I've been meaning to upgrade the headlight bulbs on my Xantia for sometime now and after reading a few reviews and threads on this site, went and bought a pair of Philips Vision Plus (H1) for £19.95 from "powerbulbs.com"......... I'll cut to the chase -
Should I upgrade the Main beam or dipped beam bulbs? Which would be the most effective ?
I've only bought one pair of bulbs and don't want to spend another 20 quid. My initial thoughts are that the main beams would be the most effective.
Chad.R
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Chad,
Interested to hear how you get on. I would try the dipped as the potential for not seeing something is far greater on dip.
You are lucky with a '96 car, the headlamps are OK anyway. On my early Xantia the dip beam is a known problem, possibly the worse of any modern car.
They tried to do all the beam aiming/correction in the glass rather than the reflector and the fluting is so great it scatters the light everywhere but where you need it.
I had been thinking about bulbs but really the answer with the older ones is to fit later lamp units. Possibly about £45 from a breakers.
David
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David
I was going to suggest a pair of candles to upgrade an early Xantia dipped beams - but I'm sure your suggestion is better. I confirm that the later models are fine but, as a later back roomer said, they do need cleaning more frequently.
Ian
p.s would your new 24 volt twinkly Xmas lights improve the Xantia, I wonder?
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SWMBO has just been out in the Xantia tonight and thinks there is little difference between dip and sidelamps. Almost true.
Now don't get me started on these Xmas lights. 100 of them over about 5m of cable, suitable for outdoors with a transformer down to 24V, 8 different flashing sequences from a remote controller box and enough low voltage wiring to go out of the house, across the lawn and onto the shrub out the front.
Only £7.99 after travelling half way round the world to get here, how do they do it?
David
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I put Vision Plus bulbs into the dips of the Citroen Synergie which has similar headlamps to the Xantia and XM; as David W writes, all the aiming is done with prismatic moulding in the glass. Improvement noticeable and well worth while.
BTW on the Synergie the dips are on all the time, main beam lights up the inner pair and vision is good.
Noticeble poorer design than eg the BX or AX which are virtually unaffected by road dirt, the narrow headlamps of '90s Citroens need cleaning every journey this time of year.
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Put some 100w or 145w bulbs in your main beam holders. They're totally illegal but if you use them properly, i.e. when thy're not going to blind anyone they're great and who's to know!
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Interesting!- What are the 100 and 145watt. bulbs normally used in?
By the way, the worst dip beam is on a G Reg. Honda Civic! The original
'Toc H' lamps...
P.
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Chad
Er, no, don't do this. Cooks the lamps, overloads the wiring, and the big filaments make the aiming even worse. Stick to the standard wattage, 'high brightness' bulbs. Work a treat. Probably only needed on the dip beam of 4 headlamp systems.
Regards
John
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If you only change the main beam bulbs the use is occasional and not continuous, I've never experienced those problems.
What do you mean by 'cooking the lamps'? There is a cooling effect from the passing air etc.
Wiring might be a problem, I admit but my ZX lights are really bad eithout those bulbs!
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If you spend as little time on main beams as I do, you might think it a waste of money to upgrade THEM !
Actually, as I have a Focus, I don't have much choice!
Incidentally, this may be a stupid Q, but can somone tell me whether it's a DIY job to adjust Focus lights? I haven't been able to locate any 'knobs or screws' !
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Good point about cleaning lamps in winter.
I had to do the headlamp on the motorbike as soon as I got out of the streetlighted bit on the way home tonight.
The salt and mud spray mixture had made the lens "pearl" (or opal) instead of clear and the beam pattern had completely vanished.
It creeps up on you very quickly. I know the lens was perfectly clean when I left work 12 miles before!
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It's called inflation.
We've had it.
They (the producing country) haven't (yet).
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I really cant see what all the fuss is about ie. fitting brighter bulbs. Some types of brighter bulbs do seem to cause dazzle to other motorists and possibly encourage people to drive faster which can be highly dangerous on country roads. If you keep your headlight lenses clean and your prescription glasses (if worn) up to date, I cant see what the problem is. Although I do accept that the lights on certain vehicles seem to be very dim. They look like parafin lamps! Are these night vision glasses any good?
Mike.
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