Vauxhall/Opel Insignia SRi Headlight Conversion To LED

12/12/2025

Hello Vauxhall/Opel Insignia owners from around the World, I hope you are well.

As the title suggests, in this post, I will be attempting to convert the dipped and main beam halogen bulbs in my headlights with LED replacements.

If you own an Insignia, you might be aware that the headlights are not very good and produce a very dim dipped and main beam headlight. Apparently this is because of a poor headlight design. Although other car headlights produce a decent amount of light with a conventional 50/55 Watt halogen bulb, the (face lift 2013-2017) Insignia produces very little light with these bulbs. Apparently changing the bulbs for a higher power or different type (in this case LED) of bulb does not make any difference to the strength of the light produced. However, I am tired of having such a poor light to help guide me through these dark winter evenings, I am willing to try anything for any improvement in illumination. 

In my efforts to try and improve my night driving vision, I did extensive research in trying to find a decent replacement LED bulb that would not cause the car to give me error codes. As you can imagine there are literally dozens of types of LED headlight replacement bulbs that advertise that they are error free bulbs, but I have read there are actually only a few that will not produce an error code. After much research, I eventually joined an Insignia owners forum and asked the question to some of the people who might have the answer. The answer I was looking for was a pair of LED headlight replacement bulbs that I could buy from Amazon. The bulbs I needed are D-Lumina HIR2/9012 type that would be a direct replacement for the conventional halogen bulbs.

After receiving the information of the type of bulb and the manufacturer of said LED, I quickly went to Amazon to order the lights. 

When I went onto Amazon I was kind of shocked at the price of the pair of LED replacements. I was expecting to pay maybe £7 to £10 for each LED but they were an eye watering £39.95 for a pair. After further investigation, I found that this was the typical amount for a pair of LED replacement bulbs. The cheapest I could see were on Ebay at a price of £16 each. Again the seller said they would be error free but after checking the whole advert, they could not guarantee this would be the case. After debating with myself for a short while, I decided pull the pin and ordered the D-Lumina bulbs from Amazon, after all I was willing to pay decent money for extra illumination for safety reasons and the error free replacements. 

After ordering, I was happy to be informed that the replacement LED bulbs would be with me the next day, which they were and here is what I received...

Above is one of the two LED replacement fittings that came in the box. The bulb fitting is made from aluminium and is quite the weight. The extra box is the part that tells the car not to indicate a fault. The box is also made from aluminium and the connector is the same type that will fit my car.

The base of the LED fitting has a fan to keep the LED's cool under operation.

Although I am reluctant to think these LED's will improve my night vision, I must do a comparison of the specification with the old halogen bulbs.

The old bulbs are at a maximum of 55 Watts each, whereas the new LED's are...wait for it...A WHOPPING 160 Watt or 30000 Lumen. That has to make a difference! The colour temperature of the LED is 6500K which should give out a nice crisp white light instead of the yellow candle bulbs that are currently installed. 

The specification and the fittings of the LED are impressive, I just have to wait until daylight tomorrow to fit them. I can't wait to see the difference.

The picture below show's the light intensity and the beam pattern of the standard 55 Watt halogen bulbs in the car at the moment...

and another picture below

I think the second picture is actually a better representation of how poor the lights are.

And another picture of the headlights when the car is fully inside the garage.

A picture of the car headlights from the front. As you can see, the yellowish/low light that the headlights produce at the minute.

NEXT DAY

Time for the install of the LED bulbs...

First of all I removed the washer bottle filler pipe, which just pulls out. With the washer bottle filler pipe out of the way I took off the headlamp cap, disconnected the cable and removed the halogen bulb. With the old bulb removed, I inserted the new LED light and put the cap back on the back of the headlight. I then pushed back the washer bottle filler pipe and tried out the new light.

You can see the difference between the old halogen bulb on the left and the new LED lamp on the right. 

 In the picture above again you can see the difference between the old halogen bulb and the new led bulb.

With the one of the LED bulbs installed, I quickly moved onto the other side.

With the other bulb removed, I was ready to install the new LED bulb.

Now I have installed both LED bulbs, the headlights are now emit a nice crisp white light instead of the dim yellow light.

The picture above shows the view I have from inside the car with the headlights on main beam, with a beautiful crisp white light. I am very impressed with the light output even during the day. 

The most important thing is that the car recognises that the lights are installed, and the car is not showing an error code. Happy days! I'm already happy with the results but I will have a better idea of the output of the LED lights when it gets dark! 

With the new LED lights installed, I can now inspect the old halogen bulbs to tell if there was a reason why they were so poor.

Under close inspection the glass of the halogen bulb has started to mist up (white residue). This is normal due to the age of a halogen bulb and show that the bulb was probably near the end of it's life. You can also see that the filament (the coiled wire inside the glass) has started to break down and looks rusted. Again this is normal within the lifespan/cycle of the age of the bulb. No wonder my headlights were dim.

Another picture of the halogen bulb shows that the bulb glass has yellowed and is misted up during it's lifespan. I can only assume that these bulbs had very little life left in them and they would have failed very soon. The old halogen bulbs were made by Phillips which makes me think that these bulbs have been in from the car being new. After finding the manufacturer of the bulbs, I did a quick google and the bulbs are £35 each. That means if I had replaced them like for like, it would have cost me an extra £30 on what I have spent on the LED bulbs, so the LED bulbs worked out to be cheaper. 

The above picture was take at 15.50 on the 12/12/25 and it shows how good the new LED's are and it's not yet fully dark. The picture also show that there are no warnings or codes showing up on the instrument cluster.

The next picture shows the lights at 16.50 on the 12/12/2025, again no warning lights or error codes showing on the instrument cluster.

In conclusion...

I went out for a drive at 15.50 this afternoon and it was just getting dark and I have to say I was impressed to say the least with the headlights. The light output is amazing. No longer do I have candles for headlights, instead I have a lovely crisp white illumination of the road ahead. I wish I had changed the bulbs months ago. If your headlights are poor, no matter what car you are driving, get LED replacements, you won't regret it!

Until my next post on here, drive safely and stay well.

vauxhallinsignia2.com 

12/12/2025

The picture above is with the halogen bulbs and below is with the new LED bulbs.

Quite a difference!!