Lighting circuits, headlights, taillights and LED retrofit

Lighting circuits, headlights, taillights and LED retrofit

Lighting is one of the things we fix most often — everything from a blown parking bulb to complete replacement of headlights or a legal LED retrofit. On modern cars, lighting is no longer just "swap a bulb"; sensors, CAN-bus and ECUs are involved, and a wrong bulb can produce fault messages across the whole car.

Headlights

There are three main technologies: halogen (older cars, cheap bulb, lower light quality), xenon/HID (mid-generation, requires a ballast and igniter, expensive to replace) and LED (modern, integrated into the housings). On halogen cars it is usually straightforward to change the bulb — H7, H4, H1 etc. — but on modern cars some headlights are "wet seal" and require the whole housing to be opened to access the bulb, and sometimes the bumper has to be removed.

Xenon headlights are more complex: if the ballast or igniter fails, those have to be replaced (and cost considerably more than the bulb). LED headlights are usually not designed for bulb replacement — if the LED fails, the whole housing often has to be replaced, often NOK 4,000–15,000 per side.

Taillights

Taillights are mostly simpler — traditional bulbs that change quickly. But on newer cars taillights are often LED strips integrated into the cluster itself. If an LED in such a strip fails, the whole taillight unit has to be replaced — we have experience troubleshooting whether it is actually the LED or a connector/control module causing the problem, before we recommend replacing a whole cluster.

LED retrofit from halogen

Many want to switch from halogen to LED for better light and lower current draw. This is technically possible on most cars but comes with three caveats: (1) Legal requirements — in Norway retrofit LED must be E-marked for vehicles and the headlight must produce correct beam pattern. (2) CAN-bus — cars with bulb monitoring will often falsely report "bulb out" on an LED drawing less current; we install a CAN-bus adapter that fools the bulb monitor. (3) Beam alignment — after retrofit the beam pattern must be checked and adjusted on a beam-setting rig to avoid dazzling other drivers.

Beam alignment

After replacing headlights, bulbs or after collisions that have affected the headlight mounting, the beam pattern must be checked on an approved beam-setting rig. Incorrect alignment is one of the most common reasons for failing the periodic vehicle test, and dazzles other road users. We make adjustments quickly and inexpensively.

Fog lights, parking lights and indicators

These are usually simple replacements — priced from a few hundred kroner for bulb and labour. We carry most common bulbs in stock.

Book an electrical repair online or call us on 41 17 32 24.