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.