What are your opinions and experiences of 50% brighter headlight bulbs ?
The car mag reports sound impressive, anyone used these bulbs ?
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I fitted some Philips bluevision ones to my Impreza, they were excellent, and the light did not look blue really, just bright white.
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Probably not a statisically reliable sample but here goes. H4 bulbs - significant improvement in a couple of cars. H1 - also noticeably better than originals in one car. H7 - don't bother - ended up with one original and one high brightness and couldn't tell the difference. The H7s also failed very quickly too.
JS
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I have been impressed with the improvement and have had no problems with them failing early.
I fitted Osram Silver Stars Nov last year.
I am even more impressed with changing the sidelight bulbs to 5W5 bulbs, the little wedge ones.
They are so much brighter and a white light inspite of being blue coated.
They also look better thay the dull yellow glow the old ones displayed.
My previous info
www.honestjohn.co.uk/forum/post/index.htm?v=e&t=35...3
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My OE bulbs lasted about 5 years. I replaced them at one point with Halfords 50% brighter bulbs. They lasted about half as long. I don't know who manufactures the Halfords bulbs, but the moral of the story is: buy branded quality bulbs such as the Osram or Philips. I will get these very soon.
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I've used Osram Silverstar (H7) bulds and have been very impressed with them.
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I have used them (Philips & Osrams), but as JohnS says, the older the bulb technology (H4) the better the improvement. I too couldn't tell when I upgraded H7 main beams.
Halfords 50%+ bulbs used to be made by Arlite in Hungary and an Autoexpress review found these and Lucas to be so bad that they were illegal due to beam pattern.
Also, don't get colour temperature and brightness (as in light output) mixed up, many people think a whiter light is a brighter light, but there's no correlation.
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Quite right Ashok. If the light is too bright then you will actually see less as the contrast between things you are looking at is reduced. Indeed, you may think that you can see further ahead, but your poor retina is overloaded by the glare from objects nearer to you. The best example of this is the difference between dipped and full beam headlights in snowfall. The eye is not very sensitive to white light, only a portion of it. If I remember correctly, green and yellow are the colours where the eye is most sensitive (unless you are colourblind).
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What about the effect of the extra heat?
I've just had my ('53 reg) Almera serviced by a Nissan dealer, and they replaced the whole front light units under a recall. They said ' the chrome is liable to peel off the reflector'.
Interestingly, I can't find any reference to such a recall anywhere.
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MT
No extra heat - provided the replacement bulbs are still rated at the normal 55W dip and 60W main beam. This is only a problem with the (not road legal) 100W units
JS
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Ashok
The H7s that failed quickly were either Philips or Osram - the H1's I am currently using have already lasted longer than the H7's and are Halford's own brand! No problems with beam control though.
I think you're right about bulb technology. High-brightness bulbs achieve their extra output by changing the gas in the bulb, so allowing the filament to operate at a higher temperature. I believe the 'normal' H7 bulbs already use this technology which means there's less benefit to be had in the 'high-brightness' versions.
JS
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I was impresssed by the improvement by fitting Osram SS bulbs to my 2002 model Passat.
I recommend Consumabulbs - only as a satisfied customer.
--
I wasna fu but just had plenty.
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The reflectors melted on my 04 Toyota Corolla.An unpleasant experience when your light beams start to droop on a dark night!
Toyota know of the problem and have changed the reflector plastic.They will also help under the warranty.Latest Corollas have long life bulbs because of the difficulty changing them.
Geriatric
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I coughed up 20 quid on some very bright Philips ones and they made a huge difference. Highly recommended.
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for my 10 penorth osram bulbs are the new bosch
i got a flier off them last month and their r+d dept is on the button...
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Thank you for all your input. Sounds like there is little to choose between the Osram & Phillips so I'll go for one of them.
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Auto Express published a test on various make of headlight bulbs last year (or was it the year before?) The Osram Silverstar came top, the Philips came second. I now have used Osram SS bulbs in my Octavia (H4), Punto (H7) & Superb (H7) all with great results especially on the Punto (new model 99) which had terrible dipped headlights beforehand.
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Melting reflectors????!!
Never used to happen with proper headlights that had metal reflectors and glass light covers.
I think that this is a direct consequence of using plastic light units. Plastic is a very poor dissipator of heat. Design requirements mean that light units end up having obscure profiles with little airflow around them to cool the material. I am not sure that all plastic light units last any longer than, say, those with plastic reflectors and glass covers.
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Usually only when you fit 100 or 150W bulbs.
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Usually only when you fit 100 or 150W bulbs.
...and they are totally illegal to use on the public highway anyway.
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On the subject of longevity, my 10 year-old Astra blows a headlight or stop/tail bulb every six months or so but my wife's 5 year-old Mazda 323 with 60k on the clock has never blown a single bulb - they are all still the originals.
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I also fitted the Halfords 50 per cent brighter headlight bulbs to my VW Bora (originals were not very good) about 18 months ago.
I got them on a BOGOF basis so total cost was £12.99. The difference was quite substantial, particularly with regard to the more even spread of light and I'm happy with the improvement.
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What\'s for you won\'t pass you by
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I thought Osram == Philips?
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