LED car lights

travelyounger · Guru

LED car lights

blaze · Guru

I have led in my coaster, high beam is great, low beam is not so good, the light is bright enough but is very short, like a wall in front of you and no gradual fading
cheers
blaze

Aus-Kiwi · Guru

Start with good light alignment .

travelyounger · Guru

Thanks Blaze
I have heard that about led driving lights maybe a good aftermarket halogen bulb
Cheers

Aus-Kiwi · Guru

Yes be aware of the higher amperage ( load) on high wattage globes . Especially if plastic covers .Heat becomes an issue . Can also effect wiring correct size etc

landy · Guru

Hi Travalyounger. Just in case you haven't already picked this up It might be worth familiarizing your self with the legality of retro fitting LED globes to your vehicle, before making a final decision as it may render it unroadworthy. There are many arguments for and against which I don't intend to get involved in.
Landy

blaze · Guru

I would certainly up grade the wiring and operate lights with relays, I found 90/130 wat helogen globes through a relay gave a good lght
cheers
blaze
ps ausikiwi, my light alinement is spot on

dabbler · Guru

While there are plenty of LED conversion kits on the market, most simply are not used legally. It's not a matter of rocking into Supercheap and finding a price that suits you. You need to match the replacement "bulb" to your headlight type. Do your research if you're intent on going the retro-fit path.

landy · Guru

blaze wrote:

I would certainly up grade the wiring and operate lights with relays, I found 90/130 wat helogen globes through a relay gave a good lght

cheers

blaze

ps ausikiwi, my light alinement is spot on

This was the solution I chose for my vehicle, combined with an LED light bar which is wired so it can only be turned on with main beams . This works for me.
Landy.

-- Edited by landy on Wednesday 9th of September 2020 06:54:03 PM

Keith P · Senior Member

I have gone down this path...STEDI LED Light Bars Australia... IMO these are about the best Quality/price available atm...and coupled with the 22 inch 2 row ST4K light bar from these folks....along with a set of IPF super 8 inch HIDs ...I have exceptionally good lights on my Patrol now....and it pays off in greatly reduced fatigue levels and bloody great visibility on my fairly often long distance night trips out west a few times a year. All this with a standard alternater...as LEDS generally dont draw as much current as equivalent halogens...plus...I have never been flashed more than a cuppla times on low beam for bright lights...only due to cresting a high rise above the flashing vehicle. However the quick flash back sorts em bloody quick I can tell you.

Also a lot of cars these days have plastic lenses.( or sort of ) and upgrading to hotter halogens mostly melts them...LEDs dont do this apparently.

HTH Folks.

Cheers Keith

-- Edited by Keith P on Tuesday 8th of September 2020 10:13:35 PM

Whenarewethere · Guru

Whichever lights you use look for a high CRI (colour render index). The higher the number the better quality the light. Easier to see things.

Aus-Kiwi · Guru

I find SOME white globes bad for reflection off rain !

Warren-Pat_01 · Guru

Hi travelyounger,
Please excuse the late reply. My suggestions, seeing you already have a LED Bar fitted would be to upgrade the globes to +30%, +50% & if necessary fit relays but these are another thing that can cause trouble.

Going back to the early 70s, I had a Ford Zephyr, the lights were "average" but after fitting relays, they were brilliant, (excuse the pun) but they were.

I fitted those "blue" looking globes to my GQ Patrol - they were good for normal driving & friends travelling in front said "they looked very bright" but in rain they were pathetic! And both globes blew (on low beam) within an hour of each other when they were 12 months old!

On my GU Patrol, I fitted +30% globes & a LED Bar. I sold the supplied 8" driving lights as I was interested in getting as much air into the engine area as possible (aux batteries were lasting only 12 months, being cooked in 80+ degree locations).

Many auto spares shops advertise ways to upgrade your lights (eg HID, LED) BUT say they are suitable only for off road use & may not be ADR Compliant!

Whenarewethere · Guru

Have you looked on a Dmax forum.

My Freelander has projector lights & they are useless. Fortunately we don't drive at night. With projector lights LED upgrade is a waste of time as the spread of light is very poor as experienced by other owners who have gone back to the halogen globe. If one changes to xenon you have to have auto leveling & get the computer codes in the car changed.

If you put higher wattage globes in projector lights they generate too much heat & explode creating a hugh mess inside the fitting.

I did try some new globes, the Philips 12V 65W +100% X-tremeVision 3350K (I wanted light & not whiteness). Effectively no difference!

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Both photos were an average of photos to minimise any exposure variation of a single photograph. Off a white panel in the back of the garage, right headlight old globe & new globe. Battery was 12.2 volts for both globes.

Mobi Condo · Guru

Hello all, I am not sure that I am about to be (and hopefully NOT so) a spoil sport here.

I got all excited two years back about setting up LED's in my old 80 series TLC. Both Sprint and Super Cheap "sure buddy we have the globes AND the wiring harness to suit that would be $XXX and they would work soo well.

HOWEVER you will not be legal!

Why? Said I.

Do you have the Auto Dipping headlight function set up? they asked. No said I. Then you will not be legal they re-iterated.

Oh Blow and thank you for your honesty I said as I retreated defeated.

It may pay to do a double check here - see if I was told correct AND to see if I was told wrong!

Cheers - Ian

StewG · Senior Member

Sorry I can't offer any further suggestions about LED lights. The stock standard Xenon lights on my current tug are very adequate, so I don't need to add anything. Many years ago (50?) I had a Holden that had headlights that you'd turn on, get out and walk to the front to see if they were really on. I may be exaggerating, but to improve the situation I fitted aircraft landing lights in the grille, 100W each activated by the dip switch with an override switch and they were great. However, the relay they were powered through would occasionally stick resulting in blinding the oncoming vehicle. The evasive manoeuver was to do a quick left turn into the verge where possible, stop, get out, thump the side where the relay was mounted until it released and then proceed, much chastened. The lesson here is make sure that any relay used for boosted lights is up to the task. This should not be too big an issue where LEDs are concerned because of their frugality compared with old incandescent globes, but important to check nevertheless.

Whenarewethere · Guru

In a previous life I replaced the 4 sealed beam headlights on my Peugeot 504 with Hella 7 inch inserts. One of the outer sealed beam lights died so I thought, let's upgrade to halogen. After seeing the vast improvement I then replaced the inner high beam only lights.

The outer pair were 55 watts each & the inner pair were 120 watts each. On high 350 watts of high beam!

They were brilliant. I later added some Hella rectangular driving lights but later removed them as they didn't make much difference & were blocking the grill. Also had a pair of rectangular Hella fog lights.

With everything on I could see the voltage gauge gradually dropping!

The old 7 inch round reflectors simply worked, low or high because they have a large no nonsense reflector. With the high beam I could feel the heat off the globe a metre in front of the car.

These days we basically don't drive at night. Maybe the only time is if we are late back from a walk & we need to drive slowly due to wildlife & the fog lights are great for lighting up the sides of a dirt track.

Personally I prefer around 3200 to 3500k colour temperature.

travelyounger · Guru

Thanks everyone for your input as always this forum is always full of good information from real travellers who know their stuff
Cheers