Vehicle lighting

[HDi fun]

Ignoring all styling and fashion issues, what's you're approach to obligatory vehicle lighting? For example - you have a headlight out bue to a failed lamp.

Do you fix it immediately or wait until it's service time?

Do you fit uprated lamps to your car? If so, where? Headlights, brakes, sides etc?

If so, are uprated lamps worth the money?

I am a needlessly picky driver and alway fix these things right away. I've been trying a multitude of upgrade Xenon H7 lamps, and they all work well but life is extremely short in comparison to ordinary halogen H7's.

Has anyone else had a similar experience?

[StevieDB9]

I upgraded with Philips Xenons offering 30% more light and I think they're outstanding. Ive had them in about a year so dont know how long they last all I know is the ordinary bulbs in before kept blowing every few months.

Next time I upgrade going to try Philips Xtreme vision which offer 90% more light!

[HDi fun]

I've tried the Osram Nightbreakers which are very good - have yet to report on life

[pgarner]

im like you i want things like fixed stright away. especially with things like lights.

havent had to change anything on the bora yet but did use halfords super brilliance bulbs on the civic and they made quite a bit of difference over the standard bulbs. but they still werent that great. i ended up putting them down to the headlight units them selfs

regarding thier life they were in for just under 2 years when i sold them and both were still working

[HDi fun]

I tried halfords super brilliance +50's and they died in 6 months.

[DaveyL]

For a £3 bulb(i'm a cheapskate) why not change them straight away, I always do.

As for modifications, don't care about my corsa, but my mini i'm planning to modify. Have some decent bulbs in normal headlamps, gonna get some 100W in my spots(semi legal, ahem) and brake, indicator, reverse etc i'm going to fit LED's in the units. Gonna do it myself with a soldering iron and hopefully will look sweet.

Dave

[HDi fun]

If the spots go off with the main beams then you're not technically breaking the law. But you still can't fit 100w to main beam enclosures! Also the spots have to be above bumper height and not less than 2'6" apart.

[DaveyL]

The spots are on a different circuit.Gonna have a floor mounted dimmer switch plus a kill switch on dash. Just for windy roads round yorkshire when you need more lighting. They are mounted in my grill so they will be legal on last 2 points.

What about fogs? They are lower than bumper aint they? Gonna get myself some of them.I like lights...

Dave

[HDi fun]

Fogs have to be below bumper level. I find fogs largely useless to be honest. Their purpose is to light up the edges of the road when nothing else will suffice. I've never encountered conditions where they've been helpful.

[Shao]

will fix an out light straight away - tbh finding "extra strength" headlights a hazard for the oncoming vehicle - very dazzling!!