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[Wittsend]

I think you might be against the flow there Alex.

That aside - rules and regs must have been changed to allow them to go ahead
They must have asked "permission" to go ahead from someone.

Maybe I picked a bad example - but the fact remains lighting regs can't/couldn't cope with LEDs and the like.

[Rob_W]

So having fitted LED bulbs to non-halogen units I'm OK?     Otherwise the side lights were better than the headlamps as the the glow worms had escaped.

[Devon2a]

As an aside we have to remember that in the UK the MOT test is really the only time that your lighting is going to be subjected to any form of test.

https://www.gov.uk/guidance/mot-inspection-manual-for-private-passenger-and-light-commercial-vehicles/4-lamps-reflectors-and-electrical-equipment

^^^^ Covers what you can or cannot do in order to pass the test.

Sadly the likely hood of having an exam by the book of the Road vehicle lighting regulations  https://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/1989/1796/made and recently updated https://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/2017/852/made  As doing so would probably remove a fair quantity of vehicles off the road. Simply apply the ruling of having correct approval marks. And i mean true not just cast into the lens to fool us as many poor imported lights are doing so.

[MrTDiy]

I've used the Allmakes ones several times on a number of rebuilds. I've been very pleased with them. Nice and simple - no frivolous extras like daytime running lamps or indicator rings - just headlights. The big advantage of LED lights is lower current drain which reduces load on elderly wiring.

Nice Landy 

[Ndrwdz]

The same thing happened 15 years ago with bike lights - the new LED ones were super-bright and excellent battery usage, but weren't to British Standard.
Eventually the regulations caught up.

[diffwhine]

Nice Landy 

Thank you. Rather a lot of work went into that one!

Remember that most modern cars are running LED for another reason - emission legislation. Some manufacturers are running so tight against Euro 6 compliance, that the power consumption of lighting is a pass or a fail on getting through the Euro 6 standards. I know JLR are very tight in this area. They may not be nice, but they are here to stay...

[Tim_Moore]

source of this info?

Its brought up in a few articles/comparisons. Here is one from an LED light bar manufacturer:
https://www.stedi.com.au/blog/LED-vs-HID-vs-Halogen-Offroad-Lights/

[Devon2a]

Its brought up in a few articles/comparisons. Here is one from an LED light bar manufacturer:
https://www.stedi.com.au/blog/LED-vs-HID-vs-Halogen-Offroad-Lights/

Thank you

I see what they mean but comparisons like that are very sweeping sentiments. After all premium LED will wipe the floor of bargain HID. It will take of bit of research to compare Cost Vs Performance Vs  Wattage consumed.

HID does long range greatly but it however due to reflector design will compromise close spread. You see many an aussie with one spottie and one fog or driving style lamp to cover both bases. A led bar will do both to a varying degree but again is hindered to reflector design.

We would all like a pair of Lightforce XGT 240 HID's which will do 1 lux at 1500 meters as HID wins the distance but do you have £1200 to spend? With that money you go Lazer lamps Triple R 28 and what you lose in distance (1 lux at 1253 meters) you gain in a vastly wider spread of light in front of you.

Pure eye scorching distance is good as seeing what is happening in good time is a no brainer, but seeing skippy or bambi about to enter stage right is helpful too. in todays world Halogen isn't really cutting it. for the light output versus the wattage consumed it is pretty poor. Hid is great for power consumption but design wise it doesn't package well in anything bar the conventional style bowl light unit, I am biased as I run a full LED setup on the 110 but the LED light bar (premuim branded not a cheaply made version) and LED headlights (again quality made) really give a quality driving experience at night. Dipped beam is a super sharp cut off to prevent dazzle. Many "cheap imported" light units do not conform and their lighting patterns are atrocious, so called E marked or not many a 7 inch LED headlight you see are rubbish and i'm not surprised many of you have been blinded. But the consumer market has created a demand for cheap tat and so the East has supplied it. I Digress.. But go on main beam with the bar I get a good distance and spread which is the safety bonus and seeing is a big safety thing.

And seeing without being blinded by some cheapo muppet using Illegal lights is just as important, and that's where the law is playing catchup with a technologically moving forward market.

[Wittsend]

Being an old (blind) git I use a pair of those amber polarized glasses for night driving.
I find they take a lot of the glare out from oncoming vehicle lights.

Just search  and get a decent pair, not the cheapo flimsy scratchy lenses.

 

[Calum]

.... in todays world Halogen isn't really cutting it. ...

Why not? Are the nights darker than they used to be? Are skippy and bambi less reflective than they used to be?

I can understand the need to see further if you are driving faster, and yes modern cars can go faster, but speed limits haven't got any higher so I see no sensible argument in that regard (in fact, I'd be pretty confident in saying there haven't been any increases in speed limit, road upgrade and bypasses etc aside). Even street lighting is constantly being improved (and that too round here is too bright when driving!) Yes, being able to see where you are going is a great safety feature, but it seems super bright lights are only safer for those sitting behind them, and a damn site less so for everyone else.

Dip beam is all well and good being low down and a sharp cut off so as not to dazzle. This doesn't matter one dot when going over crests of hills and over bumps etc. Yes this affects all headlights whatever their light source, but super bright LED and HID lamps are a lot more noticeable here.
Another thing I see all the time is that on an unlit road, many people use high beam (and light bars etc) and won't see other vehicles coming around bends etc until they've already blinded them as they round the bend, so it doesn't matter how good your dip beam is!

I run halogens on both my series, and the 88" as my daily driver also has a pair of pencil beam sealed beam halogen Lucas lamps wired in with high beam (obviously all through relays). Part of my reasoning for fitting them was, to be honest, to give me a better chance of being able to see where I am going when meeting oncoming traffic on unlit rural roads. EDIT: funnily enough the headlight units I tend to use are Wipac Quadoptics which are lovely and cheap second hand, but have a great beam pattern and a plastic (non-rusting!) reflector. The amusing thing is they seem to be so cheap as Defender take out units as everyone seems to be fitting, you guessed it, LED units instead


Anyway, besides all this, they look *&%^$ awful

[Tim_Moore]

Another thing I see all the time is that on an unlit road, many people use high beam (and light bars etc) and won't see other vehicles coming around bends etc until they've already blinded them as they round the bend, so it doesn't matter how good your dip beam is!

Send them to Australia, make them drive the nullabor and see how they go failing to dip their high beams. The truck drivers will sort them out pretty quickly! 

HID does long range greatly but it however due to reflector design will compromise close spread. You see many an aussie with one spottie and one fog or driving style lamp to cover both bases. A led bar will do both to a varying degree but again is hindered to reflector design.

yes of course, but long distance lighting is typically all i want when driving on high beam. Anything within a few 100m of my car that decides to present itself on the side of the road (when travelling at 100km/h) is in Gods hands. At that point if it decides to cross, i will try a controlled braking but will not swerve to avoid it. More people die in car rolls overs trying to avoid hitting skippy or bamby than if they just held course and let the car take the hit. This is why we also use significant (by European standards) steel bull bars on our cars to the car can take multiple hits when traveling in remote areas.

big curvy light bars and ultra flood lights etc etc is only useful at slow speed, ie when in the bush looking for a camp sit. Beyond that we never turn ours on (if you look at my GQ you will see a lightbar burried into the roof rack).

So..  to the original topic LED vs Halogen etc.

Lighting fit for purpose is my opinion.
Makes sense in Aus to boost your lighting, best upgrade i have done to the old GQ.
But from my experience of living in Norway, more powerful lights here are not worth a damn thing.
The roads are not straight enough or flat enough or fast enough to warrant sticking on anything more than what the Halogens offer.

 

[Craig T]

Talking of LED lights....

Back in the good old pre-Covid days when I used to drive to work and drive to a supermarket for the shopping, the route home from the Tesco store would take me past a big set of traffic lights with 4 ways to go and two lanes in the main direction.

I would pull up to the lights in my little car, stop and apply the handbrake then take my foot off the brake pedal. How many other people do you think I saw doing the same?
They all sit there with their foot on the brake pedal blinding everyone behind with stupidly bright red lights. In the dark I have to sit there with my eyes closed and I can still tell when things are moving again as the red glow in your eyes through your eyelids gets dimmer.

No one seems to know what a handbrake does these days.

Craig.

[Craig T]

I drove a hire car with LED white lights once and hated it.
We were driving in the French / Swiss countryside and the edges of the roads didn't have lines or curbs, just tarmac to grass as you'd expect and get the same in this country.

I found it really difficult under the white light to tell the difference in colour between the road and the grass, everything looked the same shade of grey to me. Maybe I have funny eyes but I was glad to get back to my Halogen light bulbs in the UK.
I also realised on that trip just how bland German cars are and reminded me why I'd never buy one but, that's another story...

Craig.

[Ndrwdz]

In my previous car, a 2016 Focus Diesel Auto, if you stopped at the lights and kept your foot on the brake, then the auto stop would turn off the engine. Lift your foot off the brake and it would start and you could drive off.

Any other combination, box in neutral, handbrake on but not footbrake etc, disabled the auto stop and kept the engine running. The only option was to put the box into park every time.

In my current car, a 2019 Kia Niro Petrol Hybrid Auto, the auto stop is much better, as it uses the electric motor to get going again. But the doors lock automatically. If you put it into Park then they unlock. Just when you're most at risk of having your bag nicked off the passenger seat at the lights.

So, in both cases, the practicable thing to do is to stop at the lights with the gearbox in Drive, your foot on the brake and the engine off. Blame the system designers, not the drivers in all cases.

Andrew

[Gres]

My brother in law has a VW Polo with an automatic handbrake, more of an anti roll system with no lever in the car, it takes effort to adapt to try and drive! It is not progress in the right direction!