Ford Focus '08 - NCT - led bulbs

jonski

Taking my 08 Focus in for it's NCT and I swapped out the Led bulbs I got and put back in the old bulbs and I'm getting the lights aligned .

I was told before that I would need to do this and when I was in there last week with my mothers car I asked the tester . He said if the car didn't come with them and if the car doesn't have headlight washers then it would fail with the Led bulbs .

Tonight I was told by a friend in England that for the MOT they have that rule there, but, it only applies to the Xenon bulbs not Leds and that there is no extra requirements for Leds over there .

Anyone able to enlighten me more on this ?

To be fair it is easy enough to swap them out so it's not a big issue just wondering out of curiosity .

kirving

Please please do not use bulbs which your car was not designed for. You're very likely blinding other drivers coming against you. They are an NCT fail for a very good reason.

Xenon in projector lenses require auto levelling and headlight washers to avoid scattering the beam on dust which may build up on the front cover. They are very bright, and there is a limited to how well the beam could otherwise be controlled by a circular lens.

Now that factory LEDs are more common, their brightness can be more tightly controlled (to stay just under the legal limit) while the beam pattern can be better controlled by optics to make the best possible use of the available light output.

This eliminates the legal requirement for the washers (I'm not sure about auto-levelling).I think that they still should have bother to be honest.

colm_mcm

The NCT manual specifically mentions xenons and doesn’t take LEDs into account.

That being said, LEDs in a non projector headlight may cause glare and may through out a strange beam pattern.

I believe lights under a certain lumen don’t require headlight washers, that’s how some factory LED equipped cars don’t have them.

User1998

LED’s will 100% pass, as long as they are aligned properly etc.

Whocare

User1998 wrote: »

LED’s will 100% pass, as long as they are aligned properly etc.

Which is impossible for them to be aligned properly in reflected headlights that focus come with

jonski

Whocare wrote:

Which is impossible for them to be aligned properly in reflected headlights that focus come with

Are you positive that that applies to both LEDs and Xenon's ?

Cee-Jay-Cee

Whocare wrote: »

Which is impossible for them to be aligned properly in reflected headlights that focus come with

Yes that's true for reflector housing lights but they can be easily aligned in projector headlights. My car passed its last NCT with HID's in the projector housing, I actually intended to remove them for the test but completely forgot and only realised when at the test centre but was delighted when it passed and the tester made no mention of them. I don't know if he just let them through as they were aligned correctly and have a very clear and sharp cut off or if he simply didn't realise as they are 4300k and look like regular halogen bulbs once on and up to heat.

colm_mcm

jonski wrote: »

Are you positive that that applies to both LEDs and Xenon's ?

It’s not impossible depending on the bulb, but as a rule it’s unlikely to pass.

b318isp

User1998 wrote: »

LED’s will 100% pass, as long as they are aligned properly etc.

I retrofitted a BMW HID install into an E30, with reflector headlights (these have a physical shield inside to create the cutoffs and a focusing lens which reduces difraction (as the main lens is mostly clear). A spacer was also used to have the lamp in the correct position.

It failed for not having wash wipe and auto levelling.

paddysdream

Not sure if CVRT headlight test is the same as the NCT but Landcruiser here has passed last 2 years no bother with H7 LED bulbs which replaced halogen bulbs.
Headlights have never been adjusted.