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!!

 

[DaveyL]

In yorkshire i've been in really bad fog about 5-6t times a year, and I mean really bad fog. Once I drove with the door open and kept an eye on the white lines in the middle of the road. Couldnt even see the road out the front. Thats why I wouldn't mind them. Near the moors and all so probably prudent.

Dave

 

[HDi fun]

Lovely lovely part of the country mate. If you've been in that situation where it's doors open to see carriageway markings then you really are a genuine candidate for front fogs.

They do light up the extremes of your lane/road right infront of the car.

 

[pgarner]

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

always wonderd why they are on BOGOF most of the time guess i must have been lucky :cheesy:.

DaveyL is it the 3 spots youve got on the mini or the 4 ?

 

[HDi fun]

That's a perennial problem that even good alignment can't solve. In happened when tungsten halogen lamps were launch in the late 1960's and became widely available in the 1970's. Anyone with the old 60w argon filled things was stuck.

Time perhaps for a rationalisation of lighting requirements. It's no longer possible to control brightness by regulating electrical watts (power) input.

 

[DaveyL]

DaveyL is it the 3 spots youve got on the mini or the 4 ?

Actually, I only have only have 2 spots. Either side of the grill. Not a standard pattern I admit but works well. When I get her onthe road.

And I agree, the roads in yorkshire are so fun. Beautiful and very fun..

Dave

 

[HDi fun]

Two spots at 100w each should help things along nicely. Be careful with electrical load on the loom and switchgear. You might want to mount relays close to the lamps with a permanent live from the battery to drive the spots and just use the switched feed to energise the relays.

 

[obi_waynne]

I had an old Nova and put 125 watt bulbs in them. Blissfully unaware that the hot cables could be a problem. Ah those were the days

 

[pgarner]

aye been there lots of smoke under the bonnet good fun

you should get away with 1 relay for the 2 spots. even 130 rally bulbs would only pull 22 amps.

 

[HDi fun]

One relay will do but using two means better current delivery to each lamp, and also you have some backup in the event of a failure ie. you won't lose both simultaneously should one filament fail and cause a transient voltage spike. These can happen even in DC systems, despite the fact that every twelve volt device is effectively parallel to the vehicle's battery give or take the internal resistance of the wiring loom.