LED Headlights

I've read plenty on these but never seen a set in action until yesterday when a customer came in for an inspection, very impressive design, less wiring and mess behind the headlight and as I need 'better' lights for my LE I've ordered 2x sets for dipped and high as they come on instantly so there's no ballast warm up delays when switching between lights.

Andrew emailed these pictures this morning so you can see the colour and how sharp the light beam is, which if you didn't know would say it was HID.
He purchased a new bulb clip as seen in the picture, but looking at it I'm sure I can adapt the original much like I have to when fitting HID's.

Pair of Latest LED Headlights H1 6800 Lumen Main or Dip Beam Conversion 9-32V

Ooooh well would you look at that. I guess they don't flicker when you hit a bump?

Something for the Christmas list!

These the ones we discussed last week, Joe? I'll maybe get a look next time I'm over.

Being LED I'd assume there's no flickering with bumps Mark, I'll report back and let you know as my LE's ride quality can sometimes be described as 'harsh' at times with it having 18's fitted, and one of the reasons I've not fitted HID's already.

For you of course that's not this issue now that you have a magic carpet ride again

Yep, these are the ones

Will these be in the illegal catagory like Hid's?

Either way, I might be tempted by these if I get some Christmas money.

I had Hid's on my old Coupe for years and they were great but haven't got around to fitting them to the new Coupe yet.

Tempted by these led ones though, especially as I work at night, so it's nice to see where I'm going

These appear to have a "CE" mark which unlike most aftermarket hids (that dont) they will be legaĺ in headlamps that have been type approved to have them fitted.

However coupe headlamps have not been type approved for these bulbs so fitting them is technically illegal.

But as has been pointed out on another thread you can pass an mot with them because the mot only checks brightness and aim. To be caught out as illegal your car would have to be put through "type approval". Theorectically a policeman could make you do this.

It's even better now I've remembered to change the air pressure in the tyres!

As an aside... this afternoon I took some tired HIDs off the Bravo - both bulbs have been replaced recently but one of the ballasts has been on for six years - and replaced them with GE Megalight Ultra +120.

I measured the light before and after in the brightest part of the beam, at the same distance (four feet): the HIDs had light values of 12 and 12.5; the new halogens were both 14.5... four times as much light.

Haven't driven with them yet but will see how they go in the morning and tomorrow evening.

Does the colour of the light make a difference to the measuring instrument ?

Can you measure Nightbreaker (+110%) and Ring Xenon (+120%) as well please

It will, but it's a selenium cell photographic exposure meter with a wide bandwidth, so I would not expect significant differences. If anything, the meter would be more sensitive to blue than yellow.

I was comparing 4300K HIDs, so not too much bluer than the halogen GE bulbs.

Hi Joe

Was me with the LED's on my coupe.

No flickering over bumps, even though my shocks and suspension need Joe's magic wand.

Here's more information :

Fitting the bulb

They say plug and play. I say easy enough, but I had to buy a new set of spring clips for the bulbs as the original locations could not be used as the large, wide heat sink got in the way of the clip. I had to fit the new clips around the heat sink, then push the catches into place.

It is a firm fit. They do not have the H1 locating "nodule", but have the diagonal slot to fit in the right orientation. Have not noticed any wiggling/judder of the light as I drive.

I would say, for easier fitting, you can get one with a removable heat sink for ease of fitting with original hardware (see below link from Poland). With the other link the heat sink is fixed in place.

These guys also sell them :

H1 - Polish site - ZES H1 LED bulbs

Not used them - they are in Poland - so cannot vouch for them. They look the same and promise the same Philips ZES LED's.
They do tests of light output, etc. on Youtube, so seem quite a reasonable firm.

Here is how they look with the dust cap back on :

With dust cap back on

You can also see in the video below the beam cut off for each headlight.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u4kxkZx_zs4

The lights seem quite bright/glarey in the pictures. In real life they are much more even, just that the dynamic range of the cameras are not that great.

Front view

Here below is the difference between the Z-ES bulb I used (left) and CREE XHP50 type bulb, I also tried (right). The right beam is rubbish and curved. The left is focused properly.

ZES left - CREE right

Here is a video of me driving round. I would say the light output is on a par with standard Xenon's and not too much light as can be the case with high power Xenon's.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rZ5SZrxoxKU

Heat

After running these for an hour and driving round, the heat sink was hot (I could hold the heat sink for 2 seconds before it felt too hot). The LED driver box (metal cased) was merely slightly warm - around 25 - 30 degrees.

You get no heat output like halogens at the front of the headlight, it all goes to the heat sink. I believe original halogens get to around 100 degrees +.

These draw 0.75A each, so are much lower than the originals - around 9A for the pair of halogen / "Xenon" bulbs.
As they are LED, they get to maximum brightness immediately.

There are some headlights with the CREE LED's. As above they are rubbish as the beam is nowhere near focused enough.

Also, some have metal braided belts behind the bulb to dissipate heat. The one I tried above got roasting hot (could not touch it as did the LED driver box - way too hot to touch).

Cheers

Andrew

Thanks for posting the info above Andrew

I ordered these Saturday morning and they arrived at 10am today, speedy quick delivery so I'll have these fitted tomorrow so I can road test in the evening.

These have plain wires without braiding, also the heat sinks look slightly different, maybe even small so it'll be interesting to feel how hot these get.

Mine had no braiding as well. Maybe they are selling the other type now (from the Polish outfit). Can the heat sink be unscrewed? If so, probably has a small grub screw holding the heat sink in place ...

Looking at these and the ones you've bought they look the same, small round heat sink, attached without a grub screw so it shouldn't be too difficult to fit these as they'll be on the work bench for easy access.

Re my GE halogens: much improved over the old HIDs. Which is just as well as one of the main beams died this morning... doh!

Fitted a set to the O/S head light this morning, original bulb clips can be reused, they just need a tweak to straighten the hooks so you can get them to fit around the body with the aid of a pair of needle pliers.
Low beam easy, high beam is a little trickier as it's recessed inside the housing as the holder sits further forward so not one while the lights are fitted, work surface fitting and when you drop the clip like I did several times it's easy to fish out, dust covers refitted without adaption, I cut a small slot in the plastic to allow for the cables.

Firstly even in the work shop I can see these bulbs are better, clear cut line against the back wall in comparison to the filament bulbs fitted to the N/S, night driving is going to be the key test so that'll be tomorrow night.

I'm very interested in this (group buy anyone?) What "bulbs" are in the n/s headlight and fog lights?

I hope these new gen LEDs are better than the first ones that came out. I dabbled a couple of years ago, and although they looked brighter than my HIDs, the lit up area ahead was woefully shorter. The intensity just seemed to bleed out after only a few metres ahead, especially on the mains.
Up against a wall the lines on dipped were very crisp and precise but they just didn't light up any kind of distance, which was surprising seeing as they were actually brighter!

I'm sure the new cars of today with these fitted must surely be an improvement, maybe the whole reflector side of things have changed too? I'll stick with my HIDs for now until some concrete evidence arises.
Keep testing Joe, I'm watching this with interest

N/S are standard bulbs Dave, the photo really doesn't show how dim they are in comparison, fogs and side lights are also still standard filament.

More to follow Rob

I would be a little wary of refitting the dust covers.

They have heat sinks attached and earlier versions incorporated cooling fans, so cooling seems to be critical.

I wonder if their life will be compromised if the airflow round them is curtailed.

Of course leaving off the covers could lead to engine bay fumes leaving deposits on reflectors and lenses.

I have a 30 minute journey tomorrow night so I'll see how hot the heat sinks are when I arrive, the high beam has a gap between the dust cover and the bulb, the low beam is close so that's the one that concerns me a little.

Just uploaded a video of both kits fitted and working, found a couple of LED sidelight bulbs so only the fog and indicator are original filament, rears already changed to LED including the 3rd brake light.

Video on Faceache so this link should work.

For none Faceache people here's a Photobucket link for the video.

I couldn't resist a quick road test


Country lane dipped beam.


Country lane high beam.


Yard dipped beam.


Yard high beam.

The heat sink does get quite hot, but how hot does a halogen get? Probably quite as hot and that is enclosed as well.

Photo of the beam pattern against a wall, Joe?

Sort some pictures tomorrow

Saw the Facebook video - these are really interesting. Looking forward to hearing how you get on Joe.

Hi. There's some of mine on the first post and in the YouTube videos.

Halogens are designed to run hot, LEDs are not and if air circulation is restricted it may affect their longevity.

I can't comment on these LED's, but if any of you are running HID's, it might be worse for the light that is project, as it was discussed earlier over in the styling forum click

Destination Amsterdam at 1am was the perfect test for these new bulbs, dipped is better when you have white lines, reflected cats eyes is great and high beam excellent, I recommend these kits, a worthy accessory for night driving imo

And how would they compare with a set of HID's Joe?

The dipped certainly have an edge on HID's, high beam is awesome, especially when you give a polite flash to request they move their slow arse out of lane three

Interesting Might have to add this to the ever growing wishlist of things I'd like to do

The LEDs look rectangular with the emitting part on each side so do they not throw a different pattern fron bulbs which emit from the whole 360 degrees. I'm curious.

Sorry-

STOP THE BUS

has anyone soaked in what the advertising in the link is suggesting?? (Implying) in the pictures?

These things draw ONLY three quarters of an amp??!!

That's bonkers!! totally beyond 'efficient'.

I've never been tempted by HIDs, but I'd have a go at these!!

The point being that incandescent lamps are somewhat less than efficient. By default standard headlights are 55W; the current (around 5A) is converted very efficiently into heat but only a tiny amount of that is in the region we can see.

Compare a domestic 240v lamp: a 60W incandescent is roughly equivalent in light output to a 4W or 5W LED. At 0.75A, these LED bulbs are using 9W, so they're not yet as efficient as domestic lamps - a function of the control electronics.

Just ordered as set was going to get 2 sets but i thought i would try them first
So one set to go on main and hi on one side only to compare the difference
I know my halogen Hi beam lights are shockingly bad compared to the HID's so hopefully these wont disappoint!

I've spoken to Classic car LED's this morning and asked about a GB on these bulbs, if 10x sets are purchased they can do them for £45/set delivered, 20x sets £40.00 which is only 10 people if you go for high and low.

Headlights for me have always been an issue for driving at night time, these bulbs are good and they do work, especially high beam so if you're interested let me know and I'll set up a group buy as I'll be ordering 6 sets for 3x projects so we're already well on the way to £40/set.

Nooooooo!

Do you think you could get them to count my order as part of this retrospectively? Doubt it but worth a shot if so I will have another set today if not I will check them out first To see if I think these are an improvement over Hid's! Which I'm sure they are going by your confidence in the product!
Cheers

Although I've tried H1 LEDs before I'm willing to give these a go.

Maybe the LED pair I acquired were poor quality, seemed good at first but then after about 100 hours of use their output noticeably decreased to light up less road than standard halogens.

Are these easy to fit like standard halogen bulbs, i.e. without having to completely remove the clip?

Put me down for a pair please Joe.

put me down for 2 sets please Joe or do you want a PM ?

Give Duncan Richards a call on 0800 2465678 and mention you'd like to be part of the FCSS group buy but you've jumped the gun and order them before I posted a group buy thread, you never know.

I'll start a fresh GB thread in the morning Iain and transfer names over

Thanks Joe

I'm interested, Joe

Put me down for 2 sets please joe

1x or 2x sets Juleshh?

You will need to remove and tweek the bulb clip to fit these, I removed the light unit and fitted these on the work bench making it pretty easy tbh.

I'm using a pair of 100w h1 halogen at the moment,but the visibility is still poor at night. do you think these LED are worth a pop?

Are the reflectors tarnished Freddie? It sounds like they may well be if 100 watt bulbs still give poor light.

You mean the the plastic cover outside if so I had them polished it looks pretty clear

Anybody that has fitted these, Joe? did you fit the ballast? Inside the light housing or outside?
I reckon it might be safe to plug in our headlight levelling motor again or is that hoping for too much?

Mine turned up today very impressive bits of kit and certainly look like quality bits of kit! I'm impressed!

Yes it's quality kit, I was impressed when I got them as well.

I cut a small slot in the rear housing and mounted, ok tie wrapped the boxes next to the level motor unit, which are still fitted and working without any issues.

Freddie, any bulb will only work well if the quality of the reflector itself is good (the shiny reflective surface at the back of the unit not the front clear plastic, though that helps) - They do degrade over time or get dirty. Worth checking if you are having issues with 100w bulbs. If the reflectors are good then definitely worth an upgrade to LED.

Would you recommend the 410 H4 version on my 124 AC Coupe Joe?

Tbh I've no idea but I will pass on your question to Duncan who supplies the kits.

+1 for having clean reflectors, they do half the bulbs job so if they're mucky all that light is being deflected every where except forward where it's needed.

Nice one Joe, I will take a look at the weekend and try and clean them if I can get to them.

No, I mean the mirrored reflector behind the bulb.

Duncan can you help with answering this?

Sad news, Joe; I have a purchaser for my Plus as I am buying a convertible for the summer now while the prices are good. The buyer might go for them on his own volition; I'll mention it. I'll need to duck out, however. Jules

No worries Jules, hope we get some sunny days for you open top

Any advise on easiest way to align headlight beam? i.e height from centre of headlight x amount of meters ahead on a wall or is there a simpler way of doing this also the left to right adjustment where should that be?
I can find generic info but nothing specific to the Coupe

Mine are slightly different, but i want it to be correct so i can make a fair comparison with the new LED lamps fitted to my O/S headlamp
Cheers

The heights are adjusted off the motors so if you haven't touched that the beam should still be the same, or pop to your local friendly MOT garage and ask them to check it on their machine.

Hi Joe, what i meant to say is, whats the proper distance and height for the beam setting in relation to headlight height from floor? i know how to adjust just not what to adjust too and the fact the lights are in the bonnet makes it just that bit more awkward 😫

Yes I understood what you're asking, problem is only a head light beam tester will accurately assertain the correct beam height/pattern, anything else would be guess work tbh.

Ok I understand cheers Joe

Last time I did mine I parked on my works car park approx 10ft from the wall and set them to the same height as the centre of the headlight bulb from the floor. (the mortar lines on the wall helped too)
Not a particularly scientific way of doing it but it was spot on at the mot.

I've got a car that eats headlights. N/S ones anyway.

And I've replaced the complete unit three times.

I lined them up, much as Daz describes, with the final check being that i walked out in front of the car on level ground, and crouched down to see both lights come 'on beam' (or 'blinding'!) to my eyes.

I kept adjusting the N/S unit until it matched the O/S.

worked for one MOT- but not the next afterwards; when I'd had to replace it again.

Its been mentioned on the group buy thread, but not answered anywhere I can find - do they get hot and can they be run with the dust covers fitted ?

I have a different set of led bulbs to the ones from the group buy and had a bulb go due to overheating. So I've gone with no headlight covers now for better airflow.