Technical Panda 169 headlights change to Led, plug and play?

[snowy71]

Hi looking to replace standard headlight bulbs with H4 Led do they throw errors/blink too fast or usually plug and play?

Changing as I like to see in the dark and the current candles are a little weak

If someone could tell me how to post under Technical that'd be great too

 

[koalar]

They pass a MOT

But are illegal for road use

The headlights are on the CANBUS as long as they have the additional resistors to make them compliant they just pug in except the cap will need cutting

Very cheapest China ones generally will not work or only work for a very short time

 

[snowy71]

They pass a MOT

But are illegal for road use

The headlights are on the CANBUS as long as they have the additional resistors to make them compliant they just pug in except the cap will need cutting

Very cheapest China ones generally will not work or only work for a very short time

Thanks the illegal bit is an issue and odd Any other ideas for brighter than standard bulbs?

 

[koalar]

Thanks the illegal bit is an issue and odd Any other ideas for brighter than standard bulbs?

LED side lights are fine and look a lot better

The front plastic gets very scratched which scatters a lot of the light. A good polish will fetch them back along with a good alignment.

Quality of the bulb fitted makes a big difference. Just changing from pound shop dim glowing ones to standard Ring is noticeable. Some of the cheap bulbs also puts the aim way off. So how to improve and by how much is going to depend on your starting place

I have never put extra bright bulbs in. There expensive and have a shorter life

Pretty sure someone in this section fitted some with good results. No doubt a search should pull it up. Over a year ago me thinks. Worth finding as from memory they were getting over a year out of the bulbs and named the brand.

I have Just look up the retro fitting led bulbs and illegal. Some of the answer range from stupid to dangerous. As an example someone wrote as long as they aren’t blue there fine.

You can look up the regulations on the government department of transport site. Basically unless the car was originally fitted with LEDs or is a projector type headlight it’s a no go. The question has also been asked and answered on the uk police forum also.

 

[koalar]

Try searching for

Osram Night Breaker
Or
Halfords 150%

I can’t recommend as never used either

 

[chris3234]

They pass a MOT

But are illegal for road use

The headlights are on the CANBUS as long as they have the additional resistors to make them compliant they just pug in except the cap will need cutting

Very cheapest China ones generally will not work or only work for a very short time

They should NOT pass a mot
Led bulbs in a halogen unit are a fail

4.1.4 Headlamps - Compliance with requirements - Changed sentence from 'Existing halogen headlamp units should not be converted to be used with HID bulbs. If such a conversion has been done, you must fail the headlamp.' to 'Existing halogen headlamp units should not be converted to be used with high intensity discharge (HID) or light emitting diode (LED) bulbs. If such a conversion has been done, you must fail the headlamp.'

 

[koalar]

I was aware that it shouldn’t pass

Just like Bulbs should be E marked

It just very rarely tested or checked for if the beam is close enough

There’s plenty of post with people on here arguing well it’s never failed a MOT

I suspect the insurance company and police will take a dim view of you were in an accident or caused an accident

 

[snowy71]

LED side lights are fine and look a lot better

The front plastic gets very scratched which scatters a lot of the light. A good polish will fetch them back along with a good alignment.

Quality of the bulb fitted makes a big difference. Just changing from pound shop dim glowing ones to standard Ring is noticeable. Some of the cheap bulbs also puts the aim way off. So how to improve and by how much is going to depend on your starting place

I have never put extra bright bulbs in. There expensive and have a shorter life

Pretty sure someone in this section fitted some with good results. No doubt a search should pull it up. Over a year ago me thinks. Worth finding as from memory they were getting over a year out of the bulbs and named the brand.

I have Just look up the retro fitting led bulbs and illegal. Some of the answer range from stupid to dangerous. As an example someone wrote as long as they aren’t blue there fine.

You can look up the regulations on the government department of transport site. Basically unless the car was originally fitted with LEDs or is a projector type headlight it’s a no go. The question has also been asked and answered on the uk police forum also.

Thanks for the lengthy reply these ought to be banned from sale then as unless I'd been on here I could quite innocently have bought and installed thinking I'd gone all "eco" with LED bulbs. All I'm after in more light as I've no interest in making the car look like a Xmas tree. I was intending buff polishing the lens anyway. Thanks again.

 

[s130]

Thanks for the lengthy reply these ought to be banned from sale then as unless I'd been on here I could quite innocently have bought and installed thinking I'd gone all "eco" with LED bulbs. All I'm after in more light as I've no interest in making the car look like a Xmas tree. I was intending buff polishing the lens anyway. Thanks again.

Have you investigated the higher output Halogen lamps made by Bosch / others.

https://www.powerbulbs.com/product/bosch_ultra_white_h4_twin

The Bosch ones claim 30% improved beam length and 4200K high contrast illumination, all at the same 60/55W power.

These improved Halogen lamps are road legal, plug and play but still subject to MOT inspection of beam height and pattern.

 

[koalar]

Have you investigated the higher output Halogen lamps made by Bosch / others.

https://www.powerbulbs.com/product/bosch_ultra_white_h4_twin

The Bosch ones claim 30% improved beam length and 4200K high contrast illumination, all at the same 60/55W power.

These improved Halogen lamps are road legal, plug and play but still subject to MOT inspection of beam height and pattern.

Sorry
Nope

There an explanation of aligning the headlights here.

Headlight adjustment, help please... | FIAT Panda (2012+)

Hi everyone, My panda twinaire 2014 needs to adjust headlight manually. the 0-4 setting is max out, the right headlight is still too low. do you have photos where to adjust up and down of the headlight? i cant find anything to manually adjust in the headlight assembly. Please help

www.fiatforum.com

Along with a recommendation for the Osram Night Breaker

Pretty sure @The Panda Nut uses Halfords plus 150% but I could be wrong


I have used cheap bargain shop bulbs in the past. There not very bright, use the wrong type of glass, don’t last long and put the beam all over the place.

I don’t do that much night driving down country lanes any more. But when I did cheap bulbs were just plain dangerous and I use to fit Ring from Wilkinsons.

These were just about adequate if properly aligned in the Panda

Cheap bulbs to premium bulbs should be like night and day

OEM to premium will a much smaller improvement. But seeing as I have never fitted them how much I can’t say

 

[Centrino]

Hello all, I'd like to know if anyone's tried these?

Philips Ultinon Pro9000 LED

They've been made legal in Austria and wondered about the light pattern on our Panda headlights.

I don't want to get into the legalities, I know H stands for Halogen, just keen to know if they don't blind others like Osram H4 LEDs (which are marked for off-road use)

Thanks in advance.