I thought they were things of the past but have been reading an article in Whatcar and it seems that for HID lighting they a becoming increasingly common again. The frightening thing though is the price. For a Honda Jazz the normal Halogen bulb is £8. A sealed headlight unit for the EX and sport is a staggering £714! Other manufacturers have similar prices. Apparently they are meant to have a lifespan ten times that of a halogen bulb but I would still be wary of a car fitted with such lighting.
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The BMW and the MX5 here have LED lights, I shudder to think how they would cost to replace.
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>>The BMW and the MX5 here have LED lights, I shudder to think how they would cost to replace.
En passant, there's a TSB for differing LED headlamp colours on the MX-5.
Doesn't bother me, I haven't studied mine and they work perfectly well, but one or two owners have apparently had the dealers swapping them about to find a pair that they think look the same colour.
The TSB isn't a fix, it's just instructions to the dealer on how to explain to the customers why it happens and why they have to put up with it.
The explanation is quite interesting. Apparently there is no such thing as a white-emitting LED, so the white colour is achieved by using yellow phospors in front of a blue-emitting LED. The production of these to achieve a consistent colour is really hard, part of the cause of the variation -
the other is viewing angle. First world problem.
goo.gl/Giu8zQ
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But for people who lease/PCP their car for three years they are not a problem.
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>>But for people who lease/PCP their car for three years they are not a problem.
Unless a passing car/lorry throws up a stone, your car gets smacked by a trolley @ the supermarket etc etc
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>> Unless a passing car/lorry throws up a stone, your car gets smacked by a trolley
>> @ the supermarket etc etc
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I agree all could happen - but I've not had a smashed headlight in nearly 30 years/1 million miles of driving. Even when I was knocked off my motorbike, the headlight surround was cracked, but the headlight itself was fine.
I did knock my mirror on a post - and that was £600 + Paint !!!!!!
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It is the LED headlights that are sealed, they have no need to be openable as no replaceable parts.
I don't know how they are nowadays on newer cars but the first LED headlights on the 2010 Audi A8 had fans in them that circulated air inside the housing both to cool heatsinks the LEDs were mounted on and melt ice snow. They were £1700 each.
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BMW G30/31 front LED headlamp £1500 + vat
BMW G31 sealed LED Rear light £300
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Yet another thing to financially write a car off if involved in a minor shunt resulting in damage to a headlight.
Lets hope with time the price will come down, as it seems to with all technology.
Last edited by: VxFan on Mon 3 Dec 18 at 10:43
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>> Yet another thing to financially write a car off if involved in a minor shunt resulting in damage to a headlight.
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>> Lets hope with time the price will come down, as it seems to with all technology.
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I suspect the price will not come down a lot.
Not like the old days when sealed units were a couple of standard sizes.
( I swapped my 1600E headlights for Cibies)
There will still be a premium as all the designs are different.
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No problem, Ebay gets you a pre owned one for £350 quid.
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And at those prices they become more desirable to thieving scum who will do any amount of damage to get to them.
BMW GS bikes are currently disappearing in huge numbers from the streets in London usually by those scooter gangs who the Met are trying to deal with. Insurance premiums have become astronomical if you live in the London area. Many are believed to be shipped abroad and broken for spares which I likely sold on Ebay.
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>> Apparently they are meant to have a lifespan ten times that
>> of a halogen bulb but I would still be wary of a car fitted with
>> such lighting.
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I'm sure vehicle manufacturers will step up and replace them under goodwill for an extended period. :)
I bet the factory cost of these units is (relatively) buttons.
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However, unLike Brexit, its a price worth paying. The light output and pattern from LED lamps, is astronomically better than candescent lamps, and streets ahead of discharge units.
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>> However, unLike Brexit, its a price worth paying. The light output and pattern from LED
>> lamps, is astronomically better than candescent lamps, and streets ahead of discharge units.
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Though it does depend on the actual car. The LED lights in the MINI are not noticeably better than the Xenon lights in the BMW. Those in the Audi on the other hand were noticeably brighter, and with a better beam pattern. The adaptive xenons in the Merc were better than any of them, and I imagine well implemented adaptive LEDs are a further step forward.
On the longevity front, the first car we had with xenons was, I think, the first BMW Mini back in ‘02. Firstly, they didn’t go wrong and secondly they were only £250 as a factory option! Since then we’ve probably done 300k miles in cars with either LED or xenon lights, without an issue either due to reliability or accident. Well, until the written off SEAT. But it wasn’t just the broken lights that wrote it off ;)
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>>The light output and pattern from LED lamps, is astronomically better than candescent lamps, and streets ahead of discharge units.
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Thanks for that useful feedback.
Are there any downsides with them so far ?
The dip beams on the X type are known to be B awful. Repeated complaints on the web.
The only legal option to upgrade them seems to simply brighter bulbs but they are a pia to swap.
To all intents changing to OE HIDs would cost more than the value of the car and I have not seen that anyone has done it. Reports say OE HIDS are not great.
These days I do not do enough mileage so I live with it. :-(
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I would agree that the HID is in a different league. What I would object to though is is having to replace the whole headlight unit on a fairly basic small car like a Jazz or Polo at a cost of around £800 just because the “bulb” has blown.
Other similar cars have HID lighting that doesn’t require replacing the entire headlamp unit.
The Audi A1 S line manages to do it for £211 for a bulb an control unit combined and the Mini allows you to change only the HID bulb fo a modest £11
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I'm so glad that new headlight bulbs for my car cost £13.99 a pair from Halfords.
I keep a pack of spares in the car - they can be changed in minutes with no dismantling.
To be fair, the sealed beam units on the Triumph are more expensive - £18 EACH !
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I must be very fortunate, as my modest 16+ years old Japanese limousine has not yet needed any replacement bulbs.
Not that I'm gloating, like...
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Last three cars have had three different lighting types. Excellent Bi-Xenon adaptive lights on the Volvo, Std Halogens on the 320 and these LED ones on the 335. As mentioned above the comparisons are stark between the Halogen and the other two, but not that great between the LEDs and the Xenons.
The LED taillights on my old 328 failed and I had to pay £220.00 for a pair of new ones (only supplied in pairs) there was an element of goodwill from BMW.
Trouble is now, riding the Triumph Tiger with what were in my opinion excellent a pair of excellent halogens now feels as if I'm riding a bike with a pair of copulating glow-worms now that I'm so used to the either cars.
The adaptive lights on the MX5 are pure white (so far),,,
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this is interesting - LED lights were on my wishlist for next car - might reconsider that!
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About 25 years ago I had the headlights of a bog standard Peugeot 205 nicked. Car was parked in south Birmingham in broad daylight. Managed to pick up replacements from a scrapyard for negligible cost.
Last edited by: Mr Moo on Tue 4 Dec 18 at 06:03
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>> About 25 years ago I had the headlights of a bog standard Peugeot 205 nicked.
>> Car was parked in south Birmingham in broad daylight. Managed to pick up replacements from
>> a scrapyard for negligible cost.
The units on the 205 and a whole generation of PSA products were held in place by what were effectively press-studs. The Citroen BX was same.
Made bulb replacement a cinch; detach the unit, disconnect the wires and, in winter take it inside before fighting with the bulb's retaining catch. You could also wash out the thing to get rid of muck and algae.
It did though make them easy to pinch.
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Sealed Unit headlights - R.P.
