LED Headlight Group Buy

[Tuga2112]

"in line" is not a technical term to describe. therefore a bit open to interpretation.

but from the words. you may be trying to imply in series. which wouldnt work at all.

the resistor (yes, 1 is enough) needs to be paralell to the wire that feeds power to the dipped beam and ground it.

i never advocate for the use of scotch locks. but that would be the simplest and most practical solution as far as getting the wires connected you can worry about the fact scotch locks are crap in 6-20 years time when they eventually fail

[peter canepa]

My Fed Halogens are terrible. Also it makes the car look old. If there is a group buy, I would like to be included. If not, maybe supply you're source?

[awaken101]

"in line" is not a technical term to describe. therefore a bit open to interpretation.

but from the words. you may be trying to imply in series. which wouldnt work at all.

the resistor (yes, 1 is enough) needs to be paralell to the wire that feeds power to the dipped beam and ground it.

i never advocate for the use of scotch locks. but that would be the simplest and most practical solution as far as getting the wires connected you can worry about the fact scotch locks are crap in 6-20 years time when they eventually fail

Tuga, I've tried to get this to work with a few different options. There is the black, red, and yellow/orange wires in the headlight housing. I'm connecting the resistor to the power (red?) and then grounding (yellow? or black? tried both) but my overkill 50W resistor and my baby 5W one are not doing s**t. Maybe if I saw a photo of how it's connected might help me out in getting this fixed. As always any help is appreciated. If you need me to post some photos, let me know! Cheers!

[awaken101]

Got mine working with a 10W 100Ohm Resistor ( on Amazon: "LM YN 10 Watt 100 Ohm 5% Wirewound Resistor Electronic Aluminium Shell Resistor Gold" )

Soldered some wire onto the ends of the resistors, then unbolted only one headlight housing to gain access to the wires that are fed into that area. Stripped away some of the casing of the red & black wires that were connect to one of the bulbs. I then attached one soldered resistor wire end to the black and then the other wire end to the red wire. After testing, it did close up the headlights.

I've included a couple pics so anyone else interested in doing this can see.

[Tuga2112]

inrtresting that 100 ohm worked for you. it didnt for me

[awaken101]

inrtresting that 100 ohm worked for you. it didnt for me

Was it the same one/brand? Did another variation work better for you?

I got sent 2, and the first one I tried to solder up fell apart/disconnected. Probably from the heat of the solder gun so close to the casing. The second one, that actually worked, I will be monitoring closely but I'm expecting it to fail at some point. For now, it's good but it's only been tested while the car sits in my driveway. On the road & with the car cover off in wet weather may be a whole different scenario. I'll make an update if it fails.

[Tuga2112]

folk in this forum are rather apreensive about this because its a "at your own risk" topic. and what works for "you" is not guaranteed to work for "me"

i am also a by reserved about it, because if this goes wrong. you can potentially have a eletrical fire in fibreglass...

what i have done is "highly experimental" and, to my limited understanding.. it is more dangerous in paper.
however. so far from practical testing. is a lot cooler than using a 10w resistor of similar resistance. and considerably cheaper as well... but im not going to talk about that publicly because i dont want anybody to set their car on fire by copying me.

to put it in perspective. I have a fire extinguisher in the passenger footwell !

[dapinky]

Just to throw in my 2p worth on this one.....

..... when i did the job 2 years ago, I used 2 resistors (one on each headlamp) 10W, 100 Ohm - looks the same as yours....

It works perfectly for the lights.

BUT

There is some electrical interference somewhere as when I put the lights on, the screen for the rear view camera flickers for a few seconds. Plus, if I keep the headlamps on whilst driving, after a while the CEL comes on with a code for Oxygen sensor. The light goes out if you turn off the headlamps, (even a quick off-on cycle) and comes back on again later.

I think it is from the wiring being close to the right-side resistor (or LED electronics?) but I don't know,

Either way, I don't care - I have only needed to drive in the dark a few times, and only for short runs where it doesn't happen, or very occasional longer runs where I just ignore the CEL until I can "off-on" the lights. The first time it happened, it didn't occur to me that it was down to the lights, so I was a bit worried until I could find the cause, and once I realised it was the O2 sensor, I dropped the car into 'Open-loop' mode until I could look at it properly.......

....... it's on the never-ending list of things to worry about one day in the future,

[awaken101]

Just to throw in my 2p worth on this one.....

..... when i did the job 2 years ago, I used 2 resistors (one on each headlamp) 10W, 100 Ohm - looks the same as yours....,

It works perfectly for the lights.

I recall Blair did two resistors as well. I consulted him about the install and he did not mention the issues you had, I don't have a rear view camera set up... only a front facing camera wired in by the cig lighter wires. My CEL light comes on at the most random times, that had been happening prior to the camera install. With the new install & the potential to light things on fire, it is definitely something I will be monitoring once it's back out on the road for sure, thanks for letting me know!

[awaken101]

I have a fire extinguisher in the passenger footwell !

Fire extinguisher... great idea, thanks for reminding me. One more purchase to add to the growing list.

[dapinky]

I have a fire extinguisher in the passenger footwell !

Fire extinguisher... great idea, thanks for reminding me. One more purchase to add to the growing list.

It was one of the first things I put in mine (as soon as I got it home after buying it!). I am under no illusion that the 1Kg powder will put out a fire that is established, but it will give me enough time to hold it back whilst I and my passenger get out and away from the event!!!!

The problem is that fire is possible from either the engine, the fuel tank or the electrics, so anywhere on the car - and if it gets into the fibreglass it can hold an awful lot of heat before it ignites as flame.... by which time my poxy extinguisher will be unable to deal with the issue (except to escape).

Like the roll hoops and the Agreed Value insurance - it is something I hope I never need to find out how good they will be when needed,

[Hector2021]

Whilst i do like the beam and better illumination offered by some of these LED conversions i am happy to state that i want to keep my Elan as stock as possible. So for that reason 'i wont be investing'
The other reasons, but only my personal reasons are specifically introducing higher current carrying wiring mods may increase the small risk of an electrical fire, which isnt good in any car but considerably more risk loaded in a resin constructed car. I also carry a fire extinguisher for that possible placebo effect.
The other reason is that i dont want to get into an annual debate with any MOT situation where they decide to challenge the conversion of the headlights. There are enough issues to explain already surrounding the operation of the parking brake lever on the S2 and the amount of play in the rear wheel bearings.

[Tuga2112]

just a small note.

specifically introducing higher current carrying wiring mods may increase the small risk of an electrical fire,

the LEDs will drive less current than your original halogen bulbs and generate a lot less heat.

the paralell resistors being installed with this mod have higher ohm ratings than the filament of the bulbs would drain. therefore generating less heat. in absolute terms.

the consern is the fact heat on the Resistor is "pure heat" instead of a mix of heat + infrared and visible light that the bulbs generate
its extremely localised (to the 10mm cube that the resistor has) reason why the use of 10w resistors which contain heatsinks for this mod.

the risk is not because of higher currents. its because the heat is no longer inside the "dish" and its very localised to the surface of the resistor.

bolting the resistors to the metal hinges is one of the things we can do to improve the heat dissipation. not to mention being in contact with metal is less likely to start a fire than fibreglass... however.,.. also increases the possibility of a short and blown fuse