Need suggestions: Upgrading the headlights of my new Mahindra Thar

There are lots of LED headlamp options in the after-market, but based on BHPian posts, most of them are all show & no go.

GTO recently shared this with other enthusiasts.

If there is one part about the Thar begging for an upgrade, it’s the outdated OEM headlights. Now, there are lots of LED headlamp options in the after-market, but based on BHPian posts, most of them are all show & no go.

I am sure someone is selling LED headlights that are both, good-looking as well as powerful at night? Something with form & function, both? Please share contacts, store links or web links here.

No cheap stuff please, kindly recommend only high quality LED headlights here.

Thank you!

Here’s what BHPian shankar.balan had to say on the matter:

As a person with many years of driving under the belt in some extremely harsh non urban conditions and even today being a very frequent visitor to the hilly regions in all seasons, I am placing the following facts here:

• Big powerful white LED lights are useless in mist and rain and fog. All that they do is diffuse the light particles and you get a wall of white which does NOT improve visibility.
• I note the tendency of most modern drivers and car owners to immediately upgrade their headlamps and foglamps to LED’s without having fully thought it through.All that they are seeking is the ‘look’. Honestly this tendency is quite misguided.
• A good pair of powerful warm white Halogens coupled with a set of interchangeable warm white plus yellow amber foglamps are a far better combination to go with. Ideally in modern cars better to replace the bulbs yes, but stay with the recommended wattage and headlamp bulb type instead of trying to splice wires and introduce aftermarket relays etc.
• On another note, I am presently driving around the hills. And I observe that almost no one amongst the fellow road users, understands the concept of ‘dip’. And people are overtaking around curves, not keeping sufficient distance and more irritatingly, repeatedly flashing their strobe-light-like LEDs at every possible opportunity. It is especially disconcerting for anyone who has a solid understanding and experience of hill driving.

Here’s what BHPian Safari_Beast had to say on the matter:

Instead of upgrading headlight bulbs, get Aozoom Bi-focal Led Projector foglamps. This is a newly launched product which is very powerful and it would be a direct fit on thar.

Here is the link to the output of foglamps.

Product Code – FLP 2090.

Here’s what BHPian Jaggu had to say on the matter:

Keep stock headlight at best upgrade the bulbs. Get HID projectors for the running lights or even small led aux with combo pattern from Rigid or similar reputed brands.

Here’s what BHPian dhanushs had to say on the matter:

The 7″ round headlights should fill the doom. But, internal fitting would be different. However, 7″ round headlights being the most popular size, I guess you should be able to find some good lights.

My personal advise however would be to follow Behram’s advice given in an older thread, to have glass covered 7″ dooms (TVS?) and have 110/140 bulbs with proper relay and wiring. I still love the way old amby’s and jeeps light up the way with 140 bulbs.

If you still want additional lighting, go for driving lights from KC, Lightforce etc.

Here’s what BHPian Kosfactor had to say on the matter:

Good suggestion dhanushs. Yes I remember reading this.

Lucas-TVS & Cibie were BD Sir’s recommendation as far as I remember, Cibie which needs to be imported – while viewing some YouTube videos of very famous car museums, I have noticed them million dollar cars running Cibie.

Recently a batch of Lucas headlamp had come on sale with Jeep parts dealers in Delhi, it won’t be difficult to find them in Mumbai as well.

At the time I wanted them for the CRDe, I could not find them so settled for Hella instead for lens and reflector.

The glass lens is made in Austria or somewhere but the whole thing costs less than 1K per side because the rest of the mechanism from OEM unit including the leveler should work with this.I think it is a common fitment for buses and trucks.

The clarity and beam pattern of Hella setup is so good that I did not upgrade the bulbs, just swapped an original set of Philips 55/60W, focused the beam properly and the Jeep would blitz through the night. I did not believe it would make that much difference but I guess when you deal with BHPian recommend accessories guys, it makes a lot of difference.

For heavy rains it would help to have a set of Halogen driving lights fitted on the bumper, a very well tried and tested setup over the years.

Here’s what BHPian Mortis had to say on the matter:

See it’s just not the brightness and beam pattern that matter with LEDs. The CRI also has a big impact on visibility so even a bright LED with a good cutoff might be lacking. HIDs on average would have 90+ but the average, even branded LED would be in the 70s or maybe 80s. In the same series though, a 3300k or 4300k led would generally have a slightly better cri than its higher Kelvin counterparts.

What I would suggest would be to find a nice popular mid range LED light with enough power and a good beam pattern and check if anyone has done a DIY upgrade to replace the stock LEDs with new ones. Source the highest CRI 4300k LEDs of the same type you can find and swap them.

Keyword: Need suggestions: Upgrading the headlights of my new Mahindra Thar