My daughter's headlights are very poor. They have been fitted with uprated bulbs by boyfriend but they are still pertty hopeless. She tends to drive on full beam. Taking them apart the reflectors do not look overly dull and the glass is not dull or marked. A new seat would be hideously expensive but the danger of getting s/h ones from a breakers is no telling if they will be ok ,bearing in the mind the current ones appear to be fine.
Any suggestions ?
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What uprated bulbs are fitted firstly?
Were they any better than old ones?
Why were they fitted?
Are you sure bulbs are working?
is there a difference between dipped and main beam?
Is it a case of the beam being too low, as opposed to insufficent light output?
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Just a thought:
There's a beam adjuster to the right-hand side of the steering wheel in the Punto. Setting 0 is for lightly loaded (2 occupants max, IIRC from the manual), 4 is for loaded to the roof. Check that its on the appropriate setting.
Apologies if this is old news to you!
- Gromit
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I think original bulbs were 55w , these were uprated to 65w. The problem is the dullness of the lights, not beam alignment. For sure the lights are on, just not bright enough. I've driven the car myself in the dark and they are pretty hopeless - hard to believe how bad they are despite everything appearing to be ok.
My wife's Fiesta headlights are brighter/illuminate more than my Scorpio lights, but they will be the same rating as standard bulbs.
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I may not be around for much longer ! But if you get to read this.
i would suggest a visit to mot testing station and ask them to check your beam pattern initailly and report back? i suspect poor headlamps themselves. Punto lights are not the best in the world but I wouldn't regard them as that bad normally.
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Also, I'm curious what 65w bulbs fit these. Are they tinted bulbs? blue etc?
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The 65w are standard bulbs. Boyfriend went through the options of getting higher rated bulbs - you can get them up to 100w I think but these are not road-legal.
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Stanfard bulbs fitted would be 65w too if H4 472 type is fitted. 55w is H1/H3 etc?
Did they make any difference?
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The lights on these things were never the best but you may have a problem with an earth here. I would find a local garage to give them a quick check over and find out if there is any high resistance (or current draw) over the earth return. Whats the battery like? start all right?
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TourVanMan TM < Ex RF >
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Thanks... , yes , these are H472 , so I think the replacements were the 'SB' type but still same wattage. As to the earth etc , starting is fine , battery and other lights seem ok.
I'm wondering if a pair of bolt-on driving lights is the easiest solution?
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Had the same problem with our daughters R reg punto, first night i went out with her i thought we were on side lights! worst headlights i have ever seen! went down to halfords and bought new bulbs ,still 55 watt but filled with a special gas,not halogen, were on special @ 14.99 for two . What a differance, vastly brighter, but one was brighter than the other ,and this was due to crrosion to the bottom of the reflector.Hope this helps
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If they are still poor, I second the opinion about the slightly low voltage.
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I agree low voltage at the bulb.
If you have a voltmeter, test the voltage on the bulb itself while lit and engine running. Then compare this to the voltage across the battery with engine running.
Make sure both probes are on bulb (ie don't test with -ve probe on chassis).
The brightness of these types of bulb diminshes with inverse square law as voltage is lowered, so a small voltage drop sees a much bigger drop in light output. It is also worthy of note, that a higher wattage bulb could be worse as there will just be a larger voltage drop.
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if it comes down to poor headlight reflection you could consider the lights as fitted to the 85sx model ,these are twin reflector type ang give a more focalised beam on the dipped setting
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If the headlamp reflectors have become dirty and dull over time, you can try removing the headlamp units and washing them out with plenty of clean soapy water.
Remove all bulbs and pour the soapy water in through the headlamp bulb aperture. Shake well and rinse out with plenty of clean water. Afterwards use some dishwasher rinsing aid, such as Finish, to prevent streaks etc.
I tried this on a Golf III once and the results were brilliant (pardon the pun!).
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