LED Headlamp & main beam bulbs?

[beaks]

Hi, 

Has anyone fitted these to their 987's? 

I've used them on different cars in the past with different results and want to know if it's worth a crack on my 987.

Do they throw any errors? 

Any thoughts / advice would be much appreciated.

Cheers,

Ian B

[Berni29]

Hi

From my experience LED is not quite there yet for headlights, especially as a retrofit. HID works very well though.

Berni

[mike597]

14 minutes ago, Berni29 said:

Hi

From my experience LED is not quite there yet for headlights, especially as a retrofit. HID works very well though.

Berni

Not so in my experience.  Not on my boxster but I do use Philips ultinon on my daily and they are excellent, far better than halogen. 

[Ninesomething]

I haven't put them in the Boxster which has uprated bulbs and is OK but I put them in my Citroen and they are excellent. In fact they're so good I almost never turn full beam on. The only difference is that when I operate the remote fob I get the tiniest flash of dipped beam which I'm sure never happened before. The surrounds stay cool to the touch. Also they (apparently) last forever which is more than can be said for uprated halogen bulbs. My previous citroen had HIDs - the LEDs are way better.

[Berni29]

12 hours ago, mike597 said:

Not so in my experience.  Not on my boxster but I do use Philips ultinon on my daily and they are excellent, far better than halogen. 

Hi

The HID you cannot use in a conventional housing, so in standard Boxster reflectors is a massive no. But you can use in the litronics, or projector housings (thats what I did). In my 986 the lenses in one light had been burnt yellow by halogens that ran too hot.

987's have projector lenses no? 

Berni

[mike597]

Just now, Berni29 said:

Hi

The HID you cannot use in a conventional housing, so in standard Boxster reflectors is a massive no. But you can use in the litronics, or projector housings (thats what I did).

987's have projector lenses no? 

Berni

Philips Ultinons are LED retrofit for halogen bulbs. I have them fitted to reflectors where they work really well (as they are designed to do) but I am certain they would work equally well on a projector.  Often people buy cheap LED replacements from ebay and find they are a pile of poo and then label all LEDs retrofits in the same way.  Philips Ultinons are 150 quid a pair so not cheap and the engineering that has gone into them that makes them that price is obvious once you try them.

 

 

[PaulQ]

Heat is the issue with retrofit led's, which is why so many fail prematurely.

Much nicer light output then halogen though

 

 

 

[½cwt]

On 7/30/2020 at 12:07 PM, mike597 said:

Philips Ultinons are LED retrofit for halogen bulbs. I have them fitted to reflectors where they work really well (as they are designed to do) but I am certain they would work equally well on a projector.  Often people buy cheap LED replacements from ebay and find they are a pile of poo and then label all LEDs retrofits in the same way.  Philips Ultinons are 150 quid a pair so not cheap and the engineering that has gone into them that makes them that price is obvious once you try them.

 

 

However they are still 'for off road use only'.....

[mike597]

24 minutes ago, ½cwt said:

However they are still 'for off road use only'.....

Well yes that is how they are listed.  But 18 months of use and no problems yet. Seem to work on as well as off road. Who'd have thought it? 

[½cwt]

1 hour ago, mike597 said:

Well yes that is how they are listed.  But 18 months of use and no problems yet. Seem to work on as well as off road. Who'd have thought it? 

I'm sure they do. However folks need to be aware of the caveat when the bulbs are strongly recommended and clearly perform so well that they are not technically road legal. It might have an impact on their decision making.

[mike597]

11 minutes ago, ½cwt said:

I'm sure they do. However folks need to be aware of the caveat when the bulbs are strongly recommended and clearly perform so well that they are not technically road legal. It might have an impact on their decision making.

I didn't actually recommend anyone use them on the road

 

[½cwt]

13 minutes ago, mike597 said:

I didn't actually recommend anyone use them on the road

 

How much off roading do you do?  I imagine you don't swap them out everything you rejoined the public highway over the last 18 months.... 🤔

For years I ran 100W H1 main beams and even 80/100 H4 headlamp bulbs but I was aware they weren't legal.

Not everyone reads the small print even if it's highly unlikely that you ever be pulled up for using them.

[mike597]

20 minutes ago, ½cwt said:

How much off roading do you do?  I imagine you don't swap them out everything you rejoined the public highway over the last 18 months.... 🤔

For years I ran 100W H1 main beams and even 80/100 H4 headlamp bulbs but I was aware they weren't legal.

Not everyone reads the small print even if it's highly unlikely that you ever be pulled up for using them.

None what so ever. 

If you read what I've said you'll see I just described my experience. The op specifically asked about retro fit leds and to my knowledge there are none that are road legal. 

I didn't recommend he use leds I just responded with what I use. 

[KevM79]

Its a 987 with projector lenses.  The likelihood is, no-one will ever notice that the bulbs are not OEM. 

The car will really suit the more modern brilliant white light of Xenon/LED.  

[beaks]

Hi folks,

Thanks for all the comments.

I've rolled the dice and ordered some for main and dipped beam.

If they're amazing - great, they stay in. If not, they go in the bin.

They're not the expensive Phillips jobs but they do have decent feedback on Amazon.

Will be dropping them in next week at some point, I'll let y'all know how I get on.

Cheers,

Ian B

[DaveEFI]

On 7/30/2020 at 11:02 AM, Berni29 said:

Hi

The HID you cannot use in a conventional housing, so in standard Boxster reflectors is a massive no. But you can use in the litronics, or projector housings (thats what I did). In my 986 the lenses in one light had been burnt yellow by halogens that ran too hot.

987's have projector lenses no? 

Berni

I had an HID conversion in my last 987. Worked very well indeed. Excellent beam pattern. Projector headlights are very tolerant of the light source. There is a question of legality with anything other than standard bulbs, though.

[beaks]

55 minutes ago, DaveEFI said:

There is a question of legality with anything other than standard bulbs, though.

There is indeed chap. 

Same goes for exceeding 70mph on the motorway etc.

Thankfully the 987's headlamps are a piece of 'the proverbial' to remove so the old halogens can be whacked back in at MOT time.

And if the dipped beam is too bright (e.g oncoming traffic flashing etc) then they'll be removed. I want better light performance, but not to the detriment of other folks eyesight!

Cheers,

Ian B

[brendon]

I've just fitted these to my 987.2

Really easy to fit, loads better than the old halogen they replaced, no oncoming cars have flashed me yet and no errors thrown so far.

For the money I cant see a reason not to change.

[DaveEFI]

In the UK, it is one of those sledgehammer regs. If 55W halogen produces the maximum light allowed, why isn't this applied to new cars too? In other words, measure the light output and make that the maximum. Regardless of the technology used. I'm sure we've all observed that some new vehicles dazzle more than others.

I've had a play with tungsten (original)  LED Ultinon, HID both 35 and 55 watt on my 987 with projector headlights, on one unit only to give a comparison with the standard halogen. All produce a well controlled beam, with just the light level being different. But note the alignment wasn't exactly the same between the bulbs, and adjusting the dips only for height, not possible? FWIW, the Ultinon gave the same aim as the tungsten, so that's what I'm using.

[entdgc]

9 hours ago, DaveEFI said:

I'm sure we've all observed that some new vehicles dazzle more than others.

I would say I am most often dazzled by late model SUV's with LED's as their lights are mounted higher. I also find the way that LED's 'flutter' with their colour shade change rather annoying....

[AMacdonald]

I've just fitted Ultinons to my 986. As far as I can tell the beam pattern is the same as the halogens but the light is just way better. Philips seem to have finally nailed the technology necessary to replicate filament lamps in LED. I wonder how many of the super-dazzling LEDs out there are using cheap EBay lamps that make no effort to replicate a filament and, as a result spray light everywhere.

[mike597]

21 minutes ago, AMacdonald said:

I've just fitted Ultinons to my 986. As far as I can tell the beam pattern is the same as the halogens but the light is just way better. Philips seem to have finally nailed the technology necessary to replicate filament lamps in LED. I wonder how many of the super-dazzling LEDs out there are using cheap EBay lamps that make no effort to replicate a filament and, as a result spray light everywhere.

Yup! Brilliant aren't they? Pun intended.  Well worth the money imo and you're I think now the second other person to try them on here and see it as well. 👍

[rifraf]

Quite by accident, and slightly bizarrely, this weekend,  I discovered that my nephew (wife's side) owns runs this..... https://www.xenonbulbs.co.uk... and it transpires, has done for many years...

Of course, having often thought about this myself, I asked him a whole lot of questions... and he came across as a chap who could talk to ...everything-you-ever-wanted-to-ask-about-LED-bulbs-canbus-errors-beam-patterns-and-stuff-one-never-knew-to-ask... 

he recommended to me these... https://www.xenonbulbs.co.uk/F2?search=h7 f2... although I have not tried them (yet)... my thinking is that he would not want to upset his aunt..

A possible option for those interested and suggest one satisfies oneself before taking the plunge ...oh, and for the sake of complete transparency I am not on commission... the bugger didn't even suggest a discount 😂

[AMacdonald]

I hope the "stringent quality controls" were better than the proof reading on the images! The claims of MOT compliance sound unlikely too, given the blanket ban.

Still, a lot cheaper than the Philips and they look like a similar design.

[DaveEFI]

On 8/4/2020 at 8:30 AM, AMacdonald said:

I hope the "stringent quality controls" were better than the proof reading on the images! The claims of MOT compliance sound unlikely too, given the blanket ban.

Still, a lot cheaper than the Philips and they look like a similar design.

The wording is quite careful. I'd agree it could confirm to the MOT requirements for beam aim and scatter - as that's all they test. They don't check intensity or colour temperature. So possible to be MOT compliant, but still 'illegal'.