A common topic: My car lights are not bright enough, should I change them?
You will hear a variety of different answers to this question, and the key words basically include: astigmatism, air leakage/water leakage, no warranty, failure to pass annual inspection, etc.
So let’s first address the most important issue: “Whether the upgraded car headlights can meet the standard requirements for annual inspections.”
According to the standards for lighting, signal light devices and other electrical equipment in Article 8 of GB 7258-2017 "Technical Conditions for Safety in Motor Vehicle Operation":
The first standard is that headlights and signal lights need to be installed securely and the lighting device can be controlled normally.
The second standard is the luminous intensity of the high beam beam: the illumination luminosity of each high beam needs to meet the requirements of the following table.
The key word of this table is that the light intensity of our vehicle needs to be at least 15,000 lumens to meet the standard. (The unit of the table candela: 1 candela equals 1 lumen)
The third standard: The installation quantity, location and brightness of lighting and signal light devices need to meet the requirements of Article 8.5. For example: the high and low beams can be switched normally, the low beams are not dazzling, and the low beams illuminate the beam when no load is used. The height standard of the light and dark cutoff line on the curtain at a distance of 10 meters needs to meet the beam irradiation position requirements of 8.5.3.
Take a detailed look at all the standards for the annual inspection of lighting. There is no requirement that we cannot change the light source form of the lighting. For example, halogen lamps can be upgraded to xenon lamps, as long as all the above requirements and standards are met. All can pass the annual inspection line.
Now that we can upgrade our lighting according to our own needs, how should we choose to upgrade?
For those of you who want to upgrade your lighting, you will still have many choices, ranging from upgraded halogen headlights, in-line xenon lamps, in-line LED bulbs, LED lens assemblies, and laser lens assemblies. Each of them can improve the effect of car lights. Next, we will share with you the content of LED headlight bulb upgrades.
Original car halogen headlights and upgraded halogen headlights:
Let’s start with the price. The original car’s ordinary halogen light bulb is priced at around 30 RMB; while the upgraded version similar to Osram’s Nightcrawler is priced at around 160 RMB.
Judging from the lighting test results, the luminous flux of the original car's ordinary halogen lamp is more than 500 LM (lumens), and the color temperature is more than 2800 K.
(Because this is not specific to a specific light bulb, the test result data is not expressed in single digits.)
As you can see from the appearance of this upgraded version of the halogen lamp of the Osram Night Walker, the bulb casing is blue, which is different from the original car's transparent casing and can increase the color temperature of the bulb. From the test results, it can be seen that the luminous flux of this type of bulb is more than 600 LM, and the color temperature can reach data such as 3400K.
The picture below shows the original car halogen lamp. The picture below shows the upgraded halogen lamp.
This upgraded version of the halogen lamp has a certain improvement effect compared to the worst halogen lamp of the original car. The main advantage is that the price is relatively affordable and the installation method is simple. It can be replaced with the original car's light bulb without any difference. . The disadvantage is that the service life is no different from the original car's halogen lamp. The service life of some such products is even slightly shorter than the original car's halogen lamp.
Direct plug-in LED headlights:
The two common appearance shapes of plug-in LED headlights are built-in power supply and external power supply.
01 Built-in power chip
02 Undisassembled picture
01 External power module
02 Undisassembled picture
Because LED lights are a type of cold light source, the heat dissipation effect can also determine the effectiveness of the product. Therefore, the heat dissipation methods of LED lights are also divided into fan type heat dissipation, copper strip type heat dissipation, and aluminum sheet type heat dissipation.
Copper strip heat dissipation LED light
Fan-cooled LED light
LED matrix headlights with aluminum heat dissipation
The reason why we usually choose in-line LED headlights to upgrade our original car lights is simply because compared to the complicated installation and debugging process of the lens assembly, in-line LED lights also directly replace the original car bulb plug during installation. Insertion method.
Compared with the limited space inside the headlight assembly, a very small number of models require a little modification when installing in-line LED lights. For example, the headlight dust cover of Beijing Hyundai's IX35 has a built-in moisture-proof bag. After the LED bulb is installed, it will interfere with the dust cover being reinstalled, so certain small changes are required.
However, the internal structure of most headlight assemblies can be installed without damage to plug-in LED headlights, and it has a good improvement effect. So how should we choose this kind of LED light product?
The first is the lamp beads: From the comprehensive test effect of the lamp beads, we personally recommend choosing LED bulbs composed of SCP lamp beads.
COB lamp bead LED lamp
SCP lamp bead LED lamp
We have also mentioned above that the heat dissipation of LED lamps is very important. Most of the heat comes from the LED lamp beads, so there are several different ways to conduct the heat from the LED lamp beads to the cooling fan. One is to transfer the heat of the LED lamp beads to the cooling fan behind it through a thermally conductive copper tube sandwiched in the middle.
The second method of heat conduction is that the circuit board of the LED lamp bead directly conducts heat to the aluminum plate through thermal conductive silicone grease, and then dissipates heat through the cooling fan.
Through our actual testing of these two methods of heat conduction, we found that the design with heat-conducting copper tubes can well transfer the heat of the LED lamp beads to the cooling fan, and can better keep the LED lamp beads at about 110 degrees. operating temperature.
When installing LED lights, because most LED light bulbs have a light-emitting structure that emits light from both left and right sides.
In addition, the reflective surface of the light bowl of many models has vertical grooves on the surface.
Reflective bowl for headlights with separate high and low lights
The reflective bowls shown in the picture are all vertical grooves.
Reflective bowl for original car LED lights
Therefore, we must keep the lamp beads in the correct orientation during the installation process, such as the left and right orientations relative to the vertical. After installing the bulb, you still need to adjust the light and dark lines of the car lights.
After LED lights are installed in some car models, the light and dark lines of the headlights will be very low. So we need to adjust the height of the light and dark lines of the headlights again.
When choosing LED bulbs, according to our experience, try to choose products with separate power modules and bulb bodies. Because it dissipates heat better, it can achieve greater power. As for whether it can reach the brightness advertised by the manufacturer after being installed in the car, we can download some collection APPs for testing luminous flux, such as photometer, LM-3000 and other mobile phone testing software. Although these software will be more than 300 different from very professional equipment. LM’s test results, but they are probably enough.
