Led headlight - defender 90 td5

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This has been done to death and legal issues aside, the biggest problems often seem to be that often the light output / spread is poor, condensation and lifespan.
If an LED headlight is cheap it is cheap for a reason, take any "legal markings" and sales blurb with a pinch of salt.

I have had Nolden's since 2014 (the LR OE fit type) and they are fine, possibly not worth it on a £ per £ basis (cost back then was £750, not certain what they are now) when compared with Halogen but they are good.
When a friend bought a Defender Adventurer 110 it came with Nolden's as standard but he was already running Britpart LED's on his other 110 and he said that when comparing the two side by side, the Britpart lights had a better spread (as well as being a bit cheaper).

A lot can be done to improve the performance of the original lights without going into this minefield and I have to say that if one of my LED headlights failed and I was forced to get a replacement I would probably go back to my old lights (which were actually very good).
 
Litch said:
This has been done to death and legal issues aside, the biggest problems often seem to be that often the light output / spread is poor, condensation and lifespan.
If an LED headlight is cheap it is cheap for a reason, take any "legal markings" and sales blurb with a pinch of salt.

I have had Nolden's since 2014 (the LR OE fit type) and they are fine, possibly not worth it on a £ per £ basis (cost back then was £750, not certain what they are now) when compared with Halogen but they are good.
When a friend bought a Defender Adventurer 110 it came with Nolden's as standard but he was already running Britpart LED's on his other 110 and he said that when comparing the two side by side, the Britpart lights had a better spread (as well as being a bit cheaper).

A lot can be done to improve the performance of the original lights without going into this minefield and I have to say that if one of my LED headlights failed and I was forced to get a replacement I would probably go back to my old lights (which were actually very good).
Click to expand...
Thanks Litch - other than brighter bulbs what can you do to improve the stock lights?
They just feel dim but my main driver has matrix LEDs so probably a poor comparison…
 
Nuffer said:
Thanks Litch - other than brighter bulbs what can you do to improve the stock lights?
They just feel dim but my main driver has matrix LEDs so probably a poor comparison…
Click to expand...
I know I will get shot down for this but defender lights are dim compared to modern led headlights. even if you get them as good as possible with brighter bulbs, new wiring and additional relays they will always be poor by comparison. The other thing to bear in mind which I know has been done on hear before and is a bug bear for some is that modern headlights are far whiter than the old halogen which have more of a yellow tinge. although the brightness may be the same (lumen) the whiter light feels brighter by comparison although does come with other disadvantages. I would just fit additional lighting for main beam and be done with it, I do a lot of miles in my defender (approx. 30k per year) and there is very few instances where I cannot use main beam and feel my headlights are not good enough. Nearly every time I need more light using main bean is an option or when I cant use main beam my normal headlights are fine because of the road and/or traffic condition.
 
On my last TD5 110 DC I went the new loom/relay route with crystal headlights and Osram Nightbreaker bulbs, huge improvement over stock but still inferior to a projector style light on a modern car (e.g. any VAG/BMW). Current 90 I went for mid range LED units, which run off stock wiring and have a super crisp low beam pattern/range - but a surprisingly poor main beam, less effective than crystal units (so that’s why a pair of Hella Driving Lamps appeared) Slightly lower colour temperature on main beam, but lots of it means I can see far enough ahead to save toads, cyclists etc….

The best compromise setup I’ve had of late, but would probably go back to crystal/nightbreaker without much of a grumble…
 
I used Wipac units with Nightbreaker bulbs and upgraded wiring / switchgear.
Many use something like a Boomslang loom but I made my own and bypassed the original switchgear (used relays to carry the current, not the switches) and it made the headlights more than acceptable.
 
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