I should like to make a recommendation regarding LED lamps for our cars.
Over the last year or two I have pretty much changed all lamps to LED provided by Duncan Rickards of ‘classiccarleds’. I started with the indicators and stop / tail and became hooked!
Other car club members and others have remarked on how good the products are with none of the issues often mentioned by internet ‘experts’. Duncan is very helpful at identifying the correct alternative and has provided excellent advice. Prices are keen, and in the UK postage is free, and worldwide postage is a flat fee of GBP5.00.
Most remarkable changes in our car are stop/tail, indicators (including replacement electronic flasher unit), headlamps, and foglamps. Positive / Negative earth catered for. The replacement ‘festoon’ lamps for the interior lights are almost a revelation!
I notice there are complete kits for our cars or you can just pick the specific lamps as you go.
Please have a look; tell him I sent you – I’m sure he’d be pleased to have been recommended.
I’m not sure whether these are the same parts as XKs sells, but I installed LED tail lights on my E and yes it makes an enormous difference. I’ve had people lock up brakes behind me many times in the last 10 years but none since swapping tail lights.
Of course it might also have something to do with the fact that they finally made cell phone use illegal while driving
What are the headlights like on this kit? I’ve rewired my car with modern wiring and fuses and all new bulbs so the lights are pretty bright, but the headlamps are still that dull yellow sealed beam. I never drive my car at night but would be interested in brighter headlamps just in case.
Headlights are shockingly good. Look at the classiccarleds website but I may have an image of the fogs on my car as an example = one ordinary / one led . I’ll dig it out and post it. A big bonus of course is the reduced draw; saves wiring / relieves older charging systems etc.
My car was already converted to Halogen H4 and so it is just the lamp/bulb is replaced, plus a voltage stabiliser added (in line plug in, fits behind he headlamp - nothing clever installation wise).
Mike, whilst I doubt sealed beam element replacement is feasible as a retail plug in, ask Duncan - he has been pretty remarkable to date! He has also experienced resistance from the main manufacturers which has been an obstacle…
It was nearly 20 years ago so memory is foggy, but recollection was a simple swap of the sealed beam unit for a conventional headlamp with H4 fitting. Wiring / plug fitting was the same. This sort of thing - (just a quick search for a look-a-like - don’t quote me.
Okay, so I have resisted putting my 2-cents in to this topic till I could confirm my suspicion about LED bulbs in headlights. I bought a pair of them last year for both of my E-types. I have Hella H4 lamps in one of my cars, and replica Lucas PL lamps in the other. My LED bulbs were 2 different sets (a different brand in each lamp pair/car). I found that both cars’ headlight beams had significantly less down road ‘reach’ to the light beam. The pattern was not at all ‘focused’ as it needs to be. I figured it was likely just the lamp physical shape that caused this problems, but when I tried them in the high beams of my 2002 X-type, it was the same problem. I found that the beam pattern was totally messed up when I was shining the high beams against my closed garage door. They might be the cat’s pajamas when put in the newer cars that are designed for them, but I found that in 3 separate lamps and 2 different brands of bulbs, they didn’t come close to a regular bulb. The LED bulb in my Kienzle clock is fantastically bright though.
I have read of similar problems from other (older) LED suppliers but the ones I fitted were only developed in the last year or so. The mounting ring that is in a fixed position on H4 bulb is adjustable on the LED’s fitted; I matched the orientation of the H4- difficult to describe in words - but all good. Leave headlamps as they are if one prefers but I heartily recommend stop/tail, indicators (with electronic flasher unit), front sidelights, dash, indicator tell tales & interior.
These are my brake lights with simple LED bulbs and NEW lenses which might be the key to making them much more visible to someone texting, eating, sleeping, etc… I also have a third brake light that flashes very fast for true morons to alert them of pending insurance hikes;
