H4 headlamps with LED bulbs

[RedUn]

@RedUn keep that £63 where it belongs as what a ballache these not so super LEDs have proved to be... basically a good chunk of the day wasted as well as £63.

What's wrong with the Novsight H4 lamp?... well the fan is a big old lump so more butchery to the access caps, then you have the problem that these things have a driver about the same size as an HID lamp driver/matchbox... that's not goping to tuck into the back of the headlight shell so now you've got to have an exit through the access cap for the flex from the lamp and the flex to the driver both of which are about 40mm long as supplied so will need extending and some then sort of stuffing gland to waterproof the exit from the butchered access cap to these external components.

There's more, the pattern from the headlight was quite distinct with a reasonable hot spot and horizontal lines either side so promising for daylight however while the Canbus wasn't tripped by low or high beam it did latch on the dash display if you tried flashing the main beam and then stayed on until the ignition was reset, now the best bit and something I would reccommend trying before pretty well any further thud and blunder and that's starting the engine then turning on the lights, engine off I couldn't wait to see what these monsters were going to look like later in the dark, start the engine though and the bloddy things flicker like a poorly regulated Chinese moped headlight, utter shite.

I'm not sure if the problem is to do with VWs smart charging system but I'll take a lamp out warning from a pair of £19.99 LED lamps over £63 strobe lights any day, did I mention I'm a bit underwhelmed, going to try them in the Daihatsu as that's got a more conventional old school electrical system, if it's the same nonsense I'll try and get my money back and obviously keep singing their praises.

Done a load of reading tonight and you can buy canbus decoders to stop the flickering with led bulbs... Might be the answer!

Currently reading up on the new osram h4 leds

 

[Stay Frosty]

I'm going to hazard a guess that the top left is the H4 on dip, the top right is the H4 on main beam followed by bottom left being his Dads Shuttle H7 on dip and bottom right the Shuttle H7 on main beam, I'll try a further guess that the Shuttle isn't coded to run dip and main beam at the same time which looks like the only way it would convincingly beat the H4?

Not sure what will come of it as I've butchered the rubber seals on the back of the Daihatsu to take the Novsight mutha funsters so they're staying there but the wife has sent a request to Novsight, which has been acknowledged, for one of their "we cure any flicker.com" inline magic boxes so if that turns up I'll give one of these bad boys another try on the T6 and if it's flicker free next go around then I'll order a second pair rinse and repeat the whole process to get the T6 to hopefully perform like the Daihatsu did in the earlier pictures.

Jeez, must type faster

 

[RedUn]

Just seeing if I can add some text to the images to help...

Edit, that worked, see above. Vans are both standard vw bulbs, not lowered, no coding etc it's as fair as a comparison as your going to get I reckon

 

[nobbyq]

its amazing how crap they are , i wonder if there's been any legal comebacks to vw due crashes etc for lack of light ?

 

[Paynewright]

I find that if I’m the only vehicle on the road, my H4’s are marginally acceptable on dipped and main. Better on main. I can see where I’m going but need 100% concentration.

As soon as another vehicle comes the other way the projected light from my van is sort of drowned out / lost. This is the bit I find dangerous.

I think (hope) going with brighter bulbs should help this phenomenon.

SWMBO has LEDs / HIDs in her Octavia and it has the best headlights of any car we’ve owned or driven - that said they’re probably dazzling all oncoming traffic and cost a fortune when they go wrong.

Ian

 

[Vanman]

I am relatively new to the t6 scene. I was really shocked at the poor headlight performance when driving it home . I have previously had a touran and Tiguan and the lights were ok . So I wasn’t expecting it to be so bad . Just ordered vanstyle upgrade DRLs kit with h7 and dip /high beam conversion kit . I guess it won’t be brilliant but will be better than the current performance.

 

[nobbyq]

I am relatively new to the t6 scene. I was really shocked at the poor headlight performance when driving it home . I have previously had a touran and Tiguan and the lights were ok . So I wasn’t expecting it to be so bad . Just ordered vanstyle upgrade DRLs kit with h7 and dip /high beam conversion kit . I guess it won’t be brilliant but will be better than the current performance.

only better if u add led , otherwise not worth it

 

[The Van Cave]

I am relatively new to the t6 scene. I was really shocked at the poor headlight performance when driving it home . I have previously had a touran and Tiguan and the lights were ok . So I wasn’t expecting it to be so bad . Just ordered vanstyle upgrade DRLs kit with h7 and dip /high beam conversion kit . I guess it won’t be brilliant but will be better than the current performance.

I have similar headlights to the ones you have ordered, maybe even the same, but from THQ and with a standard H7 halogen bulb they are better than standard H4 headlights. I would say they offer very similar performance to the H7 dipped image in the post from @RedUn earlier in this thread, but with a sharper beam cut off due to being in a projector housing rather than a reflector. An improvement over the H4 ref light output yes, but not a huge one.

I have since fitted Philips Ultinon LED bulbs to the dipped beam and had the alignment adjusted to make sure it's all good. These improved things further, but I'll be honest, I was a bit underwhelmed by their performance, especially considering they were £115 for the pair. Having said that, they are better than with the H7 halogen bulb installed, just not quite £115 worth better if that makes sense. I'll try and get a photo of them on dipped beam in similar conditions to the pic I mentioned above and you can see what you think.

To sum this up, if you're expecting a major improvement with the new headlights you may be disappointed, it will be better, but not amazing. Upgraded LED bulbs (good ones, that's a minefield too) will help further and it's the best option I've found so far.

I'm still considering a xenon HID kit for the dipped beam and may then sell the Philips bulbs for half the retail price or something. This seems to be one of those subjects where it's difficult to be 100% satisfied, without spending thousands on OEM LED units.

 

[Stay Frosty]

@andys has got decent light output from his H4 LED lamps and they were £30 bargains (sadly no longer available) and I've got a modest improvement over halogen with my £19.99 specials (which are on Amazon) so there definitely are relatively simple upgrades out there.

Replacing the headlight units is also an option but as we're all starting to realise unless they have something better than a 55 watt halogen lamp in them then apart from looking pretty in daylight or driving around with their dip and main beam on regardless of traffic then they're still not fit for purpose.

We're getting to be on the same page with headlight surgery too as the brighter these Leads get the more butchering that has to go on so for some it might be better to get a spare set of the unloved H4 headlights before getting in too deep.

Regarding the complete headlight though it's only the lamp access cap that gets modded to accept the deeper rear end cooling fan, if the lamp has a short fly lead to get connect to the original VW 3 pin plug then that can tuck behind the reflector actually inside the unit and the fan caps altered in my pics above refitted.It's fitting the higher powered LEDs with bigger cooling fans and external driver/campus boxes that will test garden shed engineering as the tails on the lamp are pretty short and will need extending to bring the VW 3 pin plug feed out of the headlight unit to the LED driver and then back into the headlight on the LED flying lead from the driver.

There you go not plug and play but bear in mind you will have to muck about with an H7 headlight or aftermarket projector type too if you want decent headlights.

 

[t0mb0]

only better if u add led , otherwise not worth it

If you read through the 40+ page THQ lights thread, or one of the original OEM H7 threads, this just isn’t the prevailing view. Personally, I have THQ lights with pretty standard osram +130% bulbs and they are absolutely better than the standard H4’s. Still a long way behind factory LED however.

 

[Stay Frosty]

Sorry @ChrisR slow type here and @t0mb0 if you look at @RedUn ns pictures above then in all honesty going 200% brighter than them in either lamp would still be a bit feeble, I was running the Philips 130s too, they're not enough of an improvement really.

 

[t0mb0]

Sorry @ChrisR slow type here and @t0mb0 if you look at @RedUn ns pictures above then in all honesty going 200% brighter than them in either lamp would still be a bit feeble, I was running the Philips 130s too, they're not enough of an improvement really.

What headlight were you running your +130% in?

 

[The Van Cave]

@Stay Frosty I was going to suggest that when I order my HID kit I send you my Philips Ultinon for a trial in the standard H4 headlight, until I remembered that they are H7 bulbs!

 

[Stay Frosty]

@t0mb0 the Philips racing vision 130s were in my H4s and looked the same as @RedUns pictures on the previous page, maybe a 15% improvement over stock but certainly still not adequate.

The cheap and cheerful £19.99 LEDs are on the pictures on page 2 of this thread and beat the Philips halogen 130% ones hollow.

Cheers Chris but this is turning into a make the best of a bad job H4 crusade!

 

[RedUn]

@Stay Frosty I was going to suggest that when I order my HID kit I send you my Philips Ultinon for a trial in the standard H4 headlight, until I remembered that they are H7 bulbs!

It would be interesting for someone to give them a try in the standard H7s though? That might be the sweet spot? H7s and Leds? In theory the beam pattern should be a lot better than the 1970s H4s

 

[Stay Frosty]

We could do with @Dellmassive running this thread as he covers all bases on his "how I did this" posts, however @ChrisR the H7 reflector looks to be slightly smaller than the H4 but then each reflector in the VW H7 headlight is dedicated to a single task so in theory there should be less light spillage ie. a better beam.

We know the LEDs all produce a better colour rendition than halogen which is a lot of the problem, factor in a genuinely higher lumen output above 3000K than can be produced by a blue painted halogen lamp and H7 headlights with LEDs should be an improvement over the VW H4 headlight, halogen H7 v LED H4 and the H4 (with a decent LED lamp) is better and round we go again!

 

[t0mb0]

@t0mb0 the Philips racing vision 130s were in my H4s and looked the same as @RedUns pictures on the previous page, maybe a 15% improvement over stock but certainly still not adequate.

The cheap and cheerful £19.99 LEDs are on the pictures on page 2 of this thread and beat the Philips halogen 130% ones hollow.

Cheers Chris but this is turning into a make the best of a bad job H4 crusade!

It's great you've got good results with putting LEDs in the stock H4 headlights, this puts you in a select group! If your bulbs are still available, that's even better as the ones that andy got good results with aren't still available it seems. Maybe there are specific designs of LED bulbs that work well with the VW H4 reflector.

I got my THQ H7/H1 headlights a while ago, when all the feedback from the big original forum threads were full of people getting good results from upgrading to either OEM H7 lights or THQ ones. In my specific case, I moved from osram 130% bulbs in OEM H4 to osram 130% in THQ H7 and I moved from a situation were it was dangerous to drive at night to a situation where it was now safe.

If a genuine forum consensus builds about a specific LED bulb that improves the THQ lights emerges, I'd be tempted to try them. Currently though, even the very expensive phillips ultinon bulbs seem to get pretty mixed feedback. I had high hopes for the Twenty20 compact series of bulbs but, again, the feedback here seems mixed.

 

[Stay Frosty]

With your lights Chris any of the higher wattage/price LEDs are going in the right direction to make things even better.

Read between the lines on the adverts but after a while you'll see the 2 x 25 watt, 2 x 30 watt and best 2 x 50 watt spec start to appear, then your only problem will be how to accomodate the fan, driver box etc. per lamp!

 

[RedUn]

It's great you've got good results with putting LEDs in the stock H4 headlights, this puts you in a select group! If your bulbs are still available, that's even better as the ones that andy got good results with aren't still available it seems. Maybe there are specific designs of LED bulbs that work well with the VW H4 reflector.

I got my THQ H7/H1 headlights a while ago, when all the feedback from the big original forum threads were full of people getting good results from upgrading to either OEM H7 lights or THQ ones. In my specific case, I moved from osram 130% bulbs in OEM H4 to osram 130% in THQ H7 and I moved from a situation were it was dangerous to drive at night to a situation where it was now safe.

If a genuine forum consensus builds about a specific LED bulb that improves the THQ lights emerges, I'd be tempted to try them. Currently though, even the very expensive phillips ultinon bulbs seem to get pretty mixed feedback. I had high hopes for the Twenty20 compact series of bulbs but, again, the feedback here seems mixed.

I genuinely don't think the philips are that powerful, I think they are 20w? I think with a projector lense, go for the biggest beasts you can get your hands on! The 50s that @Stay Frosty put in his other car might do the job well?

 

[RedUn]

I have also fitted LED's and the improvement is massive (Day/Night).. Not only the whiter light but the overall field of light is much improved.
I fitted
BEAMTECH H4 LED Headlight Bulbs,9003 HB2 CSP Chips Headlamp 50W 6500K 8000Lumens Car Replacement Lights Dual High Low Beam Conversion Kit Extremely Bright

Bought from Amazon.
Only issue is my bulb warning lamp is now on due to the LED but hoping there is an option to turn the warning off.. otherwise I will put up with the fault lamp for the improved night driving experience.

Bill, could you get a picture of the lights at night so we can see the beam pattern? Cheers!