Just a quick question before I spend £££.
I would like to fit led lights on my s3 but, will they be road legal and pass an MOT?
Thanks in advance. Shirl.

You can put led bulbs in for stop/tail/indicators, but can't use led bulbs in the existing headlights
I think you can get replacement headlight units that fit but not sure if they are legal or not

kermit_rr said:

You can put led bulbs in for stop/tail/indicators, but can't use led bulbs in the existing headlights
I think you can get replacement headlight units that fit but not sure if they are legal or not

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This is not the case for pre 1986 vehicles...

codfather79 said:

Just a quick question before I spend £££.
I would like to fit led lights on my s3 but, will they be road legal and pass an MOT?
Thanks in advance. Shirl.

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What sort of LED lights?

Personally blingy LED side and indicator lights would look out of place on a Series IMO. I'd just stick with normal lights, nothing wrong with them tbh.

To some extend the same is true with the headlights. Those modern blingy trash looking halo or bug eye lights are complete gash and really look horrid on anything. Let alone a Series.

If you are wanting better performing lights you could look fitting better halogen bulbs to some halogen headlights. The standard fixed beam units are pretty dismal.

You could also switch to Xenon bulbs in the same halogen lamps. At 4300k these probably still offer the best colour rendition, tint and good output. But Xenons do need the ballast boxes and take a few seconds to put out their output.

LED is a good option for instant light and higher outputs, but there are so many poor LED bulbs out there these days. With halogen lamp units, you only need a H4 fitment LED bulb. But be warned, some are truly shocking and shouldn't be used in anything that goes on the road. This makes it a bit trial and error when buying.

Things to watch out for. Most LED lamps are a cool white, this is really bad as they have super poor colour rendition and will makes greens and browns all appear somewhat grey. In a city/town environment it isn't so bad, although usually you don't need good lights in those kinds of places. But in the countryside it will make most things look murky and harder to distinguish. This also massively increases eye strain.

The other issues are beam pattern. If the bulb isn't simulating the halogen element you won't get a very good beam or spread. Not only do you want this to see where you are going. But you will not want to be that ****er that blinds all other people coming towards you. The only way to truly tell is to try and see how they look and send back if no good. Different lamps will work better or worse with different bulbs too, so there isn't a one answer fits all.

Also note, that most LED bulb claims are total lies and few make the lumen numbers claimed. If it sounds too good to be true, it will be.

That said, there are some good LED bulbs out there, you just have to hunt them down.

I have a pair of these in some H4 halogen lamps in a Land Rover at the moment:

I opted for the warm white tint as it makes the vehicle look more period. They would be a good step up over a sealed beam, but a good high output halogen setup would get pretty close to them tbh.

In a Series III it would be perfectly legal to run such bulbs in halogen lamp units:


The MOT rules have been clarified from 22.3.21 to allow the use of LED conversions that pass the beam pattern tests for headlights for Class 3, 4, 5 and 7 vehicles (car, private bus and light commercial vehicle) first used before 1 April 1986 and all class 1 and 2 motorcycles of any age.

I've no intention of doing it, but the headlamp conversion permission for my 1984 110 is interesting.
I found a quality H4 halogen a good improvement over the standard bulb in there before..
I have changed all other lights to LED, since the casing is the same size and shape as the standard bulb units I think they don't look too bad.

LED indicators wont flash properly unless you get compatible bulbs which consume the same power

kermit_rr said:

LED indicators wont flash properly unless you get compatible bulbs which consume the same power

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Not just a case of changing to a compatible relay?
Currently have no loom, lights, fuse holders etc etc so will be starting from scratch.

I'm doing a resto mod, and as a general rule, things that look out of place to other people tend to appeal to me.

codfather79 said:

Not just a case of changing to a compatible relay?
Currently have no loom, lights, fuse holders etc etc so will be starting from scratch.

I'm doing a resto mod, and as a general rule, things that look out of place to other people tend to appeal to me.

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Yes you can replace the relay instead but if a bulb fails you can't just nip to halfords or your nearest garage for a regular one

You mean you like making your car look horrid just to annoy people?

kermit_rr said:

Yes you can replace the relay instead but if a bulb fails you can't just nip to halfords or your nearest garage for a regular one

You mean you like making your car look horrid just to annoy people?

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Always a good idea to carry spare bulbs anyway, the standard bulbs blow for a pastime.

I get what you are saying, but to be fair, these are quite minor differences, only really noticeable to enthusiasts.
Not like having massive wheels and a ride height about ten inches above standard.
I think the LED conversions are quite a good idea, as they should reduce load on the charging system and rest of the electrics.
I don't think I would do it myself, but that is more to do with apathy than any engineering objection.

Turboman said:

as they should reduce load on the charging system and rest of the electrics.
I don't think I would do it myself, but that is more to do with apathy than any engineering objection.

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i dont go with the load reduction argument. yes LED consumes less electricity than a tungsten filament, but the bulbs are generally made to be brighter and contain electronics to be 'canbus compatible' etc or even resistors to make them draw the same load as a regular bulb so the dont trip warnings

I did try led stop/tail bulbs on my s2 and 90 years ago, compared to the original filament bulbs they were not as bright, might be better nowadays?

kermit_rr said:

i dont go with the load reduction argument. yes LED consumes less electricity than a tungsten filament, but the bulbs are generally made to be brighter and contain electronics to be 'canbus compatible' etc or even resistors to make them draw the same load as a regular bulb so the dont trip warnings

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Don't know anything about canbus and all that. don't think I have ever had anything new enough to have it.

LED tunnel light on my boat is great, though, and hasn't caused any cable fires on the end of it's 80 foot long wire, which has been the case with some filament tunnel lights.

fitted truck lights to my series 3 and they are an excellent addition and are a good match for the standard series lights so do not look out of place, they are expensive though. saying that I also mounted 4 Laxer lamps 7in Sentinel's to the roof and 2 25MAXX utility lights on the rear!!

NI_Landy said:

fitted truck lights to my series 3 and they are an excellent addition and are a good match for the standard series lights so do not look out of place, they are expensive though. saying that I also mounted 4 Laxer lamps 7in Sentinel's to the roof and 2 25MAXX utility lights on the rear!!

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I have just fitted trucklite to my 110 as part of my rebuild. Again they don’t look as out of place as the halo lights. For the other lights you can get led units that are direct replacement for the standard lights and I fitted those all around other than indicators as I could t be bothered playing with relays etc as there are lots of bad stories on here about them.
I fitted led spotlights as well and despite the above comments they Definitely draw less current than standard. A standard 55watt spotlight at 12v draws 4.6amps. Whereas the led unit draws 1.8 and has a a brighter light output.

dag019 said:

I have just fitted trucklite to my 110 as part of my rebuild. Again they don’t look as out of place as the halo lights. For the other lights you can get led units that are direct replacement for the standard lights and I fitted those all around other than indicators as I could t be bothered playing with relays etc as there are lots of bad stories on here about them.
I fitted led spotlights as well and despite the above comments they Definitely draw less current than standard. A standard 55watt spotlight at 12v draws 4.6amps. Whereas the led unit draws 1.8 and has a a brighter light output.

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Yes you'll see less draw on spot/flood lights, i was on about replacing standard stop/tail/indicators and headlights. They'll be manufactured to pull the same current in most cases
Another good one is cabin lights, they'll draw much less too, though again they are made brighter than oem which is a bit daft, but it's the obsession with LEDs 'brighter is always better'. A good test, get an old rubbish torch and look outside the beam, you'll see much more than you will with a modern and insanely bright torch

kermit_rr said:

Yes you'll see less draw on spot/flood lights, i was on about replacing standard stop/tail/indicators and headlights. They'll be manufactured to pull the same current in most cases
Another good one is cabin lights, they'll draw much less too, though again they are made brighter than oem which is a bit daft, but it's the obsession with LEDs 'brighter is always better'. A good test, get an old rubbish torch and look outside the beam, you'll see much more than you will with a modern and insanely bright torch

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I have a spare set of Rear LED stop/tail tights as I converted a set to the old TD bullet style connectors before deciding to fit the newer econoseal loom all around so I will do some playing and try and measure the amps. I had assumed like all other led they would be a lower current draw for the same output.

kermit_rr said:

A good test, get an old rubbish torch and look outside the beam, you'll see much more than you will with a modern and insanely bright torch

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No it won’t. That it utter nonsense.

dag019 said:

I have a spare set of Rear LED stop/tail tights as I converted a set to the old TD bullet style connectors before deciding to fit the newer econoseal loom all around so I will do some playing and try and measure the amps. I had assumed like all other led they would be a lower current draw for the same output.

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If you've got old ones that aren't canbus compatible, you should see a reduction

kermit_rr said:

If you've got old ones that aren't canbus compatible, you should see a reduction

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I have the RDX ones from boltonbits. We are talking about a defender so they really have canbus matched lights? I am similar to @Turboman and avoid anything new enough to have that sort of electrical system.

300bhp/ton said:

No it won’t. That it utter nonsense.

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Behave, you should know better!!
Even in complete darkness, which is extremely rare, you still see something once you're eyes have adjusted.
If you turn a dim/yellow torch on at night, you'll still be able to see things that aren't lit by the torch.
If you turn on a powerful torch, bright white beam, you'll see what's inside the beam as clear as day but you'll see frig all in the darkness.

That's assuming you're not half blind to start with