Regal full LED vs Insignia Intellilux headlights

[ZB Commodore Owner]

Thank you for the informative reply.

 

[patto98]

Your info is kind of what I expected, that is the control of the lights is largely governed by items that are already installed and used for other purposes as well.

If I knew I could install the LED lamps and have them work with manual switching between low and high beam (as happens now with the old style halogens) I'd be sorely tempted. The cost of the Intelliux units is a bit rich to buy them only to find they won't work at all.

Do you know if there's two models of LED lights fitted to our cars. The IntelliLux headlamp and a more basic LED non smart headlamp? I've got the impression that there might have been a basic LED headlamp fitted in the North Americam market based on some comments and the price mentioned for the LED headlamps. The price I've seen quoted by some in North America seems very cheap compared to the prices I've seen for the IntelliLux lights.

For what it’s worth, I’ve ordered a set of OEM GM headlights for my ZB Commodore which are apparently plug and play compatible, and are “different” to the ones I’ve seen elsewhere.

You can see they don’t have the 2nd blue cable which apparently controls most of the matrix component of the headlight. From what I’ve been able to gather these lights are from the China model Insignias that don’t have IntelliLUX/Matrix headlights at all, just static LEDs.

 

[FavaBean]

For what it’s worth, I’ve ordered a set of OEM GM headlights for my ZB Commodore

From what I’ve been able to gather these lights are from the China model Insignia

From where and how much?

 

[ZB Commodore Owner]

Also are they set up for right hand drive

 

[patto98]

From where and how much?

Also are they set up for right hand drive

This is the link I enquired on. I contacted the seller beforehand and said I want OEM ones not 3rd party ones that mimick OEM which is when they sent me the photos I’ve attached above.

They confirmed that they are RHD, and will work with the wiring of stock halogen ZB Commodore without any mods. I’ve ordered them, come to just under $1600AUD shipped. My only advice if you end up ordering them is to specify in your order form you want OEM only, and pay with PayPal, that way you’ll be refunded if they’re not correct.

Once they get delivered I’ll post the results of what they’re like.

 

[ZB Commodore Owner]

This is the link I enquired on. I contacted the seller beforehand and said I want OEM ones not 3rd party ones that mimick OEM which is when they sent me the photos I’ve attached above.

They confirmed that they are RHD, and will work with the wiring of stock halogen ZB Commodore without any mods. I’ve ordered them, come to just under $1600AUD shipped. My only advice if you end up ordering them is to specify in your order form you want OEM only, and pay with PayPal, that way you’ll be refunded if they’re not correct.

Once they get delivered I’ll post the results of what they’re like.

I very much look forward to hearing how they work out. I'm keen but a bit wary after the outcomes of some other similar items.

 

[patto98]

I very much look forward to hearing how they work out. I'm keen but a bit wary after the outcomes of some other similar items.

Got my drivers side unit couple days back and finally got the chance to play around tonight, the passenger side unit is still moving around Sydney seemingly aimlessly (but it’s Australia Post so not entirely surprised by this..)

From what I can tell they are genuine GM parts, they’ve got GM stickers and logos moulded into the housing etc. I’ve ordered 3rd party replacements before and there is definitely an OEM feel to these vs the 3rd party ones I’ve seen.

I will note that to my surprise the units come without DRLs, they need to be transplanted from your halogen housing, but this is literally 3 screws to undo and transfer the exterior DRL unit over, all of the internals are present.

Haven’t had the chance to actually drive with them etc because I’ve only got one, but they sure seem legit to me.

 

[ZB Commodore Owner]

Thanks for the update. Eagerly awaiting the next installment

 

[patto98]

Thanks for the update. Eagerly awaiting the next installment

Finally got everything situated!

I’d confidently say go ahead and order a set. The only things I have of note are:

1. Not totally sure if they’re LHD or RHD in terms of beam pattern, in that halogens (or LED replacements for halogen housing) have the pretty distinct flat line and then an upwards angle, LHD facing to one side, and RHD facing the other. By comparison these have an almost flat cut off with an ever so slight flick toward the end in the way LDH would be. Similar to this:

Where “ours” is the LEDs, and LHD and RHD obviously as described.

For what it’s worth I’ve been driving around with them in for about 2 weeks and not once have I been flashed etc by oncoming traffic.

2. They’re definitely OEM GM lights, and the reason I say this is firstly because they’ve got GM logos all over them, but secondly because they’ve got cornering lights which work without the need for any additional coding which I’d pretty confidently say wouldn’t be the case if they were third party. As soon as you turn the indicator on they enable and stay on for about 5 seconds after the indicator has disabled.

3. I won’t say they’ve been without issue. My drivers side rocked up about a week before my passengers side, after a couple days I begun to get an error “low beam failure” at random and not really reproducible either, the light worked fine and the error could be dismissed from the dash so I wasn’t massively concern, but annoying none the less. I got my passenger side one and had no issues, and haven’t had any issues up until this point 2 weeks later. I contacted the seller and they’ve sent me a new adapter to fix the issue. The adapter adapts the LED specific plug as well as the “standard” plug on the LED units, to just a standard plug to work with our cars and there’s a small amount of compute there to do so, they seem to think a capacitor may have shorted in mine which causes the issue. This does give me a little confidence though that the after sales support wasn’t a complete waste of time like some other AliExpress sellers.

4. As I said originally, the units come without the LED DRL module, so you’ll need to pull that off of your halogen lights and place it onto the LED unit before you install it, 3 torx screws and you’re done it’s super easy.

All in all I’m definitely happy with them!

EDIT: One thing I forgot, they have manual height adjustment on the unit, the knob in the car doesn’t work.

 

[pioadam]

@patto98 this beam pattern is correct for LEDs - mentioned LHD & RHD lines are for halogen bulbs but Xenon and LED doesn't have this upwards angle (I was curios about this when I've installed BiLed projectors in my Opel Signum and confirmed it on yearly inspection). Regarding manual height adjustments - open the cover on lamp and check if adjustment motor wasn't replaced with piece of plastic - had same issue when I bought aftermarket headlights, you need to take it off and replace with motor taken from your lamps 😉

 

[patto98]

@patto98 this beam pattern is correct for LEDs - mentioned LHD & RHD lines are for halogen bulbs but Xenon and LED doesn't have this upwards angle (I was curios about this when I've installed BiLed projectors in my Opel Signum and confirmed it on yearly inspection). Regarding manual height adjustments - open the cover on lamp and check if adjustment motor wasn't replaced with piece of plastic - had same issue when I bought aftermarket headlights, you need to take it off and replace with motor taken from your lamps 😉

Thanks for the info about the beam patterns, that’s what I thought!

As for the motors, there’s no cover for these they’re completely sealed. I imagine that there is a motor in them but because they’re technically the auto levelling (or whatever GM calls it) LEDs there’s probably some coding needed to actually get the switch working. Either way they’ve got height adjustment on the lights themselves (just like the halogens do with a Phillips head screwdriver) so I’ve got them at the right height and hopefully never have to change them again.

 

[ZB Commodore Owner]

How does the light output compare with the Halogen lights?

 

[patto98]

How does the light output compare with the Halogen lights?

I haven’t had my halogens in for a long time, I was using H7 LEDs. I would say compared to them it’s actually probably a bit duller, however the light is consistent all the way there’s no major bright point like my halogens had. They’re also in no way “dull”, I’d say if you’re running halogens they’ll be much brighter (and look a lot better too).




And the “block effect” for the high beam dissipates from further away



And here is the cornering light on and off

 

[ZB Commodore Owner]

I don't think those are RHD lights. I been looking at our (NZ) requirements. The low beam has to have the maximum intensity to the left. The low beam picture shows more light (higher beam level) to the right.

Also the high beam pattern is quite different to that shown in the attachment.

I'm not sure they'd pass inspection here.

Also the headlamp unit has to have an approved standards markings. See attached. Do the Chinese units have any of these markings? Without them I would expect possible rejection during the annual inspection.

 

[patto98]

I don't think those are RHD lights. I been looking at our (NZ) requirements. The low beam has to have the maximum intensity to the left. The low beam picture shows more light (higher beam level) to the right.

Also the high beam pattern is quite different to that shown in the attachment.

I'm not sure they'd pass inspection here.

Also the headlamp unit has to have an approved standards markings. See attached. Do the Chinese units have any of these markings? Without them I would expect possible rejection during the annual inspection.

Yeah not sure, my parents car has Matrix LEDs that have the same pattern/similar pattern as this, I think I need to drop my left one to be a bit lower as right now it’s sitting a smidge above the left.

Hard to explain without side by side comparison, but they’re almost flat in comparison to the halogens which are more like


with a much sharper angle.

As for the symbols, yeah there’s a heap of different symbols on the GM tag and on the plastic itself.

As I’ve said, generally speaking I haven’t been at all flashed with them and I’ve also driven towards my car with the lights on and it’s been fine.

 

[ZB Commodore Owner]

Those pictures by the beam cut off, look to me to be from a LHD car for the top picture and a RHD car for the lower picture.

I'm pretty keen on upgrading to LED but am very gun shy due to how anal the inspectors can be.

If you are able to check I'd be keen to know if any of the approval marks on that document I included in a previous post are present. That would go a long way to battling any issues with inspectors.

 

[patto98]

Those pictures by the beam cut off, look to me to be from a LHD car for the top picture and a RHD car for the lower picture.

I'm pretty keen on upgrading to LED but am very gun shy due to how anal the inspectors can be.

If you are able to check I'd be keen to know if any of the approval marks on that document I included in a previous post are present. That would go a long way to battling any issues with inspectors.

Yeah they were just ones I found from Google to show how much more of an angle the “halogen” lights are than the LED ones.

I’m waiting on my adapter to get here to fix my error message, when it does I’ll take photos of the lights for you.

 

[ZB Commodore Owner]

Yeah they were just ones I found from Google to show how much more of an angle the “halogen” lights are than the LED ones.

I’m waiting on my adapter to get here to fix my error message, when it does I’ll take photos of the lights for you.

That makes sense re the photos.

Thanks for getting pictures of the approval markings.