Led low beam conversion

[MaxCommie689]

i do think you will find that the SMD leds will work better with projector style lights because they have a better hi cut off point.

I actually tried the NightEye kit in my low beams and high beams. The high beams are brilliant. But the low beams seem to be a bit too dim vs. retrofit HIDs I have used in the past (on other cars). Not sure if the projector design in VF is sh!t.

But they are only $36 so if I was to go the LED upgrade/unroadworthy route, I’d get the novsight leds as it leaves room for paying a fine if picked up

Good point

Jokes aside, I just went through my 2nd set of Osram Nighbreakers in almost 2.5 years. At approx. 70$ they are not really cheap. The "normal" halogens last longer but they hardly light up the road. I'm no fan of cuts and bruises on my arms either. But I have to do something to improve the light output.

 

[Fu Manchu]

The very reason I went away from Halogens was the short life span of high end halogens.

Fixed in minutes with a plug and play HID system and no bulb replacement for years and years.

 

[MaxCommie689]

The very reason I went away from Halogens was the short life span of high end halogens.

Fixed in minutes with a plug and play HID system and no bulb replacement for years and years.

A few minutes? Are you kidding me? Fitting the LEDs took me the better part of an hour to complete. The H7 collars itself took ages to seat correctly. I must admit though, that I was too lazy to take the wheels off.

BTW, I assume you went with one of those VF specific HID kits from fleabay. They don't sell those in 4300k any more.

 

[Skylarking]

The very reason I went away from Halogens was the short life span of high end halogens.

Fixed in minutes with a plug and play HID system and no bulb replacement for years and years.

Imagine my disgust on the first night time drive of my Motorsport, where the low beams were so poor, I wondered whether the damn things were even working They are by far not the best halogen headlight design available

I find it sad that Holden has HID headlight, washers and self leveller designs that it installs in various WM/VF models they built. Instead they choose to install pisspoor halogens in their performance vehicles, heck even the ones they touted as the best of the last (the LE Motorsport, Magnum and Director). Obviously Holden have the tech and they should have used it

But as bad as the headlights are, I want a legal solution (which has proven to be a challenge from a number of perspectives, $ and certification)... After all I don’t want to be at fault for a night time crash with the added worry that the insurance company may be looking for reasons to deny the claim because they were blinded and drifted into my lane... (imagine a crash into a Chiron and 911 or into new Veyron)..

So for the moment, no LED or HID adapter globes for me... I’ll probably change my mind when the original globes blow

 

[Skylarking]

A few minutes? Are you kidding me? Fitting the LEDs took me the better part of an hour to complete. The H7 collars itself took ages to seat correctly. I must admit though, that I was too lazy to take the wheels off.

BTW, I assume you went with one of those VF specific HID kits from fleabay. They don't sell those in 4300k any more.

Yeah, it’s a poor design from a serviceability perspective

 

[MaxCommie689]

imagine a crash into a Chiron and 911 or into new Veyron

Some pretty big names. Sure sounds a lot scarier when you mention them. But what are the chances that they will be able to prove that your low beams blinded them?

OT, I don't think we have any Bugattis here at the moment. Or are they here?

So for the moment, no LED or HID adapter globes for me... I’ll probably change my mind when the original globes blow

DIY your first bulb change - that should make the decision a LOT more easier

 

[tommy_z]

I wonder how much it would cost to certify a set of headlights to ADR compliant. Need to be safe in case insurance reject a claim which would be catastrophic...

 

[Skylarking]

... But what are the chances that they will be able to prove that your low beams blinded them?

It may be as simple as one of the drivers complains to the police that he was blinded by your lights. I’d expect the police would then take a look at your controls (to see if you had high beams on) and at your globes (since they know lots of people run LED/HId adapter globes). If they notice anything illegal, not sure what they’d do bu5 I suspect they could ping you for driving an unroadworthy vehicle... and such will hurt as insurance would find out and not pay...

Even if your not pinged, if it’s a very costly claim for the insurance company, it won’t be a junior insurance clerk that looks into it; the big guns would be bought out for this claim and they’d quickly find out from police or other party that your lights blinded them... they’d have access to the wreck and can then inspect it themselves... it there is any whiff of illegality in the vehicle, the policy claim can be easily denied...

But as you say we probably don’t have Chiron‘s and Verona‘s and other multi million $ cars running about but there are a surprising number of 1/2 million dollar cars on our roads on sunny days...

Yes the start would have to line up in a bad way and you’d be rather unlucky but sometimes **** happens

Me, as a fossil, I’ve had car insurance forever and actually paid more in premiums that the three claims I’ve made (two thefts and a writeoff). But I still buy insurance every year, so it all comes down to how one measures risk/reward

...DIY your first bulb change - that should make the decision a LOT more easier

For me the very small risk of having a crash and the smaller risk of having insurance denied cause I crashed into 1/2 million dollar car is not worth the slight improvements in LED/HId adapter globe upgrades (as I don’t drive much at night).

But that may change when the OEM globes die where replacing them is a pain and needs to be frequently done due to aftermarket globes not lasting like the OEM’s

I might try some LEDs with the high beam headlamp as i believe that is legal in most states

 

[Skylarking]

I wonder how much it would cost to certify a set of headlights to ADR compliant. Need to be safe in case insurance reject a claim which would be catastrophic...

ADR/ECE headlamp certification is a very very complex task and likely very very expensive, otherwise the companies making the LED adapter globes for halogen headlights would have done it already.

If the car manufacturer had LED/HID headlamp assemblies as an option on a model, then taking all the associated components (hight sensors, headlamp washers, headlamp height and washer electronic modules, headlamp assemblies with integrated self leveller motors, etc) would be a start. Then you’d need to retrofit the above kit of parts to your car which could be signed off by an compliance engineer (similar to doing brake upgrade). The engineering costs may be $300-$500 but the other parts would be in the thousands, even from a wrecker.

VF had HIDs on the USA Chevy SS but they didn’t come with headlight washers while the beam cutoff lifts up on the right side rather than to the left side (as we need down under). Sourcing all the parts from the USA is a costly problem to solve, not to mention the risk of opening up the headlamp assembly to modifying the beam cutoff and ending up with headlamps that fog up...

I’m sure it’s doable but it’s much easier and cheaper to write off any risk and simply install adapter globes, be they LED or HID.

 

[Fu Manchu]

I hate it how these threads degenerate into this.