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Wipac LED headlight upgrade


Jamesh

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I have spent the early part of the year upgrading all the lights on my SV to LED's and now just have the headlights to convert to finish this part of the restoration.

Having completed quite a bit of research, I wanted to share my experiences and get a feeling for the path that others have taken. I should caveat that I currently have original 7" headlights and am keen to stick to this size for several reasons, but not least to minimize the rewiring that comes with new 5 3/4" assemblies.

My first conclusion is that the cheap LED upgrades from Amazon and Ebay, whilst tempting are a false economy and probably illegal in the UK - a really good YouTube video here which reviews a wide range: 

So, the remaining contenders seem to be Morimoto, JW Speaker or kc-highlights; but these are simply too expensive at £800 - £1000 for the pair to upgrade.

However, I have found what I think might be a good compromise from Wipac: https://www.wipac-led.com/find-out-more. These claim to be UK legal and MOT compliant (assuming correct alignment of course). The best price I have found for these is about £400 for the pair here: https://www.paddockspares.com/catalogsearch/result/?q=s709

I would be very interested in any practical experience of these units, or any general guidance that might help with the decision?

James.

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I have a Wipac set of sidelights on my Defender. Within a month one had water ingress. The supplier swapped, no problem. I think the majority, no matter what make are made in the PRC so for me it comes down the quality and customer service  of the UK supplier or distributor. Also whether the lights are supposedly compliant and the supplier will back that statement up.

 

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Thank you, ill follow this up with them; a cheaper option is welcome, especially as I don't tend to use the car at night. I was under the impression that the performance of these wasn't great; but I guess the tech moves on pretty fast!

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Get some better side light bulbs to for use as DRLs, my side lights are bright enough to drive at night with....

Drive with them on all the time.

Infact all my bulbs are from them , don't forget a new relay if changing all indicator bulbs.

 

I can find out bulb part numbers if you like.

 

Cheers

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I currently drive with the dipped beam on all the time, mainly for visibility, but the current original bulbs just provide what seems like a dim glow and I am certain to leave them on by mistake one day....

I have upgraded the indicators, brake lights etc - and got a super loud new LED relay, all of which works well. Its just the headlights to go - I chose to do this bit last because of the MOT alignment and pattern challenges and cost of the LED sealed units. Your path sounds much more appealing and i will probably take it.

Any part numbers much appreciated, but please don't go to any trouble - I can call classiccarleds and have a chat with them about it.

Thanks again, James.

 

 

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Hi Garth, I thought I had read all the LED headlamp related posts on this forum, but I had missed this one - thank you.

On the advice of the forum, I have purchased some H4 LED replacement bulbs from Gemzoe motorsport. Ill start with installing these into the existing 7" enclosures and see how that goes. Thanks again...

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  • 1 month later...

There's quite a lot written about the legality of LED H4 replacements.

The classic car LEDs are stated as CE compliant, but  I'm not sure how an LED H4 can be compliant, simply because the H in H4 stands for Halogen, so you're changing the technology out and there doesn't appear to be a way to test an LED version - the regs need to be updated.

I might be worrying about nothing, but if someone complains/says they were dazzled and the lamp is checked and found to be non compliant, problems may be just around the corner.

I've bought some H4 LEDs but am not sure about fitting them, and may just wait for a compliant unit to come available at a better price than currently - the official Caterham inners are £350 each from JAL.

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Hi Rich,

I spent quite a while going around this loop earlier in the year; hence the previous posts in this thread. Despite huge help from the forum, the situation is far from absolute and as ever, I think an element of judgement is needed.

IIt sounds like we are in similar places. Where I got to is as follows:

1) The cheap Chinese copies of sealed LED units are not generally worth buying. I know this because I bought a pair, tempted by the low cost and ease of fitting. They look good, but if you watch this video (

) it explains in good humor where they fall down. The ones I have are sort of correctly marked, they have a DOT SAE E9 marking where the 9 is so small I had to take a picture of the lens and zoom in to max to see it. I also took some pictures of the spread pattern they create and it was variable at best. I eventually decided that it just wasn't worth the bother of worrying about MOT's and compliance.

2) For me, the Caterham units are too expensive for the benefit at the moment, but I don't doubt that they are fully compliant.

3) At the recommendation of this forum, I purchased some H4 LED replacement bulbs which fit nicely into the existing units and crucially the beam/spread pattern is then generated by the existing glass lens which is correctly marked. To me, this is undoubtedly the best approach, they were easy to fit, less than £50 for the pair and included LED sidelights. The brightness and beam pattern are perfect (as you expect being behind the original lens) and they still maintain the same classic look. My MOT is due in December and, as long as I get the alignment right, I see no reason why they shouldn't pass.

I hope that this helps?

James.

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James your correct, putting an e marked bulb into an e marked unit does not make an e marked lamp as the whole unit needs testing and approval in order to gain this.

This applies to front or rear light, I have pointed this out many times as you can easily come unstuck in a shunt with insurance companies....

LED headlights, JW speaker and the ones JWM / Fiore sold are fully compliant, the later with flt dip so good for touring overseas too.

 

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