LED lights or alternatives. C123 1983 230CE

[Hairy1305]

I am looking at sprucing up the lighting, as I live rurally and the stock bulbs, lights don't really come to much muster.

Are there any non CANBUS kits anyone would recommend, or alternatives?

Also, for the interior lighting too.

Thanks

Paul

 

[vijilants]

I am looking at sprucing up the lighting, as I live rurally and the stock bulbs, lights don't really come to much muster.

Are there any non CANBUS kits anyone would recommend, or alternatives?

Also, for the interior lighting too.

Thanks

Paul

pFor the headlights the cheapest upgrade would be to swap out the stock bulbs for Osram Night breakers.

Interior should be easy to do using LEDS from ebay.

 

[190]

There are no legal retrofit led headlight bulbs. Even Philips bulbs which were limited to 1500 lumens and very expensive failed to get ECE approval. I expect they work well but if detected they will fail an mot.

I read recently that the US authorities took legal action against a manufacturer for the supply of uncertified led bulbs. They are a bit late in the game and up against it given the flood of rubbish Chinese bulbs on the market.

I'm happy using the type of uprated halogens mentioned above.

 

[Blobsta]

You're going to struggle on this I think. Ideally, you would want to fit some kind of HID unit. The problem there is that at the age of your car it will have diffused light through the actual headlight glass. Fitting an HID kit would give you some additional light but just about every single oncoming driver would want your head on a pike! Not to mention the fact that it would be so dangerous and illegal.

I've just done a projector retrofit on my car which has been really successful, passes an MOT and doesn't hurt anyone coming towards me. That was pretty easy as my car had clear lenses from he factory. I suspect that if you could buy some kind of aftermarket unit from the Far East with projectors, the trade off would be the it would utterly destroy the look of a beautiful car!

As has been suggested, halogen upgrade like the Nightbreakers is probably the only realistic option but I would suggest that you set a very low expectation when you buy them, they'll be better but in may experience, you'll convince yourself of that rather than notice it.

My (quite unhelpful) advice would be to try and avoid driving on wet roads as the light soak up is worse then and just enjoy the car when you can.

 

[markjay]

Pretty much the only option that is both legal and practical is Osram Nighbreaker Halogen bulbs (or similar from other manufacturers).

 

[Hairy1305]

Thanks guys,

I've gone with the Osrams, as you said, legal and a little bit brighter. All of my other cars have LED and the difference is amazing really.

Thanks for your advice.

Paul

 

[alabbasi]

There are H4 retrofit bulbs all over amazon. Pick one.

 

[slade1]

What condition are the headlight reflectors? There are companies that will restore/re-chrome lights.

 

[Gazwould]

If you do struggle with the output of the Ozzies after all they're capped at 1500 , illegal , but there is non glare H4 reflector HID available .






Has your heinous neighbour still got that red coupe ?

 

[vijilants]

Try these guys....they do led bulbs for classic cars....www.bettercarlighting.co.uk