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MG MGF Technical - MGF Lights

Hi All

Long time no post...
Has anyone managed to install LED headlights on an MGF yet, or has anyone heard of anyone who successfully did this?
Driving on a dark motorway in a Ford Focus the other night in the driving rain, I was pleasantly surprised to be able to see the road in a broad swathe in front of me, and therefore could get some speed up with confidence.
In similar circumstances in the F, I have to try to hang on to someone's ar*e and hope they are going the same way, or drive at around 55 mph praying that there are no sudden turns ahead. (Yep, I've shot up a slip road by mistake on that dark section of the M1 near Nottingham, real brown trouser time.)
Mike Satur, this could be a real money spinner if you managed to knock up a working conversion.

Cheers

Jim
J. A. Farrington

Hi Jim,

Surprised you're finding dipped beam so poor, are the reflectors in perfect condition or are they beginning to lose their shine? Even slight milkiness will diffuse the beam significantly.
Mike Hankin

Hi Mike

The reflectors are only two years old, and the bulbs are top-spec from Osram. I'm just griping because the driving in the dark ability of the MGF is its one major drawback IMHO, & I would certainly look into shelling out to fix it.

Cheers

Jim
J. A. Farrington

Mike, have you got your reflectors back from Geoff yet?

Jim - LED lights? Or do you mean projector lamps (as used in the TF)?
Rob Bell

Or do you mean gas filled Xenon lights ?

Adrian
Adrian Clifford

Rob, having bought a younger set of headlamps as a quick fix for the MOT, I've not yet worked down the task list as far as getting the old ones sent off to Geoff, but hope to next week once I've got the brakes sorted...
Mike Hankin

Jim, it sounds like your dipped beam needs adjusting up a bit!
Steve Ratledge

If you are experiencing problems with dim headlamps it is normally down to the silvering of bowls of the INNER reflectors oxidising and then being deposited on the inner surface of the inner lens.

Note this process is caused by heat from the headlamp bulbs so fitting higher wattage bulbs in an effort to improve things only accelerates the process.

Cure is to have the inner reflector bowls resilvered and then sealed with a clear laquer. Then you simply clean the inner surface if the inner lens (vinegar works well) and reassemble - lights should now be restored to factory brightness and hiher wattage bulbs can be used if necessary.

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As far as i am aware no one does an MGF specific conversion as of yet. I know that Rob Bell looked into mounting TF projector lamps inside the F housing but hit a wall and is no longer hopefull. I am working on a discreet additional lighting solution (and have been for about a year now) and i also know that there are gas discharge conversions out there that will probably work (for a significant amount of cash) - although i have yet to hear of an F being done and if it was i have no idea what the heat would do to the inner reflector bowls.

SF
Scarlet Fever

>> I know that Rob Bell looked into mounting TF projector lamps inside the F housing but hit a wall and is no longer hopefull. <<

There's still a chance that the dip-beam projectors can fit... It is now just a question of time as to when I will attempt to assemble something to put together.
Rob Bell

Hi All

Sorry to show my ignorance, I mean the projector style lamps that most modern cars these days have.
Thanks for all the responses, clearly I'm not the only one pondering in the dark in my F.
Rob, Scarlet Fever, keep us posted with your progress.

Cheers

Jim
J. A. Farrington

This thread was discussed between 11/10/2005 and 12/10/2005

MG MGF Technical index

This thread is from the archive. The Live MG MGF Technical BBS is active now.