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Nostromo

Member Since: 17 Jul 2015
Location: The Mendip Hills
Posts: 73

LED Lighting Upgrade on Puma Defender - Advice needed

Hi,

Not sure where I should post this query - its electrical, its Puma specific (I think ?) and its certainly a technical question . . so hope it sits ok here in the Technical section . . .

I'm thinking of upgrading my standard lighting to LED's . . . reason . . . well, I travelled in a mates old Defender recently and his upgraded LED's were loads brighter than my standard lights, and, I thought his LED side lights both looked good and also seemed slightly brighter making the vehicle more visible which has to be a good thing.

Question is:- His Defender is old and he was saying that LED upgrading is not straight forward on newer Puma Defenders as the electrical system is designed to look for blown bulbs (no current draw) and throws up error messages when it detects any such blown bulbs . . . I'm further told that LED's consume very low current such that the Puma electrical system can mistakenly register the low current draw as a blown bulb and light up the dash with errors ? . . this is what I've been told anyway ?

I'm also told that some LED's for sale are advertised as "CANBUS Error Free" (ie supposed to incorporate some sort of resistor or other device to make the current of the LED bulb appear similar to the standard bulb) . . . but that these claims are often misleading or even completely false and that buying these error free rated bulbs is no guarantee that the Puma electronics will still not throw up bulb failure errors ?

This leaves me totally unsure as what - if anything - in the LED bulb world is compatible with the Puma system ? . . So, I'd really like some advice from anyone who knows the facts of the matter on this subject or has done a Puma LED upgrade and can offer advice ?

Sorry to have written this in totally non technical lingo - but I just don't know anything about the detail and the "do's & dont's" of this subject, so, any advice gratefully apperciated.

31st Jan 2016 4:56pm

mk1collector

Member Since: 17 Sep 2009
Location: West Yorkshire
Posts: 6769

Led lights from the likes of bolt on bits are a plug and play fit (if you get the tdci specific kit) so no problems other than you need to fit the specific (supplied if you buy the full kit or can be bought seperately) new relay for the indicators. Ray
My build thread
http://www.defender2.net/forum/topic17615.html

31st Jan 2016 5:01pm

custom90

Member Since: 21 Jan 2010
Location: South West, England.
Posts: 20265

LED bulbs (units) fitted in standard lenses are illegal due to 'E' marking laws and regs.
CAN BUS not required on the Defender bar indicators but the best route for them is a Wipac or RDX relay which does the job for you inc trailers.

For all Aux lights, brake, indicator etc there is two options.
Wipac or RDX LED light kits which are legal due to bring tested and 'E' marked, combine this with again either brand's relay and you are good to go.
I have RDX on mine, lights and relay. Very pleased with it indeed!

Headlights wise a straight swap but I have non LED crystals myself with upgrade bulbs.

You do have to bear in mind the heat issue with LED's in very very cold weather especially headlights.
Due to them not producing heat as regular bulbs do snow or ice can build up on them reducing light, or worse next to nothing.

If the weather gets as bad as that in this country though I wouldn't advise driving in such conditions anyway.

But for this reason I went for LED on everything inc side repeaters but Crystal headlights and upgrade bulbs.

Last edited by custom90 on 31st Jan 2016 7:58pm. Edited 1 time in total

31st Jan 2016 5:06pm

Morepower

Member Since: 08 Jan 2013
Location: Fife, Scotland
Posts: 630

Agree with Steve... I have LED Nolden's And Wipac Crystals... I use the Noldens most of the time, But swap to the Wipacs occasionally if it looks as if we're going to have a period of constant snow...

Regards

Tim It doesn't matter how bad it is, It can always get worse...

2013 Bowler 110 (Sold)
2016 Bowler 90 Rally Spec (Sold)

31st Jan 2016 6:23pm

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