P38A LED headlamp bulbs....worth it or not?

Just a casual query really. I have seen some YouTube posts of people upgrading their incandescent bulbs with LED replacements. Are they any good? Is it a worthwhile upgrade or just a FAD and not really worth the trouble?

Is a generally good idea, better light output, longevity and less heat and load on the electrical systems, but youmust buy decent quality ones and ensure they are comatible with the bulb check system else you'll get all sorts of errors and boings.

Saint.V8 said:

Is a generally good idea, better light output, longevity and less heat and load on the electrical systems, but youmust buy decent quality ones and ensure they are comatible with the bulb check system else you'll get all sorts of errors and boings.

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Any "trusted" recommendations available?

I've just bought some for my ampera but only because the existing headlamps are dangerously woeful.
To be honest, the headlights on the p38, are, in my experience very good.
I certainly couldn't justify 70 quid or so for upgrading them.
Upshot is, if your lights are crap, probably worth it. If they're fairly good anyway, I wouldn't bother.
Plenty other things to spend on with the p38!

Wazzajnr said:

I've just bought some for my ampera but only because the existing headlamps are dangerously woeful.
To be honest, the headlights on the p38, are, in my experience very good.
I certainly couldn't justify 70 quid or so for upgrading them.
Upshot is, if your lights are crap, probably worth it. If they're fairly good anyway, I wouldn't bother.
Plenty other things to spend on with the p38!

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I think you have a very valid point.
I am just being tarty.

There's a nice a frame bull bar going for sale, probably as big a waste of money as led bulbs!

Fair comment. ;-)

The replacement ones have to pull the same amount of power to fool the BECM so no saving there. I looked into it and then decided it was't worth the hassle. Many people on here swear Nightbreaker bulbs give better light. AFAIK mine are original and seem good enough. Never had to replace mine.

I did put a new pair of standard osrams in the range rover a few months ago. One went and when I replaced it, it was slightly better so I replaced the other side too.
Just got a fog lamp bulb gone out this week but no message saying it's out which I was surprised about.

I've been through the whole range (!) of bulb options on mine.
My issue was that, with ageing eyeballs, dipped beam illumination around the rural lanes that I mainly use, just didn't seem to have the throw that I wanted.
I upgraded to Nightbreakers, which were better, but I still wanted more from the lights, whilst still being MOT compliant and having a tightly controlled beam as I didn't want to annoy other road users.
After a lot of research I found these:
http://www.powerfuluk.com/vehicles/...adlight-bulbs-range-rover-p38-white-pair.html (out of stock at the moment)
They have the means to be focused to avoid scatter and don't upset the BECM. Also they don't have fans to fail, which cheaper ones have. Took a bit of twiddling to get the cut-off nice and sharp followed by a visit to my local friendly MOT garage to get the beams properly aligned.
End result- bright crisp white light, greater range (extra 15m or so) and spread to the left. In a dusk convoy recently with other P38s it was mentioned that my lights were a much brighter white than the standard ones, but didn't dazzle or irritate when I followed people.
Worth £70? To me, yes. Recommended? Yes.
Can't emphasise enough the need to budget to get them properly set up though. With power comes responsibility!

Orangebean said:

End result- bright crisp white light, greater range (extra 15m or so) and spread to the left. In a dusk convoy recently with other P38s it was mentioned that my lights were a much brighter white than the standard ones, but didn't dazzle or irritate when I followed people.

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Sounds good.

Orangebean said:

http://www.powerfuluk.com/vehicles/...adlight-bulbs-range-rover-p38-white-pair.html

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Halogen LEDs?!

"The heatsink can be removed to re-fit the rubber water protector - the rubber cover on the back of the headlight has a "hood" built in that will need modifying to allow the heatsink to have free airflow."

If you remove the rubber can water / condensation not get into the light fitting?

Yeah- the rubber seal was a problem, as I fed back to them. Their suggestion in the initial instructions/ video didn't work in terms of keeping out cr@p and also masked the heat sink!
I did send them pics of the mod I did to the rubber shield that addressed both of those issues. Don't know if they used it, although they politely thanked me for my feedback...

I thought leds were illegal unless the reflector/lens was designed for them and as such should also give an mot fail. Martyn

Nope- appropriate LED bulbs (2000 lumens plus) are now MOT compliant as long as vehicle has self levelling lights (or suspension!) and is equipped with working washers. Must comply with beam scatter and cutoff rules as well as alignment as per standard bulbs.

No washers on my budget level model so no worries there.

MOT compliant doesn't mean legal, most LR's don't have type approval with leds fitted as they didn't exist when manufactured and don't forget it is the driver is responsible for construction of use issues not the blind tester