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.

 

[epifant]

Winter is coming.. so I've bought a set of these in 4300K to test, as the Fiat Coupé group buy seemed positive. Will update when installed.

Also got a set of H1s to put in a pair of extra lights. Might look comically big on the Panda, guess we'll see..

 

[The Panda Nut]

I have all three cars running on Osram Nightbreaker bulbs. The 169 headlights are some of the very best available on any standrd car. They do throw a good spread but the light can seen a little diffuse. The 130% lights give a noticable but not ridiculous improvement. I have been running hte same bulbs in my car for nearly six and a half years now. I have tried the brighter ones but feel these are a dazzle for anyone else, and also found they only lasted 6 months. Osram bulbs are more expensive but seem to be worht the outlay.. I have found Halfords bulbs last only a year or two.. I agree that what you are not allowed to run legally should be banned from sale. These badly fitted and overbrioght lights are a danger and its good to hear others who agree. Properly converted lights with teh correct refelctors may be OK but there are few of those about.

Panda 319 has less good lights but the 130% helps to make them acceptable. The issue with the 319 is bad light design. With the dip beam set correctly, the high bem just throws the light into the tree tops. If you lower the beams a few degrees the full beam is transformed dramatically, but then oyu can nopt see on dip as these are pointing at the floor. The only answer to this is some fill in spot lights. Fortunately the 169 does not have this problem.

We all need to remember that at night you dont run down an unlit footpath becaue you cannot see. You slow down. Its neither viable nor respectful to fit lights so bright you can see with like daylight. Personally I would like to see these new lights banned. Another giant leap for no good reason.

 

[A3jeroen]

You'll scare off the Moose

gr J

 

[epifant]

We have quite a lot of them, so I think you mean the plural form «the meese»?

14 days since ordering and still no bulbs - I supect one of the meese is in charge of declaring foreign packages at the norwegian postal service..

 

[Centrino]

We have quite a lot of them, so I think you mean the plural form «the meese»?

14 days since ordering and still no bulbs - I supect one of the meese is in charge of declaring foreign packages at the norwegian postal service..

I'm following this, hoping to see the beam pattern they produce

 

[jrkitching]

I'm following this, hoping to see the beam pattern they produce

It doesn't matter what beam pattern they produce, a 169 Panda won't pass a UK MOT with LED headlamp bulbs fitted. The current MOT rules are quite clear about this.

 

[Centrino]

It doesn't matter what beam pattern they produce, a 169 Panda won't pass a UK MOT with LED headlamp bulbs fitted. The current MOT rules are quite clear about this.

View attachment 430740

I know, I have seen it pasted many times.

 

[vexorg]

The MOT argument is that the HID/LED light source is at a different point of than the filiment of the halogen for the reflector, hence produce the wrong pattern on. But as many people have found out, you can get a perfect pattern, especially from projector lenses.

It really makes no sense that you can have a perfect pattern and not blind other drivers and be illegal, yet your average new BMW/merc will happily blind the world and be legal.

 

[epifant]

These will definitely be swapped back for halogens if they blind oncoming traffic. With the amount of electric vehicles around here, I'm frequently blinded by Tesla Model 3s and BMW i3s...

Preliminary impression is that the kit seems to be high quality. Fit & finish is very good, the plastic mounting ring feels.. almost ceramic? - not brittle or cheap at all. Installation was very straight forward and the instruction leaflet was easy to follow. Temperature is a slightly warm white, with a very slight greenish tint. I have a Sofirn D25S headlamp with similar qualities, so I guess the emitter quality matches the affordable price. Light output was a bit underwhelming at first, but dipped beam is certainly improved (the data also state identical lumen output for dipped and main beam). I've still only been flashed by one oncoming car, and I suspect that was because of a slight incline giving a more head on angle..

Unsure about beam pattern - will try to get some decent photos. The ones I took turned out blurry. And now the power steering has given out on me. No good deed, etc. ~12.6V engine off, ~11.8V engine running, so suspect the alternator. It's not the battery (tried both charging the current one as well as swapping for a new one), tried cleaning the earth connection on the battery (thank you for spreading the word abut the glass fiber brush pen, James May) and the weather is horrid.