[OverKill]

Fellow BHPians,
This is my first review on this forum, so please forgive me for any mistakes in advance.

Need To Upgrade:
I own 2012 XUV500 and as we all know the XUV falls in the bottom most position of the worst OEM headlights provided by a manufacturer.
When I purchased my Cheetah in 2015 October, I fell head over heels in love with my machine for its gem of an 2.2 Litre M-Hawk engine. Even though it had a few shortcomings eg, long throw of the clutch pedal etc. they were all forgotten after even a small highway spin.

But as days passed and the initial excitement wore off, the various flaws started to get annoying. The worst of them has to be the below average light output of the stock headlamp.
The stock setup of the headlights are not even OK! for city use, forget highway. But one weird thing about the stock setup is that the high beams are crazy bright. But also a menace for oncoming traffic. Its like Mahindra is encouraging us to use high beams most of the times.

Introduction to Night Eye LEDs:
So after various failed attempts of trying various types of bulbs over the years, in 2018 I was introduced to BHPian abirnale's thread about his upgrade to HIDs and shadow problem. https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/modif...w-problem.html (XUV500 with HID setup - And a shadow problem)
In April 2018 BHPian rahul kej purchased the Night Eye LEDs for his XUV and was recommending the same to fellow XUV owners who were looking for an upgrade.
Following his footsteps I almost placed the order for the same only to realise that I have hit my first roadblock. The seller on Aliexpress has only listed H1/H11/H7/H3 etc. type of holders on its order page and the type of holder mentioned on the owner's manual is H8 for the fog lamp assembly.
https://www.aliexpress.com/item/Supe...806908170.html
Even after some help form our friends at Google did not yield any significant answers.
Fast forward to 1st September 2018 when my membership got approved on the third attempt, first thing I did was clarified my doubts regarding the H8/H11 holder types. BHPian scorpian & rahul kej took no time to reply to my query and advised me to go ahead with my order.
On 12th September 2018 I placed the order for the LEDs and it landed at my doorstep on 9th October albeit with a surprise in the form of Rs. 742 customs duty.

Custom Receipt


I was unlucky when it came to customs, because when BHPian rahul kej & nitanralli ordered the same set of LEDs of their XUV's, they were not charged any customs duty.
While placing the order on 12th September I paid 23.16 USD + 2 USD for shipping which brought to total Rs.1745 approx after USD to INR conversion.

First Picture of the Parcel


Night Eye LED



Installation:
After receiving the LEDs, I called up my SA at Mahindra A.S.S asked him if they had the right headlamp assembly in stock as I wanted to get that changed. After a confirmation from him I asked him to give me an appointment for the 12th of october to which he readily agreed.
The headlamp had clogged up due to a very silly mistake of mine, I had forgotten to put the dust cap back during a trial session of some bulbs that I had purchased. All in all an expensive mistake as I ended up paying Rs. 13500 for it.

New Headlamp Being Unboxed and Thoroughly Checked before Installation.
Also find the old Headlamp in the background.


Invoice of the headlamp with Labour charges




Work In Progress


At the same time they started installing the LEDs in the fog lamp assembly and I was called from the lounge to have a look at the installation.



It's a fairly simple process, to get access to the fog lamp assembly one has to access the front part of the inner wheel wells at the back of the front bumper. Once that's done the H11 type LEDs fit right into place of the stock bulbs without the need of any modification whatsoever. It's just plug and play. After the installation was complete they switched on the fog lamps to find out nothing works.



So after some trouble shooting they realise they had plugged in the wrong terminals. Immediately after correcting that and Voila!

It's Working!


The Other One Too




The technicians did their work quickly without much trouble or questions regarding the LEDs and in the end said Sir, the lights look really bright compared to anything we have seen so far.
So I was out of the service centre in 2 hours out of which 45mins were wasted in opening/closing the job card and alloting a technician to my car.

The Final Verdict:

Early Evening, Low Beam + Fogs


I had to hunt for a dark alley to take the following images

No Light
[

Parklight


Parklight + Fog Lamps


Low Beam + Fog Light


Some images I took from my parking spot in my complex.






Low Beam + Fogs


On my way back home in the evening, while waiting at a red light I noticed that right side fog lamp went off by itself without any input from me.
It came back on within 30-40 seconds of that.

When I reached home I decided to find out what's wrong and take a video if the problem repeats itself and it did.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=8YX9Ps_e26E

I sent this video to the seller via the Aliexpress messages tab and they responded the next day in the morning asking me to swap the position of the LEDs from left to right and vice versa. Surprisingly that solved the problem and the random flickering hasn't returned eversince. The seller is quite responsive when it comes to troubleshooting.

Now about the upgrade, there is dramatic difference post upgrade and I feel my eyes are less strained after a night drive. I would recommend these LEDs to all BHPians looking to upgrade their stock fog lamp setup of their XUV. After the upgrade, while driving in the city Fog Light + Parklight combo suffices for most of the situations. I use the Low Beam + Fog Light combo just for the highways now.
Note: I am using Philips Diamond Vision in the low beam in stock form, which is why the light output looks whitish in color.
To end it, I would like to thank all fellow BHPians who helped me during the process of finalisation and answered all my queries.

Regards.
Sahil.

[Aditya]

Thread moved out from the Assembly Line. Thanks for sharing!

[Kosfactor]

Please, always use your headlamps while driving at night. Headlights are there for your safety, it's easy to miss someone driving with only fog lamps on the road especially in the rear view mirror.

[OverKill]

Originally Posted by OverKill

After the upgrade, while driving in the city Fog Light + Parklight combo suffices for most of the situations. I use the Low Beam + Fog Light combo just for the highways now.

Originally Posted by Kosfactor

Please, always use your headlamps while driving at night.

Hey,

Thank you for your advice, what I meant was with my daily commute involving 70% highway and 30% bumper to bumper traffic I drive with my low beams on most of the times unless I am caught up behind an hatch or sedan at a red light or traffic.
After the headlamp change many a times cars in front of me have hand signaled me to switch off my high beams. Even though I was just on low beams, so I make it a point to turn of my low beams at certain times.

[audioholic]

Originally Posted by OverKill

After the headlamp change many a times cars in front of me have hand signaled me to switch off my high beams. Even though I was just on low beams, so I make it a point to turn of my low beams at certain times.

If that is the case, then the fog lights are causing excessive glare to vehicles. No matter how powerful the bulb is, it should not cause an annoying glare. Diamond visions in the low beam(especially in the projector) dont cause any glare unless your XUV is facing a really low height car. That means your fog lights are the culprit to the glare caused. Hence, use such bulbs judiciously and not where there is traffic.

Hence, if someone is signalling you to dip the lights, then it is the fog lights which should be switched off and not the low beam. I hope this is clear. I myself have upgraded the bulbs of my car, but in the last eight years of its use not a single person has remarked that it causes any glare in low beam. I hardly use the high beam except when it is pitch dark and there is just no other vehicle(barring trucks and buses) around me.

[sagarpadaki]

In addition to what audioholic said, the tri source COB LED is a passe now. They do not mimic the OEM halogen bulb filament position and cause a lot of scattering. The latest technology is the CSP or Flip LED in which the position of the LED mimics the position of the filament in the lamp housing. I have CSP LED bulbs fit into our i20 and Tiago and there is where minimal glare but brilliant illumination.

[OverKill]

Originally Posted by audioholic

If that is the case, then the fog lights are causing excessive glare to vehicles. No matter how powerful the bulb is, it should not cause an annoying glare. Diamond visions in the low beam(especially in the projector) dont cause any glare unless your XUV is facing a really low height car. That means your fog lights are the culprit to the glare caused. Hence, use such bulbs judiciously and not where there is traffic

While I appreciate your concern, let me first assure you that the fog lights on the first gen XUV are incapable of causing any glare to stationary vehicles in front of me or even oncoming traffic in that case. I say so because the position of the lamps are such that they barely provide any illumination in stock form.

Reference Image


I can confidently say this because many a times after the upgrade I have been tailed by my own XUV driven by my driver while I was in my Altis.

About the incident that I have mentioned above was just a case of the car in front of me being way too low, unfortunately I don't remember which car it was. This had happened while waiting at a red light or at a toll both exit, I don't remember.

While I know how discomforting it is to have some flashy lights being pointed at you, I for sure won't do the same or else what's the difference between us BHPians and others.

[Ravi Parwan]

Hi Overkill,
I think members are right to point out the blinding effect of the LED in the fog lamps. Refer to the pic you posted from the front of your vehicle. Even though you are standing quite close to the car, the glare is evident from the pic.
Altis has an auto-dimming/antiglare rearview mirror, if I recall correctly. That might be the reason you did not face any issues while being tailed by your car.
I have LED foglamps in 2 of my cars and I switch them off first since neither has a cutoff and the glare is visible on the overhead signs on highways, which are atleast 40 feet high in the air!
So drive carefully and switch off the fogs before the headlights. happy motoring!

[OverKill]

Originally Posted by Ravi Parwan

Hi Overkill,
I think members are right to point out the blinding effect of the LED in the fog lamps. Refer to the pic you posted from the front of your vehicle. Even though you are standing quite close to the car, the glare is evident from the pic.
Altis has an auto-dimming/antiglare rearview mirror, if I recall correctly. That might be the reason you did not face any issues while being tailed by your car.

Hey Ravi,

I didn't disagree with anyone about LEDs blinding effect. I also know it's true. I only spoke in context to my first gen XUV, where I can confidently say it will not blind oncoming traffic or cars in front of me in that matter. It's just positioned way too low for that to happen.

Yes the Altis does come with Auto-Dimmimg IRVM, but won't I realise if the fog lights are irritating or glaring on the ORVM at some point of time? The glaring image that your referring to is just how any LED would look when taken a snap off.

I respect everyone's concern here, all that I am saying is the upgrade that's been done on my vehicle is after almost 3 years of trial and testing with various types bulbs and HIDs. Hence I settled for an LED in the fog light setup and not in the low beams or high beams.

With that said I will be more careful hence forth while using the LEDs during my city runabouts. Or in that matter will only use them on the highways.

[francis_vaz]

Hi Overkill,
Please check if the fog lamp housing has the option to adjust the reflectors angle.
It should be a plastic screw somewhere at the bottom or at the top.
If your reflectors happen to have this, than adjust the beams accordingly so that you can have a hotspot closer to the bumper and it'll also reduce a bit of the glare and maybe the setup can also be used for city driving.

[s4ch]

Just a point from my side: You really should only be using the fog lights in F-O-G (hence the name) or rain, or that is when driving conditions are with poor visibility. Driving in other countries, you would hardly ever see drivers with their fog lights on unless visibility is poor. You should NEVER drive with just your parking lights and fog light, sorry but that is really just bad driving practice.

[Kosfactor]

Thats a good habit , my vehicle`s low beam create such a nuisance to myself in traffic signals due to reflection that i switch it off when stationary when i`m behind someone else.

The way OE Fog lamps are situated, they may appear completely useless and in some vehicles they may as well be.

The OEM fog lamps of all vehicles are designed to cast a wide beam of light just ahead of the bumper, enabling you to drive at low speed in foggy conditions along with Low beam . XUV has cornering lamps , so Fog lamps need not serve any other purpose. This also means the fog lamps also are situated closer to the road surface and comes with lower wattage bulb since a brighter light source will scatter light all over (Reflections)and cause a lot of glare on oncoming traffic . Fog lamp beam pattern is much wider and a shorter throw.

Yes this is a common set up people seem to do these days and accessory shops are all too happy to help.

I`m not familiar with diamond vision, but please check if those bulbs are causing the beam pattern to narrow reducing kerbside visibility, the extreme vision type does this.

I have not heard much complaints related to XUV headlamps, but considering the internal setup for all the versions are pretty much similar (I think even the scorpio unit is internally the same) Is it possible to increase the halogen bulb wattage in the stock projector and getting it aligned well for better performance?

[sagarpadaki]

Originally Posted by OverKill

Hey Ravi,

I didn't disagree with anyone about LEDs blinding effect. I also know it's true. I only spoke in context to my first gen XUV, where I can confidently say it will not blind oncoming traffic or cars in front of me in that matter. It's just positioned way too low for that to happen.

Yes the Altis does come with Auto-Dimmimg IRVM, but won't I realise if the fog lights are irritating or glaring on the ORVM at some point of time? The glaring image that your referring to is just how any LED would look when taken a snap off.

I respect everyone's concern here, all that I am saying is the upgrade that's been done on my vehicle is after almost 3 years of trial and testing with various types bulbs and HIDs. Hence I settled for an LED in the fog light setup and not in the low beams or high beams.

With that said I will be more careful hence forth while using the LEDs during my city runabouts. Or in that matter will only use them on the highways.

Considering the position of the fog lamps in the XUV, this tri-source COB LED might not cause glare that will affect the other motorists. What I was trying to convey is that the amount of light that is put down on the road is less for a tri-source COB LED compared to the CSP/Flip LED. Since you do not have a comparison with CSP LED on one fog lamp and your existing LED in another fog lamp you cannot know the difference. But if the illumination is satisfactory to you then it should be fine. End of the day that is what matters.

When you consider upgrading your headlamps to better LED, please go for CSP/FLIP LED modules in 4300K temperature. You will be pleasantly surprised by the results.

[troublemaker]

I think, I'm old school in thinking that Fog Lights should be yellow as it cuts through fog better than the white light.

I have 5K HIDs in my low beams; with the infamous black shadow. I have kept high beams and fogs in stock condition. The best addition in my XUV's lighting is the 19" CREE LED bar mounted inside the bumper; right below the number plate.

With Low beams and LED bar on, I get amazing illumination on highways where somehow everyone drives with their high beams on!

[tsk1979]

Originally Posted by troublemaker

I think, I'm old school in thinking that Fog Lights should be yellow as it cuts through fog better than the white light.!

No they do not. Penetration/scattering will happen when particle size is .005um
Fog particle size is 4um and above, so way to large to change scattering characteristics of visible light. However, if you become future school, and get eyes which can see MIR and fit MIR emitters in your fog lamps, it will help. Or you can simple get a very high end car with a night vision system which uses IR

Here is attenuation characteristic of light through fog. See the flat. Moreover, sky is blue due to scattering, is fog blue, or white?