LED Bulbs

[aaronmartin 0]

One of my H3 Fog Lights has blown a bulb, so I am thinking of replacing the stock bulbs with something that will more closely match my HID low beams.

I have seen alot of LED H3 bulbs for sale, has anyone used LED bulbs in their car? Do they work well, nice and white? Does the computer give any errors i.e. Check Foglights?

[greenday-rulz21 5]

I wouldn't recommend using LED lights for anything other than park lights. They just don't have the same power and direction of light compared to normal bulbs.

Just go into repco and see what they have that match what you want. I bought some ultra blue bulbs for my low beams and fogs and they look really good. All the bulbs (High, Low beam, fog) are all the same, in my case all were H1 12v 55w. For an application like fog lights you want decent light because if you're ever in fog you don't want to be cursing because you bought LED bulbs.

Find a bulb that closely matches the low beam and stick with that IMO.

[aaronmartin 0]

I really only use my fog lights as daytime running lights, as the HID low beams actually work much better in real fog than the fog lights anyway.

Do the bulbs you have match the colour of HID lights?

[greenday-rulz21 5]

They're rated at 5000k. Slight blueish tint.

I'd suggest go into repco and you should be able to test out a few different ones. My 2c

[darkwolf 0]

I wouldn't recommend using LED lights for anything other than park lights. They just don't have the same power and direction of light compared to normal bulbs.

I suggest you look up the correct types of LEDs then. A friend has a torch that runs on only 4 LEDs (CREE LEDs if I remember correctly). We use it for possum shooting. Produces massive amounts of light and uses far less power than a standard bulb.

See here:

I reckon a set of those as headlights etc would be perfect - especially if you continued to run them off 12V.

[elmarco 56]

I suggest you look up the correct types of LEDs then. A friend has a torch that runs on only 4 LEDs (CREE LEDs if I remember correctly). We use it for possum shooting. Produces massive amounts of light and uses far less power than a standard bulb.

See here:

I reckon a set of those as headlights etc would be perfect - especially if you continued to run them off 12V.

Subjecting LED's to over voltage (and with a linear circuit this means over current) will burn them out in very short order as they are current and heat sensitive devices (I've done it before - oops!).

My suggestion would be to leave the fog lamps as they are or replace the bulbs with cool blue or equivalent (they are a legally regulated function after all) and install LED daytime running lamps like this. Don't be fooled - getting enough light from LED lamps reliably is a time consuming (and very expensive) business. And a car on NZ roads is one of the harshest operating environments around. I know because I did it for 5 years. And you do need automotive type approval markings to legally put them on the vehicle or you can fail a WoF.

You are correct in that LED lamps are a lot more efficient than a standard bulb (in lumens/watt) - they just don't have as many lumens (and therefore less watts power consumption).

[bekker 7]

I've been looking into the very same thing.

I'm a big fan of DRL and I fitted them to my Honda Legend.

I've been wanting to do the same to the BMW but the charging system doesn't seem as stable as the Honda.

LEDs would be perfect for me. Where did you see the H3 ones?

Cheers

[hybrid 1040]

If youre after BMW specific lighting .. go here

http://www.jlevistreetwerks.com/

good products and good reputation to match in the e46 community