Headlight bulbs What do you use?

[Davezj]

I need to know recommended bulb Brand and model.

all the ones i have tried have been very disappointing, even the ones that were bright white when fitted have gone a dull yellow after just a couple of weeks.

I have projectors at the moment and HIDs fitted but they are rubbish as well. the light looks bright within 10 feet of the car but after that unless the light falls on a reflective surface you would not know they were on. The issue with the HID's might be to do with the 'K' colour of the bulbs i have chosen i think the they were 8000K bulbs. not sure why i chose that K colour all i can think of is i did not want Blue tinted lights.

i almost had an accident when i was up in the lake district last time i was up there, there was no street lighting just outside of grasmere doing about 30-40mph and i was driving down a road and came across an un sign posted mini roundabout they had just been renewing the area and i presume had not got round to putting the new sign post up yet. needless to say i was glad of the ABS and 4wd other wise i would have gone through the bollard and post directly on the opposite side of the roundabout. i just didn't see it at all.

recommendation please.

[Davezj]

i have heard of Osram nigh breaker ultimate +110%
never used them through.

[adaxo]

I think Dave its time to consider this

specsavers.jpg

On serious note, your welcome to come over and have a go in my Mazda with genuine hid setup, they are very good and see if that actually bulb issue, before you go to specsavers

[Confused]

8000K is basically purple! 4300K is the fairly close to daylight, but with a slight yellow tint. 3600K is roughly the colour temperature of standard halogen lights.


However, if your projectors aren't great anyway (not all are), then standard headlamp units are a good shout.

Osram Nightbreakers are reportedly fairly good, but they do wear out quite quickly.

However, you can make the cheapest possible bulbs better than Nightbreakers by uprating the wiring to the bulbs.

The feed for the lights goes quite a way through the loom, in fairly thin wire. This introduces voltage drop. Most headlight bulbs have a rated output at ~13.2V. A 5% drop in voltage can equal a 20% drop in light output!!

Our headlights are, if I remember correctly, negative switched. They have a permanent 12v feed, and the ground is switched.

So - get a nice, thick, decent bit of wire from the battery. Run it through a fuse, and into the Common pole of a relay. From the NO pole, run this to one side of the headlight bulb. From the other side of the headlight bulb - run a decent bit of wire back to earth - either a good point on the chassis, or directly to the battery.

Repeat this for the other side.

Now, take the original headlamp connector, and using a bit of wire (almost anything will do at this point), connect to both sides of the coil on the relay.

Repeat this for the other side.


When you switch on the headlights, the original wiring will energise the relay coil, and will switch in your nice new, thick, low-voltage-drop wiring - and you'll have much brighter headlights.


Couple this with brighter bulbs, such as Nightbreakers, and your light output should be massively improved.


Also - properly clean up the front lens of the headlamp unit!!

[Confused]

Oh, and not all HID bulbs are made equally - there's a LOT of rubbish out there, which have poor light output!! Just because they're HID, doesn't mean they're actually any good!

[Davezj]

Nice info.
I have a relay and a dedicated supply to run the hid units as they would not always turn on if they ran from the headlight supply only.
However, I think I will create my own loom for the headlight supply as the one I am using was an eBay special. So there is no telling what the quality is.
At least I will know I am using the best part for the job.

Sent from my MI 5s using Tapatalk

[Colin Wiltshire]

I have the same problem Dave, even the same K of hid's. I will try Garry's advice and do a bit of rewireing for the headlights.

[Confused]

Do not get anything other than 4300K HIDs, please Not only are they the correct colour, they also give the brightest light output (which is why they are the colour of OEM HIDs, such as from Osram and Philips, who are the only manufacturers of HIDs for OEMs)

Oh, and if you've not got projectors designed for HIDs, please do not fit HIDs

[Atik]

Philips Extreme or Osram Nightbreakers.

There is a marked difference in quality in my experience.

I need to investigate what bulbs I have in my HID projectors as they seem to have decreased light output since first installing around 6-7 months ago.

[galantnight]

Hi Dave,
I have the Osram Nightbreakers 110% fitted in my car and find that they are a good improvement over the standard ones as they tend to be a bit yellow but he Osram are a bright white.
I can't really say about how long they will last, had mine two years but only used about ten times.
They are not as bright as the LED lights on my work car but for the money i paid for them about £20.00 for a pair well worth the money.
Hope this helps

[hawkyork]

I have a P reg VR4 Legnum. No workshop manual but would love one! Ally the lights at the front on passenger side have stopped working. I am guessing therefore that it is a wiring fault or could it be a single bulb failure? Seems unlikely but before I pay Misti dealer for expensive fix would like any ideas? Second, can bulbs be individually replaced or are they sealed beam units? Thanks

[Davezj]

when you say all have failed, do you mean the side lights and head light and full beam and indicators?

[Confused]

There is a separate fuse for lighting on each side, so check this first.

[Davezj]

that's where i was going......

just wanted to be sure it was all lights out.