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Question. Dipped beam into leds.


Velse
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Hello,

I would like to change the gold bulbs for led or halogen, but I am finding a lot of different products and all look different, so I am having a hard time to find the correct ones.

I bet that someone has done this here so I was wondering, which leds or halogens would fit and work properly with a Fiesta MK7 from 2010, model 2008?

 From your experience/knowledge, which of both would you recommend?

 

Truth is, I like the gold light, I´d love it pure yellow in fact! So classic, it´s like being doing Le Mans :D But then again, I want more visibility over night.

 

 

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One good company you can check out is autobeam. They have very good quality LED, halogen and xenon bulbs. I don't think having pure yellow lights (3000k) are legal. Autobeam do have some LED fogs which can shine at 6000k (white) or can also be switched to 3000k (yellow) which I think isn't bad as it saves the hassle of changing bulbs on there colour. 

From what I've seen I think a white car with yellow fogs look nice. 

 

For halogens I heard Phillips xtreme vision are good for the amount of light it gives out. 

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I have no experience with LED headlight bulbs (because they're not technically legal so I decided not to bother)

I have however changed my original dipped beam halogens to Philips X-tremeVisions and they are a big improvement, both brighter and whiter.

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It’s Halogen that’s in there already, producing the ‘gold’ light as you put it. Personally I’d call it a dirty yellow lol. Sticking with the legal route of Halogen bulbs I would recommend Phillips Xtreme Vision, that’s what I have at the moment. I’ve been running them for 18months now and they are just fine. I’ve used the NightBreakers on several cars and I think they might have the edge when it comes to light output but they don’t last nearly as long. I haven’t tried the newer NightBreaker Laser bulbs, they are supposed to be more reliable. There are some Xenon bulbs that do not require washers but are still not strictly road legal because the bulb holder has not been type approved for this type of bulb.
If you want to go down the route of LED upgrades then beware, the bulbs are generally much bigger than Halogen or Xenon because they have a big heat sinc at the back. LED look great but it’s more ‘form over function’, take them out of an urban environment and they are a let down. The throw of the light is only marginally better than halogen, you would be better off with an HID Kit if you are going off the idea of halogen. HID are also cheaper [emoji6]

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Here is the argument for LED’s, I have them and come from a good position to talk about them as I did a lot of research.

 

Dipped beam is H7, and they are very bright however I have my headlight angle set to 2 because if they have set to 4, they do not light up very far ahead. This is in fact the case for LEDs, they look good and light up what is near you amazingly well, but even with high being/main beam on, a bright white H 15 dipped beam is H7, and they are very bright however I have my headlight angle set to 2 because if they have set to 4, they do not light up very far ahead. This is in fact the case for LEDs, they look good and light up what is near you amazingly well, but even with high beam/main beam on, a bright white H15 LED,  I would not recommend going any faster than 60 without other lighting such as Road side lights etc. They do however look extremely good . If you are looking for white, I recommend white halogens.

. If you are looking for white, I recommend white halogens.

I’ve bought my lights from Autobeam,  and in my opinion they are not worth the price, and on my own research they are just a rebranded version of Chinese ones,   Again, this is my opinion and others may vary however especially the high beam H15, They are a rip-off and if you could wait the longer shipping times, I highly recommend buying from China directly

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Thanks everyone.

I am now in between the X-Treme vision and the new Philips Racing Vision, both seem to light up quite a lot.

 

Now I just need to figure out which one exactly because once again there re many kinds, so I will check my manual book, there must be a specification :)

I live in Denmark so I will most likely amazon them.

 

One question tho, life spam, Xtreme is 450h and racing is 200h... either way, even 450h sounds like too little to me, will they die after 4 months o.O? Then again, if they bring as much light as they promise, I guess it´s worth it :)

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The issue with the racing vision like you said has half the life span compared to the xtreme vision. If you're someone who drives a lot in the dark then extreme vision may be better. If you hardly drive at times where you have to switch your main lights on then racing vision is okay. Like jonro said he had xtreme vision for 18 months and they are still going. 

Phillips also do another one called white vision which gives a more whiter light buts doesn't beat the light output from xtreme vision and racing vision. 

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43 minutes ago, lwatson99 said:

Here is the argument for LED’s, I have them and come from a good position to talk about them as I did a lot of research.

 

Dipped beam is H7, and they are very bright however I have my headlight angle set to 2 because if they have set to 4, they do not light up very far ahead. This is in fact the case for LEDs, they look good and light up what is near you amazingly well, but even with high being/main beam on, a bright white H 15 dipped beam is H7, and they are very bright however I have my headlight angle set to 2 because if they have set to 4, they do not light up very far ahead. This is in fact the case for LEDs, they look good and light up what is near you amazingly well, but even with high beam/main beam on, a bright white H15 LED,  I would not recommend going any faster than 60 without other lighting such as Road side lights etc. They do however look extremely good . If you are looking for white, I recommend white halogens.

. If you are looking for white, I recommend white halogens.

I’ve bought my lights from Autobeam,  and in my opinion they are not worth the price, and on my own research they are just a rebranded version of Chinese ones,   Again, this is my opinion and others may vary however especially the high beam H15, They are a rip-off and if you could wait the longer shipping times, I highly recommend buying from China directly

I think the premium bulbs are worth it from autobeam as they are bright. I bought their premium indicators which came to £32 (including tax and postage). When I installed them they were very bright in the night. I can't really say anything about having LEDs for the main lights as I've never had experience. My uncle however installed LED main lights which he bought from eBay and recently one of them had gone out. I think it's been a year since he installed them. 

Pros with Autobeam is that you get a 2 or 5 years warranty (premium bulbs have 5 years warranty) so if any go out you can take them back. There's reviews so it could give you an idea. 

Cons I could say is some bulbs are a little expensive and with bulbs you cannot tell how good they are until you try them yourself. 

Can't really say anything about durability as I've only installed autobeam lights about a month ago. I would say though not to get cheap eBay lights as they don't really last long. My uncle bought some cheap eBay number plate lights and after a few weeks one of them started to flicker. Osram are a good brand which my dad bought for his interior and some exterior lights. The premium autobeam indicators I installed a much brighter compared to the osram bulbs. 

 

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1 hour ago, Velse said:

Thanks everyone.

I am now in between the X-Treme vision and the new Philips Racing Vision, both seem to light up quite a lot.

 

Now I just need to figure out which one exactly because once again there re many kinds, so I will check my manual book, there must be a specification :)

I live in Denmark so I will most likely amazon them.

 

One question tho, life spam, Xtreme is 450h and racing is 200h... either way, even 450h sounds like too little to me, will they die after 4 months o.O? Then again, if they bring as much light as they promise, I guess it´s worth it :)

One thing I will say is, if you're looking to keep it legal, then racing vision isn't an option as they're apparently not legal, where X-tremeVisions are.

I can vouch for X-tremeVisions, they are brighter and whitter, can't say for reliability as i haven't had them too long (maybe a month)

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As I said, I have had my Xtreme in for 18 months now and they have never even flickered. Just give you some idea, i Work 4 days a week and generally finish at midnight so obviously have to use my lights. I’m also one of those people who has their lights on for every journey, that’s only cos my DRLs look crap though lol.

I don’t really understand your comment @lwatson99 have you cut and pasted a load of times? As far as numbers go, you should have your lights set to 0 with no one in the car and 4 if the car has back seat passengers or a heavy load. If the only thing the op wanted was white then surely LED would be the recommendation not halogens? The rebranding is the same in everything, apparently Halfords bulbs are just rebranded Osram bulbs and tesco beans are Hienz etc. If you buy from autobeam you have some comeback, if you buy from China then god help you as it’s a lucky dip from a saturated market of fakes and cheap chip sets etc


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40 minutes ago, Jonro2009 said:

As I said, I have had my Xtreme in for 18 months now and they have never even flickered. Just give you some idea, i Work 4 days a week and generally finish at midnight so obviously have to use my lights. I’m also one of those people who has their lights on for every journey, that’s only cos my DRLs look crap though lol.

I don’t really understand your comment @lwatson99 have you cut and pasted a load of times? As far as numbers go, you should have your lights set to 0 with no one in the car and 4 if the car has back seat passengers or a heavy load. If the only thing the op wanted was white then surely LED would be the recommendation not halogens? The rebranding is the same in everything, apparently Halfords bulbs are just rebranded Osram bulbs and tesco beans are Hienz etc. If you buy from autobeam you have some comeback, if you buy from China then god help you as it’s a lucky dip from a saturated market of fakes and cheap chip sets etc


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I don’t remember copying and pasting but reading that back, you can tell I was making a poor attempt at multi tasking!

 

the manual says 4 for empty and 0 for full on mine as 0 angles the headlights all the way up. 

If it’s just the colour white then yes, LED’s are great however practicality wise, not so great for the reasons I attempted to go through.

Oops!

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Iwatsons lights might not be properly aligned which may be why he hasn't set it at zero. Same with me, I set my height to 3 and a half with my HIDs as at zero the beam looks like it reaches up half my house. Really want to get them properly aligned so I know I have them at the optimum height.  

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17 hours ago, ToXIcG said:

One thing I will say is, if you're looking to keep it legal, then racing vision isn't an option as they're apparently not legal, where X-tremeVisions are.

I can vouch for X-tremeVisions, they are brighter and whitter, can't say for reliability as i haven't had them too long (maybe a month)

That´s a solid point. I honestly don´t care too much if they are legal or not, of course I don´t want to go around blinding people but... truth be said, around half of the cars coming on my way blind you with their super duper shiny lights anyways.

But I also don´t know if there is such a huge difference in that 20% when the Xtremes seem to be fair good already.

Here In Denmark lights are on 24/7, I can´t even switch them off because the care keeps them on on day time lighting mode anyway, so maybe the X treme life spam is also more convenient than the extra 20% :)

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22 minutes ago, Velse said:

That´s a solid point. I honestly don´t care too much if they are legal or not, of course I don´t want to go around blinding people but... truth be said, around half of the cars coming on my way blind you with their super duper shiny lights anyways.

But I also don´t know if there is such a huge difference in that 20% when the Xtremes seem to be fair good already.

Here In Denmark lights are on 24/7, I can´t even switch them off because the care keeps them on on day time lighting mode anyway, so maybe the X treme life spam is also more convenient than the extra 20% :)

I'd say the extra life span of the X-tremeVisions is a reason to choose them over the race visions especially if they're on all the time but then I don't know whether going with high performance bulbs is a great idea if they're on everytime you use the car  (maybe long life ones are better?) as I don't know whether they would last too long, although @Jonro2009 says he has them on most of the time and has had them for 18 months.

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I don’t remember copying and pasting but reading that back, you can tell I was making a poor attempt at multi tasking!
 
the manual says 4 for empty and 0 for full on mine as 0 angles the headlights all the way up. 
If it’s just the colour white then yes, LED’s are great however practicality wise, not so great for the reasons I attempted to go through.
Oops!


I can only assume that you are a male due to your lack of ability to multitask, oh to be a woman and get everything right [emoji12]

I might have got my numbers muddled up, I just know it’s one extreme to the other for a heavy or light Car. I have mine at 0 I think and at that setting the lights are at their highest, if I have passengers then I will dial it to 4 to bring the angle of the lights down. If 0 angles the lights all the way up then it should be set to that when empty surely as when it is full the Car pitches up and needs the lights angled down.

Couldn’t agree more with you bout the throw of the light and how rubbish they are on rural, unlit roads. OEM LED are a little better but still not great though


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I´ve been watching youtube videos comparing the Xtreme, Racing Vision and the Osrams and the 3 of them seem to light pretty much the same, the Racing seem to light up a bit more white but again, video difference seems nothing.

 

Considering that pricing is the same, I will go with the 450 hours claim plus some of you guys experience (18 months and still going.. I´m happy if it makes a full year )

I will make a video when I buy and install them with the difference between whatever I have now and the Xtreme´s. But that will take a couple of weeks to happen I´m afraid :D

 

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I think I've seen that same guy. The one who tests the lights on his clio. I'm sure he said from his view he'd go for the Phillips white vision as it offers good lighting along with style (as it says offers a xenon white light). However if your just looking for brightness then the xtreme vision is good. 

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I don’t think you will be disappointed with the Xtreme bulbs. Out of interest i dug out the receipt for the bulbs, they were put in by Ford when they had the bumper off for another job. The receipt says 15 Feb 2016, so that’s 19months almost to the day.


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I had the Night Breaker Unlimited Plus's,  They are really very bright and pretty white.  However thats the second set thats just blown.  I bought them in June 2016.  Are the new Lazer's or the philips Xtreme Vision likely to last any longer or are they both likely to be worse as they are brighter yet?

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18 hours ago, Jonro2009 said:

I don’t think you will be disappointed with the Xtreme bulbs. Out of interest i dug out the receipt for the bulbs, they were put in by Ford when they had the bumper off for another job. The receipt says 15 Feb 2016, so that’s 19months almost to the day.


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Hey that´s good to know! I am glad to hear that they can easily last more than a year. I am still giving it some thought over which ones to get :)

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23 hours ago, zain611 said:

I think I've seen that same guy. The one who tests the lights on his clio. I'm sure he said from his view he'd go for the Phillips white vision as it offers good lighting along with style (as it says offers a xenon white light). However if your just looking for brightness then the xtreme vision is good. 

Exactly that guy, blue Clio :)

 

It´s quite helpful to see it. They all seem to be in the same league more or less but it´s true that those are a bit more whit light... I want to light up as much as possible, but I would also like to have as pure white light as possible. So I might compromise a bit of lighting for the whitish. We will decided over the next few days. XTremes are fauvorites now, but let´s see.

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  • 3 weeks later...

So at the end I bought the Xtreme vision 130% for the dipped beam.

Wow! Makes a nice difference, I believe my Fiesta was using very old bulbs already, it was rather dangerous to drive as it felt like we had to nights at all, which was confirmed once I installed this ones.

Their light looks more white as well, specially from the car. When you look at the lights, they also look whiter than the older bulbs, but yes, this is still halogen bulbs that we are talking about.

So now let´s see how long they last.

I am so happy that I will most likely go for a set of Racingvision 150% for my main beam next.

I did take comparison pictures with my phone, but I will not post them because they make no justice. Stand still amount of light in picture looks the same as the old bulbs, but hell is not! Specially when in the motorway but even in the city, the extremes light up so much more, and no reflections I must say!

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Pictures definitely don't serve justice when dealing with lights. I know as I tried comparing my indicators to some really bright ones I installed. 

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Glad you are pleased @Velse I’d be interested to see what you think of the RacingVision if you go for them. I have found that when I put my main beam on there isn’t a huge difference from just dipped beam depending on the type of road and my surroundings. If you feel like Vision at night is problematic then a couple of years ago someone imparted some very good advice on to me. Dim the dash board lights, wow I cant believe after 15 years of driving I didn’t know that! Total game changer.


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