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Unfortunately, a lot of the blame is out of ignorance. A standard indicator flasher unit is load sensed and usually works 2 indicator bulbs at 21W and a dash warning light. As we conclude this article aftermarket LED bulbs arenot road legalaccording to theRoad Vehicles Lighting Regulationsas they are not E marked. 5W and is set to repeat flashing within the legal limits. Lets say that the bulbs for your dipped beam are H7. 11th January 2021 I humbly disagree that they will never be able to meet, etc as a one-time scientific equipment engineer I have witnessed huge leaps in technology and LED is just one area where it is evolving ALL the time. Therefore, LED conversion bulbs remain non- compliant. I get really tired of the kind of people who upgrade their headlights to collapsed suns especially when the alignment is totally out, and one is facing utterly in the wrong direction. The legalities become an issue when you change the technology of the bulb so for your example of changing a 382 bulb you would be changing a filament bulb to LED. HID/LED standards should be set and bulbs appropriately marked, then MOT tests should include a lamp level check. Whilst the bulbs we sell cant be E Marked, weve tried and tested them in strict conditions and on various types of headlights. As an older driver Im very glad that more of the road is lit by an LED beam. Unfortunately there are LED suppliers out there that dont care about the quality of the product and as such, causes issues for everyone else. Some store owners will build a product that has amassed 5* reviews and edit the information and imagery to turn it into a new inferior product that is cheaper to manufacture. Almost guaranteed to be passed and read into legislation. Every time you press the brakes, you would be blinding the person behind you. LED bulbs should be allowed to be fitted providing they pass a beam pattern test. Some led bulbs (cheap ones) have big LEDs on the tip which causes distortion when reflecting on the lamp reflectors, smaller LEDs tip has sharper pattern thus no distortion on pattern yet brighter. The beam pattern might be wrong and in turn, blinds other drivers. Imagine having to change a bulb in the wind and rain at the side of a busy road. The fact they arent CE or kite marked is because if you actually research these types of headlight they are meant to use only one type of fitment and a specific light output with a specific aim. For example, instead of a minimum or maximum wattage, lumens would be a better metric. The number that follows the H indicates that only a H bulb with the same number can be installed. Its safety after all. If you fit LED bulbs in a H7 designed unit and have an accident then goodbye insurance cover unless you declare it and they accept the change. For nearly every other application on your vehicle, an approval mark is also required. It is possible to pass the MOT with upgraded and safe LED lighting installed correctly. Bikes main beam could be okay, The Road Vehicles Lighting Regulations 1989, Schedule 5, Part 1, Requirements relating to obligatory main-beam headlamps and to optional main-beam headlamps to the extent specified in part ii, (a) Any vehicle not covered by sub-paragaph (b), (c) or (d): The standard Halogen bulbs on my 2018 Abarth 124 Spider are quite frankly totally inadequate and quite possibly even dangerous, especially on poorly lit roads, wet roads and during inclement weather. If such a conversion has been done, you must fail the headlamp. Your bulbs and service have been excellent. Do not use them. If such a conversion has been done, you must fail the headlamp.. Great article! Im amazed that the regulations are so outdated. For those in Uxbridge can I suggest contacting their soon to be new backbench MP ;). Sealed LED units might seem like a good option when buying a car or van but consider the costs for the future. I wonder whether this is still relevant to the UK in post-Brexit times, but it is surely is on the European continent & Ireland. There are no mentions to fail other LED bulbs such as brake lights, tail lights or reversing lights. Il leave it there. With a better thought out set of rules, ensuring safety and reliability standards are met, without restricting it to one light technology, should absolutely be possible. I drive an older car with conventional headlights, which are perfectly adequate. Thats just not going to happen. 2022 Copyright Automotive News by ABD.co.uk. eBay, Amazon and Alibaba are rife with sub-standard LED bulbs that have plenty of 5 star reviews which can easily be manipulated. Sometimes the person who has fitted the bulbs has done so incorrectly. Bikes are treated differently at MOT, so just need an e mark now. Usually, it would be a 1212 grid of LEDs as an indicator so the 382 would never be used. There should be simple to understand rules. Excellent power and beam shape from the very odd multiple lamps in the headlamp.You even get a daylight driving Halo lamp as well. The problem is that, as the article says, many (including you) have made up their mind about LED lights in vehicles because of these idiots that buy them cheap in China and then mount them upside down and for extra dramatic effect aim them as high as possible. As with all lighting technology, the colour and brightness will shift over time. MOT testing centres will now fail LED upgrade bulbs in your headlights but the guidelines state nothing about other LED bulbs in your vehicle. Not only is cost an issue but you have no choice to change the light output performance. These cheap bulbs might be dangerously bright or throw out the wrong beam pattern that can blind oncoming traffic and get you pulled over by the police. I have had not onward flashing of complaints or negative comments otherwise, which is more than I can say for many first market stock LEDs headlights out there on new and other cars and vehicles.The new legislation is seriously out dated and needs to be reviewed revised for modern technologies. Lets start with the short answer: Technically, LED upgrade bulbs are not road legal. As long as theyre fitted correctly he wont blind anyone. The only option would be to upgrade your sealed LED headlights entirely with another after market set. I have them on my EV Elise and Ducati EV bike. But, every country have handless drivers, they cant setup right light with or without led lamps. You dont mention the very cost effective replacement LED headlamps that cost around 80 each.These are invariably are marked E9 so legal to install. It seemed to take ages to reach me, but only when it was within about 50 metres did I work out it was a cyclist doing what seemed to be a steady 10mph. There are no OEM (factory fitted) LED bulbs that would share the same fitting as a 382. There are situations on the roads where you will get dazzled at night and it does not matter what type of headlight is used, this is unavoidable and you will get the beam full in the face, for instance if you appraoch a right hand bend that also drops away as you go through it, any oncoming traffic will be facing up hill and because the vehicles are in a curve, the oncoming vehicles dipped light beam will shine directly across your path and in your eyes choose what, your headlights will do exactly the same to other road users in similar situations, live with it you can do nothing about it, however there is no excuse for being dazzled or dazzleing others when vehicles approach each other on straight roads. She also commented on my too blueish color of me reverse light LEDs, but I still kept my earlier approval (afterwards I managed to find bulbcolor LED festoon replacements in 3000K just to be sure). Weve seen bulbs put in upside down and at all sorts of funny angles. For example, a review back in 2018 told readers not to buy aftermarket LEDs because They will dazzle, because the light source is in the wrong place relative to the reflector. While this viewpoint reflects the poor quality and cheaper end of the market, it doesnt take into account the performance improvements you would see from quality brands. They are all bad full stop. Passed the MOT no problem at all. At the very least kite marked approved bulbs only. The beam can only be shone down the road so far so all its doing is making the light in front of your vehicle brighter up to the same distance a halogen bulb can. This is a brand new update that seems to only focus on headlights. Too much confusing and conflicting dos and donts. Colour and intensity aswell as strict guidelines of manufacturing parameters to make a H 7 halogen equivalents all the same except longer lasting lower power consumption. It is a fundamental part of a car that directly affects other road users so why make lights brighter and brighter. This is the sort of thing a new back bencher would like to get their teeth stuck into. Therefore, I believe that legislation needs to be reviewed to remove this problem. There is a surprising amount of negative reviews and articles from reputable platforms that are simply misinformed or unaware why there is an issue with their bulb. Indeed. That doesnt mean it was manufactured or tested in that country, it just means that the country signed it off as meeting the requirements. This includes fitting and using them for classic cars. Its definitely not something new. The second thing I notice, again with ALL the LED bulbs that Ive experienced, is that because of the way that the light is produced, (it is a relatively large area as opposed to an h4s almost point source) the light can do nothing other than scatter, quite dramatically, which dazzles oncoming traffic and is extremely dangerous! A sealed LED headlight is a unit where the LEDs are completely integrated with the headlight unit itself. I know of at least one garage owner who doesnt know about it. Any good quality after-market LED bulbs will meet this criteria. But you should hate the people who dont consider other people on the road, not the technology! For example, the legislation doesnt take new technologies into account. Two points I would add to the excellent piece from ABD . Always aim to purchase any aftermarket bulbs from reputable brands such as OSRAM, Philips or Twenty20. The reason that LED upgrade bulbs cant be E marked is simply because no legislation exists for the use of LED technology in a headlight unit built for halogens. I find it very very disconcerting that this review of LED aftermarket bulbs supports the use of them. All they basically say is that, if they comply with the technical specifications, they are allowed. Its even worse for certain older vehicles as the wiring looms are not made for these types of bulb and therefore 9 times out of 10 it messes up your cars electrics and the lights can fail hence why you see so many people driving around with one extremely bright light and one that does not work at all. If such a conversion has been done, you must fail the headlamp. to Some motorcycles may be fitted with high intensity discharge (HID) or light emitting diode (LED) headlamps. I do agree with the majority on this forum that poor quality bulbs are the bane of progress here. The full legislation that covers halogen and filament bulbs is ECE Regulation 37 and is 217 pages long! They could also make a requirement that beam patterns are checked with a garage approval slip to confirm the modification is acceptable so insurance companies would accept the modification aswell. I would like to replace stop lamp bulbs (382) with LEDs because they always seem to be the ones that fail. The point about the vast difference between cheap and more reputable / more expensive LEDs is on point! No requirement, (c) A three-wheeled motor vehicle, not being a motor bicycle combination, first used on or after 1st April 1986 and having a maximum speed not exceeding 50 mph: Benjamin is right. The entire unit will need to be replaced! If youre interested in learning more about E marks, then Truck Electrics has written a fantastic explanation.. It IS Illegal to use any of these bulbs in Halogen or projector headlight units that use an H7 fitment. GOV.UK site: Class 1 and 2 motorcycles must not be failed for the defect Light source and lamp not compatible. The only problem they represent is badly level bulbs as far as I an see. I just want to thank you for the information about LED headlights. OK, I understand what you are trying to say, but what you describe is exactly what is wrong with the law. Was it done by Beers? Its about time the legislation was brought up to date. A proper debate in Parliament is urgently needed. My jaguar X type uses the very same headlight for both the halogen setup & the factory Zenon setup, and as such are stamped H1 & D2S compliant. A number of vehicles on UK roads have a headlight dipped beam that is too bright with a very sharp cutoff , as a consequence especially on short wheelbase vehicles, due to their greater pitching when travelling over undulating roads, they create a serious dazzling hazard. If such a conversion has been done, you must fail the headlamp.. IMO this suggests that future guidelines for LED headlights may also include a color range. The LEDs were expensive and good quality and the asymmetric beam pattern was spot on. it shows the offending vehicle being filmed from the car in front, this by the way is not my vehicle but one on foreign shores. Now imagine the cyclist was a motorbike doing 70mph on a country road and I was an old man in a car just pulled up at a junction ready to turn into this road. Does the guidance apply retrospectively, or only to LEDs fitted after the new guidance was published? Cheap bulbs are the problem, or incorrectly fitted bulbs. With the 2021 legislation update, vehicles older than 1986 are cannot be failed for LED headlights, so your conversion will be fine. If it costs ~100 to upgrade your bulbs for brighter light and they dont blind anyone then I say go for it. The problem would be enforcing these on unscrupulous retailers such as through Ebay which could send them from timbuktu but at the same time the same could be said for any standard halogen bulb as even these may not meet regulations. Because right now there are plenty of good quality LED headlights that generate the correct light pattern, that do not blind oncoming traffic, etc. Lighting up the road better. Basically i drive around 4 hours a day and more at weekends. Please tell me (with facts and not your opinion) what is wrong with an LED light that has the right beam pattern and therefore does not blind anyone? Then you need to change your car rather than blind other road users its not their fault you have an old car. This needs to happen. Therefore depending on how old the unit is, you may even need to buy 2 units to ensure matching performance from both sides. ..and therefore your insurance would be invalidated as this would be an unauthorised modifacation. However, I often have to drive on New Forest roads that do not have any street lighting. Really need ledgistration sorting and updating for led headlight bulbs. Are you going to do an article regarding the impact of the government banning the sale of incandescent/halogen bulbs and whether this will affect cars/bikes etc? What next crossply tyres? However in practice, how strict countries uphold their E mark standards varies massively. Written in 1986, there are still many things that need to be changed. Just because its clipped in place, it doesnt mean its definitely in correctly. the sooner they are banned the better. . This is the bottom line. If a 21W bulb fails the unit will flash at a greater rate and again you will see it on the dash Existing halogen headlamp units should not be converted to be used with high intensity discharge (HID) or light emitting diode (LED) bulbs. The UNECE regulations do take LED conversion bulbs into consideration and investigations have been taking place to develop a standard that LED conversion bulbs can meet to make them safe and legal. If one bulb goes then the whole headlight will need to be replaced which will likely cost between 500 1000. The LEDs that we sell are all tested and as long as they are fitted correctly then the beam pattern will be absolutely fine. A standard hazard unit is voltage sensed. I am not clear however if the same rules apply to front foglamps and parking lights, the fogs look great and are much improved with LED but what is the testing criteria for MOT, also am I safe with LED parking lights as they too are much improved and are awesome for the Volvo approach car lighting option on a dark night. They can only be sold as for offroad use only. There must be many more. But unscrupulous suppliers will claim this too unfortunately. I have good quality LED bulbs in my reflectors and the beam pattern is excellent. Also, I think newer led bulbs 3-4 times brighter (by lumens) than ordinary halogen. As long as the beam pattern is correct there is not a problem. They are pretty much the same headlight that is on the newer minis. The aftermarket LED bulbs that are available have only ever been designed to replace their halogen counter parts and without supporting legislation, they cant achieve an E mark. Was looking at upgrading my bulbs for both my car and van. We believe that the system for car bulbs is vastly outdated. (ie. Finally, many thanks for your time and research on this subject. If your car does not comply with Type Approval, technically, it is unroadworthy and invalidates your insurance. I once decided to walk home via an abandoned rail line at night time specifically to see the wildlife that emerges at night. Its very disappointing to break the news that no upgrades are possible. Is it legal to fit LEDs as front parking lights? The Road Vehicle Lighting Regulations were written in 1989 and are British regulations; the more recent UNECE regulations take precedence. In the event of a the dash tell-tale .failing you will see it when the indicators are operated. Unfortunately, the legislation is old and outdated. Quick Update from some searching (NB Im no lawyer!). If you do have one fail or break for any reason, your bank balance might be in trouble! This is typically due to the manual-levelling of the drivers headlight bulbs. I have driven the car thousands of miles at night since then and there have been no problems with dazzling other road users, but my vision has been greatly improved. New cars have them, so why isnt fine to fit into older cars. You only focus on is this legal?, which it clearly is not. I have used led bulbs for a year or two and find that are better for light .I use them on my side lights at the front on my Corsa 2005 it makes a vast difference .I have been stopped by the police but after telling them that are only 3 watts thay let me go .it has just passed its MOT no problems with them in.the police thought it was great on the back number plate .I explained the law and he said he didnt no that and he was now in the in the know .his mate was not chuffed at all.so he went round the car with a fine comb.no prodlem .as a 70 year old ex motor fitter I do know what I am talking about on MOT testing . This is the important bit I had absolutely no idea how far away it was from me, whether it was an illegal motorbike riding on what is now a footpath, whether it was a cyclist with these very powerful LED front lights, or whether it was a person walking with a powerful torch. Truck Electrics has written a fantastic explanation. Cheap bulbs are the problem, or incorrectly fitted bulbs. I had LEDs fitted to my vehicle in November 2020. The legislation is quite detailed and in-depth so we wont go into it all here. In the distance I could see an extremely bright white light shining in my direction. The H stands for Halogen meaning the headlight unit has been purposely built for a halogen bulb. Should the regulations change they would have to regulate the led replacements so they meet the requirements for road use. To us this seems like a very wasteful idea. To date, this stance has not changed. The after market LEDs are far superior and provide clear clean bright well lit driving conditions in all weathers. If they have to check approval marks on bulbs, they would have to do this for every component on the car! 1) Worth mentioning and checking with your own insurance guys that they are happy with the upgrade they will probably say yes if it passes the MOT. They do not need to list type of bulbs that are compliant, such as LEDs etc. Because if done right, that is what you get with a quality LED light. The trouble being they are extremely costly and an even bigger issue is that LED units are sealed, meaning if one bulb goes out you have to replace the whole unit which can cost anywhere between 200 1500 per unit. These costs are reflective of this technology being fairly new to the automotive market. I want to see more of what Im driving on. So, they have to blind, even with good-tuned pattern. No requirement, (d) A solo motor bicycle and a motor bicycle combination: Fitting a 5/6 led always give a lower brightness, is that because the filament is not in the correct place for the lens ? The Road Vehicles Lighting Regulations states a bulb needs to be E marked, approved or have the correct wattage in order to be road legal. From a cosmetic point of view, warm white leds should be the only option for number plates, the cool white versions look ridiculous, frankly. no safe and legal alternative available for the public in terms of LED retrofit bulbs and it does not wish to legalise illegal pseudo retrofits which remains the current situation work is ongoing, however. Under these conditions, and even on side roads in built up areas, oncoming vehicles fitted with LED headlights make visibility dangerously difficult, even when dipped. Being blinded by oncoming lights, cyclists included, is dangerous and needs to be clamped down on. I have found adaptive headlamps cause more problems with blinding on coming traffic. Many people looking to purchase a new car or van will soon be offered the chance to have sealed LED headlight units as an option from a dealership. In my humble opinion, these so-called upgrades will never be able to meet the stringent safety requirements of the national and international regulatory bodies! There are a number of factors that could be at fault: Purchasing cheap bulbs can be dangerous for you and other road users. Existing halogen headlamp units should not be converted to be used with HID bulbs. My car has LED dipped beams as standard its a 2016 vitara s bought new and at night I was getting flashed quite alot by drivers who must have thought I was on main beam, so I lowered them to prevent people being dazzled, thinking that the lights must have been incorrectly set from the factory I took my car to where I used to work as an M.O.T tester and I set the headlight beams bang on with their test equipment, and once again I started getting flashed at so again I lowered the beams and have left them there, because they are projector headlights I can see exactly where the cut off point is and on a straight road the height of the beam never gets much above an oncoming vehicles wheel arch at the point of passing it. It cannot be repaired, opened or modified. Absolutely, the legislation needs to be reviewed. Newer models might even have this as standard. The average cost of a new car is 40k in the UK which isnt an option for most people. This is not only my opinion; everyone I have spoken to agrees that they suffer this dangerous situation. They just can not compete with the latest vehicle lighting, which places them at a distinct disadvantage for daytime recognition. If you want to upgrade to led find something that has a small, dot-like led or same size as the spiraling filament of the halogen. I have a mg zs SUV 2019 love the car but the headlights are terrible especially on rural roads Ive put nightbreakers by osram in as a upgrade but still not adequate. How do LEDs factory fitted ( indicators ) pass if they can not be E rated ?. These idiots should be severely jumped on by the Police and Testing Stations. The halogen headlights in my 52 year old MG were upgraded to LEDs in April 2017 by a very reputable classic car restorer. I have fitted LED bulbs all round my 2003 Freelander. The dial usually has about five positions with zero being the position that the headlights are set at, the other positions from 1 to 4 (usually) will progressively lower the beam to accomodate the situations afore mentioned. According to the legislation in order to get enough light output for a stop light, you would need a minimum of 15 watts.