Upgrade Headlights to LED

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the_british_Twit

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Hi Guys

Currently i have a Peugeot 308 GTI with Halogen bulbs. The lights at night aren't to bad, but compared to say Night Breakers they are pretty rubbish. A work colleague has replaced hes halogen bulbs with LED on he's Jeep and they look amazing.

so i want to know if anyone has used LED bulbs and are they any good? would like to know about things like seeing signs on highways, the light on the sides of the cars and how the oncoming traffic feels about your light upgrades.

also the car is still under warranty, but my guess is that this shouldn't affect this. please correct me if i'm wrong.

thanks in advance :)
 
You can't..

You will make your car illegal. Oh and the warranty will be null and void.
 
I'd just do the upgrade to nightbreakers... Cheaper and less likely to void any warranty
 
true that. i know Peugeot sell a Xexon Kit for the 308 model so i'll speak with them and ask how much it will cost to install it.
otherwise its NightBreakers.

thanks guys
 
the_british_Twit said:
true that. i know Peugeot sell a Xexon Kit for the 308 model so i'll speak with them and ask how much it will cost to install it.
otherwise its NightBreakers.

thanks guys
Click to expand...

Lol be prepared to spend in the range of 5k and upwards.
They love to price those conversions
 
Acid0 said:
Lol be prepared to spend in the range of 5k and upwards.
They love to price those conversions
Click to expand...

I would guess closer to R30k to retrofit.

New headlights, balasts, bulbs, wiring, relays, etc + labour.
 
Please, there is a HUGE difference between standard HID upgrades and a decent Xexon projector kit.
Also never seen a single LED globe that is strong enough for head lights.
Yes, you do get LED spot lights, but they contain multiple LED's and reflectors.
HID upgrades is where you just replace the normal globe with a HID globe and ballast.
Problem here is that the reflector was made for halogen and not HID globes. Normal result is increase in light spread and blinding oncomming traffic.
With Xexon upgrades you have to remove the complete headlight unit to install the projector. This is costly and timeconsuming, but very good results.
 
wetkit said:
Please, there is a HUGE difference between standard HID upgrades and a decent Xexon projector kit.
Also never seen a single LED globe that is strong enough for head lights.
Yes, you do get LED spot lights, but they contain multiple LED's and reflectors.
HID upgrades is where you just replace the normal globe with a HID globe and ballast.
Problem here is that the reflector was made for halogen and not HID globes. Normal result is increase in light spread and blinding oncomming traffic.
With Xexon upgrades you have to remove the complete headlight unit to install the projector. This is costly and timeconsuming, but very good results.
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Do projector headlamps cope better with HID lamps as opposed to normal headlamps using reflectors?
 
Projectors is built for a specific lamps and to focus the beam correctly.
This holds the same for a normal halogen bulb and its reflector.
 
Hi guys sorry for the late reply.

basically phoned Peugeot and asked them about a Xenon upgrade and they said they aren't able to do the change. i then asked about night breakers and he mentioned that they get too hot for the glass and could crack the glass.

have any of you guys had this issue?

i had a 206 with night breakers and i never had any issues with the head light glass cracking at all.

thanks
 
Nightbreaker is just a brand name. It's still just a regular 55w globe. They just appear to have a warmer colour temperature but I doubt they are any brighter in lumens.

Warmer burning globes such as xenon or higher power halogen can melt the plastic bits in your original light bucket, or crack the glass.

If you're having trouble seeing at night maybe you should have your eyes checked out. My night time vision was very poor before I got my eyes sorted.
 
I have never had issues with uprated globes like nightbreakers or silverstars melting or cracking anything. Nightbreakers only have a 6 month life span though, so better to go with Silverstars.
 
are these the headlights that appear to be like truck lights at night? hate those fsuckn bright lights. you can literally not see anything as you approach a car with lights that bright. cant be legal surely.
 
DanH said:
Nightbreaker is just a brand name. It's still just a regular 55w globe. They just appear to have a warmer colour temperature but I doubt they are any brighter in lumens.
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Not true. Globes like the Osram Nightbreakers or Phillips XtremeVision are considerably brighter than their standard halogen counterparts.

Warmer burning globes such as xenon or higher power halogen can melt the plastic bits in your original light bucket, or crack the glass.
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LOL. The "warmth" referred to is in colour temperature, not actual temperature. By that logic, the sun should have melted most light fixtures ages ago.
 
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cool thanks for the confirmation and agree with xumwun, don't think the HID route is the best as that may affect warranty with Peugeot.

also can confirm that its not my eyes as in other cars i don't have this issue.

will research the silverstars bulbs and see how they differ from the night breakers.

thanks guys
 
Maverick Jester said:
Not true. Globes like the Osram Nightbreakers or Phillips XtremeVision are considerably brighter than their standard halogen counterparts.
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There are legal limits in terms of lumens the globe is allowed to emit and power it is allowed to consume.
Nightbreakers just have a different colour temperature. They cannot legally produce more light than is allowed. More blueish white light that they produce is warmer in colour temperature.

Maverick Jester said:
LOL. The "warmth" referred to is in colour temperature, not actual temperature. By that logic, the sun should have melted most light fixtures ages ago.
Click to expand...

Warmer colour temperature is produced by making a light which outputs more lumens and then filters out the unwanted colour temperatures. So yes they do get hotter because they produce more light which is then filtered down. Xenon lights produce an arc through a metal vapour, which is considerably hotter.
 
DanH said:
There are legal limits in terms of lumens the globe is allowed to emit and power it is allowed to consume.
Nightbreakers just have a different colour temperature. They cannot legally produce more light than is allowed. More blueish white light that they produce is warmer in colour temperature.
Click to expand...

Nightbreakers don't just have a different colour temperature, they have a higher lumen output, too. It's why their lifespan is shorter than normal halogen lights, and is normally the trade-off you pay for going for brighter lighting.

Warmer colour temperature is produced by making a light which outputs more lumens and then filters out the unwanted colour temperatures. So yes they do get hotter because they produce more light which is then filtered down. Xenon lights produce an arc through a metal vapour, which is considerably hotter.
Click to expand...

No. You have the right concept, but the wrong application.

HID bulbs are much hotter inside the bulbs at "filament" level due to how the electrical arc that generates the light is kept going. This though, is only important in understanding how the bulbs work.

Because HID bulbs both are significantly better sealed (because huge levels of heat loss would be extremely inefficient for the purposes of thermionic emission) and emit very little infrared light (a huge source of heat in halogen bulbs), they will always run cooler than the equivalent halogen, especially when it comes to heat emitted from the globe onto the rest of the headlight housing. Another factor, is that halogen lights are usually designed with reflection in mind, whereas HID lights are projector-based. This will impact the heat absorbance of the light housing, again affecting overall temperatures.

Point being, the only damage you will perform with an HID bulb in a non-projector based housing is to other drivers and their eyesight.
 
very noob question

are these nightbreakers a straight fit? I have a h4 bulb; I remove them and put these bulbs in straight away?

do they come with dipped and bright modes and all that? do they also replace parking lights? or do those still stay?
 
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