You’re both incorrect. Philips and Osram have regional approvals. They apply to a specific retrofit model in a specific car reflector and more importantly they’re not valid within the rest of the EU - homologation is but what Philips and Osram are getting is just a local approval/certificate. They’re strictly country dependent (as for now mostly in Germany and a little bit in Austria), if you live in France it’s illegal to use them, if you live in Germany you can use them (if your car is certified) but you cannot drive outside the country otherwise you’ll be fined.
Well it seem that all 3 of us are wrong :laughing: . You see that you can use them in certain countries after all :+1:
Those braids still gotta stick out somewhere to dissipate heat, vs being kept tucked into the headlight assembly.
Do you have some sources for that info?
Several months ago I talked with a former Philips manager who worked on their car bulbs. We discussed legalese briefly and what I got from there was that they had EU-wide approval. But maybe I got it wrong. And I can’t find evidence of it being either way quickly.
ADDED: a longer search confirmed, polish Osram and Philips website both state that their LED bulbs don’t have ECE approval. That’s a bummer. 
My bad, apologies for that. I was right about the cars, if approved by one of the national institutes, it is approved for all countries in the EU (and of the EFTA). But when it is about carparts: these must be approved by any country you want to sell them.
Just another fine example of the advantages for us common people of having an EU. And for me: I leave the retrofit ledbulbs just where they are until it’s time for my next MOT. Test by consumer organisations (ADAC & ANWB) have proven that ledbulbs offer more visibility for the driver and less blinding for the oncoming traffic.
Guys. I would say Just do it. There are guys with modded HID lights out there which blinding everybody on the street. So if they manage to pass yearly Car inspection test without any fines I certainly refuse to be worried about LED bulb.
Even if car inspector decides that you have illegal stuff he will just warn you to replace it (and then you replace it with halogen H7 bulb) and when you replace it and pass the inspection put freaking LED bulb inside afterwards 
I used my BLF and modding experience and my logic (no matter for youtube reviews) and I ordered this type of LED bulb link:
Why I have choosen this?
Well it is obvious choice since this is the most similar to our flashlight system.
It has active fan cooling with 20 or 16mm DTP board( I don’t know this data) with single quad Osram emitter that is projecting beam into real 360 degree quartz crystal tube and that should evenly spread light in a car reflector for same beam pattern as halogen H7 bulb but with much better and brighter 6000k light.
One emitter on round DTP board(and cooling fan beneath ) is better solution than 2 emitters on those 2 sided square DTP boards, or better than other 360 degrees light I saw with 10 or more emitters on very top of DTP board.
I think it could be modded if needed to 
, and if I will not be happy how it will perform in a car I will mode my old my old Microfire Warrior HiD with it
Look round DTP MCPCB with Osram inside 
:
I am sure there are guys here who think this could actually have modding potential 
Ordered and on Slow boat from China so we will see 
Unless the inspection will tell you that you failed, you have to replace the bulb and come again (and pay again).
Unless police is going to notice that you have blue light coming out of a classic reflector which means wrong light source. Alternatively during routine control (or if you’ll get a ticket) they may notice that the homologation print on the reflector says “H” which means halogen.
Unless you get into car accident (hopefully not!) and bulbs will be one of the first things that’s getting checked by the police or insurance appraise and then you’re screwed - you’re automatically guilty (I was blinded by him officer!) and you’ll have to pay for the repairs of both cars.
About the bulbs you chose - you made wrong decision. Quoting marketing BS doesn’t help. Light intensity at the end of the “magic crystal” is pretty low, you can expect reduced range compared to halogen bulb. What you’ll get is blueish light with low CRI that may get you in trouble.
If inspection tell that you failed you return with H7 halogen bulb. Pass inspection, and after that put LED inside again! You don’t have to pay single penny for additional inspection if you failed. You have 7-15 days deadline to repeat inspection.
I will pass inspection with LED bulb i am 100% convinced in that.
Now question for you:
- How can police officer detect and determine what type of bulb do I have and what type of reflector do I use in a car? Police officers has smarter stuff to do and they don’t care for that.
- There is no such thing as Homologation print on my reflector and even if there it is somewhere “beneath” Police officer can’t disassemble that without an warrant.
3. Police never checks freaking lights when car accident happens:
First thing in a car accident situation:
- If there is no medical assistance and fireman they help to people
- They secure place of an accident and call necessary services
- Collect all necessary data from people involved in a car accident
- Do alcotest and Drug test of participants
- Finally they do car crash report
Also you are pretty wrong with “magic crystal” too. Light should be much intense with extended range but I will have to test this. So far as you can see you have aliexpress reviews so people using that are not dumb either. They all report great improvement over halogen bulbs.
I disagree with almost everything you said…
Can’t speak for anywhere else, but here in NYC these douchebags ride around with those idiotic 2×N lightbars right across the grille blinding everyone in sight, and never get pulled over, at least not for that. If a cop wants a pretext to pull you over, he certainly can, like, “I notice your lights seem ‘odd’, and I suspect they’re non-compliant, so…”, and then run your plates, reg, lic, etc. And then let you be on your way if you’re cool or toss a few tickets at you if you’re an ass.
That’s why practically everything else (turn, backup, markers, etc.) I long ago converted to LED, as they’re nigh-impossible to tell, but headlights are THE most visible and glaring (haha) light-source on the car, and even Andrea Bocelli would be able to tell if they’re Angry Blue and obviously not what came with the car from the OEM.
For lowbeams, you might be able to do the H-whatever to H-somethingelse conversion (snip tab, file notch, etc.) to get double the lemons for only 10W more, and still have the same exact filament placement., but at the expense of bulb-life.
For ages in my old car, I was running 90W/130W H4s that were still very well-behaved, and I never ever got flashed, let alone pulled over. And the capsules came with that blue film that I just scraped off anyway, so they had the legit look of real hotwire bulbs.
Just stuff to keep in mind…
Yes,
As you told people with powerful diy lightbars are not only seen in USA but in Europe too and that is really idiotic to use in regular traffic… Mostly hunters of Jeep like vehicles have that…
Now Xenon and HiD are very intense angry blue lights and they are legal! There are no LED bulb on a market that can match their intensity so people don’t be worried about stupid regulations!
Ad. 1 and 2. Every single legal reflector has something like this:
HCR at the top means halogen low beam and high beam. Every police officer knows about it and they do check it quite often. One of my friends installed HID retrofit in his Audi A6, projector lens with nice cutoff line etc. He got caught in less than a week.
Ad. 3. They do in most cases, especially if someone was injured or it happened during the night.
Phantom23,
I drive VW Passat B8 2015. and there is no such thing on mine car reflector. Such models(Passat B8) have Xenon, LED and Halogen headlights by default so they should never and ever suspect!
This reflector from your picture looks like old Lada or old Golf reflector?
You are worried to much, and HID kit is more intense than any LED and people with that are blinding everybody on the street since most have bad spread without suitable optics so even Andrea Bocelli could see that like Lightbringer mentioned. Tell your friend to install LED H7 bulb.
LED should be visibly weaker than Xenon or Hid but yet slightly more intense than Halogen.
There were no xenons in B8 Passat and they will suspect because each reflector type in this model looks and operate differently.
Those markings are mandatory on every legal reflector.
HIDs make more light but they’re much easier to focus. LEDs produce different beam pattern which means they focus differently than regular bulbs. Usually it ends up with increased glare and shorter range especially in classic reflectors.
You will see more light right in front of the car but at the cost of shorter range.
Please lift the bonnet (hood). It might be on the “edge” of the light housing. Which is nice of course, because you need some form of probable cause to lift the bonnet.
I drive a 2015 Subaru with factory HIDs and find them much less bright than the newer model cars that sport the latest OEM LED headlights! Given the wild disparity of bright white LED and yellow halogens seen on the roads, I would think it unlikely that you would be pulled over with 6000K LED retrofits that were aimed properly! I have been driving my 2009 Kawaski Concours with twin retrofitted LED bulbs for several years, never got stopped except the time I was speeding way over the limit. nary a mention of my headlamps!
phantom23,
Man you are exaggerating in everything! And again wrong… How something will focus depends on reflector/optics and bulb design! You can’t claim stupid things like “HID focuses easier” this is not true and quite opposite from that you wrote! HID kit ends up with increased glare in classic reflector headlights while LED bulb should have beam pattern that depends on LED bulb design(as you see you have at least 5 different types of LED bulb design) and it is surely capable of giving even beam pattern with better looking less intense light than HID.
No one will ever suspect. And even if they “suspect” What they should suspect? This is no felony!
So question for you: Did you test any of LED “bulb” design in your car? If you did please tell us which car LED bulbs you used? If you did I could actually accept your opinion but if you did not use them I simply can’t accept opinion which is not empirically proved. That kind of opinion means nothing…
I opened this thread to see if there is any BLF member that could actually help me to choose car LED bulb and to help other BLF members in their choice. You are obviously not one of them
DOMEHAVEN,
Thanks on experience with Police and LED. It is good to know that LED can be brighter than HID( I would be happy camper if it will be brighter than halogen).
About “retrofits that is unlikely aimed properly”. I believe that it can focus same like Halogen if not better. Click my mentioned link for ordered light. Look at the photos people posted. Beam looks even and perfectly centered with my ordered model of LED bulb. How it will behave in my car reflector I still don’t know until I try.
HID focuses easier because the very light source (an electric arc that’s a few mm long) is optically close to the filament in the regular bulb. It does produce more glare simply because it’s much brighter. 100W H7 bulb will also produce more glare for the same reason.
Meanwhile with LEDs they are all optically different from halogen bulbs, they have higher surface with lower surface intensity, they have different shape etc. Side effects are very reflector dependant, some reflectors will focus better than others, some will produce more artefacts etc. Classic reflectors are much worse at dealing with LED retrofits than projector lenses.
My opinion based on 1 bulb in one reflector will mean much less than multiple tests you can find around the internet.
“Suspecting” is not a felony but it’s enough to stop you and/or take a loot. “HC” on the reflector and you will end up with a ticket.
Dom said that factory lenses can be brighter than retrofit HIDs. It’s very likely.
phantom23,
This is thread where we strive to find the most suitable or should I say the best possible LED bulb for our car. We are on BLF after all. Here we(not me but there is certainly someone who knows something about that) should know more about that than internet and youtubers right?
Attitude where LED is not suitable as a retrofit or this is better than that, or like LED bulb is big problem for Law Enforcement Officers that will skin us alive will not lead us to proper car LED bulb selection.
Everybody can decide on their own whether to put LED bulb or not. In my case I have 0(zero) risk of doing that.
Where Dom mentioned retrofitted HIDs? He said that factory HID is less bright than OEM Factory LED. So LED can be brighter after all…
So to be back on topic look at the pics of costumers that bought same Car “Magic Crystal” LED:
How that looks to your eyes?
That looks awful. Don’t want to have that car approaching me.
The fact that we’re on BLF doesn’t mean we should encourage dangerous behaviour.
As for the pictures - glare galore with LED, the second picture is terryfying - there’s no cutoff line, just one massive light glow illuminating trees and everything around. That’s dangerous.
