Has Anyone Replaced Headlight Bulbs with LED Bulbs?

Layne

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Xenondepot has a 20% off promotion right now and free shipping (total $199.99). Not bad considering they are supposed to last much longer than halogen.
 

tomcolitt

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Thanks for all the responses. I think I'll try a pair. If it's true that the light output is even better than the factory high beams, you can't go much wrong. I'm not entering my car in the 24h of LeMans or the Paris-Dakar. I'm not sure if I understood the comment about the bulb coming out the back of the housing. It looks like the socket is exactly as those on a regular bulb. At least the ones in the Ebay auctions. If anything, I might have to be careful it doesn't protrude too far into the front of the glass reflector. The Philips LEDs wouldn't fit the original H1 reflectors.
 
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Layne

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The Phillips ones stick out behind the light about 1-3/4 inch and have a big heat sink there. No problem at all on an E9, there's tons of space there. The ebay ones don't. And they also don't have the 'control box' included with the Phillips, which I assume steps the voltage up. Ie; they're not in the same league at all and will not be anywhere close in performance.
 

rsporsche

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a couple of things
1. the OEM light in the test is a standard H4 halogen - probably a decent make ... not a standard incandescent
2. LED H4 lights have a heat sink to displace the heat produced. the highend Philips has the heatsink ... its just a different style. most have a bunch of ribbon style heatsinks.

if i was to try an LED H4, i would try the Philips Vision if you don't want to go the wholehog.
 

Stevehose

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That is a serious piece of hardware, looks ballistic:

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tomcolitt

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Yes. The impressive look costs $250 more than the other experiment and the only thing we know for sure is that this socket design would not fit a factory, BMW world specs. coupe headlight or high beam lens/housing (not plug and play...). Plus, there is a metal cap with the two or three prong terminals that covers the end of the bulb that might not be deep enough, so that it would not close.
 

Honolulu

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A neighbor down the street bought a pair of LED headlights and finagled me into installing them. He is, BTW, a survivor of at least two strokes, is mobility impaired and almost completely incomprehensible speaker as a result. Hadn't oughta be on the road, much less at night. Spooky to ride with. He paid well over $100 (forget the exact amount) for the pair and of course came from China.

Nevertheless I took 2 hours to put them into his 420SEL. One went in after half an hour of finger-bending, the other was much more difficult. A little silicone dielectric helped, but on that car it was simply a difficult, tight fit. We didn't have the time or option of removing the entire headlight bucket, or the reflector. What a b*tch job. They seemed brighter than his halogens, but it was a bright hot sunny day. I haven't asked him since how they are holding up.
 

mulberryworks

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Besides the high price, I have another problem with the Philips LEDs being 6200K.

Yes, it's quite bright, and close to daylight, but frankly I have trouble focusing light at the blue end of the spectrum and a warmer light is better for me. Our eyes are most sensitive to green light, so putting extra energy in the blue end is wasted somewhat for all of us. I've always thought the marketing for the Blue headlight bulbs as verging on a scam.

I think that some of the difference people are seeing in the pattern and projection of the light is due to the fact that the reflectors are designed to reflect accurately light from a very small source, the halogen bulb filament. The LEDs are larger, and thus not at the focus point of the optics and will thus give a slightly different pattern.
LEDs may be just fine for most driving and certainly better than the dim fuzzy pattern the USA sealed beams produced that we were stuck with for so many years.

I've got new beautiful H4 and H1 lights (made in India!) ready to go in so I'll try them for a while and let the LED technology improve.

Ian

Eye sensativity u12l2b2.gif
 

Bmachine

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This thread is now more than two years old and the LED technology has improved and come down in cost significantly.

I need to upgrade my headlights (I still have the old sealed beam USA lights) and I am moving to the country where miles and miles of unlit hilly roads require some decent lighting. I am curious to see if LEDs are now a viable option. Has anyone ventured further in that territory with a coupe?
 

mane

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I guess nobody has changed headlights similar to those clear led headlights like in Singer Porsches? Haven't seen any, but would be interested..

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tferrer

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Gary Waggoner

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I have Hella reflectors and high end LED bulbs the have the leds placed exactly where the incandescent filament is so the cutoff pattern is great.
 

mtiger_dds

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dj_efk

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I will have an update on this topic soon - My car has had all filament blinks replaced with LEDs.

The result is dramatic and worthwhile, however it’s not been plain sailing with the headlamp bulbs in particular and I’m in discussions with the supplier (a specialist in classic car kits in the U.K.), to understand whether their kits for the E9 need refining or if my guys found a hard route to install them.

I will update in due course.
 

Lenoxx

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I replaced every bulb with ~3000k LED bulbs. I used 4000k lights for the engine compartment and trunk -a huge improvement. I might go with a lower temperature for the cabin. I haven't installed the headlight bulbs yet. Considering HID for those but I won't have my car on the road for a while so I'll decide later. I know the old school lights are more characteristic of the era, but I'm practically blind at night so it's safer for everyone if I upgrade. And it's easy to revert them back to original if I have to.
 
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