Interesting... I'd be interested to see what the lifespan ends up being of these, as with no active cooling the driver for the LED could burn out quite quickly. Did you put the adaptor cable behind the rubber cap, or outside it in the engine bay? Also the LEDs (presumably one on each side of the strip) won't give the same beam shape as a single filament which sends light in all directions.

According to the Chenglish specs on Amazon (link) they're 40W bulbs, which means they use less power than a normal halogen bulb (55W), so should be ok.

Assuming it doesn't overheat then they should be good

 

Surprisingly, the beam pattern is far better and more comfortable to my eyes at least than the OEM & the MTECs, it's what my wife said as well and she didn't even know I changed to LED.
The bulbs have 2 Cree LEDs with some sort of half spherical lens on top of them.
At the minute I have the heat syncs inside the housing, I have however ordered grommets, I am planning on having them outside the housing through the dust caps to maximize heat exchange.
I'll get better pictures tonight.

 

Looks v interesting. The driver shouldn't get particularly hot; it's likely to be a switching regulator dropping the 13V down to maybe 7 to 8 volts for 2 leds in series. This should be around 80% efficient at least, so might waste 8 watts maybe.

They seem to have managed to use a remarkably small led for so much light, it looks to be maybe shorter-but-fatter than the original tungsten elements; definitely in the same ball-park as far as size is concerned, so should manage decently sharp cutoffs, as you seem to have found.

I suspect the braided heatsink will be copper; stainless steel is a notoriously bad conductor of heat (& electricity), and the stranded s/s braiding used around e.g. brakepipes tends to jab you v nastily if you leave loose ends sticking out!

The more you can spread the braid out, the better cooling you'll get. Leds can suffer thermal runaway - as they get hotter, the resistance decreases and more current goes through, making them even hotter still. So best to avoid this, hopefully you'll be able to get the heatsinks outside any enclosed housing and into free air.

Do you get decent illumination of the verges on the side of country lanes? This is a bad mark against the standard lights in my opinion, which is why I added a fresnel lens to divert a little more light off to the sides.

What's the manufacturer name & description for these please? Have just looked on amazon but there seem to be a million similar items out there!

 

Let us know how you grommet them. There's not much room on the driver's side. I'm interested in these so keep us updated.

 

Yes sir, will do

 

Hi Andy, its red copper for the heat sync I believe, regarding the part please check this link, and regarding the beam pattern and cutoff on country lanes, ask and you shall receive
Dipped beam then high beam respectively.
My offside headlight needs to go up a bit.

 

the OP did post a link in his message

 

@Chronos an excellent review.
Before I hit "buy-it-now" are these Canbus friendly?
Have you had any error messages or any DAB interference issues?

 

@Chronos an excellent review.
Before I hit "buy-it-now" are these Canbus friendly?
Have you had any error messages or any DAB interference issues?

Of course these are CE marked and GM approved......? Chronos wouldn't be mad enough to risk running unproven systems that could interfere with the braking system and lead to a crash (that might then not be covered by insurance), like a case reported on gm-volt where exactly that scenario happened with an unapproved HID driver.

 

As far as I know there is no requirement for CE marking on 12v DC (or AC) lamps. I have on my desk 2 halogen lamps a 12V 50 watt one without a CE mark and a 240 V 28w one. the 240 V one is marked CE. Both sold in Homebase.
HID lights are of course high voltage arc lamps and have some form of inverter and can produce serious RF noise. These I imagine come under the Low Voltage regs and need CE marking

CE Marking (CE Mark) for Low Voltage Electrical Equipment: EEC Council Directive 73/23/EEC of 19 Feb 1973

As to to GM approval well that is another story. Do they need to approve all the makes of ordinary 12v lamps that fit?

Alan

 

@donald As far as I am concerned the original headlights were too dangerous for driving which is the main reason I went through this hideous trial and error process.
And since you asked, it's CE marked for all I know.

GM approved..?? Really !! The only GM approved bulbs are the ones sold by the dealer. That's it.
First thing I did when I bought this kit was bringing out a friend who drives an extremely close to the ground car and checking if I am causing any type of glare because I actually care about other people's lives not just mine....
The bulbs are 40w each and they operate well below 12v (driver's output voltage) unlike HIDs which requires 10-25k which can create some interference when poorly designed and/or installed without taking into consideration the sensitive onboard electronics, DRLs are LED already straight from the factory so no risk there.
The sole purpose of this post is to insure safe driving for all Ampera owners without risking other people's lives.
With that being said please feel free to inform us about anything that we might have missed.
Be Safe & Happy EV driving.

 

I just wanted to caution that these things will be used against you in the event of a problem out on the roads. Doesn't matter if it is actually a better solution, lawyers will screw you, they have no interest in 'the truth'. I think you have a defensible position with the manufacturer if they are properly CE marked. Who, exactly, is the manufacturer or importer? Should be easy to get a hold of a Declaration of Conformity if one wasn't provided with it.

 

@donald I'll look into all these things and post here if I get anything new.
Thank you for the heads up and hopefully with improved vision the risk of an accident due to poor lighting will be minimal fingers crossed.

 

Great find @Chronos
I didn't think the aftermarket LED lamps were so far advanced.

The CE mark can be confused with the "China Export" mark which is very similar (I wonder why) but that one on your package looks to be correct although it costs nothing to print and the @donald is correct that the D of C will be available if it really does conform.

EDIT: Just purchased a set. For £48 it is a cheap upgrade and will do a comparison against my trusty HID's which are literally night and day compared to the original supposed advanced halogens.

 

Have also just bought a set, looks to be the identical item LED & construction-wise from a different supplier, but was on offer - rhe reduction covered the delivery so total cost £47.15 . Should arrive tomorrow, & I'll be doing a fair bit of night-time driving next w/e so will report later.

Chronos' dip-beam pics above are interesting - the road ahead is brilliantly lit, but look at the bottom left corner of the pics - the verge at very LHS is still not well lit! Imagine you're at a T-junction - you can see damn-all of what's to the sharp-left of you! Human eyes adapt to ambient light-levels, so it's quite possible that a very-well lit bit straight ahead means your eyes will de-sensitise a bit, making the stuff off to the very left as hard to see as they were with original bulbs. So it'll be interesting to see how mine work for me. I'll also try to take similar pics to the excellent ones above, and maybe it'll show the effect of my fresnel-lens mod?

 

@HandyAndy Thanks & best of luck with your kit, I have to say my headlights need some alignment especially the right hand side.
I see some distortion when its raining so what I did is coat the headlights with wax yesterday so water beads off straight away.
I am glad I was able to help you guys.
As I mentioned above I'll be posting pictures of the grommets once I attach them.
It'll be interesting to see what your lens will do.
So far I am really happy with the upgrade it made such a huge difference to the driving experience at night

 

This seems to be a useful summary of the law (UK and EU), DVLA's view and more, on HID and LED bulbs:

Are aftermarket HID headlights legal in the UK? Will they pass an MOT? What about LED headlights? | Greyhead.co.uk

It's worth remembering that you need to notify your insurance too, as you're not replacing like with like, and therefore it counts as a modification.

(Apologies for cross-posting from the general HID thread but it's relevant in both )

 

It's worth remembering that you need to notify your insurance too, as you're not replacing like with like, and therefore it counts as a modification.

This is an important point and well worth mentioning again. If anyone has reported this to your insurance company did your premiums go up?

 

While I haven't done it yet this should be something that reduces the premium or worst case scenario it won't change it, it's something that reduces the chance of an accident due to reduced or poor vision.

Edit: I have checked some forums and apparently as long as it's not a performance upgrade, the premium won't change.
I'll ring my insurance company today and let you know.

 

So what did your insurance finally say?

 

If it is installed properly I agree but if it isn't then it could increase the risk of an accident. It will depend on how the insurance company looks at it and each one may have a different view

I would expect it to increase premiums rather than reduce them... insurance companies do not like DIY modifications.

It will be interesting to hear people's experiences with their insurance company.

 

I'm in the process of informing my insurance company of the modifications to my i3, they don't seem to understand what DC Prep is all about, wheels OK, interior OK, paint OK, ACC sort of OK, DC Prep nope they are having difficulty with that.

I'm in the process of moving from Admiral to Aviva and I want to make sure I have everything covered because Aviva is around a third cheaper than Admiral for three cars even though Aviva only do multicar for two.

Each car has it's own NCD and neither company seems to understand that I can only drive one at a time and keeps questioning the low annual mileage.

I can't understand why I can't just have insurance cover based on the most expensive car, I understand that any car will do the same damage but if I am driving my Smart car at the time the repairs to that would be a lot cheaper so they wouldn't be disadvantaged in any way.

I fully understand the way they do it makes them more money.

 

What modifications do you have to notify your insurance company, I've added number plate surrounds and changed the plastic valve caps with theft proof ones, oh and I've also replaced the front carpets with some that I got off EBay, I'm guessing the carpet could be a safety issue so I'd better tell them about that.

 

Hahaha.

It isn't our rules... it is the rules that each insurance company determines so I'd say if you want a accurate answer to your question ask your particular insurance company.

Generally speaking though... I would say that if you change anything that could be considered to have a impact on their risk then inform them... and if you are not sure then inform them anyway... if they are not interested then you have then fulfilled your obligations and they have had a chance to assess the impact.

 

Let us know how you get on with your insurance company if you install this LED kit.

 

As mentioned on another thread, all HID and LED lights must include washers and be self-levelling.

 

Actually the regulations are : MAY not MUST have headlamp washers and auto levellers and that's if they produce more than 2000 lumens, let them prove it.
Non of the EVs equipped with LED headlights have got washers / auto levellers either.

 

Well... you can very well say let them prove it but let me suggest to you why you might choose not to...

Let's say that you have replaced your standard headlights with these lovely LEDs. You are careful to adjust them so they don't dazzle and all is looking good. Then, one dark and windy night (weather is unimportant but it makes for a better story ), you are on a country lane and suddenly the LED driver fails for your offside headlight just as you round a bend... there is a car coming in the opposite direction, sees you but because your offside headlight is out he (or she... don't want to be sexist here!) misjudges how wide you are and hits you... the consequences were serious and he (or she) claims against you for damages. Who knows... someone might even die

Your insurance company is going to be very interested in the fact that you have after-market headlights and if you haven't informed them of the fact you could be in very deep do-do.

An unlikely scenario of course but not impossible especially as these LED lights are fair new and the parts are not well tested in the field.

 

Oh don't get me wrong, I am most certainly telling my insurance company in fact I am very thankful that this was brought up because I didn't think about it in the heat of my enjoyment with how good these LEDs are proving to be, all I meant by my comment is that headlamp washers and auto levellers are not a must.
The new volt is equipped with LEDs and no washers or auto levellers , LEAF as well is the same.

 

They are mostly imbeciles, and I say that without meaning any disrespect, they seem to be programmed to understand and do very certain things and outside of that is absolutely alien to them.

 

We're all adults. The (valid) point has been made about notifying insurance companies, can we now let the OP use the thread to tell us about his progress, rather than hijacking it with reasons why he shouldn't do anything to his car please.

 

The (valid) point has been made about notifying insurance companies, can we now let the OP use the thread to tell us about his progress

Nothing stopping the OP from saying whatever he likes... and nothing stopping us from discussing what is a very relevant point closely associated to the topic.

Please stop trying to get people to talk about things you way... if we have stuff to say on the topic then we should be allowed to say... it is a forum after all!

 

Wow, the H7 bulb is probably one of the most common types, and it's apparently rated at 1,450 lumens, a legal bulb has to be within 15% of it's rated value.

So normal analogue car headlamps would be around 3000 lumens so just one of the LED bulbs is going to be brighter than both headlamps on a standard car.

That accounts for why cars coming over a rise burn my retinas out before they dip their beam, if you have bright headlamps then at least have the courtesy to dip them before going over a rise or round a bend etc and if you need to use main beam on a dual carriageway or a motorway then you need to go to Specsavers