the install was a bit of a ball ache but the results are great! Nice crisp white light with a good mot friendly beam that won't dazzle oncoming traffic. Very very impressed!
I'm still on the fence about getting some of these, I bought some hid's for the wife's car and that was a ballache as it kept tripping out when I started the car. I might look into these.
Thanks for sorting the link. How did you do it? I just copy and pasted it which worked fine on another forum I put it on.
The lights really are good. I guess the install may be easier on different cars? All depends on the dust covers and how much room is behind them.
I am suprised that the lights on a 2010 BMW need upgrading, I would have thought with a top of the range car they have the latest type of headlights as standard?
Unfortunately not! The xenons were an option.
I wanted xenons as the ones I had on my ST were great but when I found this car xenons was the only box it didn't tick. Everything else I wanted, it had and as it was such a good well looked after car along with being local, I decided to compromise on the lights.
I don't know if the standard halogens really are that poor but going from xenons back to halogens make them appear shite! Not any more though
Well the LEDs are still great. The only issue I've had is condensation forming on the inside of the nearside headlight, but this was due to the fact that when we did the install this was the first one we did and it ended up being a bit of a bodge! Drilled the hole in the dust cover in slightly the wrong place and then couldn't get the cables through. Had to drill another hole below where we had the gromit for the second cable. Tried using silicone to seal it but it didn't work!
I got another dust cover and finally had a go at sorting it out yesterday (been too cold up until now!). So hopefully it'l be sealed now and no more condensation. While I was at it I also adjusted the angle of the LEDs to impove the beam pattern. When I installed them I followed the instructions and set the LEDs to what they said - with the LEDs slightly at an angle instead of having them at 90 degrees to the vertical. When I then took the car to my mates garage to check the beam pattern, the pattern was fine apart from the 'kick up' was a little low. I think this was probably due to how I set the LEDs. So yesterday I took them out and adjusted the angle - set the LEDs so that they're at 90 degrees to the vertical like I wanted to to start with! Hopefully this will improve the 'kick up' on the beam pattern. Going to get the beams checked again tomorrow on my way home from work.
Overall I'm really impressed with these LED's, it' just the installing of them is a bit of a ball ache mainly due to the huge heat sinks on the LEDs and the fact you have to modify the dust covers on the back of the lights. I'm guessing though that as this technology improves further, the heatsinks will become smaller and eventually it'll just be a straight swap. However, remember I'm basing this all on my experience of fitting them to my E91 BMW 3 series. Other cars may have much more room to play with and require less or no modifications.
Here's a couple of pictures of my dust covers that have been modified to accept the cables. The reason the hole had to be so big is so that the plugs could go through the hole as well. Offside. Nearside - the one that was bodged first time round!
so how effective are they for beam spread and overall brightness on dark unlit country roads compared to standard bulbs? do you think theyre a big improvement for vision and definitely worth the effort to fit? various bulbs ive tried in the past have been pretty dull but maybe the technologies greatly improved on these sort of bulbs these days?
Top pic - original halogen. Bottom pic - LED.
Please note the camera on my phone does make the halogens appear a lot whiter than they actually are. They are actually very yellow whereas the led's are most definitely white. Note this picture was taken before I adjusted the 'kick up' so the beam should now be even better.
They are a vast improvement over the standard bulbs! I wasnt sure how good they would be as I'd read quite a lot of bad reviews about fitting leds in to halogen lenses, but the technology has improved and they really are very very good. If you don't mind the fuss you have to go through to install them (like ive said it might be easier on diffeten cars), then they are well worth the effort.
Attached:
One other thing I forgot to mention was that occasionally the led's would throw up an error (car would think a light was out). Sometimes it would be ok for a week or so and other times it would come up a few times in one journey.
I could've bought error cancellers for a few quid but instead I just turned off the voltage monitoring for the headlights via 'Carly' my coding sofware I have.
The leds are supposed to be error free but while I was doing my research and having conversations with the seller, it appears that some BMW and VW electrical systems are very sensitive in that you could fit the led's to one car and they'd be fine but then take them out and put them in an identical car and they would throw up faults.
Since turning off the voltage monitoring I have had no more errors.
They look great. In my old mk4 Mondeo I put in a set of morimoto projectors and a hid kit. I found the cut off very sharp and it caused quite a bit of eye strain at night. These look good though! Do you have a pic of the front of the car with them on?
my car had aftermarket hid’s in them when I bought it, one of them has just blown. I’ve got a set of these ordered so I’ll see what they’re like once fitted
Well I had the beam pattern checked earlier. The N/S needed to be raised a little and the O/S lowered a little. Since I adjusted the angle of the LEDs the kick up has now been improved. The beam pattern is not quite perfect but it is absolutely fine and completely MOT compliant. Also it would appear that I have cured the condensation problem. Result
Swapping halogen for led headlights
