headlamp bulbs

[renagade]

Well what I need is some lights to see with. My car is a 2011 c5 1.6 e-hdi vtr+nav with the egs6. Nice car but at night you just don't see where you are going. Now then all you guy's will surely know that these cars with the standard bulbs are quite poor so from all your experience what do you all use.???

[Stickyfinger]

What ? !!! , standards lamps are fine.....do you have candles fitted ?

What bulbs do you have fitted at the moment ?

[renagade]

Hey thanks for your reply, I am not sure as to what bulbs are fitted as it came as is and I have not fiddled with the car yet. (Got my Lexia upgraded so now will be able to talk to car ).

[Gibbo2286]

Maybe instead of bulbs you need some of these

http://www.rodenstock.com/uk/en/news.ht ... %2Bglasses

[Paul-R]

Have to agree that, although not as good as Xenon headlamps, they're not bad at all. Is this on dip beam, main beam or both?

The first thing I would look at is that the lights are adjusted properly. I'm not sure whether the vtr+ is metal or wet sprung but if metal then check that the headlamp height adjustment wheel (on the LH side of the column under the indicator stalk) isn't set too low.

I have had a set of Philips ultrabright +130% bulbs (for the Xsara) in the past and whilst they were good I didn't feel they justified the cost. Nowadays I just wait for bulbs or bulb kits to come up on offer at Aldi and Lidl. One does +30% bulbs and the other does +20% (or maybe 25%) bulbs in kits. Of preference I go for the bulbs only and keep a stock of two or three of the main, dip and fog. Depending on the car concerned that could be H7 for dip, H1 for main and H3 for fog but check with your handbook.

[white exec]

If standard halogen H1/H4/H7 etc, best around are Philips Xtreme, or Osram Nightbreaker - both standard 55W, but very bright and white, and long life.
Both of these are de rigeur for the XM, where dip beam leaves something to be desired.

[demag]

I have used Night breakers. Very good. Also used the Ring high performance bulb but can't remember the name now.

Sent from my Nexus 7 using Tapatalk

[GiveMeABreak]

If you are going to get a decent branded buld as a replacement, then make sure get them from a reputable place as the fakes can look identical, but quality and performance is abysmal. Just don't exceed the recommended wattage! I tried this on one of my XMs 18 years ago as the lights were so poor as Chris says, but ended up blowing the fuses and the bulbs! The best I could do was get the 50% extra bright ones, but they weren't cheap at the time.

[Zelandeth]

Quite possible that the car still has the original lamps in, which will likely be quite tired by now. Output does drop off as they age.

I've been using Osram Nightbreakers for a long while now in all my cars and they've always performed well.

Do be aware that a lot of the higher output lamps do have a shorter lifespan than the standard ones, so I'd tend to either treat them as a service item consumable on a set schedule, or make sure to always carry a spare in the car - which is a good idea anyway!

Got caught out by this in the 107 one day (was using Ring UltraXenon lamps back then because Nightbreakers were out of stock at my local factor), when one blew in the morning at some point, then when my other half went to drive home from work they found that they had no headlights as the other one popped when the lights were turned on!

If they're a real faff to change as lamps are on some cars I would tend even more towards doing it as part of a service just so you don't have to mess around at the side of the road. Fine on something like the Saab where a lamp change takes 30 seconds, but I still remember doing the lamps on my Suzuki Cappuccino where I had to take half the front of the car apart...No way on earth you would have been able to do that at the side of the road!

[GiveMeABreak]

I'd definitely recommend Osram. I have their Nightbreaker Unlimited Xenarc D1S bulbs on my X7. There should be plenty of choices about for standard Halogens though - if you feel you want a bit more light, stick to the white output (not the blue tints) and go for extended light output.

[white exec]

Yes, that's important - stick to white, not blue-tinted.

[Sloppysod]

I am running these on my X7, definitely brighter than standard bulbs (yes standard were probably old). not sure how long they will last as they have only been fitted for 3 months so far. Compared to a Insickna I drove that had HIDs, I think these give a much better spread of light.
PHILIPS XTREME VISION +130% CAR HEADLIGHT BULBS

[myglaren]

I've had a pair of those in for ages now, they seem to last quite well.

[Paul-R]

Well you pays your money, etc...

I've found the Aldi/Lidl ones to be entirely adequate. I would agree that you don't want to buy the very cheap ones. When I was driving my C5 back last February after just purchasing it I was being flashed by all and sundry coming the other way. The cause was a faulty bulb and you can see exactly how badly the filament has been placed inside the glass enevelope.

Needless to say there are very few identifying markings on the bulb. Not something the Aldi/Lidl ones suffer from.

[renagade]

Good morning peoples ,have you guy's tried the led headlamp bulbs ???? Better/Worse ????