I’ve never looked back since I’ve fitted Xenon headlamps. I must have replaced 10 HB3 osram bulbs easily when I had my halogens. Lucky non of mines shattered. MY14 Kahn Converted Dynamic - Fuji White Ebony/Pimento Interior
MY15 Xenon Headlight Conversion

MY17 RRS SVR - Estoril Blue Cirrus/Ebony 🪣💺’s

Vanny wrote:

Well that didn't go very well. Thought I'd give the Osram Night Breaker "Laser" a whirl.

First bulb blew after 3 months, second at about 4 months but in a truly spectacular way. In the (nearly) hundreds of headlight bulbs i've changed, i've never seen one fail so completely.

Click image to enlarge

The glass still in the headlight unit seemed to be melted into the plastic!

Attempts at contacting Osram have fallen on deaf ears, so they are fully off my purchasing list now. Back to finding the cheapest bulbs available and swapping only once a year.

Any experience / thoughts on these?
I see one Landrover Freelander owner has left a positive review/ Landrover - turning owners into mechanics since 1948

2014 Orkney grey Freelander SD4 GS.
2004 Zambezi silver Discovery 2 Td5 (Gone)
1963 Surf blue Morris Mini Minor Super de Luxe (my little toy)

https://www.autobulbsdirect.co.uk/hb3_LED/

Forgot to post the link 🙄 Landrover - turning owners into mechanics since 1948

2014 Orkney grey Freelander SD4 GS.
2004 Zambezi silver Discovery 2 Td5 (Gone)
1963 Surf blue Morris Mini Minor Super de Luxe (my little toy)

Wouldn’t it be better just to use an HID conversion kit, at least the bulb has a true point source in the correct place.
https://www.autobulbsdirect.co.uk/hb3-hids...n-kit.html

I have used these before in several projector lamp systems and had no issues what so ever, passing many MoTs and never getting flashed as the projector lamps have a very sharp cut off area. Regards

David

Lovely i6 has now gone, but not me......

Please let me know if anything in my post offends you, as I may wish to offend you again......

^ ditto what brownie said on HID conversions on other cars. Work really well. Just go for a decent brand rather than the cheapo ebay ones.

Just not sure what the answer is for those of us with the reflector units Other than to replace when a donor Freelander2 goes to the garage in the sky?

Getting annoyed with the very regular failure of big brand bulbs, Night Breakers, I thought I'd just try the cheapest available on Amazon.

BAD IDEA!

Click image to enlarge

I have just had to replace one of my headlight bulbs and was surprised to notice that it had lasted 18 months

I have in the past experienced problems with some bulbs only lasting a month or so but seem to be getting better results with the Osram Cool Blue Intense

Steve

https://www.autobulbsdirect.co.uk/hb3-hids...n-kit.html

They look just the job, unfortunately out of stock atm. Landrover - turning owners into mechanics since 1948

2014 Orkney grey Freelander SD4 GS.
2004 Zambezi silver Discovery 2 Td5 (Gone)
1963 Surf blue Morris Mini Minor Super de Luxe (my little toy)

Are these very cheap conversion kits actually legal? I'm not so bothered that no one ever gets in to trouble when they are installed, but if they where 'E' type approved then the beam pattern and light output would have been correctly tested. I've seen first hand how awful/dangerous some LED lamps are when put behind headlights not designed for it.

Big name suppliers with fully tested LED lamps usually cost in the hundreds, and still aren't road legal because they can't guarantee compatibility with the housing they go in.

LED are not needs be brighter, and cheapo Chinese bulbs do not always last longer than we burn through HB3s

No HID conversion kits are legal, as are none of the LED replacement headlamp bulbs, not even for indicators, stop lamps, fog lamps etc etc

The HID bulbs have (should have) the point source area, the filament effectively....in the correct place, they will work just as well regarding beam cut off and spread as an original tungsten type bulb, only giving out a brighter, safer light.

They don’t get E marked and tested because of the cost involved for small suppliers, obviously the manufacturer don’t bother just because they do not need to!  Regards

David

Lovely i6 has now gone, but not me......

Please let me know if anything in my post offends you, as I may wish to offend you again......

Our dipped headlights are useless, reading this do most just replace the dipped bulbs with night breaker etc or swap the lot. Thanks

The later FL2 had a single halogen bulb HB3 in a projector lens for dipped and main beam. It over heats and so needs replacing often. JLR had an awful fix - a resistance wire to reduce the current to the bulb but it was then even dimmer. The same projector lens is used in the HID lights of higher spec cars. Thus an after market HID kit can successfully replace the HB3 in later cars. I've done this on my 2014 SE tech.
HID kits should not be used in older non-projector lens lights. After market brighter halogen bulbs would be one way to go. I did just that on my previous FL2 which had separate bulbs for main and dipped beams. Jules

Thanks, ours is an 09 fl2 and looks like 2 separate bulbs to me. It was only driving it over Xmas we realised how bad the light were on dipped headlights. It seems to be a straight line of beam across the front and not going off to the left in a triangle. If that makes sense. Cheers

One of my I think it was night breaker 130% more light went a couple of weeks ago they were put in about a year ago, so dug out one of my new ring bog standard ones to replace it. I am surprised that there is no difference in light between the two at least that I can see.

It seems to me light bulbs lose there brightness by degrees over time they must do surely.


Point being does anyone replace their bulbs on a regular time or mileage basis.