LED headlight upgrade

Steven Smith

Steven Smith

CCCUK Member
I have researched changing headlights quite bit recently as it's on my to do list.
You can only convert to LED by changing the whole light unit if vehicle manufactured after April 1986, which shouldn't be a problem as the units are sealed beam.
I am not sure about fitting sealed unit LED lights personally.
I wanted to fit a normal style light, for right hand drive vehicles, a integrated side light would be nice and it must accept a H4 bulb fitting so I could fit the best bulbs possible or potentially good LED's.
I think have found a Hella unit that almost fits the bill but it hasn't got a side light. I won't put up the part number as I am not 100% sure it will fit until I take the original light out and measure it.
There is a wealth of reading here.

C4 Corvette Headlight Options! A must read for C4 drivers. - CorvetteForum - Chevrolet Corvette Forum Discussion

C4 Tech/Performance - C4 Corvette Headlight Options! A must read for C4 drivers. - Let's face it, even the newest C4 Corvettes are now 15 years old, the oldest are 27 years old. To make matters worse, the headlight design wasn't exactly state of the art when these cars were new. The end result...
www.corvetteforum.com
 
Braeburn 22

Braeburn 22

CCCUK Member
Hi All
Thank you for the excellent replies, Steven, you link is extremely helpful, the standard headlights are H6054s and the ones on amazon are e marked and are supposed to be drop in replacements, I believe the only issue is with the fog lights as they earth through the main beam filament, so you can't use main beam and fog lights at the same time, so I may have to add an earth to the fog lights, I noticed on the amazon advert, that someone had installed them on an 1984 C4, I think i may purchase them and see what happens, my biggest concern was to ensure that they have an appropriate cut of in the beam pattern so they don't dazzle on coming drivers. I won't be using the DRL, indicator, or side light function, so the installation should be quite simple.
I will update this thread once I have received them and managed to install them successfully.
 
Steven Smith

Steven Smith

CCCUK Member
Looks good, but going from 55w to 180w is a significant increase in current without upgrading wiring.
It doesn't mention if the beam pattern is left or right hand drive. I assume left as that is what is shown on the pictures, so will you have to fit beam deflector stickers ?
 
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Steven Smith

Steven Smith

CCCUK Member
Just took the cover off the nearside headlight to measure it.
The top picture is from above showing the space available behind the light.
I am 99% sure that a Hella 1AE 003 427-011 is a straight swap.
This will take a H4 bulb, giving you the option to fit either a halogen or LED bulb.
I do like the look of the one in your link, but I don't think they are right hand drive so you will need beam deflectors and if one LED fails you will have to replace the whole unit, not one LED I have purchased from Amazon or eBay has lasted very long.

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peterguest

CCCUK Member
Hi, bit of a late reply but if still relevant I replaced my dim glow worm sealed beams with a pair of Toyota supra rectangular lamps, off ebay, same size as the C4 Vette, and you can then upgrade with Halogen bulbs or whatever you like. Only mod needed was to remove a metal locating pin on the headlamps and then they slotted straight in.
Hope that this helps.
pete
 
Steven Smith

Steven Smith

CCCUK Member
peterguest said:
Hi, bit of a late reply but if still relevant I replaced my dim glow worm sealed beams with a pair of Toyota supra rectangular lamps, off ebay, same size as the C4 Vette, and you can then upgrade with Halogen bulbs or whatever you like. Only mod needed was to remove a metal locating pin on the headlamps and then they slotted straight in.
Hope that this helps.
pete
Click to expand...
That's brilliant thanks, do you know the year of the Supra lights you used ?
 
Braeburn 22

Braeburn 22

CCCUK Member
Hi

Just completed my upgrade, ended up using H6084 H4 non sealed beam, maybe not as bright as the LEDs would have been, but no wiring modifications were required, went for these

Philips Racing Vision GT200 H4 Car Headlight Bulb +200 Percent, Set of 2 https://amzn.eu/d/9TeyQZz
Gave a much whiter light.
 
A

Andrew

CCCUK Member
peterguest said:
Hi, bit of a late reply but if still relevant I replaced my dim glow worm sealed beams with a pair of Toyota supra rectangular lamps, off ebay, same size as the C4 Vette, and you can then upgrade with Halogen bulbs or whatever you like. Only mod needed was to remove a metal locating pin on the headlamps and then they slotted straight in.
Hope that this helps.
pete
Click to expand...
Lots of photos please Peter.! Sounds like you have made an awesome+ clever discovery there. Thank you for telling us about it.
 
Steven Smith

Steven Smith

CCCUK Member
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