Headlight conversion

Hi,

Just joined today although I've been lurking for a while.

We have a 2003 Freelander Mk1 3 door 1800s.
As with all these the headlights are pants, does anyone know of a supplier who has produced headlight units that house HID's. I ask as I was going to buy some none HID GE Megalight bulbs this morning until the supplier said there's always a headlight unit change option, I just wondered if he was pulling my leg?
Ideally, like the facelift lights off a later model but they won't fit.

Thanks in advance. jken

There's no HID compatible headlight for the FL1, unless you're prepared to fabricate something yourself.

Be aware that non approved HID replacement lamps in standard reflector lights will now fail a UK MOT and provide less useful light than standard bulbs do.

The easiest thing is to fit the facelift headlights and matching bumpers.

This gives you an increase in light output in both dip and main beam.

Better off fitting better OE type bulbs to the existing unit (as you originally planned) - certainly the most cost effective

Brilliant, thank you for the advice. I didn't realise about the MOT fail. The car was a cheap buy at £600 as my wife works very rurally for a big country, so 4x4 really helps.
I think we'll have to increase the light with Zenon replacements as a facelift bumper would kill us financially at the moment.

Thanks for your help Nodge68, really appreciate it.

rob_bell said:

Better off fitting better OE type bulbs to the existing unit (as you originally planned) - certainly the most cost effective

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Thanks Rob, think that's the way we need to go, great advice.

jken

Welcome to the forum, hope the Freelander works out well for you. To help it do that, you might like to have a read of this...

https://www.landyzone.co.uk/land-rover/tests-new-freelander-owners-should-do-on-their-car.312863/

Its just some stuff noobs tend not to know about Freelanders... to their cost.

Definitely I didn't when I was new to Freelanders.... at my cost!

Ah thank you very much.

GrumpyGel said:

Welcome to the forum, hope the Freelander works out well for you. To help it do that, you might like to have a read of this...

https://www.landyzone.co.uk/land-rover/tests-new-freelander-owners-should-do-on-their-car.312863/

Its just some stuff noobs tend not to know about Freelanders... to their cost.

Definitely I didn't when I was new to Freelanders.... at my cost!

Click to expand...

My mother had the point 2 problems with mismatched tyres and a rumbling from the VCU on a Mk2 she used to have.

I went from standard bulbs to the Philips Racing Vision and the difference was very good.

I saw a set of those listed today and wondered if they'd be better, might give them a whirl. Anythings got to be better than the candles that are in as standard.

I've been chasing companies about this for the last year.

Only one to reply has been powerful UK.

Hi Colin,

To tool up a new headlight is very expensive - we'd be looking at about £50,000.

The cheapest way to make an aftermarket headlight is similar to this listing for the Mitsubishi L200:

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Mitsubis...=true&nordt=true&rt=nc&_trksid=p2047675.l2557

There are some cool new LED headlight projector assemblies that could be used but it's not likely to be something we will be offering in the near future.

Kind regards,

The expensive part of headlight manufacturing is two fold. First they need to be designed and made. Then the tricky part is to get them type approved. This approval is extremely costly and very slow.

If the headlights aren't approved for highway use, they will fail the MOT and possibly land the driver with some form of infringement penalty.

The problem with the pre-facelift lights is the bulbs used. They're a 50 year old design, and have a light output to match. I can't remember the exact output but 1350 Lumens + or - 10% springs to mind.
Also the dip filament is shrouded, so effectively only half the light actually gets to the road.

The H7 bulb used in the facelift headlight has a higher output of 1550 Lumens +or- 10%. But more importantly, the filament isn't shrouded, so all the light is directed at the road from the reflector. This is where the real benefit of the facelift headlight design shines through (pardon the pun).

The main beam on the pre-facelift isn't as bad as the dip beam, as the main filament isn't shrouded and has a similar light output to the H7 bulb of the facelift.

However the way the pre-facelift and facelift lights are switched is very different. On the pre-facelift, the dip filament is tuned off, when main beam is switched on. This is to keep the heat generated under control, in the small glass envelope.

On the facelift, the dip beam remains turned on, when main beam is activated. This effectively doubles the lumens on the road, giving the facelift a far superior set of headlights. These can be improved further by fitting upgrade bulbs.

The big advantage of glass is that it doesn’t go milky after 5 years...

Would the facelift headlights fit with the pre facelift bumper? Maybe with a slight trim? Anyone done it?

andyfreelandy said:

Would the facelift headlights fit with the pre facelift bumper? Maybe with a slight trim? Anyone done it?

Click to expand...

Pretty difficult to make them look right I reckon.

Someone tried it years ago and sadly it was a mess. The bottom circular bit is the problem. Ont face lift the bumper is rounded below this so it works ok.

I always wonder how close the freelander 2 lights are to the Mk1 size wise.

ColinNI said:

I always wonder how close the freelander 2 lights are to the Mk1 size wise.

Click to expand...

The front line of the lens cover is more diagonal. The overall shape won't fit. If yer did bodge it it would be a mess. Yer would need to position it to make the light output point int right direction. It just won't work on nearly every count.

Someone has even tried fitting FL2 lamps to a pre face lift FL1. That didn’t look good either...

rob_bell said:

Someone has even tried fitting FL2 lamps to a pre face lift FL1. That didn’t look good either...

Click to expand...

I think I remember seeing the pic's on ere but can't find them.