Sorry but it's a big pet hate if mine at the minute. Young'uns bring their cars in to work with all these poor quality led bulbs and HID KITS very badly and often dangerously fitted. Bare live wires, box of tricks hanging out the rear of lamps, no water seals on headlamps, "bulb failure" warning messages on dash, bla bla. Rant over.tuesday_wildchild
Have to admit to being a xenonophobe myself. Problem with HID kits is a xenon bulb produces light in a different shape and place to a halogen so the reflected beam isn't in the same place or shape either. And those tinted ones, they really wind me up. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
It's not just the E mark thing you have to have automatic leveling headlights and headlight washers Both led and hid lamps give out the light in a different beam pattern to normal bulbs so your lens and bowl will be wrong You will end up with a brighter light but it will not be lighting up the right place
I bought these and they were a straight swap. It has improved the brightness Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
At the end of the day I would rather see them than not and looking back over the last 10 ish years of driving the worst blinding and cannot be seen offenders have ordinary lamps fitted.
I've fitted these LEDS: LED Headlights H4 9200 Lumen Hi/Lo Beam Conversion 9-32V supplied by https://www.classiccarleds.co.uk/ My motivation was the reduced power consumption as when I had the headlamps on my (accessory) voltmeter dropped significantly despite having a newish Bosch alternator. There are no cooling fans on these so they fitted into the headlamp bowls okay. I have yet to drive my bay with them fitted, as it is currently on SORN (becomes tax exempt in April) but even when I tested them in daylight after fitting I could see they were significantly brighter and the dipped beam pattern was the same (Against my garage door).
Interesting... I understand where you're coming from. When I use my bike rack and brake it all dims a bit. Do let us know how you get on. Do you know if they're legal? And are your lights proper h4 fitting or early/late p45t fittings? Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
They are not legal, here are several reasons why: http://greyhead.co.uk/are-aftermarket-hid-lights-legal-in-the-uk
I would worry about something else rEally. H4 headlams and bulbs fitted and its all just fine and dandy. As good as my car any day!
How much driving in the dark do you do I very rarely do but when I do I find the headlights are fine for the speed of a bay
Having now taxed my campervan, I gave it a test at the weekend. When switching on to dipped beam the voltage gauge now only moved a fraction rather than a massive dip. So the draw (amps) is significantly less and I now won't worry about my electrics when driving with the lights on, wipers on, fridge on, bicycle carrier lights on, sat-nav on, phone charger on etc, etc. So for me that was the main reason for the change, I was okay with the light output of my Hella lamps with the H4 fitting bulbs. The new LEDS do seem to be a lot brighter though and it's a very crisp white light. The pattern thrown on to the road / verge seemed the same to me. I didn't get other motorists flashing their lights at me coming in the other direction either. The combination of white LEDs on dipped or main with the very off white from the standard sidelight bulbs does look a little odd though. I'm also using the LED stop and tail lamps which are very similar in brightness to the bulbs I replaced but also draw less power. I did reverse the heat sink to fit them so time will tell if there is sufficient space / cooling air around the back of the headlamp bowls to keep the LEDs cool enough.
For vehicles registered after the mid 1980s the maximum permitted power is 60/55w On our age of vehicles, we're allowed to uprate the wattage to 100/80w.
