Hi all

 

Wondering if anyone has any experience. I have swapped out my h7 and h15 halogen bulbs for leds. My problem is that when drl and headlights are on together it looks one solid white colour across the light unit, making it look like my high beam is on (the drl is slightly dimmer). I've had them fitted for a month now and only had one oncoming vehicle flash me, think he realised when he had a burst of white light flashing back. 

Is there a way you can turn of drl whilst dipped beam is on?

I do alot of night driving on country road and they've been a god send. 

These are the h15s I've used; https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B085WW12KM/ref=cm_sw_r_apan_glt_fabc_DBTQSYASSR049M8N2MXC?_encoding=UTF8&psc=1

The h7s are Philips ultinon pro5000. 

My infotainment, Amundsen MIB 2,   has an option to turn off the drls ,  go to "car" settings, lighting. 

 

However you should still be cautious about changing from halogen to led from an MOT perspective 

Edited 11 December, 20214 yr by paulski

the problem with swapping out the standard halogens for LED bulbs is the beam spread won't be as intended because the light hitting the reflectors in the lens housing will be different to that from the halogens.

 

The only thing I could suggest is to try adjust the headlight height with the allen key hole on both units. Only thing is it may impair normal day to day driving

22 hours ago, Dan815 said:

Hi all

 

Wondering if anyone has any experience. I have swapped out my h7 and h15 halogen bulbs for leds. My problem is that when drl and headlights are on together it looks one solid white colour across the light unit, making it look like my high beam is on (the drl is slightly dimmer). I've had them fitted for a month now and only had one oncoming vehicle flash me, think he realised when he had a burst of white light flashing back. 

Is there a way you can turn of drl whilst dipped beam is on?

I do alot of night driving on country road and they've been a god send. 

These are the h15s I've used; https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B085WW12KM/ref=cm_sw_r_apan_glt_fabc_DBTQSYASSR049M8N2MXC?_encoding=UTF8&psc=1

The h7s are Philips ultinon pro5000. 

 

That will be an MOT fail, is not road legal and in the event of an accident, you will risk invalidating your insurance. It is illegal to put LED bulbs in a housing designed for halogen.

@Dan815

Welcome to the forum.

 

Your Country Road drives are likely as everyone else's country road drives, dark when it is dark.

 

Maybe an idea to keep your Dipped Beam and Full Beam legal and not cause visibility issues to other drivers, cyclists / pedestrians is convert your Fog Lights to Spot Lights which you can switch on or off as needed in addition to your full beam when required.

Or fit a LED Light Bar discretely and use that when where you drive needs more lighting up than other road users require to drive safely at 60 mph or lower.

Just now, roottoot said:

@Dan815

Welcome to the forum.

 

Your Country Road drives are likely as everyone else's country road drives, dark when it is dark.

 

Maybe an idea to keep your Dipped Beam and Full Beam legal and not cause visibility issues to other drivers, cyclists / pedestrians is convert your Fog Lights to Spot Lights which you can switch on or off as needed in addition to your full beam when required.

Or fit a LED Light Bar discretely and use that when where you drive needs more lighting up than other road users require to drive safely at 60 mph or lower.

That's exactly what I would suggest. LED spots for when they are required.

MOT rules from .Gov website, makes it pretty clear halogen to LED will be a fail. 

 

 

3 hours ago, NikTheGeek said:

 

 It is illegal to put LED bulbs in a housing designed for halogen.

 

What law is that and what are the penalties please?

There will be ones in Use & Construction or Road Compliance or whatever.

 

A UK MOT is just a vehicle tested on the day.

Owners are expected to keep their vehicle safe and roadworthy & compliant until the next MOT.  A Qualified Police Examiner will soon enough make out a report showing a vehicle modified to not meet with the Traffic Laws or Legislation if there are contraventions. 

1 hour ago, J.R. said:

 

What law is that and what are the penalties please?

The UK lighting regulations.

 

You can't fit an LED bulb in a housing unless the housing is specifically designed for LED and appropriately "E" marked. So LED spot lights and light bars contain LED's in housings designed for them and if they have been "E" marked as approved for road use then they are perfectly legal. However, the halogen housings used for halogen bulbs are neither designed nor approved for LED use. Fitting an LED in one is therefore illegal. If you are involved in a serious accident at night, you can be pretty sure that your insurance company will find that light might have played a part in the accident and refuse a claim. But regardless, because it's illegal, you are technically uninsured anyway.

 

The penalties if caught (eg a police car thinks your beam pattern is wrong or lights are too bright) is a fine, points and the impounding of the car - similar to the offence of driving with no insurance.

 

As for the MOT test, since Jan 2021 it says: “Existing halogen headlamp units should not be converted to be used with high intensity discharge (HID) or light emitting diode (LED) bulbs. If such a conversion has been done, you must fail the headlamp.”

 

Does that help?

 

Nick

Edited 12 December, 20214 yr by NikTheGeek

23 hours ago, roottoot said:

convert your Fog Lights to Spot Lights

I thought about doing this a little while ago - does any one know of any reliable manufacturer & VCDS compatible (i.e., minimum faffery) solutions for this?

 

Would of course be keen to wire up discreet LED spots behind the main grill á lá unmarked car, but very close to impersonation of an emergency service vehicle - and also additional loom wiring = increased faffery.

On 13/12/2021 at 13:26, Ads230 said:

does any one know of any reliable manufacturer & VCDS compatible (i.e., minimum faffery) solutions for this?

 

Assuming not...?

 

Requirements would be a) brighter lights, and b) in keeping with UK road legislation highlighted above, ensuring any fittings are purpose-built for LEDs (and marked as such).

 

I've not found anything specific in 30mins' searching on 'tinternet, so unless there's an unlisted page I'm not aware of, presuming it's too much to hope for an off-the-shelf product that isn't just a higher lumen Halogen

A company like Superskoda would have to manufacture Mk3 headlamp assemblies with LED's in them and go through the approval process (which is costly) and then sell them too us as replacement headlamp assemblies. I would imagine that after factoring in their profit they would be so expensive that none of us would buy them!

 

In the interim, some of the bright white halogens like the Osram Night Breaker are the best we can hope for. I fitted them to mine and they were noticeably brighter and whiter

 

Amazon link to the H7 bulbs here: https://amzn.to/30sXpI7 not a bad price for £19 a pair!

 

Nick

I fitted some HIDs in my Roomster, it had projector headlights and they were perfect, still working after being in about 10years.

Decided to give them a try in the Octavia, thought there would be no problem, but the Octavia has reflector headlights, the first night I went out with them ,the lights showed a criss cross pattern infront of the car, all I could do is look at it, it was so putting me off driving, took them out the next day and returned them.

I then tried some LEDs, the fitment was so loose I didn't trust them, I thought if I go over a big bump they would fall out the holder, returned them.

Cost me £6.50 to learn all that, returns pp.

Edited 15 December, 20214 yr by NZ100
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