LED Headlights

[sean sherry]

Having fitted LEDs to my Low Beams... they look very white and bright but on the Road they are very disappointing... the original bulbs where better. ????
The Leds in my reversing Lights are much much brighter. ???????

 

[Patrick_R]

Hi Sean,
So many people try this and have the same result.

The reflectors in car headlights are made specifically for the bulbs they are designed for and vice versa.

LED lights, just don’t work in lights where the reflectors are not made for them as head lights are designed to project/reflect the light in a very specific area and distance based on the globe or light source.

The normal halogen or xenon (HID) globes emit light completely different compared to an LED which has a lens for each diode, which means they only project in one direction.
It is then up to the reflector design as to how it is then projected/reflected from the car.

The reverse lights are so bright because the lumen rating is generally more than the OEM recommended brightness and are usually a higher colour temperature (Kelvin) thus the brilliant white you see out of your mirrors. They only project/reflect the light a very small distance so the light diminishes less in the intended viewing area which is just a few feet.

 

[sean sherry]

Thanks Patrick... my learning curve is alive and well. I will revert to the original Bulbs. The LEDs in the reversing lights light up my Driveway very well.

 

[Styria]

Patrick, my friend, that is an absolutely "humongous" explanation and my simple mind just cannot follow it. However, as some "Shorten " once said, it must be right and I agree even if I didn't hear it !

Not getting into politics, but I wonder the extent to which this "howler" affected the outcome of the elections - plus other clangers as well. BTW, your explanation is excellent. Thank you for that. Regards Styria

N. B. With older cars, such as my Rover 3 litre Coupes, one is always looking for improvements as far as lighting is concerned - be it for headlights or even brightness of instrument lighting.

 

[Patrick_R]

Gents
I know back in the engineering office at Volvo, we have some great diagrams showing exactly what I was trying to explain, but they are still proprietary and thus I can not share them.

At present, I just can not find a diagram or chart to explain what I want to say.
I will keep looking.

Thank you for the compliment Styria, I do need to keep things simple, but some things simply can’t be explained simply

 

[Patrick_R]

Sean,
My son replaced his reverse lights with LED’S, and like you, he is amazed at the clear and bright vision he now has in his driveway in the dark.

I’ve seen many Rolls-Royce Silver Shadow dash lights & gauge lights replaced with LED’S.
Some people liked them, others didn’t as it completely changed the ambiance and feel of the car as they were so white.
The original covers over the gauge lights were blue, which gave a slight green hue to the gauges.
I am a stickler for originality, so I was never a fan of the dash or gauge lights being white.

The door and reading lights which in a Shadow numbers 8 were just way to bright with LED’s installed.

 

[SEL_69L]

I am looking at the possibility of putting high intensity LED headlights in my C280. There seems to be a fixed angle between high and low beams, and the low beams are rather poor by modern lighting standards.

More lighting intensity with lower current has the prospect of safely fixing this problem.

Even the xenon lamps in the E55 are only adequate by modern lighting standards, but they are still good enough not to justify their replacement.

 

[sean sherry]

I sourced an interesting Site analyzing all the myriad types of LED Headlight Bulbs. A minefield.... what I gathered is that none of them would work in my C Class ! As Patrick explained, the position of the filament ( light source ) has to be precise, and also be compatible with the reflector A couple of internet comments said that they had to remove the LEDs from their C Class models, and go back to the Hylagen original fitment. As the Rev lights were a success, I will try the Tail Lights having double ordered the std bayonet type LEDs

 

[BenzBoy]

I sourced an interesting Site analyzing all the myriad types of LED Headlight Bulbs. A minefield.... what I gathered is that none of them would work in my C Class ! As Patrick explained, the position of the filament ( light source ) has to be precise, and also be compatible with the reflector A couple of internet comments said that they had to remove the LEDs from their C Class models, and go back to the Hylagen original fitment. As the Rev lights were a success, I will try the Tail Lights having double ordered the std bayonet type LEDs

What is the site Sean?
Regards,
Brian

 

[sean sherry]

Always the way, I can't find the Site again. Many others come up. I do recall that there was not a recommendation for Mercedes. None on the others either.
I switched back to the original bulbs and also tried the Leds in the High beams. Same result .. look white and very bright but the beam does not travel.

 

[Patrick_R]

Gents,
Revisiting the LED headlight thread, I thought I would post this image I took of one of our latest truck headlights, which are LED.

Please note that the LED array, is mounted in the very top of the light unit, and emits light straight down, onto the semi circular reflector to then project the light in a forward direction.

You can see the LED array, pretty much in every segment of the reflector.

This clearly shows what I was saying, is that each LED only emits light in one direction.



The image below shows the LED headlight with the circular reflector.

 

[motec 6.9]

Hi Sean try the 130 plus globes they work very well