LED H4 headlight bulbs - bizzare workings

[ukjules]

I have some eBay .... H4 led headlight bulbs. They work but in the most bizzare fashion. Basically the flash won't work and hi and low are the wrong way round ?
(Read on as this is not sk simple )

A few years ago I came up against exactly the same problem I am having now. I gave up and went back to halogen bulbs that work.

Assume this on my GSX (But was same on my GS550)

- my old halogen bulb works fine. I have a side light and the halogen which works with the correct switching on hi and low beam and flash. No probs.

- I add the new led.
Result : The Side light is seperate of course .
Hi and low are the wrong way round !!! And flash does not work.
when I say they are the wrong way round it is at the switch . Hi beam = low beam and low beam = high beam.
I leave the earth wire and swap the other two round and then there is no low beam.

No matter where I put the wires I can't get them to work. I can make the halogen work fine every time.

So now I have the led in . Side light ok. High and low beam the wrong way round and no flash.

How is this possible when the bulb works fine attached to a battery only ?

I am the worst at electrics but I have never ever yet got a single led bulb to work on any vehicle. What on earth am I doing wrong ?

[Rijko]

Have you upgraded your R/R ?
If not, replacing the H4 with LED is a bad idea.

[ukjules]

Why ? Surely using less power it will be better ?

[Rijko]

No, oversimplified : the oldfashioned R/R makes the genny work fulltime so both RR and generator get hot.
The power not used loops back into the generator, making it even hotter.
So the more power you use, the better. Always drive with the lights on.

That's an issue with the H4 bulbs already, but if you mount less consuming LED lights,
the generator and RR will get even hotter.
It will hasten the end, sometimes the generator, sometimes R/R, or both.

Modern R/R like a Compufire or Shindengen SH775 run cool and protect the generator.
Lots of threads on that, here.

The original setup can work well, but not if less power is consumed.
Not many here agree with me on that btw .. most will say mount a SH775 and be done with it.
And unless you keep the oil level perfectly topped up and take very good care of connectors, wiring, etc,
they are right.

[Suzukian]

Read up on stock Suzuki Voltage regulators. In short, they only regulate one leg of the stator, the two other legs are rectified, but swing up and down depending on the load. It was really bad electronic engineering. Many bikes were junked because of this easy to fix problem. Many stators burned up unnecessarily from the inductive counter electromotive force. The best way to upgrade is to get a rectifier/regulator that works on all 3 legs of the stator, then just run the positive and negative output straight tot he battery. I used a R/R off an old Yamaha XS1100, as it was massive, had huge cooling fins, and did a full rectification and regulation of all three legs of the stator. 10 years on, it's still working great.

[KiwiAlfa156]

I'm surprised that the Hi/Lo is reversed as the H4 pinout is standard.

I've just fitted an H4 LED that I purchased through Aliexpress and the improvement over halogen was night and day. The bike has an uprated RR and the light switch alternator phase cut-off has been deleted. Running either your headlight or daytime running lights during daylight is mandatory here in NZ. The LED bulb I chose had a draw of 55W. This was on purpose, as I wanted to ease the heat load on the RR by keeping the current draw close to that of the standard Halogen. Of course the upside extra lumens, stated at 15,000, but who knows? It certainly is bright.

[Suzukian]

If you do "the fix" on your bike, you won't have to worry about what you run. The C.E.M.F. (CounterElectroMotiveForce) caused by the the inductive feedback from the horrid design is what will eventually cook your stator if you just keep it stock. So much has been written on it, the debate goes into which Regulator/Rectifier to use, there is no argument that it needs to be fixed.

[ukjules]

I see..... I thought it was gonna be simple .....
I have been round the sh775 regulator fix before. Of course I should have one on all my bikes but cost prevents me.
As I have not even started the bike with the new led in I'll go back to halogen.
I am glad I asked now.

It is still damned annoying how I cannot get a led bulb to even work in the bike.
This no longer matters but how on earth can there be no flash and hi and low are reversed.
The above having changed the back of connections on bulb around.
3 prongs from bulb and three wires to loom. the bulb must be internally
different to cause this.
And this having it work connected direct to a battery away from the loom.

I give up on that as more pressing issues and that I will never use led bulbs.

(could it be that the bulbs are cheap eBay rubbish ?)

[Rijko]

(could it be that the bulbs are cheap eBay rubbish ?)

Yes, lots of rubbish around.
Though the pinout usually works.

Another 2 possible issues with H4 LED lamps :

* Heat. quality LED lamps have some sort of heatsink, so the LED does not overheat.
The cheap ones have the LEDs soldered on without one, reducing lifespan drastically.

* Effective light beam.
The H4 headlight reflector is designed to work with a H4 bulb, reflecting light so it ends up as a nice beam
in front of your bike.

The cheap H4 LED lamps cast light in a different way so unless specifically designed to not only FIT in a H4 fitting
but also cast light like a H4 bulb, you may end up with a beam that does not project a nice beam in front of your motorcycle.
The cheap ones will fit but are not designed to work with a H4 reflector.
The result may be that you blind other traffic, and although the bulb produces more lumen, you see less than with a H4 bulb.

That's why this topic comes up regularly and most advice will be for the more expensive lights ... you get what you pay for i guess.

[ukjules]

Understood. Take it that mine were cheap rubbish the cheapest I could find ....

[Rich82GS750TZ]

SH775 and a Truck-Lite. Best money I ever spent on my bike.

[rphillips]

Back to what Rijko mentioned, thinking halogens are "reflective" and LEDs are "projective", totally different, need correct light housing for the light you use. A thought, for our old GS's. The orig. H4's were 65/55 W bulbs, you can get H4 halogen bulbs with higher wattage, like 100/80 W, (normally advertised for off rd. use only) way brighter than orig. Disappointing I've not found a higher watt bulb that was higher (brighter) on Hi, and still 55 W (not brighter) on Lo. I've never wanted nor needed a brighter Lo, I'd rather not blind the folks I'm meeting at 60mph, 6' to my left.... Have been running higher watt for yrs. with no problems.