ZB Commodore LED Upgrade

[Skylarking]

I was replying to the post above mine, if you want HID - OEM or nothing.

Yeah, I agree with you. Just reinforcing what the article you posted stated by reiterating my stance that quality halogen bulbs in a halogen headlamp assembly are the best and only legal option down under....

Down under, one could take all the OEM LED headlamp components and BCM programing from an upper variant ZB and retrofit it to the base model (replacing their Halogen headlamp assemblies) but that would be $$$. Seems that adapter globes, even though they are illegal, are the much cheaper option that sadly many take....

 

[alsd]

Yeah I was wondering, if you found a Calais or something else that had the LED headlights fitted, could you just do a swap if there is all of the required wiring, ballasts etc there? Does anyone know?

i just took delivery of my RS Sportwagen today and i think that I’ll need to upgrade the lights and stereo.... apartfrom that, bloody lovely car!

 

[MattSAU2XR8]

Something else worth checking if someone is bored and has a multimeter is how much voltage is actually getting to the headlight globes when they are actually switched on and working... I had to tap into the wire to the high beam inside the headlight housing to power the relay for the light bar and the actual wire itself is pretty thin. If it turned out that resistance in the wiring was dropping the voltage a little then maybe a separate relay and heavier wiring could brighten them up?

 

[stooge]

i have just finished adding low beam leds to my zb and it is a bit of a flustercuck.

i used the h7 nighteye leds that i use in the vf and these led kits need no resistors or extras to work in the vf without errors.
these same leds throw errors in the zb so i added resistor modules and that stopped the left error but not the right so i daisy chained 2 resistor modules on the right and the error went away.
so all of this points to the detection in the zb being much more sensitive than the vf and it seems that the right side is more sensitive than the left.
i will have to drive around for a few days to make sure it does not randomly decide the throw another error but so far so good.

these are not what i used but they are all basically the same and you will probably need to buy 2 sets just incase you need to daisy chain them like i did.

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Spoiler: pics

left

right

EDIT: i have driven it for a few hours with the leds and had a few stop/starts and it has not thrown an error so this means with this setup you can use any hid or led kit you like but i would first test with just one resistor module on each side and see how you go.

 

[alsd]

i have just finished adding low beam leds to my zb and it is a bit of a flustercuck.

i used the h7 nighteye leds that i use in the vf and these led kits need no resistors or extras to work in the vf without errors.
these same leds throw errors in the zb so i added resistor packs and that stopped the left error but not the right so i daisy chained 2 resistor modules on the right and the error went away.
so all of this points to the detection in the zb being much more sensitive than the vf and it seems that the right side is more sensitive than the left.
i will have to drive around for a few days to make sure it does not randomly decide the throw another error but so far so good.

these are not what i used but they are all basically the same and you will probably need to buy 2 sets just incase you need to daisy chain them like i did.

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Find many great new & used options and get the best deals for H7 LED Headlight Decoder Canbus Load Error Canceller Anti Flicker Resistor at the best online prices at eBay!

www.ebay.com.au

Spoiler: pics

left

right

EDIT: i have driven it for a few hours with the leds and had a few stop/starts and it has not thrown an error so this means with this setup you can use any hid or led kit you like but i would first test with just one resistor module on each side and see how you go.

Does all of that stuff fit in the housing or does it hang out?

 

[stooge]

Does all of that stuff fit in the housing or does it hang out?

it all fits in the housing with heaps of room to spare, they are quite large compared to other vehicles.

 

[alsd]

Ok cool, again, can you keep it updated? I’ve seen the tendency seems to be the system runs ok for a bit but then maybe after a few days....

I’m keen to try this out as well Stooge.

 

[stooge]

still no errors with the lowbeam so it is good

i played around with the hibeam tonight and they are also H7 bulbs so on the zb both hi and low are H7 bulbs.
the hibeam has no resistance sensing so you can unplug the bulbs and have no errors which i did as a test.

i used a set of crappy overpriced narva leds because i dont have another set of nighteye leds handy but i will put the nighteye leds in when they arrive.
i had to trim the top of the heatsink for each narva bulb because it hit the cap when i put it on but the nighteyes will fit perfectly

i also put the headlight leveling switch to 2 with the nighteye lowbeams and it seems to be perfect.

Spoiler: pics

EDIT:
i will just edit this post and say it has been a few weeks now and still no errors, i have replaced the narva leds on my high beam with a set of nighteyes and everything is bright and good.
have not had anyone flash me with the leveling setting on 2.
i ended up getting a set of leds for the rear indicators and reverse lamps are next once i source a good set of t15 or t20 wedge leds.

 

[MattSAU2XR8]

On the topic of LEDs setting off the headlight warning, how annoying is this day to day? Given the lights are always on does it just go off each time you start the car and allow you to cancel it just once each trip? If so I'd be tempted to just put the LEDs in and cancel the warning on a regular basis... Otherwise the time fiddling about with resistors and so on might be more than the sum total of cancelling the warnings?

 

[stooge]

On the topic of LEDs setting off the headlight warning, how annoying is this day to day? Given the lights are always on does it just go off each time you start the car and allow you to cancel it just once each trip? If so I'd be tempted to just put the LEDs in and cancel the warning on a regular basis... Otherwise the time fiddling about with resistors and so on might be more than the sum total of cancelling the warnings?

each time you start the vehicle or turn the headlights on the message will show but if you read post #54 i have posted how to use leds and have no errors.
it has been almost 2 months since i installed them in both hi and low and i do not get errors at all.