Hi all! I’m looking to upgrade my brake, indicators and reverse lights to LED’s. Especially the reverse lights as the standard ones are pants in the winter with tinted windows! Does anyone know how this would fly when it comes to MOT time? And what would the insurance think, as it’s surely just a bulb change?

My rear brake lights and indicators are Osram LEDriving Premium, and the reverse lights are from AutoBeam and all have passed the MOT at a Ford Dealer. My insurer didn't care as I have OEM LED tail lights already. All the bulbs fitted work faultlessly.

 

You'll find that even an LED reverse bulb will still remain 'pants' LOL  I went a different route so I could see when reversing!

Hi.

I would recommend you notify your insurer of any changes you were thinking of making however small to be on the safe side.

Regards,

Dan.

14 hours ago, DAN@ADRIAN FLUX said:

 

I would recommend you notify your insurer of any changes you were thinking of making however small to be on the safe side.

 

As per Dan's advice, this morning I mentioned my 'reverse' light mod to my insurance company. (I was on the phone anyway to them getting a quote for my mum's insurance). I could hear the guy 'smiling' on the phone, and he said that I could fit as many reversing LEDs on my car that would fit, it wouldn't effect the premium LOL I feel I may be the subject of some tea break banter at the insurance company!

On 7/8/2020 at 11:27 AM, StephenFord said:

As per Dan's advice, this morning I mentioned my 'reverse' light mod to my insurance company. (I was on the phone anyway to them getting a quote for my mum's insurance). I could hear the guy 'smiling' on the phone, and he said that I could fit as many reversing LEDs on my car that would fit, it wouldn't effect the premium LOL I feel I may be the subject of some tea break banter at the insurance company!

At least you know it's not an issue with your current insurer, it only takes a jobsworth assessor in the event of a claim and some companies will try to wriggle out of paying out.

Sorry to revive an old thread, just thought I’d update it in case anyone else wants better light from their reverse lights, I went with some LED bulbs from Autobeam, which I can see Ennvo has as well. Much better light, even had a couple of friends tell me it’s “blinding” 😆

Has anyone successfully changed their turning lights to led ? Plenty of led mods out there but no guarantee they'll actually fit in the front headlight unit 🙄

Autobeam sell the chromatic units that get rid of the fried egg look and they are bright. https://autobeam.co.uk/collections/focus-mk3-5-2014-2016/products/581-chrome

On 3/20/2021 at 6:43 PM, Sam92 said:

Sorry to revive an old thread, just thought I’d update it in case anyone else wants better light from their reverse lights, I went with some LED bulbs from Autobeam, which I can see Ennvo has as well. Much better light, even had a couple of friends tell me it’s “blinding” 😆

Mk3 ? I see you have 2 reverse lights. Mk4 has 1 . It’s LED but not nearly bright enough. 

19 minutes ago, Alex.S said:

Mk3 ? I see you have 2 reverse lights. Mk4 has 1 . It’s LED but not nearly bright enough. 

Mk4 reversing candle can be best described as......lacking!!!

1 hour ago, VFR800 said:

Mk4 reversing candle can be best described as......lacking!!!

Mate, I have to turn on the rear fog light to reverse into my driveway! 

I've gone almost entirely LED on my Mk3.5 and passed my MOT just a couple of weeks ago. I've got xenon headlights but have Autobeam Performance LEDs in all indicators, brake lights, and reverse lights. They're bright!!

  16 hours ago, Alex.S said:

Mk3 ? I see you have 2 reverse lights. Mk4 has 1 . It’s LED but not nearly bright enough. 

Mk4 reversing candle can be best described as......lacking!!!

 

Yeah it's a MK3.5. I didn't know Ford went down to 1 reversing light on the MK4, so have they moved the rear fog back up to the main cluster then? Last car I had with 1 reverse light was my MK6 Fiesta, so I feel your pain!

7 hours ago, karlbbb said:

I've gone almost entirely LED on my Mk3.5 and passed my MOT just a couple of weeks ago. I've got xenon headlights but have Autobeam Performance LEDs in all indicators, brake lights, and reverse lights. They're bright!!

Have you had any issues with the LED upgrades at all? I upgraded my brakes and indicators at the same time as my reverse lights, but every time I turned them on, my DAB radio would cut out saying there was no signal, so I'm assuming Electromagnetic Interference (EMI). Got annoying after a while when every time I braked my radio cut out lol.

I tried ferrite clips as well, still wasn't having any of it. They worked fine apart from that, no hyper-flashing etc, but the radio was a deal breaker for me. I don't always listen to the radio, but seeing the loss of signal message coming up on the screen all the time did my head in 🥴

9 hours ago, Sam92 said:

Have you had any issues with the LED upgrades at all? I upgraded my brakes and indicators at the same time as my reverse lights, but every time I turned them on, my DAB radio would cut out saying there was no signal, so I'm assuming Electromagnetic Interference (EMI). Got annoying after a while when every time I braked my radio cut out lol.

I tried ferrite clips as well, still wasn't having any of it. They worked fine apart from that, no hyper-flashing etc, but the radio was a deal breaker for me. I don't always listen to the radio, but seeing the loss of signal message coming up on the screen all the time did my head in 🥴

Ah wow, that’s definitely not been my experience. I only had hyperflashing issues when I had the sequential indicators in the mirrors, went back to original fittings and just had LED bulb in. All good since then! I do have DAB on reasonably often as my Mrs hates my music and I’ve not noticed any issues with signal cutting out.

I think it's safe to say, Ford electrics are a pile of......

On 3/22/2021 at 10:13 PM, karlbbb said:

Ah wow, that’s definitely not been my experience. I only had hyperflashing issues when I had the sequential indicators in the mirrors, went back to original fittings and just had LED bulb in. All good since then! I do have DAB on reasonably often as my Mrs hates my music and I’ve not noticed any issues with signal cutting out.

Hmm, perhaps I’ve got a dodgy earth somewhere, although with incandescent bulbs there’s no issues at all. Even with the LED’s, it was just the DAB that didn’t like them. Lights were on and off when they were meant to be. I have sequentials as well, so that’s another possibility, although they’re running fine atm with no interference at all.
 

I had a look around online, apparently cheap LED’s cause DAB signals to drop out. It can happen at home as well by the sounds of it, people are noticing it more now they’re switching to DAB over AM/FM.

 

I did also see on a few Audi forums that people are having the same issues as well on the A3, so perhaps it’s the LED’s rather than the cars, and it depends on what chips you get? Autobeam’s housing might be the same, but are the chips they use consistently the same brand?