I recently replaced the h/l bulbs in my wifes car for slightly stronger ones. I have since discovered that for a little more could have replaced with LED instead of the Halogen.The consensus of opinion is that that is possible.The local testing station said no problem as they have no way of telling which bulbs are fitted.Comments?
slarty45,
Apr 15, 9:46am
reflector is designed for halogen filament in centre led is not in that position so expect refractions to buggery
parked in drive, on low beam with led, house across road is lit up, with halogen house is above cut off
bigfatmat1,
Apr 15, 9:58am
It's likely the pattern will be incorrect. Also illegal regardless whether it passes wof.
pauldw,
Apr 15, 10:08am
Are they as useless checking the rest of the car?
intrade,
Apr 15, 10:59am
only led who do comply to the light scatter are narva led. However they are also illegal by governments legislation on blanket ban on any led bulbs. states offroad use only in smallprint to be able to sell them still.
s_nz,
Apr 15, 11:18am
LED "bulbs" in a fixture designed for halogens is a WOF fail. See sections 13 e & 19 at the below link.
As others say, even if your WOF tester misses this (it's usually fairly obvious), it doesn't make the setup road legal.
If the vehicle is for off road use only, go nuts.
wind.turbine,
Apr 15, 3:46pm
ya know all those headlights that dazzle you at night now that are becoming more and more common? yea that's all the fools retrofitting LEDs into their old headlights, unless you buy a complete new headlight that's designed to spread and LED light correctly then no its illegal and harsh to other road users.
bigfatmat1,
Apr 15, 5:30pm
no its not. It's the self adjusting or adaptive headlights.
clark20,
Apr 16, 4:32am
They all try to say that, Philips went so far into trying to get them approved, then stated in advertising they came up to ECE brightness and cut-off, and got a stern warning to cease from the ECE regulators.
I have told you before this article is wrong, and Narva got it completely wrong, and they were not happy about it. The LED bulbs were always illegal as they never did comply, just like replacement HID kits. NZTA just clarified themselves to ensure people understood the current rules.
kavebunny,
Apr 29, 10:25pm
LED even though whiter but still better than Halogen plenty in oz oz is overfull with laws but nz laws are over regulated
vivac,
Apr 30, 1:23pm
The more expensive LED lamp replacement kits are excellent. I have had some in my silvia for around 5 or so years, going from normal halogens to those was literally night and day. They are proper ones that have a cutoff and sit the LED chips where the halogen filament actually sits so they dont spray light everywhere. Illegal, yes, better and safer, still yes.
wind.turbine,
Apr 30, 1:50pm
one thing I find an issue with LED is the colour. I have LED light bars wired into the high beams, they are bloody amazing at night but. if Ive been driving a long time at night I find when using the light bars, my eyes become sore and cause tiredness faster than if im not using them, took me a while to pick up on this but now I turn the light bars off if I start getting sore eyes and go back to the standard highbeams.
May not effect everyone but I think its the light bouncing back off the large highly reflective signs that cause it.
intrade,
Apr 30, 2:02pm
#14 this maybe having to do with the update rate of your led. As any led flicker unlike incandescent light, The eyes have a 300 millisecound update rate and the flicker can cause tiredness. You can see this on films when cars with led seem to blink the lights . this is because the film filmed its frame when the led was flickered off.
clark20,
May 1, 5:09pm
You are right, but it is the power supply that make them flash, not the LED. Common for cheap ones to be PWM supplied.
pauldw,
Aug 14, 8:51am
This happens even with halogen lights. The reflectorised panels are supposed to be angled so they don't reflect light directly back at approaching cars but that only helps so far. How much extra light do you need on high beam anyway? Unless there's no other traffic you are limited by how well you can see with dipped lights.
PS human eye persistance is more like 30ms.
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