LED headlight upgrades - any reccommendations?

[moorgate]

Looks like the v50 has popped a bulb. I normally replace in pairs, on the basis that bulbs pop more together, than not. I can see various highly approximate looking listings on eBay.

Has anyone done this upgrade? Any experience to share?

[Bendolfc]

Don't waste your money, you will not get a decent beam pattern with LEDs a few have tried it.

[yannickc]

I have multiple people who uses "oslamp h7 led" in c30, v50.
Just plug and play without any adaptation.

The light is quite nice. Its maybe not as "full" as xenon, but definitely better then halogen bulbs. And this without any adaptations and risks for the screen wiper controller.

The only side effect is the "defect DIM light" warming on your dashboard because the LED has not enough consumption to be recognized...
But this is just a one click to ignore on the dashboard.

And the great thing is this lights costs only 15 a 20 euros on ali- express.
You can buy them with or without active ventilation.
I think the ventilation ones are a bit brighter.

And dont worry about the light image.
All c30, s40, v50, c70 has projection lenses. The image is just perfect.
The only thing i advice is to clean your lens (you can disamble it...) to get the best result.

[Tannaton]

Everyone who has tried LED's that I have seen have then reversed because the beam pattern is hopeless.

They are also not legal. Whether you would actually get prosecuted is probably unlikely but they are now an MOT fail.

[yannickc]

Originally Posted by Tannaton

Everyone who has tried LED's that I have seen have then reversed because the beam pattern is hopeless.

They are also not legal. Whether you would actually get prosecuted is probably unlikely but they are now an MOT fail.

MOT fail i can understand... Just like aftermarket xenon.
But beam pattern is perfect thanks to the lenses.

BUT sometimes you turn the light 90 degrees in there socket.
They are designed to turn for the optimal result.
The need to beam light left/right , not up/down.
Then the beam pattern can suck. (specially with reflector).

I also run these leds in a new volvo v60 (model 2017) in standard reflectors.
In here, the beam pattern is indeed not perfect. But still quite good and it finally makes a noticeable difference in the dark.

I also turn up the lights a little but to get a bigger and longer view.
If they are on default height, you get mush light in front of you, but then a dark spot before the light because of the contrast.

And no , other people are not flashing there lights to me ;-)

[moorgate]

hmmm, interesting. I really dislike error messages on the dash - one might think that could be engineered out these days, but on the other hand I also dislike the idea of running weee fans on the back of the lights - from long IT experience I know the fans will give out long before the other bits, and I drive in some extreme conditions now and again. Losing the headlighs because the fans are frozen solid would not be ideal...

I am somewhat puzzled by the points about beam vs brightness. The various LED bar lights seem to produce a great diffuse wash of bright, white light: beam is not their forte. For my mountain driving episodes, I do like a good long throw to the main beams, at least!

So maybe the option here is to put in a bar light behind the grille, and upgraded halogens (depending on what I find when I get to the bulb - I actually don't know if these are HIDs or not!)

[domhart10]

Just pop some aftermarket HID's on, cheap to pop on and will make this so much easier to see at dark.

I have not had any error messages pop up on mine, no one flashes full beams at me and I just went for a 45k temp

I have passed every MOT with them in every year no matter what people say about MOT failures. just make sure things are angled correctly and all will be good really.

[phutyle]

Be careful with HIDs, our cars can have significant (and expensive) electrical issues with aftermarket installs: https://www.skbowe.com/a/issues/. I know lots of people have had no issue with them at all, but that page is worth a read to be fully informed.


I installed Philips X-tremeUltinon LED H7s in my V50, along with a set of Philips H7 canbus adapters.

The bulbs with their fan and control module fit no problem inside the headlight cluster. The Canbus adapter needs to be outside it for heat dissipation reasons, so I did have to drill a 9mm hole in the access panel for the wiring (currently duct taped to seal, but I may use some Sugru on it). I then mounted the Canbus adapters to the metal framework above the headlights. I get no warning messages on the dash with the Canbus adapter, but if a bulb does fail I will (tested by disconnecting the bulbs), so I lose no functionality. I can still easily remove the headlights to change other bulbs (I later replaced my parking/sidelights with 6000K Philips LEDs, as the original bulbs were very yellow compared to the LED low beams.)

Philips say they're specifically designed to provide a correct beam pattern with projector headlights. I'm no expert, but from my personal experience I can say they work brilliantly. Beam pattern seems perfect and light output and visibility is much improved. No-one has flashed me yet. Yes, it's an expensive setup, but I'd rather invest in a setup from a reputable manufacturer that works, than take my chances with cheap stuff from unknowns on eBay.

I'm not in the UK, so I can't comment on the MOT. In Ireland we have the NCT. I actually installed these about a week after passing the NCT, so it will be two years before I have to put it through again. My subjective and unscientific feeling is that they'll pass no problem, as alignment is all that's tested.

[LizardOfBodom]

I used to generally diss the whole "LED retrofit" tendency, but recently have seen few decent adaptations that actually worked and I dont think its wise to say in general that LEDs are bad.
there are bad installations (see here), and 95% of cases people revert to H straight away, but its partially due to really bad chinese bulbs or installation problems. other 5% cases are installations that are from more reputable sources (see the philips above, for example) and if you combine it with user that actually knows what he is doing, results may be worth it.
Having said it, even best LED retrofit will be inferior to proper projector swap+Xenon kit, but that is yet another story (more hassle, more $$ and more things that "can go wrong").
If you can, order yourself a kit that you can return no questions asked (like Amazon) and compare the patterns of your H7 to LED, and if you know what you are doing, you will be able to judge if it work or not. Also make sure you clean the projectors from inside and inspect reflectors to make sure light is not refracted and you have no light leaks.

[Bendolfc]

phutyle, can you park 25 foot from a wall and take a picture of the beam pattern?