LED bulbs anyone?

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ampwhu
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Re: LED bulbs anyone?

Post by ampwhu »

ive had to remove the oil pressure and ignition LED bulbs. They went out when the vehicle started, but 'glimmered' when driving down the road. Ive put the old bulbs in and its back to normal.

whats the reason for this?
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Re: LED bulbs anyone?

Post by Sleeper »

I could be wrong but... a LED " bulb" will not function correctly in the ignition position as it has to pass current to excite the alternator ( assuming you've updated ) , but in the oil pressure position should work fine... if ftted the right way round as most are polarity conscious , depending if your car is +/_ Earth.

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Re: LED bulbs anyone?

Post by ampwhu »

ok, I sort of understand. the car has an alternator and is negative earth. being the screw in type, how can it be polarity sensitive? the interior light bulb was and didn't work until I turned it around.
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Re: LED bulbs anyone?

Post by Sleeper »

There are available screw in led bulbs for + or - earth.. ( but rare ).

Maybe your speedometer earth is suspect , maybe the alternator output is a little higher than the battery voltage ?

John ;-)
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Re: LED bulbs anyone?

Post by IslipMinor »

LED bulbs do not work well as the 'ignition warning light' with an alternator. They do not draw enough current to excite the alternator quickly and when it does, it can glow a bit. Better to keep the original tungsten bulb.

The oil pressure light should work perfectly well - I have never noticed any glow with ours. The glow could indicate that there is some voltage difference between the speedo head and earth. Try a connection directly from the speedo head to the negative battery terminal. If that solves the problem, there was some voltage difference - if not, not sure what to suggest!
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geoberni
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Re: LED bulbs anyone?

Post by geoberni »

ampwhu wrote: Sat Feb 01, 2020 8:38 pm ive had to remove the oil pressure and ignition LED bulbs. They went out when the vehicle started, but 'glimmered' when driving down the road. Ive put the old bulbs in and its back to normal.

whats the reason for this?
I think we've adequately covered the issues with the Ign Lamp having an LED fitted.
Not only are you messing with the excitation of the alternator (if I remember correctly, Dynamos don't have this issue as they use their residual magnetism to initially excite) , but since the LED requires much less voltage across it to illuminate, it will be 'lit' at a much lower voltage difference.

Which leads us to the Oil Pressure light 'glimmering'; I tend to agree with earlier comments, there is most likely a difference in earth potentials around various connections in the back of the dash.

Think of it being like when you're following a car along the road and you see strange things happening with the rear light clusters, such as an indicator lamp lighting dimly on one side when the brakes are operated.
It's usually poor earths causing the circuits to find a different return path than the one intended.
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geoberni
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Re: LED bulbs anyone?

Post by geoberni »

OK, as promised weeks ago, I've finally got around to uploading the LED Headlamp video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LQQD9U6BWzw

LED Headlamps in the Minor.
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Re: LED bulbs anyone?

Post by Sleeper »

Berni
Aren't these adjustable for left/right hand drive?...ie the led body can be rotated , or at least has two positions it can go in relative to the three positioning tangs?

John ;-)
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Re: LED bulbs anyone?

Post by geoberni »

John
There is a small grub screw which presumably secures the mounting plate to the main part of the lamp, but I don't believe that the designed purpose is to tweak the dip orientation.
The ones I brought were perfectly aligned in the positioning of the LEDs and the little shrouded bit, matching the H4s I removed.
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The correct dip to the Left or Right is purely a function of the Lens Glass on the front of the assembly.
Direction of Dip is indicated by the arrow on the bottom of the front glass, just under the E11 Circle
.
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Re: LED bulbs anyone?

Post by Sleeper »

Berni
They look very similar to mine...from the photo you can see they dismantle, bayonet style fitting , then the three pronged plate can be re-attached 180 degrees out...altering from left dip to right dip ( or so I believe.. ) .
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John ;-)
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geoberni
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Re: LED bulbs anyone?

Post by geoberni »

John,
I agree it's there, but why would you need to alter the alignment from that of the standard H4 on such a basic traditional Lens?
They are designed and set up to provide Dip as I indicated above.
The original H4 it's replacing didn't do that.

I believe that some more recent 'top end' motors have various means of changing from RH to LH Dip due to the way they have clear lenses, so moving the LED in relation to the Lens might apply to such a vehicle if originally designed to have LED lamps, but certainly not a requirement on a bog standard Lens vehicle where the deflector is built in.

Incidentally, there is one small drawback to using LED headlamps and that is that all other types, i.e. tungsten , halogen, HID etc, all emit some sort of infrared energy that can thaw and de-ice the headlamps in bad weather. That doesn't happen with LEDs, so something to be aware of when out in the snow and ice in a Moggie! :)

Modern cars with LED headlamps have work arounds in their design, but of course we're tinkering with 70+ year old tech.
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Re: LED bulbs anyone?

Post by ampwhu »

I like the look of these LED H4 bulbs. However, my van has pre focus bulbs.

How would I go about a swap?
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Re: LED bulbs anyone?

Post by geoberni »

ampwhu wrote: Mon Feb 10, 2020 6:09 pm I like the look of these LED H4 bulbs. However, my van has pre focus bulbs.

How would I go about a swap?
Just get a set of 7" Halogen replacement (they're a direct swap), then fit the LEDs in place of the halogen lamps.
The replacement headlights are about £35-40 each from the specialist Moggie suppliers, but you can get a pair for little more than that if you shop around. They are available with and without the pilot (side) light built in.

Just an example here: https://www.sportscarsupplies.com/halog ... 1283-p.asp

The power consumption difference from halogen to LED is significant.

Basil had halogens fitted by the previous owner, but they never uprated the dynamo to an alternator.
I fitted an ammeter and with the halogen headlights on, the gauge was showing a Negative value, i.e. battery drain of about 3-4 amps when running.
With the LEDs fitted, it doesn't change from giving a few amps charge when engine running.
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ampwhu
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Re: LED bulbs anyone?

Post by ampwhu »

The pre focus bulbs have a different connection to that. They dont use a 3 bladed connectors so my wiring wouldn't fit.
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Re: LED bulbs anyone?

Post by geoberni »

ampwhu wrote: Tue Feb 11, 2020 6:29 pm The pre focus bulbs have a different connection to that. They dont use a 3 bladed connectors so my wiring wouldn't fit.
:oops:
Sorry forgot that aspect.
You can get them for a low as £4 a pair on fleabay to connect yourself.
Just search for "H4 9003 Bulb Socket Female Adapter"
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/1-Pair-H4-90 ... Swe-td~hx5

Or somewhere like CW are a bit more expensive to get a loom section:
https://www.morrisminor.org.uk/parts/54 ... conversion
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ampwhu
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Re: LED bulbs anyone?

Post by ampwhu »

So the bowls are the same then?
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Re: LED bulbs anyone?

Post by Chipper »

ampwhu wrote: Sat Feb 01, 2020 8:38 pm ive had to remove the oil pressure and ignition LED bulbs. They went out when the vehicle started, but 'glimmered' when driving down the road. Ive put the old bulbs in and its back to normal.

whats the reason for this?
I had an intermittent front sidelight bulb failure on my 2003 MINI Cooper, so I decided to fit a pair of white LED bulbs in place of the normal 'peanut' bulbs. For some reason, they stay on dimly for a while even after switching everything including the ignition off, then they slowly flicker on and off for a while, then eventually go off completely!

I'm guessing there must be a residual few mA of current in the system, enough to dimly glow the LEDs for a certain period.

For the time being, I'm keeping them, as they provide a certain extra bit of security when I park at night (perhaps fooling passers-by into thinking it's a security system), and don't seem to be causing any undue battery drain.
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Re: LED bulbs anyone?

Post by geoberni »

ampwhu wrote: Tue Feb 11, 2020 8:57 pm So the bowls are the same then?
As far as I'm aware the glass units are a direct swap, irrespective of the Bowl.
If you've seen my video, you'll see I mentioned that Basil has 1 lamp with an inner bowl and 1 without.
The one with the inner is a metal bowl, the one without is plastic, but the headlamps are the same.
I'm afraid I don't know much more about headlamp bowls.
I see that the CW website refers to :
"Bucket - Headlamp Bowl - Late" and "Bucket- Early - Bayonet" but I've no idea which is which, I think Basil might have one of each fitted but as I say, the headlamps are the same units.


Perhaps if you mention the age of your van, someone with a similar age vehicle can contribute some detail?
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ampwhu
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Re: LED bulbs anyone?

Post by ampwhu »

Yes of course. It's a 1963.
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Re: LED bulbs anyone?

Post by woodiesenfrance »

OH has today fitted LEDs in my trav, bought on Amazon.fr for driving in France.
Boy are they BRIGHT in the garage! Haven't yet tested them night-time as it was still daylight when I came home.
Will get the alignment checked at our friendly local testing station and then report back.
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