Scottish Elises

Has anyone upgraded their S3 Elise/Exige Headlights?

Driving my S3 Elise this morning reminded me how bad the headlights are, on my S1 I replaced them with Osram Nightbreakers, but there appears to be less choice for the S3.

Headlight (Dipped Beam) HB3A
Headlight (Main Beam) H9B
Driving Lights ????

Not personal recommendation as I've not had opportunity to try yet, but are there not now super bright LED options that fit in place of standard bulbs? Would deffo be investigating these (speaking as a bloke who melted light connectors using rally bulbs back in my S1 days)

Night Breakers are available in HB3, which is the same bulb as the HB3A but with the connector turned 90deg.
I think BigD has tried this and got them to squeeze in ok.

I’ve got HB3 (non-a) Nightbreakers coming from Autobulbs Direct.

Prob a week or two before I have time to fit them but will report back here.

BigD has mentioned a heat gun to soften some plastic somewhere. Well that’ll be fun

Built in cooling fans and everything !!

https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B07FYH3RWK/ ... 8357604698

Tempted.

Check out this link on the lotus forum
https://www.thelotusforums.com/forums/t ... eadlights/

I had looked at HiD conversions from eliseparts until CMC told me they would fail an MOT .

ScottJ-PS wrote:I had looked at HiD conversions from eliseparts until CMC told me they would fail an MOT .

Yep. Which is why I’m avoiding those for sure.

campbell wrote:I’ve got HB3 (non-a) Nightbreakers coming from Autobulbs Direct.

Prob a week or two before I have time to fit them but will report back here.

BigD has mentioned a heat gun to soften some plastic somewhere. Well that’ll be fun

There’s rubbery covers on the back of the lights presumably to keep out the water. I heated these as they wouldn’t stay on with the angled bulb and connectors. Just heated it to stretch it a little so that it stays on. Dead easy.

I didn’t want to fit the LED’s as I wanted to try better bulbs first and also raising the aim quite a bit whilst still being within limits. Passed the MOT so must be ok. For some reason they were aimed far too low so plenty of adjustment. Made a big difference but will never be normal car amounts of light.

Thanks, D

And good point re alignment / aim. A number of forum posts on TLF seem to refer to the value of getting that right.

I think mine are set quite well but will experiment when time allows.

I fitted LED bulbs to my previous VW Transporter, they were amazing at night, but the beam seemed to lose their shape, was forever getting flashed as well, passed MOT fine. My current T6 has Night Breakers.
Probably going to try some LEDs. although I can only find one person selling H9Bs.
I think the driving lights are also HB3A.

I think the reflector design is critical to making dip pattern work safely but have only skim read.

Use the force.

We have been. It’s not working. That’s the problem

So i bought a pair of LED HB3 bulbs, however the heatsink and fan sticks out the rear of the light too far and touches the wheel arch liner, so have bought a Pair of Osram Laser bulbs to try instead, will report back on what they are like.