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MK3 Led Headlights vs Mk3 facelift LED Headlights
- Thread starter KXL
- Start date
Me too mate, need a bloody big fork lift... But you do have front fog lights
No foglights on a pre f/l Cupra
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Just revising this thread as I'm about to choose a new car and a Leon FR is in the running.
The pre-facelift LED's got quite slated as being only slightly better than halogen and not as god as Xenon. Having never driven a LED Leon, I can't comment but now we may have a few facelift LED cars (with supposedly 2x power), Id like to hear from the new owners how they rate the newer LED performance.
Thanks in advance
The pre-facelift LED's got quite slated as being only slightly better than halogen and not as god as Xenon. Having never driven a LED Leon, I can't comment but now we may have a few facelift LED cars (with supposedly 2x power), Id like to hear from the new owners how they rate the newer LED performance.
Thanks in advance
I test drove the pre-FL FR and thought the lights were not as bright as I had expected. When I got my FL car I thought the lights were better than I remembered from the test drive.
In use, they’re perfectly fine. Not daylight, but bright enough and better than most halogens I have used. The exception is the Yeti I just sold - with Osram Nightbreakers in that was awesome.
In use, they’re perfectly fine. Not daylight, but bright enough and better than most halogens I have used. The exception is the Yeti I just sold - with Osram Nightbreakers in that was awesome.
The FL headlights if you got leds they are different design to the older pre FL units maybe that's why the light output seems better?
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I guess so. At the time I didn’t know about the differences and my unscientific observations appear to suggest that without being told, I noticed the newer ones are better.
Facelift leds are noticeably better at general throw and kerbside illumination I think.
The original leds were very much like white halogens really. Way better than the std halogens you get on, say, a Golf, but not as good as the HIDs I had in my Mazda. The cool thing about them though was that when you swapped from dip to main, the dip beam portion of the lights would rise upwards to join the main beam lights, and you'd get this neat light-sweep effect.
The facelift Leon doesn't do that any more. Instead the dip beam stays where it is - you just get the main beam leds adding extra output.
On dark dry nights they're great. In the wet, less so due to light scatter but I think that's the same regardless of what you've got up front really.
I do also get a fair few flashes now and then, normally from people driving with one misaligned headlamp and a totally broken headlamp on the other side
The original leds were very much like white halogens really. Way better than the std halogens you get on, say, a Golf, but not as good as the HIDs I had in my Mazda. The cool thing about them though was that when you swapped from dip to main, the dip beam portion of the lights would rise upwards to join the main beam lights, and you'd get this neat light-sweep effect.
The facelift Leon doesn't do that any more. Instead the dip beam stays where it is - you just get the main beam leds adding extra output.
On dark dry nights they're great. In the wet, less so due to light scatter but I think that's the same regardless of what you've got up front really.
I do also get a fair few flashes now and then, normally from people driving with one misaligned headlamp and a totally broken headlamp on the other side
IIRC this is the case on my facelift fr too.
I can't fault my lights, I think they're awesome and the newer design even looks nicer than the pre facelift imo. Rather than the 5 or so individual blocks you appear to get on the pre facelift the newer ones appear closer together and more conjoined losing that individual block effect. Plus they're a lot brighter too although I certainly wouldn't say double.
High beam turns 12 midnight into 12 midday.
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My pre-FL (2013 model) one even had headlight washers (but no winter pack). I thought they were quite good, brightness wise. Wonder if this was the brighter variant that required the washers (as per regulations).
Now got a car with D1s Bi-Xenons. I would say this is on par with the LEDs on dipped beam (after tinkering with them to raise them a bit). Nobody has flashed me though.
And yes, if you pull the high beam stalk towards you, on the pre-FL they just turn on 6 additional LEDs, (eg..for flashing). But if you push the stalk away from you, the 12 dipped beam LEDs, also rise. Had no high beam assist though.
Me personally, the Leon LED high beam with the dipped beam raised is the best high beam I've used. Of course I'm comparing this to halogen and D1s xenons only. Haven't driven any other LED headlights cars. However when I see a Prius with the dual LED headlights, I'm always impressed at their brightness, or the Merc E class dual LED.
D1s Bi-xenon high beam is very poor compared to the Leon's Pre-FL high beam in my experience.
Now got a car with D1s Bi-Xenons. I would say this is on par with the LEDs on dipped beam (after tinkering with them to raise them a bit). Nobody has flashed me though.
And yes, if you pull the high beam stalk towards you, on the pre-FL they just turn on 6 additional LEDs, (eg..for flashing). But if you push the stalk away from you, the 12 dipped beam LEDs, also rise. Had no high beam assist though.
Me personally, the Leon LED high beam with the dipped beam raised is the best high beam I've used. Of course I'm comparing this to halogen and D1s xenons only. Haven't driven any other LED headlights cars. However when I see a Prius with the dual LED headlights, I'm always impressed at their brightness, or the Merc E class dual LED.
D1s Bi-xenon high beam is very poor compared to the Leon's Pre-FL high beam in my experience.
We've just taken delivery of a new XC60 with LED headlights. The Leon is probably a close match for those (and I do like the auto main beam on the Volvo, which my SEAT doesn't have).
Does it automatically switch main beam on or simply off when it detects cars coming in the other direction?
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Not noticeably bluer, no.
Auto main beam you enable and it dips when it sees other cars. It is surprisingly accurate and fast.
I drove a friend’s E class recently which ‘bent’ the main beam away from oncoming traffic; really cool but quite distracting to keep watching (instead of the road!).
Auto main beam you enable and it dips when it sees other cars. It is surprisingly accurate and fast.
I drove a friend’s E class recently which ‘bent’ the main beam away from oncoming traffic; really cool but quite distracting to keep watching (instead of the road!).
Ah my bad...it's more than the LED headlights (in general) are bluer than my Bi-Xenons...which are white with a tinge of blue. I'm guessing 4300k vs 5000k+ for LEDs.
Main thing I've noticed between the pre-fl and FL MK3 LEDs is that the beam pattern is far better. The throw and clarity of the FL lights are much sharper and the beam is more like one that you would typically see with a projector headlight setup. The pre-fl LEDs are great and I've happy with them, especially the colour output and the main beam with the assistance of the lower beam lifting, but the FL LEDs are definitely brighter and a nicer looking beam. Ultimately, LEDs are guaranteed to be better than all halogens and the majority of bi-xenons that don't do anything fancy.
They certainly trump my old MK2 Octavia VRS adaptive xenons which even bent and raised - they weren't bi-xenons but weren't awful, and these LEDs are far better on my 2016 290..
They certainly trump my old MK2 Octavia VRS adaptive xenons which even bent and raised - they weren't bi-xenons but weren't awful, and these LEDs are far better on my 2016 290..
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