LED headlight bulbs

[sebackman]

Hi all,

I'm looking to swap the ordinary halogen H4's in my S3 for LED. Or potentially the entire reflector unit if better and cost efficient.

I have done a search on PH but most is older stuff and there must have been some serious developments in the last few years.

I have already swapped the rest of the lights to LED which is just brilliant. All was straight swap-in but I needed to change the indicator relay for a LED one. Next job is dashboard this winter.

But headlights??

All input welcome.

//Rob

[magpies]

Just swapping lamps (bulbs to non electricians ) is illegal in the UK, even though they are a vast improvement when set up correctly over the H$'s.

I'm not 100% sure if swapping out complete headlights for E marked units are also completely legal due to the S not having auto beam height adjustment and headlight washers, but others will confirm.

[GreenV8S]

That's my understanding too.

[sebackman]

Understood.

Earlier these LED were very cold at about 6-7000 Kelvin which is easy to spot. Now there are H4 LED in the 3-4000 Kelvin range that will be brighter but appear color wise as halogen.

Anyone using them and potentially got trough MOT with such setup??

If not, are the complete LED headlights that would fit in an S and look reasonable stock.

I have seen some nice upgrades to more advance units and some even include indicators. They look nice but I would like to keep the stock appearance.

MOT seem to have lifted the ban on LED & HID conversions for bikes and cars earlier than 1986 from March 22nd of this year. Maybe cars after 1986 will follow......

Kind regards
//Rob

[phillpot]

My car is not a garage queen but it is a hobby car, and as such I find myself driving it in the dark very rarely.

For the few occasions that I do I find my H4 Osram "Nightbreakers" with sorted wiring so they get full voltage quite adequate

[sebackman]

Hi philpot,

I think I do have the same halogen bulbs already mounted and perhaps its just an issue to install better cabling and some relays closer to the headlights as my battery is located in the rear since many years.

Technical development goes fairly quickly and the lower draw could be an advantage in our often less than stellar wiring.

Also the fact that there no are 3000k LED's available should make the difficult to spot compared to Blue/White 6-7000k bulbs that MOT will fail.

Kind regards
//Rob

[Steve_D]

I would be suspecting the connectors for the bonnet. Have taken many apart and they were not in good condition. The connectors are not sealed and live in a very exposed position.

Steve

[magpies]

Steve_D said:

I would be suspecting the connectors for the bonnet. Have taken many apart and they were not in good condition. The connectors are not sealed and live in a very exposed position.

Steve

I fitted a 13 pin Caravan/trailer plug and socket