XM headlights rubbish

nino1 · Post by **nino1** » 14 Mar 2006, 10:57

I know this is common knowledge, but what would be a proper way to improve it at least a bit?

AndersDK · Post by **AndersDK** » 14 Mar 2006, 11:58

Donno on your XM, but if its still got any kind of deflector in front of the bulb inside the lamp unit - remove it.
Then use the latest generation standard wattage headlamp bulbs. These have +50% light output at the same electric power, meaning you dont have have to uprate the headlamp cabling system.

Last - but not least :
Any Citroen (or to be honest any french/italian car) seems to gain a LOT from in fact updating the headlamps electric circuit with working relays directly off the battery (plus a saftey fuse) and new earth points - using at least 1mm2 gauge cabling.
This by itself may increase lights output by almost 100% - not joking here

Its such a common modification around here on a bit older cars - that you can buy a ready made kit for installing on standard lights cars.
I have installed it on all my BX'es in my stable.

Like in UK - here in DK its not legal popping in higher wattage bulbs. Would be no use anyway as the most likely result is the existing lights cabling burning out. Or in the case of Xantia & XM - the headlamp lens melting down

BonceChops · Post by **BonceChops** » 14 Mar 2006, 16:28

Here is an old post I made about my Xantia but might be the same on your XM

BonceChops wrote:I found about a 2 volt drop between the battery and the bulbs on the positive cable and almost nothing on the negative side. After wiring with bigger cable using 1 relay and fuse for dip and 1 for main beam I now have almost no volt drop on the positive cable. Just connect your multimeter on DC volt range between the postive on the bulb and the positive on the battery with the lights on and the engine running to measure the volt drop. If it is high like mine carefully connect a decent sized cable from the battery positive to the bulb (with the lights still switched on) and see the bulb light up brighter and the volt drop on the meter reduce.

After finding the under sized original cables were causing my dim yellow lights I rewired them as stated and the lights were bright white.
It is simple to test and makes a massive difference. I now have a mark 2 Xantia and will be trying the volt drop test soon.

Post by **Peter.N.** » 14 Mar 2006, 19:53

They seem to vary, I have had four XM estates, the last one had dreadful lights my present one is very good on main beam and fair on dip. If you remove the plastic diffuser from the dipped lamps it will improve the light output no end, but you get a rather sharp cut off pattern.

What you can do is clean the reflectors, only this has to be done very carefully dont use any pressure or you will take the silver coating off. I used a wodge of soft tissue soaked in meths, more or less just lightly washing the surface and they came up like new.

Combine all that with losing your voltage drop and I will be able to see you from here!

meexi · Post by **meexi** » 15 Mar 2006, 21:10

my dad grafted in "bullnose" lights from a vauxhall vectra and the differance is amazing i should have some photos somewhere i will look them out as we had step by step photos

ssray · Post by **ssray** » 16 Mar 2006, 07:06

i did this http://www.rallylights.com/other/headlamp.htm on my bx the diffrence is amazing and i can now run 80/100w bulbs and get the amount of light that they should supply,i used relays with two 87`s(power out) so i have one relay for high beam and one for low most people seem to use 4 relays but i figured they are quite reliable now

Sturdybloke · Post by **Sturdybloke** » 17 Mar 2006, 18:31

Out of curiosity ssray, where did you obtain your relays from?

BonceChops · Post by **BonceChops** » 17 Mar 2006, 19:30

You can buy 12 volt relays from most car spares places. On the mark 2 Xantia there is a fuse/relay box just behind the battery that has some space for extra relays. You could cut some relay bases from a scrapper to make a nice job of it. Not sure if the XM has similar space.

ssray · Post by **ssray** » 19 Mar 2006, 06:22

i went to a couple of local motor factor/spares shops and saw what they had

AndersDK · Post by **AndersDK** » 19 Mar 2006, 14:16

Any standard relay for extra horns, lights etc will do. These are rated at 25Amps which are more than adequate.
You only need 2 relays - 1 for dipped - 1 for high beam - as 1 relay can readily power (more than) 2 lamp units.
You should find new relays at some 3 quid each max the right place.
Over here we can get them at some 2 quid each new boxed units.

Sturdybloke · Post by **Sturdybloke** » 03 Apr 2006, 20:13

I have obtained 2 relays (40a each) each with a single power out. My plan is to install them along with new wiring into the Xantia. Having read some other peoples posts im now wondering if the relays are a bit overkill? My plan was to install one on each headlamp for the dipped beam, as im not to bothered about full beam. Have I completly lost it and gone way overboard with the output of the relays?

BonceChops · Post by **BonceChops** » 03 Apr 2006, 20:44

Sturdybloke wrote:My plan was to install one on each headlamp for the dipped beam, as im not to bothered about full beam.

You have 2 relays so use 1 for dip and 1 for main. You might as well have the best of both worlds.

Monkeyfeet · Post by **Monkeyfeet** » 13 Apr 2006, 11:55

Re the deflector mentioned earlier.It sounds as if this applies to all types of h/light unit, I just wanted to check before trying it out.(on a non-Citroen,{sorry}).

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XM headlights rubbish

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