LED headlamps

[csearle]

One of my car's (dipped) headlamps has ceased working. I thought that rather than going for an incandescent lamp replacement I'd see if I could find an LED one. All four (main beam + dipped) are identical in my Toyota I believe.

I still need to confirm the correct lamp number(s) for my particular vehicle, but,

• has anyone had any experience with these?
• Are they bright enough?
• Is there anything I need to pay attention to when choosing?

Thanks,
Chris

[staffordian]

Regarding your final point, some (most?) newish cars object to LEDs because they draw comparatively little current. This causes the computer which monitors the lighting to believe the bulb isn't working. A term I've heard in relation to this is canbus ready or canbus compatible, which I understand means they have some sort of resistance or circuitry built in to fool the computer.

Staffordian

[csearle]

Regarding your final point, some (most?) newish cars object to LEDs because they draw comparatively little current. This causes the computer which monitors the lighting to believe the bulb isn't working. A term I've heard in relation to this is canbus ready or canbus compatible, which I understand means they have some sort of resistance or circuitry built in to fool the computer.

Oh right, thank you! I shall definitely pay attention to that detail if I get any.

I had a vague notion that a CAN bus was a system where a peripheral received a power supply and an instruction to e.g. light/extinguish and some part of it implemented the function drawing upon the supply as needed. Don't quite remember where I got tha from! But even if that were true it can't be that way with my headlights as peripherals as they really are just dumb filament lamps.

The resistance check sounds highly plausible. Yes, Maybe this "computer which monitors the lighting" is a controller that has a CAN bus on its input and a cluster of lamps on its output (which are monitored)? Interesting.

Chris

[bionichamster]

A couple of weeks ago I had a blown side light on my Ibiza so I replaced both sides with some LED units I bought a few months back which are apparently 'canbus' compatible (i.e. they won't cause the system to think there is a fault), they work when the car is sitting in the driveway but I can't tell you much more than that because I haven't actually used that car due to being on xmas leave, but will drive about 100 miles in it on moday though .....hopefully.

Total PITA changing them, sod all room to open the back of the lights and reach in to the bulb holder, and just as I was finishing the second one the spring clip for securing the sealing cap on the back of the unit pinged off and dissapeared into the engine bay or inside of the wing, I have been putting off jacking the car up and removing the undertray to try and find it but as I need to use it on Monday it looks like I'll be under the car regardless of weather. Changing sidelight bulbs should be a five minute job given how often they seem to wear out, but by the time I've retrieved that clip and refitted everything it will have probably taken and hour to an hour and a half in total, I certainly hope that these LED's last longer as that was really the only reason I bought them couldn't give a monkey's if they aren't better and brighter just so long as they meet the required standard AND I never have to replace them. However if they are anything like the GU10 led's I have replaced household halogen downlighters with they have a 50% chance of being no better in life expectancy than the incandescent bulbs they replace.....

Good luck with replacing headlight bulbs!

BH

[bungeejumper]

[Edit: Ignore the following if you were talking about replacing the whole headlamp units, OP]

I'm really not sure that replacing halogens with LED bulbs is legal in the UK. Ebay is full of warnings on the subject, and there are even those who say that LED lamps fall under the same EU washer/wiper rules as HIDs.

That last bit might be a legal red herring, but the true problem becomes apparent if you consider the size and shape of the light source on am LED. It's bigger than a halogen filament, and that means that it's going to bounce off the reflector differently. Unless you've got projector lenses - and maybe not even then - the light is going to scatter all over the place, and you'll be no better than the HID idiots who you/I probably curse for blinding you with their aftermarket kits.

The mod's comment in http://www.candlepowerforums.com/vb/sho ... bs-illegal isn't a legal opinion, and it goes a bit over the top on its moral judgement tone, but it seems to encapsulate the sense of the problem.

It is unsafe and illegal (throughout most all of the industrialized world) to put the wrong kind of light source into a headlamp, and here is why: Headlight beams are not simple spots or floods, they are actually very complex, with intricate requirements for a variety of minimum and maximum intensities at a long list of angular points within the beam. The whole optical system (light source, reflector/s, lens/es, bulb shield) works as a system to produce beams that meet the requirements. Each headlamp is designed, engineered, tested, and certified/approved to give acceptable safety performance with one specific kind of light source -- a halogen bulb, an HID bulb, or an array of LEDs. Putting a different kind of light source into the headlamp, other than the kind it was designed for, ruins the headlamp's safety performance. The wrong amounts of light are sent in the wrong directions. Some areas have not enough light, other areas have too much light, and the result is very unsafe, each and every time. And this is true even if you think you can see OK with your LED-modded headlamps. You really need to get the "LED bulbs" out of your headlamps and put the correct bulbs back in; even if you manage to luck out and not get ticketed, and even if you are OK with risking your own injury, death, and property damage, your modified headlamps create an elevated risk of injury, death, and property damage for everyone you share the roads with, and that's not acceptable.


BJ

[DrFfybes]

Regarding your final point, some (most?) newish cars object to LEDs because they draw comparatively little current. This causes the computer which monitors the lighting to believe the bulb isn't working. A term I've heard in relation to this is canbus ready or canbus compatible, which I understand means they have some sort of resistance or circuitry built in to fool the computer.

Staffordian

The festoon (same as s number plate light) light in the glovebox stays one sometimes, gets hot, and melts the holder (which also houses the fuel cap release).

I thought I'd try an LED one. I phoned up Ring (who made them) and asked if they ran cooler. The answer was "not really, we have to put a resistor in to draw the same current otherwise the car thinks the bulb is blown".

P

[csearle]

I'm really not sure that replacing halogens with LED bulbs is legal in the UK. Ebay is full of warnings on the subject...

Thanks BJ, I hadn't really thought that there might be a question of legality. I'll have to delve further. My instinct says that if the dipped beam adheres to the " \__ " shape that they use for the MOT and it is actually bright enough then there's not much room for complaint, but of course my instinct had little to do with whether I'd get into trouble over it!

Regards,
Chris

[Alaric]

Total PITA changing them
..
Good luck with replacing headlight bulbs!

I gave up on that a while back, Halfords will do it for you when you buy replacements, obviously at a cost. The ever more sophisticated nature of current fittings makes a nonsense of some country's motoring rules, such as France which require you to carry a spare set of bulbs.

[bungeejumper]

I'm really not sure that replacing halogens with LED bulbs is legal in the UK. Ebay is full of warnings on the subject...

Thanks BJ, I hadn't really thought that there might be a question of legality. I'll have to delve further. My instinct says that if the dipped beam adheres to the " \__ " shape that they use for the MOT and it is actually bright enough then there's not much room for complaint, but of course my instinct had little to do with whether I'd get into trouble over it!

TBH, I haven't looked that far into it myself. But AFAIK, any headlamp unit needs to carry an EU standards number to be approved for use, and it'll only be valid if it's used with the type of bulb for which it was designed. I really don't know the situation with front fog lamps, but I would imagine it's similar.

The inference would be that putting an LED into a headlamp set up for a single-point source like halogen would disqualify the standards classification. The same doesn't seem to apply to sidelights, etc, which don't cast quite such a powerful light. And there also seems to be no problem with putting brighter halogen bulbs like Osram Nightbreakers into your headlamps. (Though there are some eejits who try to melt their looms with 100 watt bulbs and greater )

The only properly legal way to LED your headlamps, I believe, is to change the whole headlamp for a new unit that's been designed for LED and carries the right approvals. The better news is that this doesn't seem to be as expensive as I had supposed.

BJ

[csearle]

Just as an update: I decided not to get LED headlamps and bought some fairly normal incandescent ones instead.

Thanks for your feedback,
Chris