Lighting upgrade

[Zäl 65]

Sorry if this has already been asked.

I have a much loved 2012 iQ3. The only let down is the performance of the headlights and fog lights. I am keen to upgrade to new bright LED lighting.

My first question is, am I being irrationally stupid?

My second question is, does anyone have experience of replacing standard bulbs for LED 'bulbs'?

Grateful for any guidance or a push to the topic if it has already been asked.

Thanks

 

[Cyker]

I can understand; LEDs are muuuuch brighter than standard halogens, and because everyone and their mother seems to be driving with LEDs now, halogens just get swamped out (I couldn't even tell if they were on or not on some days in my old Mk2!)

Alas it's illegal to use LED bulbs in housings designed for halogens - Well, not sure if actually illegal, but MOT testers have been instructed to fail cars if the car has a halogen headlamp unit but has LEDs instead. The problem is lamps have to be E-marked, and no LED replacement bulb has an E-mark for whatever reason, so they are not road legal.

The only legal way is, if your car has a model with LED head lamps (e.g. in the top spec model of the same car), to buy the whole head lamp unit and replace the ones in the car.

However, this is likely to be stupidly expensive unless you get lucky with a salvage yard.

 

[FROSTYBALLS]

As regards upgrading the halogen bulbs, there is now a choice of brighter bulbs in HIR2 fitting: eg https://www.speeding.co.uk/elta-hir2-9012-xenon-white-upgrade-headlight-bulbs-pair-150-more-light-8799-p.asp

Elta, Lucas (made by Elta), PIAA, Philips, etc and so on.

Have a look on eBay, Amazon, etc.

 

[Zäl 65]

21 hours ago, Cyker said:

I can understand; LEDs are muuuuch brighter than standard halogens, and because everyone and their mother seems to be driving with LEDs now, halogens just get swamped out (I couldn't even tell if they were on or not on some days in my old Mk2!)

Alas it's illegal to use LED bulbs in housings designed for halogens - Well, not sure if actually illegal, but MOT testers have been instructed to fail cars if the car has a halogen headlamp unit but has LEDs instead. The problem is lamps have to be E-marked, and no LED replacement bulb has an E-mark for whatever reason, so they are not road legal.

The only legal way is, if your car has a model with LED head lamps (e.g. in the top spec model of the same car), to buy the whole head lamp unit and replace the ones in the car.

However, this is likely to be stupidly expensive unless you get lucky with a salvage yard.

 

Thank you Cyker, that is really useful guidance and has probably saved me a misguided expense.

Greatly appreciated.

 

[Zäl 65]

17 hours ago, FROSTYBALLS said:

As regards upgrading the halogen bulbs, there is now a choice of brighter bulbs in HIR2 fitting: eg https://www.speeding.co.uk/elta-hir2-9012-xenon-white-upgrade-headlight-bulbs-pair-150-more-light-8799-p.asp

Elta, Lucas (made by Elta), PIAA, Philips, etc and so on.

Have a look on eBay, Amazon, etc.

 

Thanks Frostyballs, and thanks for the link.

[flash22]

Phillip whitevision ultra HIR2 bulbs are good but are not cheap you can find them for £30-35 a pair

Phillips also do  X-treamvision but these are £25-30 a bulb

[Zäl 65]

23 hours ago, flash22 said:

Phillip whitevision ultra HIR2 bulbs are good but are not cheap you can find them for £30-35 a pair

Phillips also do  X-treamvision but these are £25-30 a bulb

Thanks for the guidance. I have just ordered a pair of HIR2 bulbs from Amazon at £24.99 (free Prime delivery). Cheers

[dash]

Excellent. Please let us know how easy/difficult they are to fit, and how much better they are than the standard bulbs.

[Zäl 65]

7 hours ago, dash said:

Excellent. Please let us know how easy/difficult they are to fit, and how much better they are than the standard bulbs.

Will do. I am away for a ten day week, so please accept a delay in my update.

[Antonio2]

If unsure of the procedure regarding for changing the head-light bulbs, there is a video on You Tube which shows the procedure on a Scion (USA)  IQ.

It is worth noting that to access the bulbs, you need to rotate a large round black plate which rotates anti - clockwise to remove. I mention this because it can be a bit stiff to turn, and the first time you do it, you may wonder if you're actually turning it the right way ! It only turns about 1/8 turn, before it is able to be pulled off.

As a note, I bought a pair of Ring xenon Max bulbs for my IQ some time ago. They were a "bit" brighter than the original bulbs, but they lasted for about 1 year before failing. I reverted back to the type original bulbs after that.  I'm not sure if the so-called "high performance" bulbs enjoy the longevity of a standard bulb.

[FROSTYBALLS]

Most halogen upgrade bulbs do have a shorter life than standard halogen - it is a trade off between performance and life. Most upgrade bulbs give an indication in hours as to their life.