Replacement bulbs

[GiveMeABreak]

I think the point I was trying to make is that it’s a bit and miss affair and a bit of a minefield purchasing from places like eBay as you really have no guarantees and every seller will be sourcing there stocks from different suppliers....

There are ‘authorised resellers of official bulbs that manufacturers list on their websites, but failing that, purchasing from a known reputable retailer would be my second choice to minimise risk. I’ve seen fakes up close and I know it would not be easy for a normal ‘Joe’ to spot.
It’s a possible cause of premature failure, poor performance apart from the usual issues of touching the bulbs with your skin that also cause early failure.

With anything, it will be down to the individual seller’s supplies. If too cheap be suspicious

[Paul-R]

To be even more contrary, for the 308 I bought the dipped beam bulbs through Ebay and the mains through Aliexpress. And for the C5 I bought both dip and main through Aliexpress. The vendor I used on Aliexpress was (claimed to be!) the official Osram site and, judging by the brightness and length of time, I have no reason to doubt them.

[MikeT]

Caveat emptor, always.
I just don't restrict who it's applied to. ie, "official stockists" often take their privileged position to rape your wallet as much as anyone else.

[GiveMeABreak]

I believe that’s why they have introduced a fraud checking system on some more expensive bulbs so you can check for fakes, but of course by then it’s too late!

At the end of the day you make your choice and pay your money.

There’s no convincing me any bulbs from Aliexpress are ever going to be genuine, sorry!

[MikeT]

There's a lot to be said about ebay's buyer protection service, even with it's time-limitations.
If something's going to fail (geniune or not) it'll usually happen sooner than later.

[xantiagreen]

Osram nightbreakers H1 twin pack £11.61, if you take advantage of amazon prime free trial otherwise £14.60 delivered.

[white exec]

That's a very good price, and with the Amazon g'tee behind it.

[van ordinaire]

ebay's a lottery - but, if the price is right . . .

Certainly £12 is a good price for Nightbreakers, hardly worth going the budget route - but there's wrong with those Ring +X% jobs.

If it can wait a couple of days, I'll see what I've got surplus to requirements over the weekend.

[Zelandeth]

Stick with Osram Nightbreakers or the Philips equivalent and you'll be good.

I treat headlight lamps (especially when they're separate ones for dip beam) as annual service items these days. H7s in particular seem to drop output very notably as they age, not sure if it's because the filament is less robustly secured than in old school H4s.

They're a safety critical item, so not worth skimping on I reckon.

[Sloppysod]

I have ended up with a Philips Racing Vision +150% in the right headlamp & Philips Xtreme Vision +130% in the left, the reason the difference is the two, one of each blew after about a year in my left headlamp, not sure why but the replacement is still going.
With the setup I have now the Philips Xtreme is two years old and the Racing Vision is only one year old, both going strong. However, I have noticed that the right is definitely brighter than the left, you can see it in the beam cross over just in front of the bonnet. So when I by some new bulbs I will go for the Philips Racing Vision +150%.

[Peter.N.]

Another + for ring bulbs, I get mine off ebay, one of the cheapest and most long lasting, bright too. Don't need to upgrade them on the 406, I think it has the best headlights of any car I have ever owned.

Peter

[white exec]

BX headlights were extraordinarily good too, so XM_dip came as a bit of a surprise.

[GiveMeABreak]

Yes, I was not impressed with my XM headlights - very poor output. There wasn't much choice back then for upgrades and a higher wattage bulb of course blew out after I got fed up. More output from an oil lamp than on XM headlamps, despite all the Citroen technical hype at the time...

Well, that's what they said in 1989. As anyone who has driven an XM, or early Xantia (which is similarly equipped with complex surface units) will attest, the mainbeam lights are very good but the dipped beam performance is atrocious.

The problem is the almost total lack of scatter caused by the very precision that Valeo hoped to achieve. The cut-off is extremely sharp indeed - good news for oncoming drivers - but bad enough for the XM or Xantia driver for it to be dangerous to drive much above 60 mph/100 kph at night.

Fitting more powerful bulbs does nothing to alleviate the problem - sure the light is brighter but it is still confined to the computer defined beam pattern.

[Peter.N.]

The XM lights were dreadful but I forgave it and ran them for 15 years because the ride was so nice. I did a mod to my lights that improved them considerably but first check to see that you do actually have 12+ volts across the bulbs.

Peter

[van ordinaire]

Osram nightbreakers H1 twin pack £11.61, if you take advantage of amazon prime free trial otherwise £14.60 delivered.

You sure you've got that the right way round? Amazon "free trial" is a scam, of dubious legality, to take advantage of the unwary - I know, I made the mistake of going back to them for the 1st time since they were an on-line bookshop (with dodgy business practices) & have been paying for it ever since!