[Closed] Car light bulbs. Led in reflector headlight?

No. No one with any sense would do it. You would need lenses and heat sinks designed for an LED to replace the point source halogen sitting in a reflector.

No because there will not be. The reflector is designed to work with a standard bulb, not a led or hid bulb. Buy brighter bulbs but forget everything else.

No one with any sense would do it. You would need lenses and heat sinks designed for an LED to replace the point source halogen sitting in a reflector.

I saw some LED H4 bulbs the other day with big heat sinks, and those bulbs have a built in reflector so should be easy to copy with an LED?

It’s abit of a lottery as to wether the led will be brighter than a good bulb and create the correct beam image in a standard headlight.

Big issue with led is the ammount of light reflected back at you in the wet. -due to the wave length of the light.

Part of the reason so many modern cars are blinding when they come towards you is that they have just made LEDs brighter so you can see.

How bright do you need your car lights to be ? Fit some spot lights perhaps to assist you main beams. As for dip start by getting them adjusted . So many times I've bought cars and thought my these are shit lights.... And while they pass mot for not being too high they practically point straight down .... It's as if people don't know how to do it and just aim low

Fit some spot lights perhaps to assist you main beams

Ah how I miss my Super Oscars.

Big issue with led is the ammount of light reflected back at you in the wet. -due to the wave length of the light.

How does that phenomenon work t_r?

Stoner - Member
Big issue with led is the ammount of light reflected back at you in the wet. -due to the wave length of the light.
How does that phenomenon work t_r?

I know it sounds odd, but from my experience from a fairly reasonable car with LED headlamps is that they're terrible in the wet. And the dipped beam has such a strong vertical cut-off that it makes driving on country roads difficult, and even in towns as people crossing the road aren't clearly visible.

Miles better in the wet and dry. Mine also have built in heat sinks and fans.

Are you sure it's not just PWM that makes them rubbish in the rain (same as bike lights).

Thinking of sticking some in the MG rather than dick about with relays. That's refracting rather than reflecting headlamps though, although I did see one the other day with reflecting headlamps and it didn't look too out of place.

Teethgrinder,

I've been looking at some with latest Cree LED's plus the heatsinks and fans. Apparently a direct replacement using existing connectors...

Actually, just re-read the title.

These would be for a projector headlight.......will that now change views of some above?!?

Sorry!

The ones I have are HB4 and have the right connectors and a ballast or something in-line before the actual bulb/fan assembly. None of the local garages or car parts shops had any halogen HB4's in when one of my Osram's died after 5 months (a bit crap for +£2 a pair, really) so it was actually cheaper and quicker to get some LED's on Amazon Prime.

I believe projector light units are more suited to LED and HID than the reflector units. Yet still 'technically' unroadworthy. You need self-levelling and either washers or wipers for the lenses.

If you do go for them, be aware that with the heat sink and fan they are much longer than OEM. I needed to persuade the inner wings out of the way in the EP4 civic using a lump hammer and big screwdriver.

Benz, be careful. What you think are Cree products almost certainly aren't. The led emitter itself might be but the whole unit is not. It's like buying g a hope (or other brands light) and saying it's a Cree just because it uses Cree LEDs.

Any of these will have shite performance with reflectors. Projector lamps fare better but still not great.

Big issue with led is the ammount of light reflected back at you in the wet. -due to the wave length of the light.

Eh? It’s visible light, the wavelength is exactly the same as sunlight, the colour temperature, on the other hand, will be considerably different; most lights with incandescent bulbs are distinctly yellow, LED emitters are cool white.
One issue is that LED’s strobe, which has a visible effect on falling rain and snow.

Part of the reason so many modern cars are blinding when they come towards you is that they have just made LEDs brighter so you can see.

Well duh! Of course they’ve made them brighter, that’s all part of technological development, however, most car lights that are dazzling aren’t LED, but either conventional reflector or projector lights with horrid blue-tinted bulbs installed, and badly aligned; LED’s are fitted along with reflector and lenses computer designed to give a sharper beam cutoff, so the beam can be set higher without it dazzling, and matrix lights like Vauxhall’s on the Astra and Mokka are designed to auto-dip on the offside, while keeping the nearside beams high, when they sense oncoming traffic, something conventional lights cannot do; Audi are even fitting laser light units on their high-end performance cars like the R8.
If a Seat Leon comes towards me, I can look straight at the lights without discomfort, they’re all LED, whereas there are plenty of cars with badly aligned conventional lights that make it almost impossible to see clearly where I’m going, and that goes for the lights on the cars I’m driving! I had a Merc A180 a while back that was terrifying to drive in the dark, the lights weren’t that bright, had a very soft beam cutoff, and weren’t set very high, it made it really difficult to see the edge of the road, especially with oncoming vehicles having badly set-up lights as well.
The few cars I’ve driven with full LED systems, on the other hand, have been amazing, really clear, white light with a sharp beam on the nearside that lights up the verge so much better than a lot of incandescent lights, especially in dark, shitty winter weather.
The strobing effect on falling rain does take some getting used to, though, but then so do the heated screens fitted to Fords, and some Vauxhalls and Volvos.

Eh? It’s visible light, the wavelength is exactly the same as sunlight

It's not. Each colour has a different wavelength. The sun emits the entire visible spectrum and a lot more either side. LEDs emit a very, very, very, very small range of wavelengths. They are designed to emit a certain wavelength to be visible as a certain colour (or invisible if they are UV).

Some very good info there from CountZero.

Also remember that cars with LED headlights need to be self-levelling to avoid dazzling oncoming traffic. So retrofitting LEDs into a car without self-levelling lights isn't a great idea and is against the law ultimately (your car wouldn't - or shouldn't - pass an MOT). HID lights also needed washers IIRC.

Also remember that cars with LED headlights need to be self-levelling to avoid dazzling oncoming traffic. So retrofitting LEDs into a car without self-levelling lights isn't a great idea and is against the law ultimately (your car wouldn't - or shouldn't - pass an MOT). HID lights also needed washers IIRC.

LED light units can be fitted without self levelling / washers - it's something to do with the raw light output not being as bright as HID, so the levelling/washers aren't needed. I say 'light units' - you can get complete sealed units (LED + reflector etc) which are E marked and type approved, these are fine and are fairly common fitment on Defenders. Mine's been through a couple of MOTs with no issue.

The aftermarket LED bulbs for putting in a normal headlight that you can get on ebay etc aren't type approved so technically aren't legal for use on the roads (and the more reputable ones like the Philips Ultinon are marked as for offroad use only) - if the beam pattern is OK you may not get any issues, BUT if you have an accident and insurance pick up on it you may get into trouble...