headlight bulb upgrades LED or HID?

[Ben85]

Sorry if this is in the wrong section but new to the forum.

As the title says, I have an older A3 (55 plate) I'm going to be upgrade all of the bulbs once I've found a good supplier.

I was after anyone's thoughts to the dip/main beam bulbs. I've had a little exposure to the HID systems but none to LED ones like for example nighteye bulbs.

Any input would be greatly received.

Thanks Ben.

 

[KrisKrk]

I've got NightEye fogs

4500lm per bulb and 6000k temperature.
Would like that led in the main and dipped but been advised by one of the site sponsors not to.

HID dazzle oncoming traffic and many people flash at you.
Led's still need more light output to be comparable with normal bulbs or HIDs.

I have been advised to go for Osram Xernac CBI as they powerful and give a nice white light with little bit of blue-ish edges.

Lack of time to replace any head light bulbs and spare cash for a pair of them now (£120) left me still with stock ones.
They don't produce much of the light output on the road now, compare to other cars from the same age or newer.

Do some research, ask pro's here and don't forget to keep us posted

Edit: speak to t8ups. He knows all about bulbs

 

[Ben85]

I've got NightEye fogs
View attachment 111911
4500lm per bulb and 6000k temperature.
Would like that led in the main and dipped but been advised by one of the site sponsors not to.

HID dazzle oncoming traffic and many people flash at you.
Led's still need more light output to be comparable with normal bulbs or HIDs.

I have been advised to go for Osram Xernac CBI as they powerful and give a nice white light with little bit of blue-ish edges.

Lack of time to replace any head light bulbs and spare cash for a pair of them now (£120) left me still with stock ones.
They don't produce much of the light output on the road now, compare to other cars from the same age or newer.

Do some research, ask pro's here and don't forget to keep us posted

Edit: speak to t8ups. He knows all about bulbs

Did you fit a resistor when you did your fog lights so no error message came up?

 

[KrisKrk]

Yeah. Had a 6W 20Ohm resistor from previous bulbs but they were rubbish and had error anyway.
With these no error.

Found a wire loom in wheel arches and tapped in there. Secured the resistor to the metal bracket and all good.
I didn't want them just by the lamp as there is plenty plastic parts.

 

[desertstorm]

Don't bother with LED bulbs to try and improve the main/dipped beam they are expensive, sometimes difficult to fit with the large size of the heat sinks and unreliable compared to HIDS.

 

[Turbo Tony]

Retrofit LEDs are still an emerging market and they're not quite fit for primetime yet IMHO.

The ones that use fans are prone to failing because dust ingress makes the fans seize. They started switching the fans to heatsinks, but they caused the plastic headlight casings to melt. The heatsinks changed to thick braids but they caused everything they touched to melt. Now, they're back to fans.

Anytime I see a video on LED headlights on YouTube, it always looks to me as if the LED doesn't disperse the light as well. That, of course, may just be the limits of the camera being used or the effect of the increased contrast with the brighter light given off by the LED but I'd still wait until someone has really cracked it.

 

[Jim55]

If its fitted with projector housing go hid and ul b fine

 

[Marek196c]

If its fitted with projector housing go hid and ul b fine

If you don't got auto levelling, don't, you could flash someone, as well hid need to charge so as Road lights (or long lights) are mainly useless to blink.

 

[Jim55]

You won't " flash with projector housings , and for blinking it's a separate bulb usually halogens so u get instant flash

 

[Marek196c]

You won't " flash with projector housings , and for blinking it's a separate bulb usually halogens so u get instant flash

If they are set too high or u set them ok but put ur mom in law on back your suspension will be in different position (more pressure on back mean lower back) from the one set so you actually can blind people, also with original ones happens sometimes but is rare. For blinking you using road/long lights, that actually are sometimes in halogen housing (if they are xenon or halogen they will blind you anyway so pointless putting hids there, unless the ones with good reaction time).

 

[Jim55]

I dunno what u mean ,yes u can dazzle with regular halogen headlights as well ,and re the blink/flash it's halogen bulbs in a reflector housing on every tt iv seen ( otherwise it would have two projector units in each light ), as said above hid in projector housings are mostly fine and the blink/ flash is from halogen (separate bulb within light unit) ,doesn't affect me as iv got a v6 and it has xenon as standard with a halogen bulb for drl

 

[gokiwi64]

I have LED side lights and reflected HIDS as main beam, High beam are normal halogen ....no issues , and no problems with people getting upset with me (indicating they are unhappy with being dazzled or similar)

 

[Marek196c]

I dunno what u mean ,yes u can dazzle with regular halogen headlights as well ,and re the blink/flash it's halogen bulbs in a reflector housing on every tt iv seen ( otherwise it would have two projector units in each light ), as said above hid in projector housings are mostly fine and the blink/ flash is from halogen (separate bulb within light unit) ,doesn't affect me as iv got a v6 and it has xenon as standard with a halogen bulb for drl

Sorry 4 my English then... anyway I mean that if you use projector lights with hids in it, but without self levelling in most time you will be ok, but when you get some load on car (putting the Saturday shopping from your local megastore e.g. Aldi) your car will be a bit more tilted backwards, obviously, you don't think at that moment about positioning your lights, also if they was positioned correctly before, after getting load in (depend of how heavy load it), probably they won't be. Just to say, today I was blinded by one Land Rover Discovery Sport that got xenons on flat road (dunno if oem but probably).