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Uprated Headlight Bulbs

Fandango

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Hereford
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8th Gen I-DTEC
Hi all.

My oe headlights are lousy, on both dip, and main beam. This has become more noticeable, as the nights are getting dark earlier.

Is it an easy diy job, and is it just the bulbs need upgrading?

Lastly can someone recommend suitable bulbs?

Cheers
 
Honestly speaking I would just upgrade to a decent hid kit
 
In my experience so called 'uprated' headlight bulbs offer only a marginal improvement in brightness / visibility and come with a disproportionate drop in service life.

Given what a faff it is to fit the bulbs ( https://jmp.sh/sFiX3eq ) when they fail, I wouldn't bother. Keeping the headlight clean costs nothing and is about as effective.

If you go for HIDs keep it sensible and get a sympathetic installation. If they're mega bright, obviously gaffa taped in position or bright blue you run the risk of getting pulled or failing your MOT. Just because you can buy them doesn't make them road legal...
 
I spent a significant amount of time reading forums recommendations and was all set to upgrade to the philips crystal vision headlights as an intermediate to a future HID upgrade.

But as it turns out, in halogen, the whiteness, or "HID look" is achieved with some sacrifice to actual photons projected down the road. White light looks brighter, but I drive at speed in totally until roads and want to see as far ahead as I can.

I ended up buying Osram Night Breakers after they came out on top on this review: http://bulbfacts.com/halogen-bulbs/reviews/

I'm so happy with them I'm seriously thinking not to do the HID conversion.
 
I had an LED kit installed for about 10 months, I eventually went back to a halogen bulb as the LEDs started to flicker (they will never get close to the lifespan stated unless its a genuine philips/osram bulb). Also the LED looked better, but I got alot of light just infront of me and not much more after that. Driving on unlit A-roads at night was actually quite unnerving especially if I wasn't familiar with the road.

After that I went back to Osram night breaker unlimited which I've always been happy with as they're very good bang for buck. But most recently I've been using GE Megalight +130% and even switching to them from the Osram night breaker unlimited I noticed a good improvement.

Also one thing to note is that my headlights could do with a restore as they're starting to get cloudy but still have good visibility so that'd be worth doing if yours are starting to cloud up too. After one of the GE bulbs go, I will be replacing with Osram nightbreaker laser "next gen" which they just brought out in a H1 fitment aswell. rated at +150% bulb, looking forward to trying them.

Yes its annoying when a bulb blows but I enjoy trying the different ones when they do go. For me its just a hand inside the wheel arch job, those with mammoth paws might struggle a bit though.

Sorry about the long post, but I've been through quite a lot of bulbs over the years so thought i'd share my honest opinion, I'll stick to halogen unless obviously my far was fitted with HID as standard.

So I'd recommend GE Megalight +130 or Osram NB Laser next gen. Always been pleased with Osram as the price always seems to be better than philips and philips bulbs definitely aren't twice as good.
 
Excellent. Thanks for all the input guys.

So if H1 is the main beam, what is the dip?

Cheers
 
H1 are dip, HB3 are main.
 
Goodluck! make sure they're fitted the right way up, it is possible to clip em in slightly wrong (the H1's), its also possible to drop the H1 bulb inside the headlight ***embly, don't ask me how I know.
 
Guessing it is a fiddly job fitting, I don`t have the hands of a woman!

Although I do have a (rather short fused!) wife to hand.
 
I would post a DIY guide but the first step would be shrink hands to my size, which I'm guessing not many people are interested in.
 
smokingman said:
No word of a lie! it's easier with the bumper off and quicker.
I think I will do that, as I have been planning a makeover of the hideous chrome look grill anyway, so I can sort that at the same time.
 
Job done, quite a straight forward job removing the bumper, although surprising how much of a tug you have to give it, to pop it out of retainers.

Very simple from there, headlights out, replace bulbs.

Waiting for darkness for a test.
 
Nice job, yeah the bumper isn't hard to take off, its a lot harder to get back on with 1 pair of hands I found. Let us know how they perform when you get the chance mate, hope they live up to expectations.

I'd recommend wrapping the grill, because if you ever want to put it back to original it'll be a pain trying to remove the paint. I hit a fox a few years ago and it took half my bumper off and destroyed all the grill clips. I struggled to find a grill but eventually found a cheap one on ebay that was painted black, it was really badly done, so I had to rub it all down to remove the black paint, which left the chrome underneath looking like brushed aluminium, so i rubbed the rest of my grill down to match the chrome strip that I lost from hitting the fox. Tempted to wrap it just to see what it'd look like though.
 
Yes I wrapped it myself, just the chrome look strips, which unscrew. Also the big centre H badge, which is held in by 2 plastic pins with metal retaining clips. These I landed up breaking, but an easy refit with super glue.
 
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