H7 Halogen Bulb Upgrade

andy greenwood

Senior Member
VIP Member
T6 Guru
I've read a few threads on this but can't seem to find an answer, what are the best bulb upgrades for the H7 units ? (non LED though) am i correct in thinking that the LED's are not road legal ?
 
yes, MOT will fail if you fit LED to non LED optics
I've been looking for the same. apparenlty it goes between philips and osram, depending on white colour you prefer
they also are much better than standard H7, but don't last as long, so better plan spares
 
the other thing, is although it is an MOT failure, is it legal to drive with them anyway:
- drive with LEDS
- swap them for Halogens for the MOT
- reinstall LED after MOT

what are the implications? fine, insurance?
not that i want to do that, just wondering
 
the other thing, is although it is an MOT failure, is it legal to drive with them anyway:
- drive with LEDS
- swap them for Halogens for the MOT
- reinstall LED after MOT

what are the implications? fine, insurance?
not that i want to do that, just wondering
Thats what i was wondering too ?
 
You can get a ticket for it if thats what you mean
You are contravening the construction and use regulations which is what the police care about, i think you would have to be hugely unlucky to incur any issues beyond being told to remove them or getting a VRN
If you were in an accident though and the other parties claim to have been blinded by your headlights then ....................
 
Osram Nightbreakers and PIAA Xtreme White plus are good contenders.

wow, think i'll have to give it a miss with the PIAA Extreme bulbs, £75 is a bit expensive for me. Im going to try the philips racing vision 150%, I know they're probably no where near as good as the PIAA but the philips are only £20 for a twin pack.
 
Got to find the sweet spot
- Factory fitted H7 £0 - 100% - decent life expectancy
- philips/osram H7 ~ £20 - 120% - shorter life expectancy
- PIAA £150 %? ?expectancy
- Aftermarket LED headlight £450+ guess 130% + need to inform insurance of modification, variable, high cost when it fails if cannot home repair
- retofitted Factory LED headlights £3000, guess 135% + inform insurance of mod(?), potential very high cost of repair post warranty
 
Got to find the sweet spot
- Factory fitted H7 £0 - 100% - decent life expectancy
- philips/osram H7 ~ £20 - 120% - shorter life expectancy
- PIAA £150 %? ?expectancy
- Aftermarket LED headlight £450+ guess 130% + need to inform insurance of modification, variable, high cost when it fails if cannot home repair
- retofitted Factory LED headlights £3000, guess 135% + inform insurance of mod(?), potential very high cost of repair post warranty
There are no aftermarket LED headlights, they're H7 or H1, unless you put illegal LED lamps in them but you could do that with OEM H7s
 
I will be shortly changing my H4's headlights for new H7's. Before fitting them I plan to upgrade at least some of the original bulbs for new uprated ones. From my research it appears that I will need to purchase 4 off H7 55W bulbs for the dipped and main beams, please confirm.

Also is it worth upgrading any of the other bulbs at the same time, eg the fog light H11's or DRL's which I believe are W21W bulbs.

I am mainly concerned by safety / long life of the bulbs.

Any opinions gratefully received
 
I got my foglight bulbs from travelinlite and they came with canbus resistors,not had time to fit em yet tho!.
 
Last edited by a moderator:
I will be shortly changing my H4's headlights for new H7's. Before fitting them I plan to upgrade at least some of the original bulbs for new uprated ones. From my research it appears that I will need to purchase 4 off H7 55W bulbs for the dipped and main beams, please confirm.

Also is it worth upgrading any of the other bulbs at the same time, eg the fog light H11's or DRL's which I believe are W21W bulbs.

I am mainly concerned by safety / long life of the bulbs.

Any opinions gratefully received

I changed the dipped beam for Osram Nightbreaker Laser Next Gen, DRLs & Sidelight to Osram LED
Main beam is just the original bulbs as they are fine.

Hopefully the LEDs will last a good while. The Nightbreakers are pushing the limit so I’m expecting to have to replace every once in a while.

Overall I’ve been pretty happy with the investment but it’s not cost me much more than 100 quid total. They are significantly better but I f I hadn’t found my H7 units so cheap on eBay and bought new I’d have been gutted I’d not gone for the Travelinlite units with the Phillips LED bulbs for £600ish. That said I’ve always wanted to keep the van OEM.
 
im sure this has been covered before but can’t find it for some reason.
Anyone got a list of the bulbs I need for the h7 headlights. Looking to upgrade the drl bulbs.
Thanks in advance
 
If you go to the download section then page 4 close to the bottom there is a list there
 
Back
Top