H4's V's LED's - Real World Test

[DaveyB]

As promised @ZipcodeUK and I met up tonight and put our lights to the test. This test is to assist other prospective buyers to be able to make an informed choice as to whether they want to upgrade the headlights.


So this is both vans with sidelights and foglights.


H4 Sidelights.


LED Sidelights


H4 Dipped headlights


LED Dipped headlight


H4 Main beam


LED Main beam


And one final shot; offside led side light V's nearside H4 side light.

@ZipcodeUK followed me down the country lane to the airfield and had his main beam on behind me. it's true to say that I had no idea, thought it was jut the dipped beam.

 

[surf-report]

Excellent comparrison chaps. The difference is unbelievable and undeniable. Right now I think I would swap body parts for LED lights!

 

[Pauly]

Awesome pictures chaps, well done

 

[surf-report]

@ZipcodeUK followed me down the country lane to the airfield and had his main beam on behind me. it's true to say that I had no idea, thought it was jut the dipped beam.

Ain't that the truth. I've driven about 12o miles home in the dark tonight and at times it felt as though my lights weren't working at all. In the end I put full beam on and although not that much better, no-one flashed me!

 

[Alan Walsh]

Really wish I had gone for the led`s, but by the same token how can vw possibly justify a 35k van having such piss poor lights as standard!

 

[ZipcodeUK]

Well, it took a Bit of fretting to get the camera setting to be as accurate as possible to what we were seeing, but the difference is huge. The h4 setups are so poor that I had to stand in front of the camera to get it to focus. Didn't have the same problem when photographing the LED's.

 

[StudleyGlass]

Yep great bit of work lads. Pretty scary at the same time . Vw have got that wrong big time. If i had them they would get the van back for a full refund the day after i got it.

 

[Fish]

Wow

 

[mark]

Nice one -


I left a site with a mate a while back ( standard lights ) was behind him for quite a while then overtook, looking back through the mirrors I'd of sworn he just had sidelights on- their was just nothing there! Next day all he did was complain about my LEDs , apparently they were so bright they caused a massive shadow in front of his van and he couldn't see a thing. I did wonder why he was driving so slow at the the time...

 

[DaveyB]

For me the H4 light in every scenario is a step down to the LED. What I mean by this is that the LED sidelight gives about the same level of clarity as the H4 dipped beam, and the LED dipped beam is about the same as the H4 main beam. What also helps is not just the level of light but the colour of it; because the LED is a pure brilliant white, it picks out detail so much better than the browny/ amber of the H4.

 

[RattyMcClelland]

Those pictures are a pretty accurate representation on the output in real life.

I'm comparing t5 standard headlights which were better than the t6 h4 to my t6 led. Those h4s are absolutely shocking even in full beam mode.

Good picture comparison.

 

[ZipcodeUK]

I've got some Philips (Racing Vision 150% Extra Light ) bulbs to replace the dodgy yellow std ones and blue vision side light bulbs too. Will hopefully get them installed this week.
I do also need a good bulb / LED for the p21w 'DRL'. Who's running what?

 

[T6 Dave]

Thank you @DaveyB and @ZipcodeUK this is what is needed to show vw what we are on about, we just need a comparison of h7 to h4 and h7 to led. Then we could ask for a good will gesture from VW to at LEAST "upgrade" h4 users to H7. And maybe to also offer a discounted "upgrade" route to LED if possible?

 

[andythom188]

Nice job lads

 

[Rob]

That's just shocking and anyone without any knowledge of the issue would certainly think this is an exaggeration and who could blame them. I changed my bulbs pretty early on to some Phillips Clear White which without a doubt made them far better than what is shown in the standard H4 picture but still somewhat sort of what i would call expectable. It just doesn't make any sense on why they did this given the technology available these days and he cost of the vans.

 

[T6dder]

Nice work guys. I agree with @DaveyB each stage up for the H4's is like the previous LED setting.

So what's the next stage now? Are you going to send an email to someone to question the safety of these lights, containing the forum posts and photos?

 

[T6 Dave]

@T6dder I think the next step should be a group test of h4 vs h7 vs LED, to the same quality of @DaveyB and @ZipcodeUK work, preferably involving them as they have done such sterling work, I would also suggest a good digital light meter as used in high end photography, at a set point to measure ambient and projected light values as this defines the amount of light in the picture, and can be related to, the distance it is measured at needs to be recorded as well. Then request a "good will" upgrade from VW.

 

[Scruffy]

Why not post the pictures on the VW commercial twitter page? They haven't answered any of my querries so far. Maybe this would jolt them into action. Particularly if you link them to the VWUK site. Shame them on social media, it seems to be the only course of action these days.

 

[former member]

Why not post the pictures on the VW commercial twitter page? They haven't answered any of my querries so far. Maybe this would jolt them into action. Particularly if you link them to the VWUK site. Shame them on social media, it seems to be the only course of action these days.

Totally agree. I've put a couple of posts up and had pretty lame replies.

I wondered about finding the names of the designers who decided they were okay; make a fuss about them not being able to do their jobs properly.

I haven't done any comparison but judging by the photos so far, H7s are far better and whiter than H4s. Still nothing special but I'd say about the same as our T5.1 Cali (maybe even a tiny bit better).

 

[Captain Mainwaring]

Really wish I had gone for the led`s, but by the same token how can vw possibly justify a 35k van having such piss poor lights as standard!

Completely agree. Selling a 'premium' van with such tragic lighting is inexcusable. I have the twin H7 setup and would be happy to meet up to do a comparison test if there are any H4 and LED owners on here in northern Scotland