Finally, just finishing up with some LED bulbs for the other lights, and have ended up with a two winners Philips and Osram:
Philips from Amazon for my H7s:
Osram from ebay for my H4s:
Should be able to do some useful comparisons when they all arrive...
EDIT: I gave up on indicator bulbs as they are just not available on the main brands and they really don't make much difference...the ones I have are amber and people can see them already!
This time it's the H4's getting their bulbs replaced, using Osram for both sidelight and DRL.
The LED DRLs are slightly less twinkly as the bulbs have no light output at the front of the unit, so appear perhaps dimmer, but actually they seem more DRL-like - as if they are meant to be illuminating the headlight unit for attention rather than project a rather dim light out onto the road:
The sidelights are slightly brighter and match the DRLs well. For a brighter sidelight I would go for the Philips above, for £1 more a bulb:
For interest, my H4 bulbs are slightly bluer and brighter bulbs of unknown origin, probably Halfords high performance laser blue from when I tried to improve my RX-7 before moving on to HIDs! So they already match the LEDs quite well:
You can see the sidelights are not going to compete with the dipped beam so the colour isn't that big a deal:
For reference,
How to change the DRL and sidelight bulbs on VW T6 H4 headlights
DRLs - Pop off the soft rubber circular cover near the top of the headlight unit (towards the centre of the van, not the lower one) to reveal the DRL bulb holder:
Grab it and twist a quarter turn whilst watching the bulb through the lens, it should become free. Pull the holder out the back and the bulb is a bayonet fitting and can be push-and-twisted to pop it out.
Sidelights - Pull the metal bar up off the back of the main/dipped beam plastic cover on the outer side of the headlight unit:
The sidelight bulb holder simply pulls out the back. Reach down until you feel the circular holder whilst looking through the lens at the front, when you see the bulb wiggle you have found it. Jiggle it backwards and it comes out without too much force.
Note that the sidelight LED bulbs have polarity, so test them before pushing back into the hole, and swap the orientation of the bulb in the holder if it doesn't light.
The DRL, being a bayonet fitting, can't be reversed, so if it doesn't light that suggests a problem. As mine worked first time, I cannot tell if it was because the bulb holders are wired in a certain polarity in the factory, or that the LED bulbs are multi-polarity and don't care about the wiring. I suspect the former, so a problem with them not lighting is probably going to be a rewiring job.
Now, on to the real-life testing, the Osram DRL bulbs cause the lamp out warning light to show on the dash. I haven't tested the Phillips bulbs on the van.
