[Maverick1977]

I am planning to change the halogen bulb in the eyebrow above the headlight in my Skoda Laura to a LED. I would like to know if there will be any issues in doing so and would be glad if anyone who has already done so shares their experience.
The Laura came with Halogen projectors, will plonking a HID in place of the bulb create any issues? I am aware that the projectors for halogens are quite small compared to the one's used for HID's but I don't want to open the headlights especially since this is an out of production car and if anything happens to the headlights it will be an expensive piece to replace.

[Jebs]

I have upgraded the headlights to 130/100W H4 to my Elite i20 due to one of the xtreme vision plus conked off within 2 years.

Car shop guy installed the Rallye bulbs with Philips relay kit with ceramic holders. Actually I've asked him to give only 100/90, but he suggested that to go with this one for better performance. I used to put all my accessories on his shop only. Hence wanted to try this out.

I'm a 99% low beam user and uses the high beam only to notify the highbeam maniacs for a second, not more than that. I've experienced this as soon as started this installed yesterday. Cab guys and tempo travellers running on high beam always enroute to my home. Now I can see them responding effectively to my signals :-).

Things to concern: I see dramatic heat generated by these bulbs even for a shorter running. Though I'm using ceramic holders, still fearing the consequences of the excessive heat.

I've read all the thread before going this setup, still wanted to try this out once. Might step down if things going not positively.

[sujithsidhardha]

Standard headlamp's throw of my creta is not as good as my old santro. Checked and found that the oem bulb is from a company named Phoenix. So i thought of replacing them with Philips X-treme vision Plus and ordered thorugh amazon. Upon receiving the bulbs i found that there is some disformation on the bulb base near to the terminals. Ordered two of them and both had it, but the deformation of one bulb seems to be bit more. Do i need to be concerned about it? An advice is highly appreciable.

Marked area has the deformation

[Nalin1]

I have a very basic question-

Can the Osram nightbreaker or the Philips X-treme vision bulbs be used as Plug-and-Play on any car without touching any of the wiring? Or in other words, just replace the stock bulbs with these bulbs on any car regardless of the voltage/any other aspect?

[akshay4587]

Originally Posted by Nalin1

I have a very basic question-

Can the Osram nightbreaker or the Philips X-treme vision bulbs be used as Plug-and-Play on any car without touching any of the wiring? Or in other words, just replace the stock bulbs with these bulbs on any car regardless of the voltage/any other aspect?

They are supposed to be plug and play only.

[HappyWheels]

Originally Posted by Nalin1

I have a very basic question-

Can the Osram nightbreaker or the Philips X-treme vision bulbs be used as Plug-and-Play on any car without touching any of the wiring? Or in other words, just replace the stock bulbs with these bulbs on any car regardless of the voltage/any other aspect?

A straight answer for that will be "Yes".

[Nalin1]

Originally Posted by akshay4587

They are supposed to be plug and play only.

Originally Posted by HappyWheels

A straight answer for that will be "Yes".

Thanks for your response. That follows up with another query. I am sure it is discussed somewhere, but I have become tired of going back and forth this thread!

This means now that if I decide to upgrade to LED headlights or HID (which I am assuming will be even better) instead of Osram nightbreaker or the Philips X-treme vision-

1. Do any wiring needs to be changed or are they also Plug-and-Play (any brand)?
2. Will they affect the headlights/reflectors in the long run, meaning becoming hazy or blurred due to the extra heat generated?

[sridhar-v]

Originally Posted by sujithsidhardha

Standard headlamp's throw of my creta is not as good as my old santro. Checked and found that the oem bulb is from a company named Phoenix. So i thought of replacing them with Philips X-treme vision Plus and ordered thorugh amazon. Upon receiving the bulbs i found that there is some disformation on the bulb base near to the terminals. Ordered two of them and both had it, but the deformation of one bulb seems to be bit more. Do i need to be concerned about it? An advice is highly appreciable.

Marked area has the deformation

Looks like the brazing/soldering temperature for the terminal leads was a bit more than the process specifications. Should not be a problem.

[audioholic]

Originally Posted by Nalin1

This means now that if I decide to upgrade to LED headlights or HID (which I am assuming will be even better) instead of Osram nightbreaker or the Philips X-treme vision-

1. Do any wiring needs to be changed or are they also Plug-and-Play (any brand)?
2. Will they affect the headlights/reflectors in the long run, meaning becoming hazy or blurred due to the extra heat generated?

Depends upon wattage mainly. Most of the LED lights are of lesser wattage than the equivalent halogen bulbs. Hence, you can go ahead with a direct swap. Also, the current gen cars with auto headlights and similar tech have a relay already installed within the headlight wiring so any extra current or temporary surge wouldnt affect the switch or BCM.

Same is the case with HID too, unless you are planning for a 55W HID upgrade since the starting current in a 55W HID would be better off being passed through a relay, in case your car does not have one. If it does have a relay, then you need not use an extra relay and make a redundant circuit.

[ramki067]

Guys,
Looking for only LED fog lights(not the 2 in 1 having fog and drl) for my WagonR Lxi 2007 model.
Any suggestions on which one to choose and from where?
Thanks

[VinodDevil81]

Got an opportunity to test the Philips Ultinon H4 LED bulbs during a recent long drive.
A friend had upgraded his Swift's OE halogens to Philips Ultinon H4 LEDs, which costed him 10k.
During a recent trip to kodaikanal on his car, I got the opportunity to experience the bulb's effectiveness during night drives.

To be frank, I was pretty disappointed with the bulbs.
Neither the low beam, nor the high beam was anywhere close to being impressive.
High beam particulary felt weak, and the only bonus is that during high-beam, the low beam is also on.
But that doesn't do any wonders really.

100/90 H4 rallys are far better in my opinion.

May be it has something to do with the shape of the headlight reflector of the individual car, and it may give better results in another model car having a different type of headlight reflector.
I am aware that retro-fitting LEDs in halogen reflectors is more of a hit or miss thing, but clearly this particular setup was more of a miss than a hit.

The maximum I can equate it to is as equivalent to Extremevision 60/55 bulbs.
When you look at the headlights from outside, they are so bright and impressive with the cool whitelight, but when you look from inside the car, you don't get the same level of illumination on the road.
Glare is also there to an extent in high-beam, and I could see the oncoming vehicles immediately dipping their beams whenever the high-beam was switched on.
May be compared to the chinese LEDs, glare is minimum, but you can't agree that glare is not present at all, as they claim in the youtube video reviews.

So for Rs.10k, this is just not worth the upgrade in my opinion.
I wouldn't go for it even at 4k.

My friend is also a bit disppointed with these bulbs, but he said he will stick to it for the time being since he spent 10k for it.

Those of you who are thinking about upgrading to retro-fit LEDs in halogen reflectors, please test how well your car's reflectors accept the LEDs beam pattern.

Otherwise there is a possibility that you are heading for a big disappointment.

Also make sure that the fitting and testing is done during night time only.
Do not just test it inside the workshop /garage, but take it to the open road and test how good the beams are on the actual road.

Purchase it only after making sure that the beams are up to your levels of expectation.

[AShubrah]

Originally Posted by VinodDevil81

Got an opportunity to test the Philips Ultinon H4 LED bulbs during a recent long drive.
A friend had upgraded his Swift's OE halogens to Philips Ultinon H4 LEDs, which costed him 10k.
During a recent trip to kodaikanal on his car, I got the opportunity to experience the bulb's effectiveness during night drives.

To be frank, I was pretty disappointed with the bulbs.
Neither the low beam, nor the high beam was anywhere close to being impressive.
High beam particulary felt weak, and the only bonus is that during high-beam, the low beam is also on.
But that doesn't do any wonders really.

100/90 H4 rallys are far better in my opinion.

May be it has something to do with the shape of the headlight reflector of the individual car, and it may give better results in another model car having a different type of headlight reflector.
I am aware that retro-fitting LEDs in halogen reflectors is more of a hit or miss thing, but clearly this particular setup was more of a miss than a hit.

The maximum I can equate it to is as equivalent to Extremevision 60/55 bulbs.
When you look at the headlights from outside, they are so bright and impressive with the cool whitelight, but when you look from inside the car, you don't get the same level of illumination on the road.
Glare is also there to an extent in high-beam, and I could see the oncoming vehicles immediately dipping their beams whenever the high-beam was switched on.
May be compared to the chinese LEDs, glare is minimum, but you can't agree that glare is not present at all, as they claim in the Youtube video reviews.

So for Rs.10k, this is just not worth the upgrade in my opinion.
I wouldn't go for it even at 4k.

My friend is also a bit disppointed with these bulbs, but he said he will stick to it for the time being since he spent 10k for it.

Those of you who are thinking about upgrading to retro-fit LEDs in halogen reflectors, please test how well your car's reflectors accept the LEDs beam pattern.

Otherwise there is a possibility that you are heading for a big disappointment.

Also make sure that the fitting and testing is done during night time only.
Do not just test it inside the workshop /garage, but take it to the open road and test how good the beams are on the actual road.

Purchase it only after making sure that the beams are up to your levels of expectation.

I completely agree with you, sir, as I had the same experience when I drove my cousin’s i20 Elite with Philips Ultinon H4 LED.

In our case, the oncoming traffic faced a little glare even on low beam, whilst the high beam was just a pain to look at head on.

As you mentioned, the light intensity is nowhere as close as it appears to be when looked at from inside the cabin, while it looks really bright and intense when viewed from outside.

[audioholic]

Originally Posted by VinodDevil81

Got an opportunity to test the Philips Ultinon H4 LED bulbs during a recent long drive.

Those of you who are thinking about upgrading to retro-fit LEDs in halogen reflectors, please test how well your car's reflectors accept the LEDs beam pattern.

Also make sure that the fitting and testing is done during night time only.
Do not just test it inside the workshop /garage, but take it to the open road and test how good the beams are on the actual road.

Purchase it only after making sure that the beams are up to your levels of expectation.

The reflectors designed for Incandescent halogen bulbs cant handle sources like HID or LED effectively, and only a part of the total output can be actually thrown onto the road. The emitting characteristics of these bulb types vary and so should the mechanism by which the light is beamed onto the road. Thats why manufacturers of vehicles if offering LED lights give a completely different headlight assembly instead of just changing the bulbs on the same light assembly. Even if its a projector assembly with HID, the variant with LED comes with a completely different setup.

Be it a projector or a reflector, it can perform beautifully with LED if its actually designed keeping the LED source in mind. Hence, when I got the LED fog lights on my car, I chose to go for a full light assembly instead of a bulb change. The results definitely were impressive.

Fundamentally, the beam output of LEDs are directional compared to a filament bulb. Hence, these LEDs are mounted in such a way that their primary output is always looking away from the intended beam. Here are some images from Google which actually make sense to why replacement LED bulbs are not a good idea:


Image source:
http://emobility.volkswagen.com/int/...990d/image.jpg

In the above image, the LED headlights of the VW golf is shown. What can be observed is that unlike conventional Halogen lights, the bulb is not seen at all. The reason is because the bulb is located at the top of each reflector, looking downwards. The optics is designed in such a way that the entire beam output of the LED bulbs are directed with no glare. Here is another comparison I fetched from Google, ironically from a chinese supplier of bulbs. They have explained how the LED replacement bulbs are designed and how they behave in a conventional reflector made for filament bulbs:



It makes sense to me when I see the various LED replacement bulbs on offer with a set of SMD LEDs which though are located in the same place as the filament, their emitting characteristics are different. This will lead to loss of the emitted light in the form of scattering, improper reflection angle and so. Even if there is a slight mismatch in the seating of a bulb, the output changes drastically. In that case, if the emitting source itself is changed, then the results will be similar, if not worse.

For more info, here is a good read on optics for LED lights: https://www.digikey.com/en/articles/...-of-led-lumens

[COMMUTER]

I have a New Figo. I felt the headlight being weak when facing the beefed up, ill focussed misused lighting of on coming traffic. I added fog lamps at Fords which were expensive 6k and cute and nothing else. Being back to square one, I upgraded the fogs to Philips extreme which added negligible gains at an exorbitant 1.7k price. Then I hesitatingly decided to try again and opted for wiring kit and 90/100 Philips essential visions which proved to be the first real upgrade costing around 1.5k purely plug and play. The headlights became usable on highways. The downside was the headlight reflectors got damaged and the bulbs too lasted for a very short while. In total, this upgrade turned out to be unreliable and uneconomical if the anticipated long run is considered. Finally being desperate and doing daily drives involving a 12km expressway run, I decide to end the turmoil and opted for 4 Hell's 500ff wired in parallel. I have stopped switching on ford fitted fogs for expressway drives.

MY QUESTION:
Can I upgrade the bulbs in these 4 500ff Hellas to 100w while continuing to use 55/60w in headlights and leaving the ford fitted fogs switched off? I don't have music system or power windows. (I use head phones on my regular 500km drives). There is no other major load on the wiring.

[greenhorn]

I was planning to get a hella 500FF to augment my next to useless headlights, when i got the suggestion of LED driving lights. seem they are cost effective, and a credible alternative to halogen fogs, but has anybody used them? How to they compare to a halogen fog, how long have they lasted, which specific model did you buy?.
I understand we already have a thread on LED light bars, but this is for auxillary driving lamps
Any reviews welcome!