Retrofitting LED or Xenons to a T25

[sproutdreamer]

My Avensis lights are hopeless. I have tried better bulbs Nightbreakers and Philips without great improvement so I want to fit or get fitted some LEGAL higher spec lighting. I appreciate it is not cheap and may not be a completely sensible spend on an old car but they are dangerously poor in my opinion, and I am attached to the car otherwise. Has anyone experience of this and products/sources/fitters to recommend or any other wise words on the matter.

[Heidfirst]

I had a 57 plate T25 & found that with uprated bulbs (philips xtremvision iirc) the lights were OK. Bear in mind that the pattern is largely created by the lamp unit so simply using a more powerful bulb only has a limited effect - more light within the pattern but the pattern itself doesn't change.

a) bulb output deteriates over time - maybe time to change?

b)  are your lenses cloudy/hazy or have condensation perhaps (it is an 11 year old car)?

 

The new MOT checks whether your lamp units are rated for the bulbs in them& it is classed as a major fail if HIDs are fitted to a lamp unit not rated for them (HID rated units are meant to be marked) - it was already illegal so this just brought the MOT into line with the law. You could fit complete factory HID lamps/bulbs but your car may also require fitting with auto-levelling and/or headlight washing system to comply.

Afaik there are no road legal replacement LED bulbs for retrofit.

It is almost certainly not cost effective to convert the car legally given age/value/cost.

[Taxi501]

Check out these guys, they’re American but I imagine they would post worldwide 

https://www.theretrofitsource.com/

you’re probably looking for projector retro fit kits, all you need is to follow their instructions and you should be able to do the work yourself 

[Heidfirst]

11 hours ago, Taxi501 said:

you’re probably looking for projector retro fit kits, all you need is to follow their instructions and you should be able to do the work yourself 

that doesn't make it road legal though (which the op stressed was a requirement).

We have a weird situation in this country (& possibly others) where it is legal to sell things that are illegal to use as the offence is deemed to be by the installer/user & not the vendor. In this case the counter-argument to legitamise this scenario is that some people may want them for off-road use where they would be legal as no legiislation against & so restricting sale would restrict consumer choice.

[sproutdreamer]

Thank for good and informed comment, as usual.

[Taxi501]

On 3/1/2019 at 12:58 PM, Heidfirst said:

that doesn't make it road legal though (which the op stressed was a requirement).

We have a weird situation in this country (& possibly others) where it is legal to sell things that are illegal to use as the offence is deemed to be by the installer/user & not the vendor. In this case the counter-argument to legitamise this scenario is that some people may want them for off-road use where they would be legal as no legiislation against & so restricting sale would restrict consumer choice.

I didn’t think about the legality of them, just thought they would be a replacement for the crap projectors in the original headlight units