LED headlight bulbs?

[PaulB]

Has anyone looked into LED headlight bulbs for Dolomite, in particular the outer which do dip & main and use an H4 bulb.

Just spent a while googling.....

My initial conclusions are that some of the H4 bulb offerings appear not to work like a H4 as they don't do high beam.

Any LED H4 buld which is bright enough looks like it has a large heat sink on the back of the bulb, so it won't fit into the outer headlight bowl. The back of the headlight bowl is also in the wheel arch so open to anything the wheel cares to throw at it so difficult to house electronics such as constant current sources which some appear to use.

So, all in all, it looks rather unlikely.

Any one else considered it, or had more luck with the research?

[Triumph1300]

I've tried H7 and H3 LED bulbs in spot and foglamps, and have been completely underwhelmed.

Look at the light source of a filament bulb, position, and size.

Then look at the LED light source.

On everyone I've seen, the light source of the LED in is a different place, and is a different shape.

Thus the light pattern is destroyed through the lens.

Just my two pennorth, if anyone knows otherwise, I'd be interested to know

[Mahesh]

I have Led's on my Sprint.
Yes the beam pattern is not the best, but I can see the
road ahead and such low wattage consumption.

The Led's do come in a Hi/Lo version, the ones I have also have a separate voltage stabiliser.

[GrahamFountain]

I have Led's on my Sprint.

Which ones are they?

Graham

[tom16v]

I'm with Bruce on this one.
HIDs are the same. The filament in the bulb is longitudinal instead of transverse, so a proportion of the light source is either too close to the reflector or too close to the lens and so out of focus. The lens then scatters that proportion of light. They will make a beam pattern on a wall in front of the car as the majority of light is in focus, but with high intensity light, the scatter can be very dazzling to other drivers.
I'm just going back to Halogen outers in mine for this reason.

[SprintMWU773V]

The problem with most LED headlight bulbs is that the beam pattern is all wrong. Sidelights, brake lights and indicators are fine as LED but I'm yet to be convinced by the headlight bulbs. The market is also flooded by non E-marked versions which are illegal, in fact the fitting of an LED bulb to a car not originally equipped is a bit of a grey area AFAIK.

That said I noticed how poor my Mazda sidelights are, LED's would be much better so perhaps I will upgrade. Speaking of the Mazda until earlier this year it still had sealed beams as these were standard fit to Japanese market cars. I've now upgraded to halogen and they're all the better for it! I miss the distinct colour of the sealed beams but I can see where I'm going much better, well as well as you can when the headlights pop up in your line of view.

[Carledo]

knowing where Mahesh lives, his lights don't need to light the road well in normal use, I doubt there is an unlit road within 10 miles of his house!

Out here, miles from civilization (and streetlights) you need your lights as good as you can possibly get them, I choose Halogens, set up on the beamsetter at my local MOT place to the exact maximum allowed. Good alignment is critical to good operation, yet people in general and MOT testers in particular seem remarkably tolerant of misaligned lights on older cars - probably because they don't want the agro of freeing off (or breaking) long undisturbed headlight adjusters!

AS an aside, my local council have recently decided to turn off streetlights (there are a few in out village, though the one outside my next door neighbours house has not worked for months) between 1 am and 5am as an "energy saving measure" believe that if you like!

Steve

[sprint95m]

I am confused here,
are you putting LED bulbs in halogen light units?

The bulbs need to be matched to the units,
so, to use LED bulbs properly you need LED units. These have E numbers.




Ian.

[Latham_F2]

For those with (or considering fitting) aftermarket HID headlamps, please be aware that they are almost certainly NOT legal.
Here's the link, straight from the mouth of the horse....

https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/s ... dlamps.pdf

[SprintMWU773V]

I did replace the sidelights on the Mazda and they are now much better. I bought a pack of 10 for no money so will have plenty left over for the Dolomite.