Headlamps improvements

[Simon Baxter]

How do.
A customer recently asked us is we had any headlamp relays kits to which the answer was no, too many variables for us but we do have all the parts to supply a customer with the parts necessary to tailor the upgrade to their circumstance.
As it's February and things are not as manic as the summer months I've written a couple of blog posts for our webshop to point customers towards for when we inevitably get the question again.
I thought they may be useful here.
We've done loads over the years when we ran the workshop but no two installs were the same hence us not doing a kit, thinks like the equipment level of the vehicle and different relays and such being attached to the CE1.
I've also seen and been asked to fit kits from different suppliers and we've not been that impressed with what we were provided with, far too generic and some looked like they cause more problems than they solved, they were never fitted!

The page was meant to be a quick how to but it got rather long so I decided to split it in to two articles.

• Basic tests and improvements.
  
• Adding relays to CE1
  

I'm not saying that ours is the right way, it's just a way, a different way to the kits we've seen, less intrusive, makes use of existing wiring and can be put back to standard pretty easily.

Any comments welcomed, the page can always be amended.

Simon.

[SyncroMatt]

Good job Simon, this is a job I intend to do when I get around to replacing the fan and tidying up under the dash.

I’ll keep these for reference. Matt

[Robsey]

Excellent write-ups.

I am so happy you shunned those hideous crimps with integral rigid plastic insulation.

I buy my crimps from Brickwerks, they seem more 'solid' and confidence inspiring than those naff silver looking items from ebay and Halfords.

And for me...
I always crimp, then solder and finally cover the shanks with heat shrink sleeving.

My relays are sat side by side on my van CE1 fusebox.
The brown 40 amp Bosch items in the image below.

[Simon Baxter]

Cheers for the comments.
Our relays are from Kraeker, they manufacture for Bosch
I'll put a DIY kit of components and cable next week together next week for CE1.
And, yes, we always used non insulated crimps, tried to make things look like VW did it.

[Rik]

Interesting read! I was wondering about the change in legality of running LEDs on the 1st of april 1986, as you mentioned. Is that based on a physical difference or just some weird law-thing?

[icosahedron]

I've been using LED bulbs in my '83 van with standard wiring ever since the law changed and it has transformed my nighttime driving. I unfortunately can't find the pictures I made with one LED and one halogen bulb fitted for comparison. The filaments of my halogen bulbs (Hella brand) are all slightly angled, one is particularly bad and therefore not precisely at the foci of the lenses. This causes light to be scattered and lost. The LED bulbs, on the other hand, are precision-made and produce much neater beam patterns. IMO the Hella round lenses are excellent, the halogen bulbs they produce these days are terrible.

Apart from the position of the LEDS inside the bulb, the other very important aspect is the size of the LED itself. A size larger than a bulb filament will not project the correct pattern. It's been a few years since I did my research and I can't remember the part numbers of suitable-sized LEDS available at the time. Knowing it made my research easier as I did a search using the part number which led to data sheets, specifications, brands etc. Most LED bulbs at the time were fitted with oversize ones, rendering them useless.

The ones I fitted (no longer available) have internal cooling fans and the dust covers at the back are still in use.

The proof of the pudding is that nobody over the past few years has expressed their annoyance by flashing or refused to dip their lights when approaching me. I do most of my driving in the dark.

[clift_d]

Section 4.1.4 of the MOT Manual states

Existing halogen headlamp units on vehicles first used on or after 1 April 1986 must not be converted to be used with high intensity discharge (HID) or light emitting diode (LED) bulbs. If such a conversion has been done, you must fail the headlamp for light source and lamp not compatible.

Section 4.1.4 also states that replacing the whole headlight unit with one that is designed for an LED or HID lamp would not be a fail if the unit otherwise meets the MOT requirements. Presumably it also would not be a fail if you put an LED or HID lamp in the headlight unit of a vehicle "first used on or after 1 April 1986".

With regard to replacing the filament lamps in other exterior lights with LED versions, e.g. tail-lights, that would not necessarily be an MOT fail but these lamps can't meet the requirements of the Road Vehicles Lighting Regulations unless 'E' marked, which is currently impossible for LED lamps to do, and so if you do this then you better hope your insurers don't find out about it.

With interior lights you can replace these with LED bulbs without issue.

[R0B]

TBH. I have found using Osram night breakers and the relay upgrade perfectly adequate.

[Oren Kipnis]

Osram and Philips developed replacement LED headlamp bulbs for classic cars, Osram being 2700Kelvin, and Philips 3500.
I tried the Philips LEDs on the Syncro, and it does the job - you see the road. The pattern is perfect and oncoming drivers see the headlamps as if they were fitted with the Halogens.
These are not road legal at the moment, but should be certified sometime during 2025.

 

[R0B]

There is an article on the BBC news about blinding LEDs now.

[Simon Baxter]

ECE R37 I believe.
I can't be bothered looking but I seem to remember the tolerance for the position of the filament in the bulb is something like 0.5mm, how on earth an LED with a screw adjustable mounting position could ever pass that I don't know!

[cobblers]

LED bulbs used to be horrific in the recent past (and some still are) but recently they are greatly improved - LED technology has got to the point where power density has increased so that we can make the hotspot as tight as it needs to be to very closely emulate the filaments in a H4 bulb.

It's arguably easier to position the LED core accurately than it is in a filament bulb - you're not relying on an inch long thin wire frame inside a glass bulb - it's just soldered on a PCB and 0.5mm tolerance is very easily achieved, and you end up with perfect beam cutoff.

I can't find the picture, but I parked my doka in front of the workshop door and swapped from Osram bulbs to some (philips?) leds. I marked the cutoff on the door with 1" masking tape, and with the LEDs the cutoff was exactly the same, at about 10m away. Just adding a passenger or having a full tank of fuel in a syncro would make more of a difference to the beam.

We are at a point now where (properly made, good quality) LED replacement H4 bulbs are genuinely perfectly usable, and a very good option in these vans - they draw a quarter of the power of an incandescent bulb, and they run proper switch-mode power supplies, so they give off exactly the same amount of light at 11v as they do at 14v, or 30v - so you have significantly less load on the wiring, and any voltage drop you do get is a non-issue.

While perhaps not complying with the exact letter of the law, they will pass an MOT beam pattern test easily, provide good usable light while using less power and won't dazzle anyone.

[keynsham1]

As I understand it, you cannot legally put LED bulbs in a light designed for Halogen ones. The whole light unit must be designed as an LED headlight. I sould be an instant MOT failure. I got really good results from buying a good pair of replacement lights (not cheapo chinese!) and using expensive halogen bulbs such as Osram or Philips with a higher light output, as opposed to supermarket cheapies. Well good enough for my 78bhp performance anyway!!

[Cecil]

Is there a requirement that automatic beam height adjustment is incorporated into LED headlights ?

[MarkHughes]

I converted mine to LED by swapping out the whole light for ones designed for a Jeep. IIRC I had only to drill and tap a few holes to get them to fit, That was 6 years ago or more and never had a problem. In all that time only one MOT tester even mentioned them. They have rings around the edge for sidelight/indicator and my spotlights are the same, Sidelights are like dipped headlights for me now Not had any complaints though. Beam pattern has always been good.