AntonyH Posted October 11, 2012 Share Posted October 11, 2012 Mostly an 'idle curiosity' question, having recently invested two purple notes (nearly) in Halfords' 'ultra brilliance' bulbs. Has anyone experimented with any of the LED H4 bulbs? Loads currently on ebay (at seemingly impossibly low prices) from Shenzen / HK, like this: here, ebay item 220979403442 (If linky no worky, ebay.co.uk -> search for "h4 LED") Some with 120 chips on the stack, some with 102, some with just five huge emitters ( like this one, item 110877313492 Just wondered how they compare in the real world (aka driving in the dark) to a decent H4. And, er, if they're legal at all. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stationary M25 Traveller Posted October 11, 2012 Share Posted October 11, 2012 In my experience the Halfords Ultra brilliance bulbs don't last long. The super brilliance are better. The Philips Extreme or Ultra or whatever they are called are better still Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stationary M25 Traveller Posted October 11, 2012 Share Posted October 11, 2012 Looked at the link in your post - fog headlight bulb. Bet they are not E-marked/legal for headlight use in UK ? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TomB Posted October 11, 2012 Share Posted October 11, 2012 Does that really matter, and provided the lamp glass is E-marked, it would have to be a sharp eyed person to spot! Given by how many badly aligned or missing headlight there are on the road, the BiB dont seem too interested in headlight issues! Having just fitted a pair of LED side lights from eBay/ Hong Kong, I wonder what the headlamp bulbs are like. I could do with a bit more illumination and for £4 it got to worth a go! Edited by - TomB on 11 Oct 2012 19:50:29 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John Hughes Posted October 11, 2012 Share Posted October 11, 2012 They are not headlight bulbs i.e. they do not have a dip/beam function so only work in a fog or driving light setup. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TomB Posted October 11, 2012 Share Posted October 11, 2012 Good point, thats £4 not spent! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gundersen Posted October 12, 2012 Share Posted October 12, 2012 How about some of these then? As far as I can see, they replace the entire bulb/glass thing. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
revilla Posted October 12, 2012 Share Posted October 12, 2012 DOT approved but does that mean OK in UK/Europe? And a bit more than the original £4 too ... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stationary M25 Traveller Posted October 12, 2012 Share Posted October 12, 2012 How much 😳 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gundersen Posted October 12, 2012 Share Posted October 12, 2012 Quite a bit more 😬 I picked up on the idea on a Danish land rover forum and as far as I can tell from there they are legal in Denmark because of the E-mark. Don't know that translate to the UK though I like the idea of led lights, and if they are brighter that the originals it would be a plus. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
velocityblade Posted October 13, 2012 Share Posted October 13, 2012 If these are from the US and are indeed high and low beam, aren't they for LHD vehicles? Hence they would work in Denmark? Or have I missed something? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Martin J Posted October 13, 2012 Share Posted October 13, 2012 Quoting Stationary M25 Traveller: How much 😳 ........& then a stone kicks up & punches a hole in the glass. I'd stick with the standard lights, perfectly adequate (especially with philips super bright bulbs that were very cheap at homebase a few years back). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AntonyH Posted October 19, 2012 Author Share Posted October 19, 2012 Quoting John Hughes: They are not headlight bulbs i.e. they do not have a dip/beam function so only work in a fog or driving light setup. Good spot! These at under a tenner for a pair do indicate a main/dip function ("Hard light" and "low light" connections, forgiving the translation!), but it's since occurred that the usefulness of a headlight is not defined purely by the brightness of the bulb. There's also the beam pattern to consider, and a standard H4 filament bulb has two point (almost) sources of light. These sit in specific spaces (ish) within the reflector bowl such that the bowl and lens conspire to produce a dipped beam that lights up the tarmac and white lines, and a main beam that picks up owls in the trees whilst leaving the road in darkness*. The LED versions have 120 light sources spread around a much larger volume within the bowl, so I would expect the beams to be much more diffuse and thus less usable. I'd still be interested to see a comparison done but for the moment I'll not bother! *Maybe that's just ours. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Roger Ford Posted October 19, 2012 Share Posted October 19, 2012 There's no way they're going to dip properly, and I'd be most surprised if they're bright enough. The first one is rated at 390 lumens, whereas a 55w car headlight bulb is between 1000 and 1500 lumens. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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