Interesting on the LED headlights, looked at your pictures on your site. Looks like they have a clean cut off but not the flick to the left you get with the original headlights. Which will be OK at MOT time, American cars are the same a flat cut off on dipped beam.

I am struggling to see the difference between dipped and main beam on your garage door picture. Be interesting to see the on road pics hopefully these will show the difference better.

Neil

I've added a few more pics on the FB post, showing difference between low n high a bit better.

Those pictures show it better, be interesting to see how you find them to drive by. I have ran HID on the coupe took my time to research, the colour of the bulbs can have a big effect on how they are in use. they were pretty good and better than the halogens.

I have even tried some other halogen bulbs all e marked etc and they were poor for glare.

Neil

Any update/feedback on these replacement headlights? I've been thinking of something similar for a while and have now noticed the reflectors are rusty on my driving lights so maybe its time to act. Do you have a link to the headlight units (assuming you are happy with them)?

The bottom driving lights i'm pleased with thus far, pretty good deal on a pair here: https://www.aliexpress.com/item/CO-LIGH ... st=ae803_3

The headlights are ok i'd say, haven't used em much as I don't do much night driving but they're no worse than OE and i've had no flashes from oncoming traffic. Only niggle with em is on low beam they interfere with radio reception a bit.

MOT is due around august so we'll see what they say about em...

I also spotted these, which fit my criteria of 'do they look like they'll fit the mounts' there also seems to be three fixings integrated into the back which might be adaptable to do away with the OE mounts altogether. They are about twice the cost of the style I got and no idea if beam pattern is any good etc.
https://www.aliexpress.com/item/E-mark- ... st=ae803_3

Look to be a clone of the Denali M5 or Vision Vortex.

This thread is alive, alive I tell you.

Yeah so those LED headlights were rubbish and although they got thru MOT it was only after promising to change em for ones with a decent beam pattern.

SO! I have bought more LED headlights, this time ones from a UK seller and stated to be UK road legal. We shall see.

I fitted them with new style all metal mounts I have created to get rid of the plastic ring clippy warped morette ones. A modified version of these mounts could be used for the 'crystal' halogen ones you see on ebay (i've had these on my car previously).

I've also installed hatches in my cement tray wheel arches to make adjustment way more easy.

More blurb and pics are on the GTM FB page.

Inverted L bolt arrangement for easier adjustment. Top RHS corner has a fixed spacer and acts as pivot, top LHS does L/R & bottom does U/D.






100mm aperture access hatches fitted to inner arches, have screw on covers.


Cover off, viewing rear of headlight. wheel needs to be turned inwards to get your hand in.

Have you looked at the Wipac LED lights, I know they a sodding expensive but they are from a reputable company.

I like the access covers for the lights

Neil

They only do 7" though, far as I have seen.

I did think after I posted it might be a 5 and 3/4 light.

I did see some Caterham ones that were 5 and 3/4 but it was unclear if they were branded.

Neil

Hi Sidewinder. I just bought a pair of these. Plugged one in to test and got nothing on high or low beam. I seem to remember someone posting that the polarity has to be reversed - is that the case?

I've just put projectors on my Spyder so I thought I'd add my experience to this thread rather than starting my own. I've put a summary on the FB group already but as that is transient and non-searchable I think the forum is a better technical reference for anyone else so the full write up is here.
My 5 3/4 units were giving very poor light. I'd checked the voltage and earth continuity and both were fine so couldn't understand why they were so pants but night driving was borderline dangerous, even when I took the covers off (which did improve things a bit). I've been considering an upgrade for a few years and have been following other's adventures into LED with interest. The technology and the regulations seemed to be in a state of flux (luminous flux?) but has settled now I think. Clearly putting LED bulbs in the existing reflector units is now clarified as a non starter. I looked at various LED 5 3/4 units but they were either very expensive or had very mixed reviews. Most new car seem to come with projectors these days and LED projectors are becoming quite common. The LED projector upgrade path seems to be becoming well developed and as the dip beam pattern/cut off is achieved using a shutter it seems you get a much more defined dip pattern. I had heard that HIDs or LEDs need self levelling and washing devices but checking the MOT manual it only says that vehicles equipped with HID or LED may have self levelling and washing devices and if they do have them then they must work.

So, I chose to go with LED projectors. I thought about going with small projectors in a GTO style cluster/pod as seen on several later Spyders (and Libras with Spyder front clams) but I couldn't get hold of the pods and decided my grp skills aren't up to making them. So the decision was made to go with 3" Bi-LED projectors to give both dip and main in a single unit and to use shrouds that bring the units up to a similar overall size to the 5 3/4" units.

These are the projectors I bought: https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/302983310276 At the time they were on at £79.99 but there was a discount code that brought them down to £64 so seemed worth a punt.


These are the shrouds I went with: https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/393312583300 which seemed quite reasonable at £9

As Bi-LEDs use a single LED light source that stays on for both dip and main and the dip is separately controlled with a solenoid operated shutter you can't simply connect the H4 connector as in the H4 the dip filament goes out and a separate main filament comes on. I bought these relay harness connectors to solve this: https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/302648552572 Only £4.99 for the pair.

Removing the old units wasn't as easy as I hoped as some of the screws that hold on the little grp top hats that cove the back of the bulbs had rusted/rounded so needed cutting and some of the adjuster nuts for the morrette mountings had seized solid so turned the captive bolts in the plastic so these had to be cut off too. Once off the old units simply come out forwards leaving a hole like this:

For the projector lenses to be in the right location the rear part of the the light source/heat sink/fan has to go back through the hole so the hole needs a bit of fettling like this:

That pic also shows the four small mounting holes for the bolts I used on the baseplates of the projectors. I fixed 4 M4x30 set screws to the metal plate with nyloc nuts to make the screws captive. I put springs over the screws then passed the screws through the holes in the GRP with washers and nylocs compressing the springs to give around a 10mm stand off. Turning these nuts allows precise beam adjustment.
Here is a projector fitted with the shroud in place:

Comparison of projector (offside) and original reflector (nearside):

Here is a comparison of the beams shone onto my garage door. The left side halogen beam is barely visible in the daylight (and aimed too low but was passing MOTs). The right side LED shows a bright well defined beam with a clear cut off:

I then had to find a way to protect the rear as the old top hat was too small to go over the back of the projector unit. My solution was to cut the leg off an old wetsuit and stretch that over the pod recess then insert a small stainless steel balti dish (handles removed) into the open end. The balti dish is easy to pop out to get to the adjustment nuts but seals it all in nicely and still sufficient clearance to the wheel when the clam is down.


I went to my local club's pub meet last night and the lights are absolutely superb. I've got the aim a little low as the cut off can be seen on the road ahead but the raised section on the left lights up the verge for a long way. I think I'll leave them low as they are very bright and I don't want to dazzle and they project forward enough to see where I'm going. The mains light up the road like daylight. Very pleased! Just hope the MOT tester likes them but I can't see anything in the wording of the MOT manual that says they can't pass.

Thanks for the write up sanz. Mine are pretty bad (20 year old Gto style without covers... look like projectors) but look like it's bad bean angle so I need so check that before replacing.

Now that winter is here my immediate problem is the bottom main beams. I've just read sidewinders post on his LED bottom lights and wonder how they worked out? I have two old halogens, one of which has the middle rusted out.

There are some pretty funky looking 5.75 inch LED clusters now which I wonder if could be wired into the indicators and dip lights too, so that they help in all scenarios. Eg. https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/134745471474?mkcid=16&mkevt=1&mkrid=711-127632-2357-0&ssspo=78xilqubr1c&sssrc=4429486&ssuid=vp7rvYr_R9i&var=&widget_ver=artemis&media=COPY

Cheers

Gary

The bottom LED light units i have are ok, more flood than spots really, but they fill the holes and only come on with main beam anyway.

Those ebay ones you link to would be no good for low beam, ok for spots/drl type use. However the deep fat square housing would prob make them not a convenient fit, certainly not for a libra anyway.

I fitted LED projectors similar to above a while back to replace the 5.75 LED reflector units i had before. (Still have the 5.75 LEDs and prob ought to flog em).
I have some other similar 5.75 LED reflectors which again are only good for spots/drl really as the low beam pattern is poor.

LED projector with sidelight/drl shroud


LED projector Sidelights only


LED projector beam pattern. I rotated/adjusted the lights a bit more after this pic was taken.