Headlight bulbs!

[obi_waynne]

Choices choices, which should I go for? This is the second time this bulb has blown. I can get halogen, Xenon, 40% brighter, 80% brighter and bulbs with a hint of blue, or extra white. This is sounding more like a washing powder commercial now.

I have rules out the non street legal high wattage bulbs but for the others we are looking at £20-£40 for a pair of bulbs! What have you used or do you recommend? Am I right in thinking that the brighter bulbs cost more and have a lower life expectancy?

 

[pgarner]

last time i changed the bulbs i used the 50% brighter xenon bulbs from halfords as they were on a bogof offer at £10.99 that was for road legal 60/55w but its funny as thats where i ended up gettin the 130W bulbs for all my driving lights and they were 7.99 each

still fancy hid myself but dont think they were avalible on the bora and too much legal stuff to go with the conversion kits


think you should be right the brighter the bulb they hotter the element should be and therefore burn away quicker however all road legal headlight bulbs have to be a max of 60w

 

[HDi fun]

Osram's Nightbreakers are meant to be +90%

I have yet to try them. Previously have used Silverstar +50% lamps (H7 for each beam, so four lamps at the front) and they're very good. Didn't bother with the main beams as they're quite good as they are. Likewise the fogs, no point as they're rarly used.

Currently using Halfords Super Brilliance at £22.99 each but BOGOF means that for the pair. THey're very good indeed but the beam pattern is questionable. I had to manually realign both beams to get clean distribution and cutoff.

 

[pgarner]

Osram's Nightbreakers are meant to be +90%

where abouts stock these as looking to uprate the boras lights to a much brighter beam problem is living in the country we use full beam most of the time and even hid bulbs in the H4 type mean hid normal beam and halogen high beam

 

[obi_waynne]

Just get some rally style spots and run them along the bonnet.

 

[pgarner]

yeah had them on the civic but really wanted to leave the bora as standard

did look into getting the lower fog lights and wiring them into the full beam but it advises not to fit them to turbo applications due to the interooler
thought obout getting some ducting to take from the center cutout androuting it to the 'cooler

 

[StevieDB9]

i just finished changing my lightbulbs in the car

AND I TELL YOU WHEN THE GERMANS PUT A CAR TOGETHER THEY DONT INTEND FOR IT TO BE TAKEN APART AGAIN

two hours forty five minutes, 2 cans of coke zero, three cups of tea (one of them being earl grey), three slice of roasted cheese, four slices of toast with marmalade and severel swear words later and the job was done.

changed the main beam and sidelights to philips blue vision.
havent had a chance to check them out in the dark yet though!

 

[pgarner]

can do better than that 1 of the guys at work had a dihatsu which required the front bumber to be removed to change a headlight bulb
he says the newer version is worse when the bulb blows it puts the engine managment light on. you still have to take the bumber off change the bulb then take it to the dealer to reset the fault

 

[HDi fun]

Likewise, I'm in the country and rely upon headlights since there's no street lighting.

The Halfords things are OK, if you really need more light then fit 'em to the main beams too

 

[obi_waynne]

Hey StevieDB9 I nearly got those but went for the Phillips 80% brighter. I am quite pleased with them they are certainly brighter.

 

[pgarner]

is that the new ones out i did see them the other week and though about them then went nah

 

[obi_waynne]

I had a broken headlight lense. So got a replacement from the scrap yard. Its a bumper off job to change a headlight and I couldn't be bothered so I got my local garage to do it! I put the new bulb (£34 a pair) in the headlamp unit and took it into the garage.

The garage fitted the 'new' headlamp but the adjuster was broken so he put the old one back in and swapped the lenses over! Guess what he did with the headlight unit with my new bult in it?

Yup - in the skip. I had the guy forraging around to retreieve my bulb, he offered me a standard 10W Yooonipart bulb and couldn't really understand why I had paid so much for a bulb. (It cost more than the headlight unit!) In the end he found it for me and I went away happy!

 

[pgarner]

nice of him to offer a bulb you would have been better puttin a candle in the headlight than using those thou

surprised he didnt take the new bulb out for himself before chucking the new/old one away

 

[fingers]

When changer your bulbs, if you decide to opt for a brighter bulb, fit a bulb that is brighter due to being a different type i.e. the white light thingies, and do not up the wattage of the bulbs. If you fit a bulb that is of higher wattage it will demand more amps. If your vehicle's electrical system isn't capable of supplying a high enough ampage to power the bulbs properly, one of three things will happen.

1) Your headlamps will actually be dimmer due to the bulbs not getting enough current to power up properly.

2) the fuse will keep blowing unless you put a bigger one in (I really wouldn't recommend this!)

3) someone has already put a bigger fuse in and the wiring isn't capable of coping with the extra current draw, and as a result, melts and catches fire.

 

[HDi fun]

It's also illegal to use lamps over 60 watts. Silly really, given how bright HIDs are.

The idea is to avoid dazzling other road users. But when a HId typically is rated at around 30 watts in operation, why use current / power consumption to restrict brightness/reduce glare.

It's like trying to limit the top speed by fitting a smaller fuel tank and a narrower tank filler aperture. Daft!!!!

 

[pgarner]

yeah 60w pulls 5 A of current the 130w bulbs that i had installed (in additional driving lights ) pulled neared 11 A. a total draw of 44 A then the standard bulbs drawing there own current. required 2 realys and some a lot of 27A cable to get them to work safely. first time tried using 1 realy and 17A cable realy blew and cable melted, luckly didnt go on fire

 

[StevieDB9]

hey waynne, was thinking of changing my dipped beam to those phillips x-treme power 80% jobbies. good are they? the blue vision are certainly good on the main beam and they only claim 30% more light

 

[HDi fun]

Philips Xtreme whites are meant to be good. Osram's also got a new one, claiming 90% extra.

I'm not one for blue tints, but the Halfords things I'm currently using (dips only) have a really really pale coating of very deep blue hue. It's barely visible to the naked eye and doesn't seem to rob light. They do have the effect of giving a slightly whiter light which is supposed to be better to see by.

I'm not sure it makes that much difference, and will stick with absolutely clear ones in future.

 

[obi_waynne]

I am actually quite pleased with the phillips 80% ones. They are noticably better than the standard ones but it would be interesting to compare them with the 40% ones. I don't get the fact you get more light from the same wattage input. I guess they are more efficient. Does the gas they fill the bulb with make much difference?

 

[pgarner]

think its all to do with the gas
think back about 10 year to hand held torches you had the chose of standard bulb of hylogen bulbs whiched claimed to be brighter and were
whatever happened to the old bulbs? dont think you an get them any longer

 

[HDi fun]

Basically the gas or gases are there to enable the filament to burn hotter, therefore whiter and brighter. This means a thinner wire coiled into a filament.

Halogen gases are very unreactive and stop too mucg tungsten eevaporating from the filament.

The Xenon ones work slightly differently, so I believe. The Xenon gas reacts with the tungsten (don't know how) and keeps the gaseous metal in a colourless 'cloud'. WHen you turn off apparently this cloud condenses and redeposits metal onto the filament.

Xenon, is a member of the group of halogen gases anyway - so???

I have no idea why it doesn't condense on the inside of the glass envelope.

Try this for a better explanation:

http://members.misty.com/don/xeincand.html

 

[obi_waynne]

Xenon molecules are big and cause the others to "bounce back" onto the filament instead of forming a film on the glass. Its clever stuff! In the olden days there just used to be a vacuum!

 

[HDi fun]

Lovely old things in spherical envelopes that slung out bugger all light in return for their 60 watts worth of supplied current.

Ahh, valve amps - now there's something that can't be bettered even now. The glow through the fretwork; the constant re-biasing; the electricity bill...............

Thankfully we never relied upon 'em for lighting but they do make good heaters.

 

[obi_waynne]

Now your showing your age! Imaging if cars ecus were a bank of valves under the dash - its would look like the Tardis!

 

[StevieDB9]

btw, xenon is not a halogen gas but infact a noble gas with full quantum shells and an 18 electron configuration which makes it very inert.

halogens (fluorine, chlorine iodine etc) are infact very reactive!

 

[obi_waynne]

I'm impressed! We have another resident scientist. :wink:

 

[HDi fun]

Now your showing your age! Imaging if cars ecus were a bank of valves under the dash - its would look like the Tardis!

I think the ECU would be far larger and heavier than the car. It would be pretty though.

 

[obi_waynne]

Put it in the caravan and tow it around! (Isn't that why caravans are so slow!)

 

[HDi fun]

Bit like my mate who visited America a few years ago and was asked by a cop to show his UK driving licence. Cop was very impressed - thought my mate was obviously a very good driver indeed as his licence had been endorsed.!!!



And I thought that when they say 'tear along the dotted line' on the old style licence they mean the white one down the middle of the road.