Hmm, I don't know what to make of this. I watched the Headlight Revolution videos and some things I understand, others I don't.
Firstly, in the UK you'd fail the annual MoT test if you put LED bulbs into Halogen reflectors. It's a blanket rule, regardless of reflector or bulb marking. This meant only modern cars could use LEDs if they were factory fitted. And the astounding logic for this wasn't the reflector or whether light beams were scattered/dazzle other drivers, it was because a lot of aftermarket bulbs weren't CE marked.
This was later modified in 2021 in yet another "huh ?" decision by allowing pre April 1986 cars to use LEDs because existing legislation (which they'd forgotten) stated that pre '86 cars didn't have to use CE marked lighting. So if your LED headlamps fit the legally approved pattern, you'll now pass the MoT ? This gives us in the UK great confidence in the professionalism of people making rules about motoring.
When you look at the reflector styles of some modern headlamps like the ones the HR guy had on display you can see the logic because some have so many reflective surfaces that yep, you need to know exactly where the light source is placed to extract the design performance and not scatter light sideways. I get that, no problem.
I also see the problem of retro fitting modern single unit headlamps because some have passive heat sinks and are bulky. When I looked into it a couple of years ago now, most of the affordable single units wouldn't fit without getting a new headlamp bowl. Not a problem on our cars because there's space, but it would be if you have a free-standing chrome headlamp "on stalks".
Then we come to the second video for classics where we get the "these LEDs are worse than your standard halogen". Now that was surprising and what's more I could see the light output and patterns he showed in his examples. Not what I expected but thinking about it I have outdoor LED security lamps and some are brighter than others, some are "warmer" light which also makes a difference to perceived brightness. So yep, I'd expect a cheaper LED to have lower quality control and maybe fewer elements than a more expensive one.
But where I give up is in the later assessments because they just don't tie up with what I found in real life.
I started off in 2019-20 with the Elan & Europa both on original sealed beam candles. It was never a problem because I rarely drove at night and if I did, I used a modern car. But then I found I was staying later at my archery club and ending up driving home in the early evening which became a problem. So I fitted Wipac quadoptics to both cars with relays & halogens. Great.
Then a mate turned up on a motorbike which he'd fitted LEDs to and compared with my two halogens, it was very noticeable. He showed me what he'd done, I followed the path and that's where I am now. (and staying with it)
I don't have the means to measure lux values as in the youtube tests but even so, I did do direct comparisons. In the UK we have rules about beam cut-off and suchlike so it was important that whatever I did wouldn't result in the police stopping me or other motorists honking/flashing me at night.
So I marked the pattern on the garage wall for high/low beams on the OEM sealed beams. Repeat for the halogens, adjusting to get them matching because everything had been apart to fit the halogens & relays. I also repeated this for the LEDs and frankly there was no difference in pattern height from the halogens to the LEDs. There was more light and a wider spread, due to the reflectors ?
But not such that the beam pattern would be illegal, it was just "more/brighter light at the edges". There's less of a "spotlight" effect that you get with the OEM lamps and a more uniform light pattern. For me that makes night driving easier because I'm driving on unlit roads with ditches either side and when it's dark, it's dark !
I have no idea what's going on in the comparison videos showing most LEDs are inferior to new halogens, but the bulbs I have (4 element) are definitely brighter than the (brand new) halogen bulbs they replaced. I did back to back comparisons and at one point had one halogen, one LED on the Elan and I could see a difference. It might simply be down to wavelength but it was noticeable in a darkened garage. The light patterns in terms of cut-off and potential for dazzling other road users are pretty much identical and certainly legal.
So in conclusion I'd say "DYOR" - Do Your Own Research. Don't immediately discount the simpler, cheaper options, just make sure you stay within your local laws and see what works for you ?
Brian
