headlamp upgrade 2012 Prius

[Pento]

Apologies if this is  a common question but what is the best headlight bulb upgrade for the 2012 Prius? Has anyone done LED or HID conversions and how have they worked out? Currently have standard 100watt bulbs in the mains and 55watt in the dips. The RH headlight unit has just been replaced and its a big improvement but overall still not fantastic,  in comparison to my 2010 Auris or my 1998 LS400

[Mick F]

4 hours ago, Pento said:

Apologies if this is  a common question but what is the best headlight bulb upgrade for the 2012 Prius? Has anyone done LED or HID conversions and how have they worked out? Currently have standard 100watt bulbs in the mains and 55watt in the dips. The RH headlight unit has just been replaced and its a big improvement but overall still not fantastic,  in comparison to my 2010 Auris or my 1998 LS400

As far as I'm aware, you must not do conversions from the standard as the car was originally, and I think I'm correct that 100w bulbs aren't cleared for road use in UK.

Please, someone, correct me if I'm wrong.

Mick.

[FROSTYBALLS]

6 minutes ago, Mick F said:

100w bulbs aren't cleared for road use in UK.

The OP's profile shows they are in Meath, Ireland - so may have different legislation to the UK.

[Mick F]

 

9 hours ago, FROSTYBALLS said:

The OP's profile shows they are in Meath, Ireland - so may have different legislation to the UK.

I'm aware of that, but the 100w was described as standard.

I guess Ireland's rules are the same as UK, but I'm willing to be corrected on this.  If it's true, they wouldn't be allowed to cross the border into Northern Ireland ........ or would they?

Mick.

[unclepoo]

try these  www.ebay.co.uk/itm/2X-H1-H3-H4-H8-H9-H11-9006-9005-9007-H7-Car-LED-Headlight-36W-per-Bulb-20000LM/283549289351?hash=item4204dacb87:m:m8FaPB8FVyYMn6fVHBloeiw

what bulb type are they ..?  h11??

[QuantumFireball]

3 hours ago, Mick F said:

I guess Ireland's rules are the same as UK, but I'm willing to be corrected on this.

The rules probably are the same, but there's a lot of aftermarket headlight conversions (many of them awful) and such modifications go largely unenforced. As long as the dipped beam pattern is good enough for the NCT (MOT equivalent) they probably don't care.

My 2012 has the OEM LED dipped beams and they're very good.

[Pento]

The car is a Japanese Import I bought recently from a Polish chap, so I'm unsure of the provenance of the 100watt bulbs. By standard I meant standard halogen , not OEM. My experience in the past with these high wattage bulbs was they burnt out bulb holders, wiring and switch-gear but the Prius is currently demonstrating good tolerance to the extra current and heat. The light from them is excellent and when I go north I promise to remove them and insert birthday cake candles lest I shine an unwelcome light on Her Majesty's highways, ahem, beggin yer pardon m'lard. As Aaron points out the NCT do not check for wattage currently, just directional setting. What is the cost of OEM LED and do you have a part number? The dips are H11.

[Sean John]

 

[QuantumFireball]

14 hours ago, Pento said:

What is the cost of OEM LED and do you have a part number? The dips are H11.

They were standard fitment on my UK-spec Prius Plug-in so not sure, and I'd imagine they aren't cheap. It's possible the wiring harness is different too - EU-spec post facelift models all had DRLs (in the clusters in the bumpers) which may further complicate things. If they are a swap-in replacement, you'd probably be better off checking breakers or eBay.

[Guest]

Suggest you try Osram Nightbreaker Unlimited - best bulbs I have ever used.  Have a small amount of Zenon in the bulb which gives more light.  Don't last as long but should do about two to three years.   Used them in my previous Citroen C5, Bx, Mercedes A class.  Cannot do better.  Buy on E Bay about £20 pair.  Unlimited seem to be better than Lazer their latest bulb.  Both H4 and H7 available.  Never buy from Halfords - their own bulbs are expensive and rubbish.  60/55 watt are only allowed on UK roads not 100 watt unless the rules have changed lately.  Fitted HID is illegal unless you also fit self levelling headlamp assemblies and headlight washers.  Wrong lights are now (officially) an MOT failure.

Geoff.

 

 

[QuantumFireball]

Oh yes, I forgot about the headlight washers - that's something that would make retrofitting the LED headlights even less feasible. The NCT manual also states these and self levelling need to be present and functional where mandatory - it only seems to mention HID lights, but in reality the mandatory requirement is when the lights exceed a certain intensity, so many LED dipped beams fall into this category.

[Guest]

Just checked on E Bay.

Osram Nightbreaker Unlimited bulbs are available in the following types:

H1, H3, H4, H7, H8, H11, HB3, HB4 and they are all legal.

As I say, better than anything else on the market I think having used them a lot on previous cars.

Geoff...

[MyOpinionIsWorthless]

On 12/8/2019 at 3:37 PM, Pento said:

Apologies if this is  a common question but what is the best headlight bulb upgrade for the 2012 Prius? Has anyone done LED or HID conversions and how have they worked out? Currently have standard 100watt bulbs in the mains and 55watt in the dips. The RH headlight unit has just been replaced and its a big improvement but overall still not fantastic,  in comparison to my 2010 Auris or my 1998 LS400

I found the Halfords “ultra white” bulbs were a great improvement without generating any extra heat which causes bulb blowing issues. 

[johalareewi]

When i had my gen3 prius i tried both the Halfords ultra white and the osram nightbreaker.  Halford bulbs didn't last as long as the osram.