Thread: I have found LED headlight bulbs to fit D2

I put in a pair of Narva H4 60/55W Intense Maximum Legal Blue (ADR approved) which give me all I need on country roads a big improvement on standard so why bother trying LED's.

Well I can tell you that the high beam of the LED bulbs is MUCH brighter than even 130/90 bulbs which are MUCH brighter than premium 60/55s . IMHO they are a much better proposition than HIDs that some run and are cheap. They also have instant start up, and take only 40watts total. They reduce the necessity to place light bars or spotlights on the front.

The "improved " bulbs you are referring to give just a little more light than stock bulbs, the major difference being light temperature ( Kelvins). I have them in my Jazz, after having tried them in my Disco. Even the manufacturers concede this with the Osram specs for lumens being the same as stock bulbs.

The low beam at the moment is quite patchy but still bright, although the cutoff is good enough that I have not been flashed even in Sydney in Friday night traffic, and if I were going to be flashed it would happen then I assure you. I have yet to see if this can be improved with a re aim.

When you state that those bulbs are good enough for you, please consider that as you get older your night vision deteriorates greatly and old codgers need all the light they can get.

Regards Philip A

Originally Posted by PhilipA

please consider that as you get older your night vision deteriorates greatly and old codgers need all the light they can get.

Regards Philip A

No argument from me on this.

Thanks for the writeup, they do look like a good proposition and comparable in price to upgrade bulbs.

Originally Posted by PhilipA

Well I can tell you that the high beam of the LED bulbs is MUCH brighter than even 130/90 bulbs which are MUCH brighter than premium 60/55s . IMHO they are a much better proposition than HIDs that some run and are cheap. They also have instant start up, and take only 40watts total. They reduce the necessity to place light bars or spotlights on the front.

The "improved " bulbs you are referring to give just a little more light than stock bulbs, the major difference being light temperature ( Kelvins). I have them in my Jazz, after having tried them in my Disco. Even the manufacturers concede this with the Osram specs for lumens being the same as stock bulbs.

The low beam at the moment is quite patchy but still bright, although the cutoff is good enough that I have not been flashed even in Sydney in Friday night traffic, and if I were going to be flashed it would happen then I assure you. I have yet to see if this can be improved with a re aim.

When you state that those bulbs are good enough for you, please consider that as you get older your night vision deteriorates greatly and old codgers need all the light they can get.

Regards Philip A

Hi Philip,

I must admit that I almost reached for my credit card for the LED's as I'm no spring chicken either. I just need a little more confirmation that they are OK and better.

Thanks
Nick

X 2 wot Pippin said.
from another 'old codger'

x 3.

For what it's worth, I'm a mostly nocturnal dweller and driver and becoming a bit of an old codger myself, so lighting is very close to my heart. So I checked around exhaustively last year for good quality H4 LED's for my D1 and I got a good quality pair and installed them all quivering for action.

This is what I discovered ... things may have changed, and I would also like the brightest lighting I can get, but I concluded that LED's (and HID's etc) are unnecessary and ever so naughty ...
LED low beam was beautiful, amazing white light, much more diffuse spread, without the diffraction irregularities of halogens.
No defined cutoff to protect oncoming drivers, pedestrians, drunks, grandad, bats, UFO's etc - bit concerned.
High beam was about 0.1% brighter. Checking the current into and out of the power supplies revealed no significant increase - 2 bits concerned.
The adverts and packaging cited "dual beam" (?) 1800/2400 lumens, in such a way as to make everyone think they were 4200 lumens on high beam - 3 bits concerned, and even a bit confused by now.

Had a yarn to the (very respectable wholesaler to the trade) retailer who was as surprised as I was and rang the importer/distributer with me there ... "of course they don't put out 4200 lumens, that'd infringe the ADR's and be illegal. The high beam is limited to 2400 lumens total" - 4 bits concerned and a bit narked by now.
Turns out the high beam part of the (sealed) power supply is 'tuned down' to keep them 'sort of legal' (I'll explain later). So, great low beam, but with virtually no extra oomph on high - straight from concerned to 5 bits narked.
Didn't pass go, but the retailer apologised and happily gave me my $200 back.

Hot on the scent of the mystery, I availed myself via Messrs DuckDuckGo and Yahoo of a copy of the ADR's for automotive lighting ...
There's strict limits in light types/power/outputs for all vehicles.
LED's, HID's and higher wattage halogens are illegal in any vehicle which was not built with them standard. Part of this seems to be due to reflector designs not limiting direction and glare for other people (pedestrians, road users, grandma etc), the other is purely power/light output.
There seems to be no clear limit however on the power or light output of 'additional' lighting, as long as it's connected via a switch via the high beam circuit (or reversing switch/mech).

A few bike forums I've come across mention otherwise genial and good natured Enforcement Officers taking the opportunity when pulling over bikes to check and defect recalcitrant LED-using bikers off the road then and there. Don't know how car drivers go.

Design-wise, no after market LED systems I've seen have solved the heat dissipation problem (most tending to use dicky little office grade computer fans and very insubstantial heat sinks), and just like Landy diesels, LED's have a drastically reduced life when run even a little bit hot (I'm an electrical nerd too).

So, it turns out that the reason we have the 55/60 watt halogens, and manufacturers and retailers all try hard to get more light out of that limited power (vis a vis the copious varieties of headlight bulbs in any auto shop) is the ADR's.

I've been running 90/100 halogens in my vehicles since well before Harry Butler swapped his Landy for a wheelie walker, and I'd run 90/130's if the headlights could take the heat. Turns out of course that any illegal or unsafe mod such as higher spec bulbs void your insurance in a crash, which the insurance companies are probably well on top of.
Turns out also, that brighter low beams are not necessary - who needs intense lighting in heavy traffic or built up areas, and who wants low beam out of the city or in slow, rough terrain ?

Ideal setup in my now obviously increasingly immodest opinion is: good low beam with optional outrageously terrifying high beam (read additional lighting blutacked on the front). The conclusion that I've drawn is that I do like a brighter low and high beam, but that I can use any amount of LED lighting on high beam (who'd want the trouble of HID since LED's came of age?) - and LED spotties are made for purpose, with sound mechanical and thermal construction. Something like 20,000 lumens now hangs off my front end, orders of magnitude better than any number of halogens, and I don't blind anyone.

It's also notable around rural areas like mine that lots of people are using retrofitted LED's now - really hard on the eyes for an olding codger like me, so that's another reeeeeally good reason not to go the retro-LED route IMHO ... just sayin' like ... lots of these people just don't appreciate the power of their lighting. It completely swamps oncoming lights, so you can't tell if someone's coming over the hill or around the bend towards you. I learnt very quickly not to use my LED's anywhere near built up areas, often even between rural centres 100km apart, depending on if there was more than a mere smattering of oncoming traffic.

Edit: I'm absolutely on your side Philip, but they just don't tick the boxes. All the sets I checked out last year had very similar if not exact same construction/manufacture/manufacturer. Have you been able to tell if the high beams are much brighter than low beam mate ? I note the label says "2500/3000" lumens, which makes me very suspicious that just like all the sets I investigated, they've dumbed down the high beam to a few lumens to make the total 3000 lumens, rather than what you and I would rightly expect to be 5500 lumens.

Hope some of this rambling is useful, coming up to 0700hrs, must go to bed ...