Topic

I saw the interesting article about the halo lights but have you replaced the Tf's standard halogen headlight bulbs with LEDs ?

Here's the video. Unfortunately, the halos flashing orange doesn't really show in the video but they are perfectly clear in reality. Blame the uploader!

Thanks to Bertl for the advice on including a video.

Notanumber wrote:

I saw the interesting article about the halo lights but have you replaced the Tf's standard halogen headlight bulbs with LEDs ?

No. My understanding is that they would not be legal but, if I remember, I'll ask my MOT guy next time. TBH, the headlights on the TF don't seem too bad but I am using Nightbreakers.

No video but a couple of photos. Went straight through the MOT with no problems. In Roger Parker’s book he says that all TF’s predate the legislation and you can do what you like with them. I had the auto dimming controllers but lost the amber indicators so they are as in the photos.
Since 22/03/2022 fitting LED bulbs in pre 01/04/1986 cars is legal, after that not so. As time goes by LED bulbs are being developed that work well in halogen light fittings, a MOT tester probably would pass them if the beam is okay.
These were taken when it was brightening up after rain, they are very obvious even on a very sunny day, at night they are not stupidly bright.

I have difficulty evaluating car headlight bulbs as there’s generally a time difference when swapping one to another.
Certainly LED are superior on the small lamps, you can do one, stand back & evaluate against the other. These are lights to indicate & mark out your vehicle; headlights, especially main beam, give me the pip! Obviously markers & indicators are to aid other road users, headlamps are your view of the world on a dark night, away from a illuminated built up area.
Unless you work under pit stop rules where you drive in from a predetermined route & you pop the bonnet, whilst your pit crew dive in. Then with limbs flailing connectors are pulled & pushed, clips ping, are lost, recovered, then replaced, within a fraction of a moment the bonnet is slammed down & your off on the same test route.
I can’t do that, I have to have a brew & by the time I’ve farted about any impression has faded.
So I’m LEDs all around the small lamps, in fact all lamps except heads, which are Nightbraker.
I do switch them via relays (at the moment) adjacent to the lamps, the coils being activated by the standard switches.
I sometimes wish I could get worked up about headlamps, treat myself to a lux/lumin meter & experiment, but when it goes dark I drive to the conditions, which means taking it easy if the headlamps aren’t as good as my neighbours new Range Rover, they could blister paint at fifty yards.
M

MGB281 wrote:

No video but a couple of photos. Went straight through the MOT with no problems. In Roger Parker’s book he says that all TF’s predate the legislation and you can do what you like with them. I had the auto dimming controllers but lost the amber indicators so they are as in the photos.
Since 22/03/2022 fitting LED bulbs in pre 01/04/1986 cars is legal, after that not so. As time goes by LED bulbs are being developed that work well in halogen light fittings, a MOT tester probably would pass them if the beam is okay.
These were taken when it was brightening up after rain, they are very obvious even on a very sunny day, at night they are not stupidly bright.

That's exactly what I did with the identical result. But these pictures show it much better.

They look brilliant and Im starting to be convinced about the halo lights too. How hazardous was it separating the headlight clear front cover from the rest of the headlight ?

Notanumber wrote:

They look brilliant and Im starting to be convinced about the halo lights too. How hazardous was it separating the headlight clear front cover from the rest of the headlight ?

I'm not going to pretend it was a simple job but it wasn't that difficult and, unlike most jobs, it didn't involve any bloodshed.

The original howto by Sundance can be found here.

• To remove the headlights, you need to remove the front bumper.
• Splitting the headlights, although straightforward in principle, wasn't that easy. I had to put them in the oven several times in order to separate the two halves completely.
• Making a neat job of installing the halos onto the chrome lens surrounds is fiddly.
• Reassembly of the headlights requires working with some thick, sticky mastic and more oven action.
• You'll need to run 12v from the fusebox to the front of the car and then tap into the indicator and side lights.
• Connecting to the indicator wiring was awkward. I didn't want to use Scotchlocks but it would have been a lot easier if I had. In the end, I used 'Y' shaped bullet crimps.

It's not actually that hard if you take your time, I bought a pair of 2nd hand headlights to work on at my leisure. It was 3 years ago. It probably took me a couple of weekends. You can sell your old headlights later.

It was worth it because now they look cool. From a few meters, they look like they were designed that way but close examination reveals what has been done.

You can always PM me if you want any further hand-holding, although I'm no expert!I

Halos from Amazon
The butyl rubber sealant was like this.
Y 1 female to 2 male crimps here.

No no no! If you didn’t make a blood sacrifice the car gods will be angry and they’ll get their revenge!
You must redo the entire Job, this time making sure you injure yourself and bleed profusely!

Well, I did burn my fingers a bit on the hot, molten rubber. Does that count?

I doubt it you’d need the burn them a lot to appease the car gods!

I didn't even burn a finger, mind you I was paranoid about getting the headlights too hot and I ended heating them for a second time to finally soften the butyl sealing strip. As others have said getting the halo's onto the chrome ring is fiddly, I resorted to a 0.7mm drill bit and 0.6mm stainless MIG wire as well as the clear silicone. The most frustrating part was testing them and finding that they were working perfectly only to install them with the time delay controller only to find that they didn't, I lost count of the number of times I took the wiring apart before coming to the conclusion that the delay controller knocks out the indicator function. Due to the very low current draw I ran a wire from the ignition fed radio supply.
In a small low car it becomes increasingly important to be seen, these halo rings certainly make a difference from the standard indicators.