Citroen C5 Mk III 3.0 HDi Tourer - Uprated bulbs for C5 Mk III

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Sun 10 Apr 2016 19:11
Citroen C5 Mk III 3.0 HDi Tourer - Uprated bulbs for C5 Mk III - GT

I bought some Philips X-treme Vision +130% bulbs for my Mk III C5 and whilst the car was in for something else with the local Citroen dealer I asked if they would fit them. The head mechanic (who had worked many years for Citroen) strongly advised against it. He said (something like) the extra brightness would draw too much current and create too much resistance in the lighting circuit and the car's management system would interpret this either as a blown bulb or a short circuit and would close the circuit down. I put this to the people selling the bulbs who replied "We are unable to fully agree with the mechanic's diagnostic as the bulbs run at the same voltage and wattage as standard, therefore should not draw any more power."

Who's right?

Interestingly, since fitting Halfords Ultra Brilliance 120% about 18 months ago, I've had three failures (in the 3 years previous to this, I had none with standard bulbs) so might there may be something in what the mechanic says?

And for good measure, are these easy to fit myself? Judging from other posts/forums, would I need the slender wrists, hands and fingers of a baby and be double-jointed to boot? Has anyone put C5 Mk III bulb change on Youtube?

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Sun 10 Apr 2016 19:40
Citroen C5 Mk III 3.0 HDi Tourer - Uprated bulbs for C5 Mk III - elekie&a/c doctor
If the uprated bulbs are the same wattage,then they will be drawing the same current as the old bulbs.I think the head mechanic needs to do some revision.The only issue is they may run slightly hotter,but you would need to check the spec of the bulbs.Don,t know who makes halfords bulbs,but probably not Philips or Osram.As for fitting,you will probably need triple jointed fingers.
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Sun 10 Apr 2016 19:43
Citroen C5 Mk III 3.0 HDi Tourer - Uprated bulbs for C5 Mk III - Cyd

Check the power rating on the bulbs. if the same as standard (ie 55/65W) then they are talking rubbish. The increased light output is down to filament material and gas mix technology not increased power consumption.

These bulbs will however run hotter and I would expect a shorter life.

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Sun 10 Apr 2016 20:42
Citroen C5 Mk III 3.0 HDi Tourer - Uprated bulbs for C5 Mk III - gordonbennet

Good Lord, hope no one visits that dealer with a complicated fault.

We both had Philips Extremes in our cars for probably 5 years, one set (you might call it tight i call it frugal:-) i removed when the car was sold and put them in the replacement, they did good service for another couple of years but appeared to me to have lost their edge as it were, so replaced them with Osram equivalents which were on offer, they were indeed brighter again.

I think one bulb blew out of the 4 at about 5 years IIRC, on my car.

Lights are strange things no rhyme nor reason, standard bulbs in my old Landruiser and the lights are brilliant, yet the Outback's lights were nothing to write home about with standard and it's a lot better for the brighter bulbs, C2 was the same, poor standard and not helped at all by the sharp cut off dipped beam.

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