The halogens on my 2005 are looking rather dim, making driving at night rather difficult. So after much debating, I decided to buy some LED headlight replacement bulbs.

I tried installing them today, but the massive heat sinks at the back of the bulbs make replacement of the plastic protective cover on the rear of the headlight assembly seemingly impossible, without disembling the surrounding components. I only tried the passenger (right) side where there more space to work without the battery there, but it was real tough. This is also my first time playing with H1 bulbs as my last car had H7s that were a breeze to install.

So, does anyone have any suggestions on installing LED headlight bulbs? Is is possible within the OEM housing given the tight space constrictions? Although the LED bulbs claim to be water proof, I doubt the surrounding electrical connectors are, so leaving the rear plastic cover off the headlight assembly seems like I'd be asking for trouble on a wet day, not to mention getting moisture on the lens inside. Are alternative rubber caps available for the rear of the headlight assembly that could accommodate these?

Here's the bulbs I bought:



Thoughts and suggestions much appreciated.

 

If you are needing more light, then your better option would be to step up to HIDs. Get some 35W HIDs and wire those up. You can mount the ballast under the headlight assembly, run the power wire from the bulb directly down to the ballast and they normally give you a grommet to install in the rear cover (after drilling a 3/4" hole) that allows you to run the wire out of the headlight assembly while keeping it water tight.

The HID bulbs will take you from roughly 1500 lumen to around 3300 lumen (assuming you run the 4300K bulbs, 3100 lumen if you run the 6000K bulbs). So, you get a healthy light intensity increase. THe car is already wired to handle 35W HIDs (but not rated to handle the 50W HID, which by the way are illegal to install in cars anyways).

If you need to know more about installing HID upgrades, let me know. I have done a few and can give you the shortfalls of some of the systems.

 

I did consider the HIDs, but the additional ballast to mount, supposedly less lumens than the LED bulb I chose (not sure if I believe the output quoted of 8000 lumens), shorter life span for HID bulbs and increased use in watts, all made the LED replacement bulb idea sound, well, ideal.

I tested the LED bulb in the housing without the rear cover on, and it looked much nicer (higher colour temp) and brighter than the stock halogens. The alignment of the light output looked spot on, as I was a little concerned that the LED wouldn't align as perfectly in the projector housing.

 

So I found some rubber caps that might help with some customisation of the dust caps.



https://www.theretrofitsource.com/ac...reselect=48135

 

Ian, I have played a lot with LEDs and the problem that I am finding with the LEDs for my outside lights (on my house) is that while the light has a very high lumen, the light that gets reflected back is not very bright. So, while the area will have lots of light, you need the light to reflect back so you can see what is out there. I have twelve 500 lumen LED bulbs on the front of my house. The front of the house is lit so so, but my neighbors 200 feet away say that I light up their back yard (granted, it looks black to me). You can also spot my house from a mile away (well, you get the phrase).

Besides, I know a lot of people hate how bright HID bulbs are. I can't imagine what it would be like have 2.5 times the light of an HID coming out the front of a car. I think you may have a few lights getting flashed at you if you drive around with those on.

It will be curious to have you take some before and after pictures. I am curious how well they may light up things. probably best to find a street that you can park in the same spot multiple times and see what the standard halogens and LEDs look like. The one thing that you will need to do is put your camera in manual mode so the shutter speed and apeture are the same for both pictures. Otherwise, the camera is going to adjust itself and make both pictures come out looking pretty much the same.

 

So, using the free Lux Meter app (https://play.google.com/store/apps/d...luxmeter&hl=en), I measured the output of the existing lights at night:
1. Low beam- 27 lumens*
2. Main bean- 195 lumens*
3. Parking/city/side lights- 1 lumen*

*From what I gather, the Lux App units equate to lumins.

The low beams, which are also my main concern in improving my headlights, seem dismal in their light output. Once I have the next set of bulbs installed, I'll see what output I get.

 

Not to rain on your parade, but 1 Lux IS NOT 1 Lumen.
Lux is a unit of light measurement where the area is also taken into account. 1 lux equals 1 Lumen/m2, in other words - light intensity in a specific area. If the light output is focused on a small area, we see this as very bright light. If the light output is spread in a wide beam over a greater area, we experience this as a weaker light.

Just an example, let's say your "lux meter" measured the 27 of your lo

w beam shining on a garage door with an approximate 10 ft sphere circle. This would be the approximate LUMEN output =

 

The same Lux reading at 15 spherical would give you this Lumen rating =

 

 

I have converted my Foglights to LED. Now they actually look very bright, but there is no light pattern on the road ahead, whereas my HID headlights do light up the road!

 

euanT, this comes from the fact that LEDs emit a slightly different light than other forms of light. You can almost think of LED lighting as a bunch of lasers. LED lighting does not like to reflect back. So, yes, while the LEDs will emit a lot of light if you are looking at them head on, the light that strikes something and reflects back is very weak. So, in the case of using lights to see where you are going, LEDs are not always the best option.

 

Update on my LED headlight install woes:
My main issue is that the dust caps won't fit over the excessively large heat sinks on the rear of the LED bulbs. I see a number of places offering rubber dust cap covers with an enlarged interior to accommodate, although I've only come across ordinary round ones so far, while the X-Type dust covers for the headlights are an irregular shape.
Does anyone know if there is an aftermarket rubber dust cap that would fit the X-Type? Otherwise, my next plan is to cannibalise my existing dust caps, cut the back off them and somehow attached a rubber dust cap to to it thus extending the interior space, while hopefully, still allowing enough space to wiggle it back into place over the bulbs.
Thoughts, suggestions?



https://hidkitpros.com/shop/rubber-h...-housing-caps/

 

And here's an image of the X-Type dust cap:

 

I fitted HID's to my Jag and they are a great improvement on the stock halogens.

 

I am thinking of doing just this. Can you please indicate which lights you used and perhaps a short description of the procedure including any (re) wiring required?
Thanks in advance.

 

I used this kit
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/H1-Xenon-...item461672f143, wiring in was a doddle just use the original power feed for each bulb and the original earth for each. I used a hole saw to cut the black bulb covers inside the engine bay. One tricky thing was that the bulbs where they sit into the holder are wider than stock H1's so I had to force the retaining clips and then wire the ends together to hold the bulbs in firmly. the lhs is easy to fit with the battery removed the rhs is an absolute bitch unless you have thin long fingers. In total it took about two hours to fit the kit as for wiring I had to extend the original earth wire and change the connectors on both the earth and live feeds, whilst I was at it I also changed the sidelight bulbs for leds of the same rating 6000k, my next project will the fog lights with another kit from the same place. Hope this helps you I can upload some pics if that would also help.

 

That kit shows up as being for a KIA and when I plug in the Jaguar info it shows as being not compatible.

 

It is for a Kia it was bought for a different car, it works fine on the Jag

 

Hello, I can give you a reference. I bought a headlight in novsight in 2017. It hasn't been a problem so far. It feels good. Here's my driving map.