Headlights, sidelights, indicators etc.

[Anton]

Since they're about a fiver, there's no reason not to go with the relay. I have one in preperation for going LED indicators, they work just fine with normal indicator lamps so there's very little point in using anything else on an SJ.

[twiss]

Yeah.... to be honest though its more worth it for the fact you don't have to wire up 4 seperate resistors and find places to hide them nicely.
They are not usually small things!

[Anton]

Agreed. Changing mine to an LED compatible one took about 15 seconds. 10 of those were locating the relay. 4 of them wiggling the old one out (it was a bit stubborn) and 1 was pushing the new one in.

Kept the old relay in case something goes wrong with the new one, but so far it's worked just fine.

[twiss]

LED_Relay.jpg (28.15 KiB) Viewed 6889 times

[Anton]

Yeah, that's what I got, Chris. The exact same one. An exorbitant £2.19 including delivery.


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I didn't bother checking if it was the right one even, I just bought it - I couldn't be bothered to go outside to check to see if my £2.19 was being wisely spent...

It fit though, and worked perfectly.

It does require that your LED's on each side of the car draw at least a quarter of a watt between them, though, and at most 240W between all of the lamps both sides (which would probably melt the wiring anyway).

[ScottieJ]

Ok so I was looking at headlights and found these, wasn't sure if these were the ones with sidelights built in? I don't mine buying desperate sidelights if not.

They look pretty nice... they are projector lights aren't they? You will definitely need to upgrade your wiring!!!
Not sure about the "desperate sidelights" lol

Yes those are mk1 golf headlights, they have the holes for the sidelights bulb holders in them

Twiss they aren't projector headlights, just take standard H4 bulbs.

[Anton]

Can anyone tell me why the Golf lights are better? I think I want to upgrade my lighting at some point, not sure whether to go with upgraded bulbs, LED spots (which *might* be illegal to use on the road, maybe) HID's, Golf mk1 lights, or a mix of some of the above?

I.e. would there be any point in going Golf lights plus HID's over using standard lights plus HIDs? Or 90w lamps in Golf lights vs 90w lamps in standard lights?

And does anyone know what legalities there are regarding using LED spots? I hear you can't legally mount them on your roof and use them in normal driving conditions, but I don't know the legalities of wiring them up to high beam if I put them on the bull bar...

I *think* that'd be legal...

[twiss]

You can't legally use any roof lights on the road, not just LEDs.
I think you can get away with them on the bull bars as they should be off anyway when other cars are around....
We have just found these lights which look quite interesting... same as the ones above but with the built in "angel eye" sidelights

I'm mainly interested because my headlight reflectors are tarnished and not doing a good job at reflecting anyway


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[ScottieJ]

You can't legally fit HIDs now cheaply, there's loads of other crap they need to be 100% legal.

Simply golf headlights fit standard H4 bulbs so there's a larger bulb selection for them over the P45T sj fitting. tbh

Remember any Bulbs fitted have to be E-marked to be legally used on road.

[Anton]

I wasn't sure about bulbs needing to be e-marked, so I went reading. According to the Road Vehicles Lighting regulations 1989, dipped beam lamps should be compliant with B.S. AU40, which has probably now been folded into the e-mark system.

I should probably check my lamps to make sure they're e-marked! I don't need any reason for plod to do me. My SJ is mechanically spot on, but it looks terrible - so I do worry about the police pulling me up and looking for reasons to take my SJ away to an impound.

Anyhow, I can't find any regulations that state the maximum power of a bulb, other than the above regulations which state in section 8c that a 4 wheel vehicle must have a minimum of 30 watt lamps. I can't find anything stating a maximum, and section 9 simply states "no requirement" for intensity. That's literally all it says:

9. Intensity: No requirement

So I don't *think* that 90/100w bulbs are illegal. Fully willing to eat those words if someone can point me at the right page of legislation, I only read one article and my eyes went square.