H4 headlamps with LED bulbs

1.6A multiplied by 13V will give that 20 watts number again and from experience will be around 2,000 lumen at 6500Kelvin so 4,000 lumen on dip in total.

Somewhere out there are going to be some H4 35 watt LEDs which should be a mid point in efficiency between lower halogen and higher efficiency HID lighting... who will post the first pictures?... cough... @andys ... cough, cough, it's only raining a little bit, yes I know it's dark too.:whistle:
 
1.6A multiplied by 13V will give that 20 watts number again and from experience will be around 2,000 lumen at 6500Kelvin so 4,000 lumen on dip in total.

Somewhere out there are going to be some H4 35 watt LEDs which should be a mid point in efficiency between lower halogen and higher efficiency HID lighting... who will post the first pictures?... cough... @andys ... cough, cough, it's only raining a little bit, yes I know it's dark too.:whistle:
It’s not raining at all where I am, unfortunately that’s about 110 miles away from my van :)
The pictures I posted were pretty blurry, I’ll try and take some better ones showing the cutoff etc
 
Right, fell at the first hurdle... how do you get the plastic caps back on the headlights after fitting these huage LED lamps?

Ok I didn't actually get as far as putting the LEDs in as it started to rain, in all fairness they weren't supposed to arrive until Wednesday but got back from the fireworks to find them on the doorstep, either way it doesn't look like there's enough room between the end of the fan on the LED and the inside of the plastic cap that covers the lamp mounting hole, anybody?
 
Right, fell at the first hurdle... how do you get the plastic caps back on the headlights after fitting these huage LED lamps?

Ok I didn't actually get as far as putting the LEDs in as it started to rain, in all fairness they weren't supposed to arrive until Wednesday but got back from the fireworks to find them on the doorstep, either way it doesn't look like there's enough room between the end of the fan on the LED and the inside of the plastic cap that covers the lamp mounting hole, anybody?
Mine were tight but did go back on.
 
Cheers @andys I'm hoping that's going to be the case here, it looks like it's possible to shove the lamp different distances through the keyed retaining disc part of the lamp into the headlight shell as well as rotate the lamp in the keyed disc.

Both shoving and twisting will have an effect on the beam produced and ramming the lamp in too far might even make it hit the lamp hood mounted inside... I'm over thinking this though as it might be worth checking for lamp out displays before wrangling these bar stewards in.:confused:
 
Cheers @andys I'm hoping that's going to be the case here, it looks like it's possible to shove the lamp different distances through the keyed retaining disc part of the lamp into the headlight shell as well as rotate the lamp in the keyed disc.

Both shoving and twisting will have an effect on the beam produced and ramming the lamp in too far might even make it hit the lamp hood mounted inside... I'm over thinking this though as it might be worth checking for lamp out displays before wrangling these bar stewards in.:confused:
I did have to turn mine around to get the best beam pattern, also had to remove the top part of the airbox to get enough room to fit my hand in so I could get the cap back on that side
 
I struggled putting the Racing Vision and LED drl lamps in as sadly despite being vertically challenged at 5'6" I've got hands like shovels!

I'll wade in after work tomorrow.
 
Right I think this thread could be woven into the THQ and H4 to H7 threads as I've fitted my £19.99 Giga Watt Plus LEDs straight after work tonight and apart from a failed lamp indicator in the dash display, not being able to get the dust/moisture caps back on the headlight enclosures where these bastids stick out so far backwards and the DRLs LED lamps being brighter I would say they've been a complete success...:oops:

On the plus side I haven't actually broken anything, anyway to my LED bargains and I can confirm that both myself and the driver of the brand new Mini just in front were driving by the light of his lamps however that apart my LEDs do produce a white light, crisp would be an exaggeration as the light wasn't any brighter than the normal yellow from the Philips Racing Vision 130s, they're just whiter than the Philips haolgens but no brighter apart from immediately in front of the van out to about 10 metres where you get a pool of whiteness and don't normally notice this area.

I did fiddle with the headlight tilt while driving but as it was going home time plus raining that fudged the test somewhat, you could see the beam raising and lowering but this was no searchlight scanning the way ahead.

I can't blame the reflector in the H4 headlight at this point as this particular LED light source just isn't bright enough to show up any shortcomings from the short test drive, did I mention main beam, no, that wasn't spectacular either but no worse than the Philips... a bit like moonlight on steroids.

I didn't take a picture as it was too dark... might try again later if it's stopped raining, 5 minute exposure should do the job!:thumbsup:

Thing is read in conjunction with the other threads where does this leave someone trying to get decent lights, back to watching Headlight Revolution on You Tube and more research.
 
I've got the WIPAC SVX headlights with a set of Evitek F2 LED H4 bulbs in my Caterham, and they are pretty good. Super Bright 12000lm C-r-e-e Car Led Headlight H4 Hi/lo F2 Auto Led Headlight Bulb 9005 9006 H11 H7 6500k - Buy F2 Led Headlight H4 Led Light Led H4 Luces Led H4 Lampada De Led H4 Lampada De Led H4 Luces Led H4 Autos,F2 Led Led H4 Para Auto H4 Led 16000lm Luz Led H4 Led H4 12000lm Focos Led H4 Super Led H4 Lampadas De Led H4,Led F2 Led Light H4 Ultra Led H4 Led H4 Headlight Led Headlight Bulb H4 Faro Led H4 Light H4 Led Led Car Lights H4 Product on Alibaba.com
I've put a set of the F2's in the T6 as well and whilst they are a bit bright up the left hand side (as in they light up the grass verge to treetop level) and illuminate signs up for miles ahead, they are certainly much better than the halogen H4's that were in originally.
I need to play around with positioning of the bulb (rotation and front/back positioning) to get the best beam pattern out of them but I think they will be staying in for the forseeable future.
 
I'm back home tomorrow night and will be going out in the van at night so will take some better pics of mine then if I remember
 
I've just been out again for a drive around the local country roads, flushed out a few doggers but second time around and minus the rain plus angry drivers trying to get home the LEDs have proved themselves a bit more worthy...

Dipped beam

20191104_201017[1].jpg

And that's main beam

20191104_201030[1].jpg

Doesn't look like a massive difference between the two patterns but the beams are parallel to the road.

20191104_202258[1].jpg

Dipped again above and main beam below

20191104_202307[1].jpg

The orange light icon is just to show that the lights are on... :oops:
 
So many threads running at the moment all on the same sort of theme that it's taken me a while to find the right one. Anyway I took some clearer pics of my H4 LEDs on my way home tonight.

First dipped beam

IMG_0961.JPG

Then full beam

IMG_8645.JPG

Are they perfect? Of course not, they were about £30. But I can now drive safely at night which I couldn't with the halogens and that's the important thing to me. I see no point in making the upgrade to H7s or the chinese copies now, if I did upgrade it would have to be to full factory LED.
 
Last edited:
Your an hard man @andys but that's the way I'm thinking after initially being seduced by the sparkly LED lookalikes.

The thing is unless you put a decent LED light source in each of the types of headlight ie. H4, H7 Caravelle and the THQ LED lookalike type you won't be able to run a fair comparison, an halogen lamp is never going to produce a colour temperature much above 3,000 Kelvin unlike an LED or Hid even though the halogen lamp can produce higher level outputs in Lumen if you stick an high enough wattage lamp in, it will still be yellow.

I'm probably going off on a tangent here, as usual but with LED lamps the colour rendition, ie. above 4,000K must be part of the attraction (it is, in my case) as realistically even running an H7 and H1 lamp at the same time using Vcds you still have only 40 watts, using say two Philips Ultinon lamps per side and with the best will in the world even a 40 watt Hid lamp with even better efficiency one per side wouldn't melt the tarmac ahead.

Somewhere out there are genuine 50 Watt LED lamps and I'm sure that's closer to the OEM LED sources used by the various car makers... must take off this tin foil hat now.:geek:
 
Can someone point me in the right direction then, there's some 100w H4 leds on amazon? 63 quid? Worth a bash?

What leds bulbs are people running in their drls too?

I need to sort this, I nearly had a head on last week, on coming black car with no headlights and the h4s didn't light it up until about 20ft away! New trouser moment :eek:
 
@RedUn I bought these lamps https://www.amazon.co.uk/HIVEHICLE-...xtremely-Start-Replacement/dp/B07QSJY5VT?th=1 but I would say they're a work in progress as they're not blinders, @andys is not playing nicely as he bought his TurboThrustMeistermadbastid Billion Lumen LED lamps and then hid them in a garage cupboard for a year so that all worldwide stock was sold then installed them to come on here and flaunt his bad boys... they look pretty impressive.

Continuing @RedUn and don't start off throwing £63 at something you haven't got to hand as the adverts for these various LED lamps/bulbs are BozWellox and read like the "mine's bigger than yours" nonsense of teenage kids on a Vauxhall Corsa forum, read any specifications available and in the case of the H4 lamps divide even realistic specs in half as these are twin lamp bulbs where only one half of the lamp works at a time ie. 2 x 20 watts on dip (left light, right side light) and the same again when the lamp swaps over to the main beam chips... scabby sales blurb will quote total output in lumen by adding up the output from all chips which in practice/reality can't run at the same time anyway... this is how they get to the 80 or 100 watts shouty claims, total nonsense but look at the size of those numbers.

Somebody will have to get a pair of what might actually be a larger wattage LED H4 lamp but of the current names out there that are Canbus friendly and are similar enough in shape/dimensions to the Halogen capsule to not produce a skewed beam all are 20 watt lamps... I've got a 20 watt LED worklight, it's bright but drive behind two of them... really? We need a genuine 2 x 50 watt LED H4 lamp, that's 50 watts on dip or 50 watts on main beam per side, if that's not bright enough then we throw money at it or join the Transit Forum!:oops:
 
Back
Top