Roadster LED Headlights

The Roadster Headlights Are Crap

Preach! The whole optic set up for the standard Hella headlights are terrible. The reflectors are tiny and the projector lenses are inadequate. The light collection and throw of the 90mm Hella lights just doesn’t light the road very well.

LED Dipped Beam Headlights

We aren’t talking about those crappy LED bulbs, these are full replacement headlights. There are no bulbs to change, just properly fitted and cooled LEDs with a decent lens setup. This is one of the 2 that we are fitting. Each comes with 3 fixings.

The backings are black so they look cool too.

They are properly sealed and have cooling fins on the rear.

They are E marked, DOT compliant and ECE regulated so are road legal for many countries. They are available in right and left hand traffic and a flat beam design. The beam pattern cannot be changed for driving in other countries.

Fitting

Before you remove the old headlights from your car, shine them up a wall and make a note of the level of the cut off line with some tape or chalk. You’ll use these marks to align the new lights later on. Pay close attention to the markings on lens. These should face straight upwards when fitted to the car.

Pay attention to where the fixings are on the headlight surround.

Push the fixings into the lights from the front to match the holes in the headlight surround.

Put the fixings into the same hole positions on the new LED headlights…

…and push the headlight into the back of the housing.

Fit the housings back onto the car.

Fitting is now complete. Align the headlights to the level that you marked out from the original lights.

Wiring

The obvious solution is to crimp a spade connection on the 2 wires and push them into the bulb connector. It’s up to you if you do that however, you should ideally use a relay and power the headlights through it directly from the battery. Switch the relay using the existing bulb connection.

You can connect both headlights to the relay so you only need 1 which reduces the wiring required.

Remember. LED products require the red wire to go to the positive wire and the black wire to the negative wire. If you wire them up back to front, they won’t work and you could damage them.

Money Shots

Sexy!

Taken on a totally unlit country road (before being properly aligned).

Nice, crisp white light output.

Takes your crap yellow lights and gives you a nice updated look.

Why Are They Better?

Even the best H7 bulbs max out at about 15,000 candelas (a measure of light intensity). However, these high power bulbs have a very short life span and cost more than regular bulbs. The JW Speaker dipped beam LED headlights max out at 17,500 candelas, so they are a bit brighter. Unlike the high output standard bulbs, the LED headlights last up to 50 times longer. However, they don’t cost 50 times as much as high performance H7 bulbs.

The real benefit comes with the colour of the light output.

Circadian Rhythm

It’s a biological process that regulates the timing of daily behaviour. One of these daily behaviours is sleeping.

Yellow lighting affects the brain, making it want to sleep. It’s standard nature as the sunlight yellows and dims as the sun goes down, this is when you normally sleep. This is emulated when driving at in the dark with yellow lighting like that of standad bulb output. You are surrounded by dark and a dim yellow tinged light. That’s what makes you sleepy during driving.

Standard bulbs cause eye strain and increase driver’s fatigue.

The pure white light from LED headlights more emulates the morning sun when you’d normally be waking up. This affects the brain and causes it to stay more alert and awake.

The 2nd upside to LED headlight colour is the apparent difference in contrast. Things stand out more and the road seems to have more texture. It’s like driving in HD.

Where Can I Buy Them?

A few companies sell similar fitments like Hella and BMAC. They are good but expensive. What we have fitted here are JW Speaker LED replacements. Many light companies hope you think that their LED headlights are built in Europe, however, most are made on China which doesn’t represent the price that they sell them for.

JW Speaker headlights are designed and built in America.

Europe

Right Hand Drive – Left Hand Traffic. UK etc.
Left Hand Drive – Right Hand Traffic. Rest of Europe, USA etc.

USA

The Retrofit Source

What About High Beam LED Replacements?

To be honest, the standard high beam headlights aren’t bad for lighting the road and the bulbs tend to last a long time as they are rarely used. It’s up to you if you want to fit them as well. On the plus side, they do have built in side lights that look quite cool.