I'm with you! My old Carello lights are currently being refurbished, and will just stick in good quality H4 LEDs which will more than suffice given the little to none night driving. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
If you don't like the sleepy look you can just put led bulbs in the stock reflectors It won't be ideal but will give the full round lighted appearance and reduce the current draw
They are perfect. Very bright and much less load on the wiring and switches. Keeping the original Carello lamp units on the car. Very white light though, but they are LEDs of course Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
I've been using the truck-lites for about 3 years now. Love them, except that mine flicker in high beam setting. Very annoying. But, at least I can see where I'm going. This seams to be an issues that other non-308 uses have in some cases, per discussions on other sites.
Also have the Truck-Lites on a 328. RH light did the flicker thing. Connector looked ok, so dug a bit deeper and found a secondary connector with rubber boot hiding inside the fender (about 14-inches downstream from the first connector). Cleaned that connector and no more flicker.
Just tried mine last night for the first time and am very impressed. I got the flicker on switching to high so it's common. I think a capacitor installed parallel in the circuit could buffer the flicker out and just check some other forums where people are doing that as well as putting in a diode. Will try that out.
For what it's worth.... I have truck-lites on mine. And I really, really don't like them. Easily the worst headlights I've ever had, in any car. The pattern is too defined in lo-beam; it is very difficult to drive at night, as there's too little "spread". If I drove more at night, I'd be replacing them ASAP with a traditional bulb.
That's odd because I was very impressed, especially with the high beams. What I can say is that I would have liked more light when cornering so maybe we agree on this somewhat. Now I need to brighten up the dash instruments as they are dismal looking.
I agree that the hi-beam is excellent. And it bulb is certainly cool - just last night I was doing another adjustment and holding it in my hand while lit, so that and the lower power use is a great thing. I get the flickering too, of course. Ultimately I need a headlight to... well, light up the road, and I can't run hi-beams 100% of the time. On the dark back roads, I feel nearly blind except for two 8" white semicircles about 9' from the bumper. (And I know my eyesight is getting old, but I have no such problems in my DD Tiburon. Can see perfectly fine at night in it.) If I'd personally bought these, I'd have returned them. I'm happy that other owners are happy though.
After installing the truck-lites on the 328 I aligned them. Made a big difference and easy to do. I get a flicker when switching on, but had the same issue with standard bulbs. Probably the 32 year old column switch. If I light touch the column stalk the lights flicker.
I will look into alignment to see if I can broaden the light dispersion. Mine only seem to flicker when just switched on and then they are stable. Thanks.
it's the view from the driver's seat that matters. I tried several head lights over 25 years, and was never satisfied. Three years ago I installed the LED Truck Lights and I actually enjoy driving at night now.
Installed the Truck-Lites on my 308 QV a couple of weeks ago and I think they're fantastic. I can actually see in the dark now, which is important in the winter when driving early to go to Cars/Coffee.
Great thread. I’m new to the 328 world, and have a US model with sealed beams. I do not drive this car often in the dark, but I live in a rural area with lots of deer and other wildlife, not to mention lots of cars and motorcycles. It only takes once to have a bad accident. The stock lights are absolutely terrible, equally as bad as the stock headlights on my US market 964 Porsche. The European cars really got screwed with headlights back in the 80s and early 90s. My older 9/11 has the European each for upgrade, and honestly those lights are almost as good as modern headlights. They light up everything. But, they are very expensive and they do draw a lot of current. These LED replacement units intrigue me. I agree that I don’t love the look, but I never look at the car outside when I’m driving it anyway. I’ll take safety over vanity any day. The only other possibility is that Hella came out with a drop in H4 replacement for the US sealed beam headlights in a 7 inch size. I have them on both my 944 at my 928, and they are a night and day difference from the regular sealed beams that came with those cars. They are almost equal to the European H4 in performance. However, they have the same current draw as a standard lights. One more thing – the fog lights on these cars are absolutely useless! I’ve never had a car where the fog lights make absolutely no difference to the amount of light you see on the road.
People have told me they like the way my LEDs look but of course the purists do not. I don't care either way as the light quality is great and current draw low. Like you I rarely drive the 308 at night but when I do, last week, the quality light is valuable. On the Porsches I have LED bulbs in my 89 Carrera that fit the standard housing-massive difference in light!
I used to use the fog lights just before dusk, when I didn't want to raise the headlight buckets but wanted to make it easier for others to see my car (it's black). Not about seeing, but about being seen. But I don't do that much, anymore. The stock US fog lights draw enough current to burn the J3 pin on the fuse/relay panel. (Because US regulations prohibit using fog lights without running lights, they just ran the fogs off the running light circuit -- which wasn't sized for that much current.) I considered going to LED fog bulbs, to try to reduce the current draw. But I don't drive the 328 at dusk, much, anymore.
https://vintagecarleds.com/ just found these online - I'm thinking. Would love to have in my vintage housings.
I have their top-tier lights ready for install in the 328 when I'm confident enough to tackle the job.
thats why i chose to upgrade the bulbs only and keep the original look. i used Novsight bulbs(amazon sell them), very simple install and very safe now to drive at night. there are lots to choose from.
