Evening everyone. I notice a licence plate bulb is out which got me to thinking about changing the external bulbs to LED. I recently spoke to our man Craig about the same task on the internal lights, which I know now is not quite so easy because of the way that some of the bulbs are accessed but the external lights? - Well that should be easier. So - two license plate bulbs, and two 'side' light bulbs - and make the reversing light bulbs - can anyone recommend some good, plug and play, no hassle, bright white LED upgrades?

To add to the debate I would mind upping the output of the reversing lights so they are more useful when really needed at night.

Cheers

JJ2908

** Any aftermarket bulbs that someone fits to their car is something that they must do in the knowledge that they are personally responsible for ensuring that their car is safe, roadworthy and compliant with the law and road vehicle regulations relevant to the country or countries in which the vehicle will be used **

This is a summary of all of the bulbs I’ve bought and installed to date, where I bought them, how much I paid, verbatim product descriptions that you should be able to copy/paste into an internet search engine and/ or the actual internet product links, as long as they are still internet active.

I get no errors with these bulbs. The sidelights and main indicator LED bulbs briefly flicker on start up which is normal for them. An IID tool can turn the flicker off if it bothers you.

Had these bulbs in for about a year and they've all performed excellently.

Manufacturer/ Spec for the bulbs on our car:

1. Direction Indicator – 12V/ 21 Watt

** Main indicator LED bulbs from hanzi214 UWLLED UK on eBay paid £19.98/ pair incl del –
Ordered 6 of these. 4 for the front and rear main indicators and 2 as spares:
2x 30w Bau15s 581 PY21W 7507 CREE Chip Car Turn Signal Bulb Tail Light Amber

2. Halogen low beam/ xenon bi functional

I've left these as per when the car left the factory.

3. Halogen high beam – 12V/ 55 H7 Watts

** Full beam bulbs (Halog/Xenon) from gadgetgiftshop on eBay. Paid £13.55/pair incl del –
Xenon Ultimate H7 120% 12V 55W Px26d Headlight Bulbs Ring RW1277 Twin Pack:
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?Vie...OU:GB:3160

4. Side lamp & Static bending lamp – 12V/ 5 Watt

** Sidelight LED bulbs from hq_auto_lighting_uk on eBay. Paid £9.95/pair incl del –
T10 501 W5W Can-Bus LED 10-SMD 5630 bulbs
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/181128879662?ssP...5097208024

** Cornering LED bulbs from hq_auto_lighting_uk on eBay. Paid £25/ pair incl del –
H8 PGJ19-1 Xenon WHITE 29W HIGH POWER CREE LED
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/310670163821?ssP...5091237216

5. Side repeater lamps (just pictured below on O/S wing) – 12V/ 5 Watt

** Amber LED Side Repeaters from hanzi214 UWLLED UK on eBay paid £6.99 incl del:
T10 5 SMD 501 W5W Canbus Error Free LED Car Light Bulbs White Blue/Amber

6. Tail/ fog lamps

** Tail/ Fog LED bulbs from hq_auto_lighting_uk on eBay paid £27.50 for 4 incl del –
4 x 1157 BAY15d P21/5W CANBUS SMD LED Stop/Tail bulbs RED:
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/1157-BAY15d-P21-...4572573901

Hope this makes sense and is of some assistance. Below are the original threads that the summary of bulbs selected/ used arises from -

2006–2009 Headlights & External LED/'Xenon' bulb upgrade:
http://www.fullfatrr.com/forum/topic21661.html?highlight=led

LED tail/ fog bulbs:
http://www.fullfatrr.com/forum/topic22712.html?highlight=led

Supercharged rear bulb replacement - LED:
http://www.fullfatrr.com/forum/topic23234.html?highlight=led



Last edited by pld118 on 2nd Feb 2015 10:05am. Edited 2 times in total

well i for one am impressed with your answered post ryan..  ... - .- -.




Y. O. L. O.
.

Just a boring note there is some stupid legalisation surrounding fitting led bulbs in fitting designed for filament enclosures its always being spouted on Defender2 ?

Thanks for your replys everyone - what a comprehensive response from the first poster and thanks for the 'legal' reminder - cheers

@ken, this might be the aftermarket hid kits that peeps fit in their normal headlight enclosures, because these normal headlights are not projector type the light spreads to much and blinds omcoming traffic... ... - .- -.




Y. O. L. O.
.

Nah Stan they keep spouting about LED bulbs in E marked for filament

they can be nannies over there

sounds like it...  ... - .- -.




Y. O. L. O.
.

Stan

Ken, a good point and in fairness I think I did apply a legal responsibilities disclaimer to previous linked threads. Original reply now edited with a disclaimer at the outset. Thanks.

What I would say is that my own opinion and experience of the bulbs I've fitted is that:
Whilst yes, they look more modern and fresher than original bulbs, they were thoroughly and carefully researched and do actually make the vehicle more visible and safe to other road users in all weathers and at all times of day. They do so without causing undue dazzle or distraction and therefore to me, contribute to enhancing road safety. I have never been stopped by the Police. I do carry the OE bulbs in the vehicle at all times. I have heard reports that many MOT testers pass vehicles with these fitted without quibble. I have also heard of vehicles being failed during MOT for having these non conforming bulbs. I remove these bulbs and refit the OE before MOT because I don't have the time to spend going through a retest in the event that the appointed tester takes issue with non conformity.

I believe the issue (Ken & Stan) will be that certain lights are designed around the orientation of the filament in a conventional bulb...

ie an old fashioned torch, you can (on some) move the lens up & down changing the beam pattern, "yes"... Same principle applies here.

If fitting LED bulbs to a modern car light cluster & if you look closely into modern light clusters, the old fashioned lines & ribs in the plastic lens have now been transferred into the reflector & the lens's are now often clear (coloured or not) to see through giving a more modern appearance...

So, the light is designed around the filament orientation (reflecting light to all the right places). Then without this knowledge "Joe public" come along and buy's any old LED bulb from halfords and "voila" all the manufactures hard work is down the pan in seconds... "why does my light now look dim" if even checked!

Simply because the LED's are not in the correct place to emulate the orientation of the original filament...

I do hope that all makes sense gents

an incandescent bulb gives out equal light around the filament [as craig says] and led manufactures try to replicate this by producing 'corn on the cob' types bulbs with leds/smds/cree/cob all around the top and sides, some succeed with equal or better brightness than the filament bulbs , others dont..

you will find that led/smd/cree/cob bulbs in sidelights can be brighter as will indicator and tail/fog ones also...
but these leds havnt yet approached the brightness needed to replace halogen bulbs in main and front fog applications..

the new ford mondeo has led headlights but these are expensive and the headlight units have been specially designed .. ... - .- -.




Y. O. L. O.
.

sub'd

When do you think that LEDs are good enough to use as a H7 High beam bulb?

It could well be that a LED H7 High beam bulb would fit well together with the bi-Xenon headlight - providing complementary light characteristics with the xenon headlight.

There are starting to come some H7 LED replacement kits on the market (e.g. this: http://www.amazon.co.uk/CAR-ROVER-Headligh...B0166MMMOW, this: http://www.hidlighting.com.au/led-headligh...html#r6pro and this: http://www.ebay.com/itm/131696102529?_trks...EBIDX%3AIT ) but I'm not sure if these will improve the high beam light compared with an alternative Xenon HID set (like this: http://www.hids4u.co.uk/H7-55w-Ultimate-Xe...7ULT3.html), or even if they fit into the high beam light on a L322 MY07 ?

ken wrote:

Nah Stan they keep spouting about LED bulbs in E marked for filament

they can be nannies over there