LED Fog light bulbs

Mr Pig

Active Member
Jun 17, 2015
2,614
906
Thinking of swapping the standard H8 fog light bulbs for LED H8/H11 bulbs. Looking on the bay of e the Osram and Phillips bulbs are expensive. Like £70 a pair. The no-mark ones...aren't.

Is it worth buying the branded jobs? Are the cheapo ones rubbish?

Fang queue :0)
 

Jaco2k

AWD FTW
Mar 11, 2018
1,037
633
Tampere, Finland
www.youtube.com
Speaking of experience when trying to do the same on the wife's Ibiza: get the branded ones.

I went through 3 different sets from eBay before I found some that wouldn't have massive glare.

The cost ended up being the same as if I had bought a proper brand one.
 

Jaco2k

AWD FTW
Mar 11, 2018
1,037
633
Tampere, Finland
www.youtube.com
Adding here also that the first set I got were brighter and had a longer reach than the car's own full beam, which is also LED, but the factory one.
They were that much bright and blinding.
 

Mr Pig

Active Member
Jun 17, 2015
2,614
906
I notice that even the Osram or Phillips ones are not CANBUS compliant though? What the heck??
 

Jaco2k

AWD FTW
Mar 11, 2018
1,037
633
Tampere, Finland
www.youtube.com
I notice that even the Osram or Phillips ones are not CANBUS compliant though? What the heck??

That is a good thing - "Canbus" friendly bulbs usually add questionable quality resistors that lead to premature failure and increase by a lot the temperature.
Just do it the right way and simply code the bulb type to "LED" after you put them in.
 

Mr Pig

Active Member
Jun 17, 2015
2,614
906
Anyone with VCDS or OBDeleven can do it quick and easy, likely for a couple of beer tokens ;)

I don't know anyone locally. I should buy one of these gadgets. We now have two Leons and two Ibizas in the family!
 

Mr Pig

Active Member
Jun 17, 2015
2,614
906
Looked on eBay, you can buy a plug-in thing for about £70. That it? I assume it works with your phone?
 

Jaco2k

AWD FTW
Mar 11, 2018
1,037
633
Tampere, Finland
www.youtube.com
Yes - get the OBDeleven.
It quickly pays for itself when you start coding changes ;)

Get the Pro version but you don't really need credits if you are willing to get your hands dirty and make the code changes yourself.

It needs an Android phone, but a iOS supporting version is in the works.
 

Jaco2k

AWD FTW
Mar 11, 2018
1,037
633
Tampere, Finland
www.youtube.com
Why the Pro version? Are these things hard to use?

Pro version allows doing coding yourself without the built in Apps, that are limited, although can make changes with one tap for a few credits.

Hard to use? Depends on how technically minded you are and able to follow guides.
OBDeleven is way easier than VCDS, for sure.

Just go to YouTube and search OBDeleven and you can see a ton of videos.
 

KXL

KXL
Dec 15, 2016
1,581
197
London, UK
Out of curiosity, how often did you really have to use the front fogs for fog? I think I only used mine twice in 4 years. Plus they only made the sides a bit brighter, but I did find the cornering function annoying especially since the headlights were blue-ish LED/Bi-Xenon and the cornering fogs came on as yellow halogens. Instead I just turned them off via Carrista on the Ibiza. On the Leon Pre-FL, they were off by default anyway.
 

Seriously?

Active Member
Apr 20, 2018
1,237
831
Another vote for the Twenty20 leds from Autobulbsdirect.
Replaced the standard 'glow-worm' reversing light on the Leon with one of these.
 

Mr Pig

Active Member
Jun 17, 2015
2,614
906
Out of curiosity, how often did you really have to use the front fogs for fog?

For actual fog? In the last thirty years, maybe three times!

When I do use them is driving on the back roads as they light up the verges a bit. Nothing great but hey, more light can't hurt. If I could swap them for driving lights I would.
 
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Rockbox

Active Member
Apr 6, 2018
162
52
I've replaced my reversing light with a led bulb from Autobuldsdirect a lot better.

As for fog lights I was thinking about changing my fog light bulbs because as said above you need them to light up the verges as the led headlights that are supposed to do that are crap.
 

Mr Pig

Active Member
Jun 17, 2015
2,614
906
...you need them to light up the verges as the led headlights that are supposed to do that are crap.

Almost every car I've bought in the last thirty years has had worse headlights than the car before. Even high beam on the Leon is poor. High beam used to light up the world like a nuclear blast! Ok, maybe a slight exaggeration but I agree, lights today are not very good.
 

LR231998

Alor Blue 290 Cupra
Jan 21, 2019
485
188
Branded ones all the way no doubt. As above you’ll spend more on crap ones trying to find ones that work long enough/ are actually any good. Plus the hassle of changing the fogs over and over
 
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