Octavia MK III headlights - LED headlight replacement costs

[Buster]

Hi all,

 

I'll eyeing up a used Skoda Octavia estate SE L TDI DSG for when my current 308 SW become uneconomical to keep running (hopefully once my house renovation has been finished - it's great for doing trip runs!).

 

Although the SE L often seems to be the recommended trim level, am I right in thinking that it has LED lights front and back? Having seen a What Car report on the cost of replacing LED headlights compared to just replacing a blown standard halogen bulb, how long have you found the LED headlights (usually the dipped beam ones) last and how much was it to replace them?

 

Ta muchly!

[ahenners]

What year is the car? Only facelift models have LED headlights and they haven't been out long enough to comment on reliability. All still under warranty too so any failures won't be at the owners expense. Dipped or main beam failure on those will likely result in needing to replace the whole headlamp unit.

Edited 12 November, 2018 by ahenners

[KevC_Derby]

An LED has approx. 10 times the life of an incandescent bulb. Incandescent burn life is usually less than 1000hrs, dependant on vibration predominantly. OEMs won’t warrant Incandescent bulbs but will for LEDs.

In the USA a truck driver found driving with a bulb out gets an on the spot fine - $50, Great Dane trailers (I think) partnered with Truck-Lite to develop LED lamps that were interchangeable  with the incandescent units fitted in order to save their customers money. Worked out well for both parties.

[ian_feel_keepin_it_reel]

Lifetime of an LED is around 50k hours. As long as the heat management of the elctronics are good they'll last the life of the car. 

 

Water ingress will most likely be the common cause of failure for these units. 

[KevC_Derby]

On 18/11/2018 at 20:02, ian_feel_keepin_it_reel said:

Lifetime of an LED is around 50k hours. As long as the heat management of the elctronics are good they'll last the life of the car. 

 

Water ingress will most likely be the common cause of failure for these units. 

 

No manufacturers will warrant for more than 10k hours in Off Highway, Truck and Bus modules. Maybe 50k for fixed installations.

 

[themanwithnoaim]

On 18/11/2018 at 20:02, ian_feel_keepin_it_reel said:

Lifetime of an LED is around 50k hours. As long as the heat management of the elctronics are good they'll last the life of the car. 

 

Water ingress will most likely be the common cause of failure for these units. 

What heat management ?

 

The only downside of the LED lights is you have to defrost the lenses as after 11 miles they still have frost on them.

 

They just don't give off any heat, AT ALL

[johnmb]

3 hours ago, themanwithnoaim said:

What heat management ?

 

The only downside of the LED lights is you have to defrost the lenses as after 11 miles they still have frost on them.

 

They just don't give off any heat, AT ALL

Advantage of having the Winterpack on the SEL , as mine does , is one gets heated Washer jets for the Lights ,at the same time as heated seat and windscreen Lux ury ,problem solved i assume .

[themanwithnoaim]

1 hour ago, johnmb said:

Advantage of having the Winterpack on the SEL , as mine does , is one gets heated Washer jets for the Lights ,at the same time as heated seat and windscreen Lux ury ,problem solved i assume .

Yeah I'm missing that luxury but, with twice the power you've got, it could just be the wind chill factor !!!

[brettikivi]

normally the friction should start to remove the ice, but it does take time....

 

 - Bret

[SashaGrace]

Used ones going on eBay around the £2-300 mark. I wouldn’t be put off getting a car with LED lights, they are such an improvement over halogen bulbs. I do like my Bi-Xenon’s though, so no upgrading to an FL for me.

[ian_feel_keepin_it_reel]

8 hours ago, themanwithnoaim said:

What heat management ?

 

The only downside of the LED lights is you have to defrost the lenses as after 11 miles they still have frost on them.

 

They just don't give off any heat, AT ALL

I'm talking about the electrical circuit. You won't feel the heat from outside of the light clusters, but the LEDs themselves give off tonnes of heat. Just look aft after market LED headlight bulbs, they all have a wacking great aluminium heat sinks on the back.

[KevC_Derby]

LEDs themselves don’t give off much heat, the control circuit drivers switch at such a high speed to control the brightness they get hot.

[brettikivi]

I disagree. The power supplies themselves need a certain amount of heatsinking, but it's the LEDs themselves that need the most thermal management. That and their mechanical mounting to ensure thermal management.. it's not for nothing that stuff like this - https://www.cree.com/led-components/media/documents/XLampThermalManagement.pdf - exists... it's been a problem since day one. 

 

If you drop a mid-power set of SMD LEDS onto an aluminium backing and run them for 20 mins, you'll probably hit 30+C. I know I run a bunch of Duris E5s on MCPCBs, anchored to fat aluminium heatsinks, and even those are only just big enough as they'll get to 45-50C within minutes and stay there. Same applies to Ikea's Ledsjo lamps - the bulb head is warm and stays that way due to decent thermal management. 

 

- Bret

[Kenai]

LEDs absolutely do get hot and need management, but it's different to a typical bulb, there is such a small surface area on an LED that you can't rely on simply dissipating the heat to the local atmosphere like you can a bulb, you need to take the heat away more directly with heatsinks. You'll not see (feel?) a headlight housing getting hot because the heat isn't being dissipated into the housing like with a bulb.

[Guest]

11 hours ago, themanwithnoaim said:

What heat management ?

 

The only downside of the LED lights is you have to defrost the lenses as after 11 miles they still have frost on them.

 

They just don't give off any heat, AT ALL

 

Hmm.. never questioned whether an LED is hot / cold or luke warm.  What I can say tho is my LED's came thru a pretty cold winter last year here in Scotland and that's the first I've ever heard of having to defrost lenses? I've never defrosted the Lenses on our SEAT either.

 

Anyway, what do you mean by 'defrost' the lenses?     " Jeez it's cold this morning...  I've switched on the heated windscreen, the heated mirrors and the heated rear screen. I've also turned on my heated seats. I'm now going to defrost the side windows with the ice-scraper"         Never heard that one before, must be unique to Farnborough.

[themanwithnoaim]

37 minutes ago, Scot5 said:

 

Anyway, what do you mean by 'defrost' the lenses?     " Jeez it's cold this morning...  I've switched on the heated windscreen, the heated mirrors and the heated rear screen. I've also turned on my heated seats. I'm now going to defrost the side windows with the ice-scraper"         Never heard that one before, must be unique to Farnborough.

WhoTF in the 21st century scrapes

 

Luke warm kettle for me thanks @Scot5