leeds · Apr 7, 2018

I agree Brian, change unit for a complete approved unit and be road legal.

The amount of cheap illegal lights that are around is astonishing!

People need to learn what an approval mark actually consists of. If people selling illegal lights, pretending they are road legal (either knowingly or through ignorance) what else of their claims can you believe?

Simple way of telling if a headlight is actually approved? It is not a legal requirement for the manufacturer to put their name on the headlight. Hella, Wipac, Nolden, JW Speaker, Truck-Lite, Vision X all do and their headlights carry proper approval markings.

Brendan

brian47 · Apr 7, 2018

leeds said:
I agree Brian, change unit for a complete approved unit and be road legal.

The amount of cheap illegal lights that are around is astonishing!

People need to learn what an approval mark actually consists of. If people selling illegal lights, pretending they are road legal (either knowingly or through ignorance) what else of their claims can you believe?

Simple way of telling if a headlight is actually approved? It is not a legal requirement for the manufacturer to put their name on the headlight. Hella, Wipac, Nolden, JW Speaker, Truck-Lite, Vision X all do and their headlights carry proper approval markings.

Brendan

I looked at and went through this LED thing about five years ago when I did change some of my lights for LEDs, but the only lights I did replace were items such as the side lights, stop/tail, rear fogs, reversing lights and number plate illumination. I also changed the side mounted repeaters for the indicators. I was a bit disappointed with the reversing light change until I fitted CREE LEDs which gave me a brighter light more easily seen by others during daylight and they light up the street at night allowing me to see where I've been! I also had to employ some "current steering" diodes to get the high level brake light to work correctly.
I was careful to install direct replacement LEDs of the correct colour so that should a crack develop in one of the lenses the correct colour would show anyway, also I was aware of the colour temperature of "white" LEDs which could in some cases alter the colour of the light showing through a lens.
The lights which I didn't even try to change after investigations were the headlights and spotlights for the reasons we've been discussing and the indicator bulbs because on the D2 the timing, which must be between 1 and 2 flashes per second is set by electronics and not by a thermal type relay as in older systems where the relay can be changed and adjusted to set the correct flash rate. I did consider trying the shunt resistors to enable LEDs to be used, but one disadvantage of that method would be the error detection and indication of a blown bulb would be negated.

Rubins4 · Apr 7, 2018

leeds said:
Simple way of telling if a headlight is actually approved? It is not a legal requirement for the manufacturer to put their name on the headlight. Hella, Wipac, Nolden, JW Speaker, Truck-Lite, Vision X all do and their headlights carry proper approval markings.

What should we be looking out for, and where?? I've upgrades a Series 3 from sealed beam units to halogen bulbs, new bowls and lens covers and a plug n play wiring loom to relay the power supply. To the best of my knowledge it's all legit but I haven't informed my insurance co, but I'm thinking that I will. I'm not on the road yet, but will be going for MOT soon. I'd like to inform the insurance co that all the bits are type approved.

Thanks.

Click to expand...

brian47 · Apr 7, 2018

Rubins4 said:
What should we be looking out for, and where?? I've upgrades a Series 3 from sealed beam units to halogen bulbs, new bowls and lens covers and a plug n play wiring loom to relay the power supply. To the best of my knowledge it's all legit but I haven't informed my insurance co, but I'm thinking that I will. I'm not on the road yet, but will be going for MOT soon. I'd like to inform the insurance co that all the bits are type approved.

There's no need to worry about your change from the sealed beam units you used to have to your current set up with halogen bulbs, that's quite legitimate. The problems come if you change your lights from halogen to LEDs or HID lights without changing the entire, complete light unit.
You don't have to inform anybody about the change you've carried out in this case.
If at some stage you find that you need a better light then try using Osram "Nightbreakers +120" or Phillips "X-Treme +130" bulbs.
Changing the bulbs from Halogen to Xenon bulbs of the same type number, H4 in the case of twin filament headlight bulbs is also quite legit. The physical properties, size and shape of the bulbs do not change, only the gas used to fill them.
The only other thing you need to check is that the aim of your new lights is set correctly.

Rubins4 · Apr 7, 2018

Thanks for the info.

brian47 · Apr 7, 2018

Rubins4 said:
Thanks for the info.

One other thing, take care when you're handling the bulbs. DON'T touch the glass with your bear fingers. It will cause hot spots which will lead to early failure.
If you do happen to contaminate the glass bulb with a finger-mark, clean it thoroughly with methylated spirit or Iso Propyl Alcohol and leave it to dry naturally before you apply power to it.

leeds · Apr 8, 2018

There are many different types of filament bulbs out there with claims to be longer life, extra bright etc etc. These differences come from many differing factors from gas in bulb to filament size, temperature etc.

A ultra bright headlight bulb will probably have a shorter lifespan then a long life bulb.

Information you need to look for is the B3 and Tc figures.

B3 is the timespan where 3% of the bulbs will fail. I.e. Vast majority of bulbs still working.

Tc is the timespan where 63% of the bulbs will have failed. I. E. the majority of the bulbs have failed.

This information should be available on the specification sheets.

So if you want extra bright light bulbs expect to change them on a more frequent basis then long life bulbs.

Brendan

brian47 · Apr 8, 2018

leeds said:
There are many different types of filament bulbs out there with claims to be longer life, extra bright etc etc. These differences come from many differing factors from gas in bulb to filament size, temperature etc.

A ultra bright headlight bulb will probably have a shorter lifespan then a long life bulb.

Information you need to look for is the B3 and Tc figures.

B3 is the timespan where 3% of the bulbs will fail. I.e. Vast majority of bulbs still working.

Tc is the timespan where 63% of the bulbs will have failed. I. E. the majority of the bulbs have failed.

This information should be available on the specification sheets.

So if you want extra bright light bulbs expect to change them on a more frequent basis then long life bulbs.

Brendan

I would generally agree with your assessment there Brendan, but there are also other factors which can contribute to shortening the lifespan of any light bulb in a vehicle, such as mechanical stress caused by vibration, although modern bulbs seem to be slightly less prone to that than older types. There's also "electrical shock" caused by the turning on and off of the power, particularly the turning on which causes the sudden rise in temperature of the filament. This is the most likely time when a bulb will fail.
Bulbs with a quartz type glass can suffer with discolouring of the glass, starting to gain a slight brown or grey appearance which is burnt into the surface and therefore can't be cleaned off. This can reduce the efficiency of the bulb. It's for this reason that some of the motoring associations recommend replacing the headlight bulbs at regular intervals of say 3 to 5 years, depending on the amount of use they get. At least they should be visually inspected regularly for signs of discolouration.

leeds · Apr 8, 2018

Agreed Brian. I wonder how the decreasing standard of road surfaces are actually increasing bulb failure rate. Would be difficult to actually do real life testing on that one.

The main thing is to get good information out there so people can make informed decision.

It is all to do with cost/benefit/reliability balance.

Brendan

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