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Hi all, My Merc W114 has got headlights as shown below. Basically the bowl has lost its silvering a bit. I wonder if I can replace the original bowl by installing an LED headlamp, behind the diffractor glass to get a more modern output? I think, that means I need to find a LED headlamp that doesnt have any beam correction on it, or it might clash with the original W114 beam correcting glass - am I right? Any ideas on where I can get uncorrected headlamps for this job? Many Thanks  |
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Rich
Club Retro Rides Member
Posts: 6,237 
Club RR Member Number: 160
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Unless you can find an LED unit that emulates a filament it won't really work how you think it will. The pattern to the glass is deigned with the specific location of the bulbs filament in relation to the lens as well as the way the reflector will work. I imagine you may get a 'kindof' beam pattern, but probably not a good one. That's why beam patterns end up horrible if you put the bulbs in the holders wrong.
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I believe you are right. This was one of the arguments against installing just a simple LED bulb in a restored W114 H4 headlamp bowl.
Apparently, the LED bulbs produced lights further out from the focal point built into the bowl for a H4 halogen bulb.
There must be a way out there. I don't want to tart looking at getting a clear, uncorrected vacuum formed outer lense fir the headlight, just to let me run LED headlamp bowls behind them.
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I fitted the same H4 units as BPR did to the pop in my 2005 transit. These rotate in the housings to allow for beam pattern adjustment, the LED element is set at the same distance from the bowl as a standard H4. They do protrude backwards and i'm not sure if the back covers will go on properly but they are equal in output to the Ring 150% brighter H4's I previously had installed with a higher colour temperature.
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1988 DUTTON LEGERRA MK1 - SPARES DONOR
1989 DUTTON LEGERRA MK2 - CURRENT PROJECT
1990 DUTTON LEGERRA ZS MK2
1990 DUTTON LEGERRA ZS MK2
DUTTON PHAETON S2 - Resting
DUTTON PHAETON S4 - Resting
DUTTON PHAETON S4 - PROJECT X
DUTTON SIERRA S2 - Resting
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Feb 10, 2019 12:50:49 GMT
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To be honest you'll be struggling to find something that will give you a decent beam pattern, legality aside.
I'm assuming that good replacement headlights are made of unobtanium for your car given the age.
This is a common problem on old Saabs, and at least five or so years ago there was a company over in Germany who could recondition the headlight for a reasonable cost (think it was about £75). They stripped the whole thing down, cleaned everything up, did a proper new vacuum deposited silver layer on the reflector and then rebuilt it all.
If I were in your shoes that's the route I'd be going down.
That way the car remains looking original, you get the headlights working as the designer intended and you don't wind up blinding everyone else because you're running lamps that don't work properly with the reflector.
I reckon we will get to a point in the not too distant future that drop in LED replacements for H4 lamps that work properly will become a real viable option, but we're not *quite* there yet. Whether they will ever get the relevant type approval is another can of worms entirely which I won't be going in to.
One mod that might be worth considering is to route some heavy cabling from the battery to the headlights directly and install relays there to switch them. It might not affect your car given how well engineered old Mercs tend to be, but it's surprising how much voltage gets dropped between the battery and the actual headlights in some cars. A H4 lamp running on 11.5V will look pretty weedy compared to one seeing the 13-14V or so you'd expect with the engine running. I've done this on a couple of cars where the difference really is night and day.
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Current fleet: 73 AC Model-70. 75 Rover 3500. 84 Trabant 601S. 85 Sinclair C5. 06 Peugeot Partner 1.6HDi.
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Apae
Kinda New
Posts: 5
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Feb 13, 2019 15:14:59 GMT
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In my Volvo 940 is a set of LED H4 that's doing exactly what you want, so they are there. They come from a group buy on a dutch forum however, so I'm afraid I have no link to the supplier. You can try googling for H4 Lumiled.
BUT: the Volvo also had bad chrome, and as the H4 is working the same as normal halogen H4, this still is an important factor. I still ended up fitting new reflectors to get any light on the road itself, but now there's lots of it, and in exactly the right angles. |
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Last Edit: Feb 13, 2019 15:17:20 GMT by Apae
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As always, thank you for the info.
Thats a fair but of stuff for all to consider:
German resilvering contact
Improved wiring
Two LED suppliers with caveats.
U
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ChasR
RR Helper
motivation
Posts: 10,191
Club RR Member Number: 170
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One way to get LED lights without potentially blinding others is to get US spec headlights:  As others have said, I'd get decent bulbs and ensure the headlamps are in good condition regarding the silvering of the mirrors. On a few cars, that's been enough to give me decent headlights. Speak of this quietly, but I've even owned cars where the Halogen option is sometimes brighter than the HID item ; Renault Clio 172s are a good example here. |
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