Any advice on improving headlights legally?

[Bobthebeard]

Mrs Bobs 10 year old Honda Accord has the standard equipment lights, but ever since we got it (6 years ago) the headlights have seemed marginal on dipped beam. Especially so at this time of year. Sharp cut off, poor visibility on unlit roads etc. Main beam seems fine. Separate lights for dipped and main, with the dipped ones being of the small projector type. We are still using the recommended H1 bulbs, but have any of you any experience of using better or brighter bulbs? Obviously we don't want to fit the 100 watt illegal stuff, or anything chavvy! Both bulbs have been replaced over the years with the standard H1 type, lenses are clean and clear, but every year we struggle to see adequately in the dark! The adjustment has been checked a couple of times and seems fine, but still could do with improving the dipped beam if possible.

Any thoughts?

Ta!

[DSdriver]

Have you had your eyes tested - it may be your night vision growing dim as you get older?

[Bobthebeard]

Have you had your eyes tested - it may be your night vision growing dim as you get older?

 

Yes.... Was my first thought, eyes tested recently but seemingly ok in that department. Also can see fine when driving my car!

[Spiny Norman]

Osram Night Breakers get good reviews.

[Bobthebeard]

Osram Night Breakers get good reviews.

 

Thanks for the link. Have no experience of upgrading headlights so appreciated!

[trigger]

Get yourself down your local motor factors and ask for a pair 100/80 H4's (I'm guess the Honda will have H4's fitted), fit them then report back with your findings.

[trigger]

Sorry just reread it and that's not what your after, I used to fit them in a number of my old cars and it transformed the lighting, and it was very rare you'd get flashed and they passed the mot every year with no issues.

[Bobthebeard]

Get yourself down your local motor factors and ask for a pair 100/80 H4's (I'm guess the Honda will have H4's fitted), fit them then report back with your findings.

 

Again, thanks! But they are H1's in the Honda.

[forddeliveryboy]

Make sure the beams are 100% correctly lined up - this is much more important than you'd imagine. Make sure the reflectors are in good condition and check the bulbs aren't cheapos - I replaced a pair of Rings last winter with a pair of decent quality ones and was surprised by the improvement.

 

Also consider that perceived poor night vision can be poorly-marked roads and other road users' poorly-adjusted lights - as well as the ridiculously uber-bright lights on some more expensive makes which - even when properly adjusted - only have to come over a gentle brow to render your eyes useless.

 

If you're driving a lot on unlit country roads then a decent fog light or two helps, but it is illegal to drive in clear conditions with these on and I get pigged off with the numpties who use their inbuilt ones when not adjusted properly. Not that plod ever seems to bother.

 

The bluer the light, the more is scattered off shiny, wet surfaces and off water droplets in the air so less light reflects back to your eyes and the more 'glare' from the scattered light. The French insisted on 'Selective Yellow' http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Selective_yellow lamps until 1993 for very good reason, when they fell into line with Euro-norm rules.

[gtd2000]

Talking about buying expensive bulbs vs. using cheaper ones, I can't say I've had any problems with bulbs sourced from the likes of Poundland that were significantly cheaper.

 

I think some cars have better designed light units than others and that's perhaps the real difference?

[retrogeezer]

I put some cheap '30% brighter' H4's from a pound shop in my Bluebird and they were a big improvement. I'll see if they have H1's next time I am there if you like?

[forddeliveryboy]

Talking about buying expensive bulbs vs. using cheaper ones, I can't say I've had any problems with bulbs sourced from the likes of Poundland that were significantly cheaper.

 

I think some cars have better designed light units than others and that's perhaps the real difference?

 

I think the quality control on cheap bulbs is less good - out-of-alignment filaments can make a huge difference. Not to say plenty of cheap bulbs work just fine, just more of them may be iffy.

[Parky]

I put a replacement bulb on my Mini - it was a Philips 100 percent brighter (allegedly) job but it really was a massive improvement over the other side so I replaced that one as well to balance it up.

 

Replacement bulbs would be my first step and that should make a big difference for not too much effort and little coin.

[Richard]

Osram Nightbreakers are good but they cheat a bit by having a blue tinted band to make them appear whiter. I'm not sure if you still get them but Osram Silver Stars are good too, maybe even better. You can get a pair of either for a bit over a tenner delivered from eBay. They are 55W so won't upset the law or your wiring.

 

The problem really is the design though. Headlamps should have a patterned glass lens and the reflectors should be smooth, large and roundish. Unfortunately the fashion is for plastic clear lenses with small patterned reflectors.

[forddeliveryboy]

The problem really is the design though. Headlamps should have a patterned glass lens and the reflectors should be smooth, large and roundish. Unfortunately the fashion is for plastic clear lenses with small patterned reflectors.

I agree, some of the best headlights I've known were on Citroen's GS, they had a simply massive reflector surface area with a large glass. Similarly on the original-type CX units, flipping huge, awesome results. I remember laughing my socks off when I saw what Peugeot thought could pass for lights on the XM, then Xantia, totally crap by comparison but as good as most others.

[ypsilandra]

My 21 year old Accord has crap dipped beams as well, I got fed up with their general lack of brightness, so uprated the bulbs to Halfords own-brand Super Brilliance ones. They're on a BOGOF offer at the mo. Mine takes H4 bulbs, so I'm surprised yours are H1. They're better, but like others have pointed out, older light units are nowhere near as good as current ones.

 

My Dad once got so fed up with the ultra-dim Carellos that were fitted to our Fiat 128 Estate that he replaced them with a pair of Cibie Super Oscars (he worked for Cibie/Marchal at the time). It involved cutting a larger hole in the grille, which meant that the poor little thing had a very wide eyed, slightly shocked look, but the lights were amazing.

[vulgalour]

Weirdly, I find the quality of the dipped beam light from the Princess' sealed beam units to be superior to any of the Halogen lights I've used. Something about the way the light spreads and the colour means that I seem to be able to see more road, particularly on unlit sections. The Maestro ones are positively dismal and sound like they're giving me similar issues to your Honda lights, so the info in this thread is of interest to me.

[Micrashed]

This used to be / is a common problem on the BX and the cause is down to degrading of the cable over the years.

 

One (slightly longwinded) solution is to obtain a couple of cheap relays and use them to switch a new live feed taken straight from the battery via a fuse -

Use the old lamp feed as your switching feed (sepp ones for side/dipped/main) to the relay an put in a new decent gauge cable from the battery via an in line fuse. Its also probably worth cleaning up the earth to the headlamps too.

[forddeliveryboy]

Weirdly, I find the quality of the dipped beam light from the Princess' sealed beam units to be superior to any of the Halogen lights I've used. Something about the way the light spreads and the colour means that I seem to be able to see more road, particularly on unlit sections. The Maestro ones are positively dismal and sound like they're giving me similar issues to your Honda lights, so the info in this thread is of interest to me.

 

That's interesting. Most people think I'm nuts when I diss their super-bright lights. I tell them the shadows are so dark they can't see into them.

[SambaS]

I really dislike driving at night in the FSO a pair of candles would be more use than the headlamps. The XR3 was as bad. More than 50% of the time I just have to guess where the road goes.

 

The Sambas are all fine though, I've just put some bright whites in the Style. It's a novel experience being able to see the road at night whilst driving.

 

By far the best was the MG, I guess that's called progress.

[Morgan84]

Having them set up correctly as previously said makes one hell of a difference. There is 'MOT' standard,and then there is 'optimum'; just because they meet the MOT test doesn't mean they can't be improved. On the headlamp test,there are 2 colour scales we use - red and blue scale, dependant on if the headlamps height from the ground. A car can pass on its lower allowed limit,but that can still give crap vision,but set to the highest permitted level can increase distance dramatically.

I have Osram Nightbreakers in my Sierra,and they did brighten things up a bit

[forddeliveryboy]

The MoT 'standard' means they are not dazzling and aren't so low you can't drive safely at 50mph. Lining the two dipped beams up so that they meet in a sweet spot at the right distance on the road ahead is altogether different and makes a vast difference - in contrast with the old-style British headlights which never minded so much. I choose a slightly misty night to make the job really easy - find a dark car park or empty, flat road and adjust to the optimum where the two beams converge to the left of the centre of the road at a point which is far enough ahead to drive safely on dipped but not so high the beams are frequently dazzling oncoming drivers.

[myglaren]

The problem really is the design though. Headlamps should have a patterned glass lens and the reflectors should be smooth, large and roundish. Unfortunately the fashion is for plastic clear lenses with small patterned reflectors.

 

I agree, some of the best headlights I've known were on Citroen's GS, they had a simply massive reflector surface area with a large glass. Similarly on the original-type CX units, flipping huge, awesome results. I remember laughing my socks off when I saw what Peugeot thought could pass for lights on the BX, then Xantia, totally crap by comparison but as good as most others.

 

|couldn't agree more. I am convinced that my GS headlights are the best I have ever seen.

 

I have just ordered a pair of Philips Extreme Vision 100% H7s and hope to see an improvement.

Was going to try the Nightbreakers but there were some reports of an inferior beam pattern compared to the Philips bulbs.

If they are OK I'll get a pair of H4s for the main beam/fogs.

[skattrd]

This used to be / is a common problem on the BX and the cause is down to degrading of the cable over the years.

 

One (slightly longwinded) solution is to obtain a couple of cheap relays and use them to switch a new live feed taken straight from the battery via a fuse -

Use the old lamp feed as your switching feed (sepp ones for side/dipped/main) to the relay an put in a new decent gauge cable from the battery via an in line fuse. Its also probably worth cleaning up the earth to the headlamps too.

 

WHS

 

Check to see if theres a voltage drop from the battery to the light, my first Scirocco used to only get around 8-9v at the light, so they were obviously poop, new wires/relays fixed that.

If there isn't really a voltage drop to the lights then I'd suggest bigger/better bulbs ......

[Morgan84]

The best headlamp of course is a round lamp; dad still believes the headlamps on our 1974 Volvo 145 are better than on the V70. The worst lamps we ever had were on the Volvo 340,which were next to useless;dissapointing on a brand new car,which replaced a Renault 5 with far better lamps

[forddeliveryboy]

The best headlamp of course is a round lamp

 

I tend to agree but with the dipped beam filament reflecting off just the upper half of the reflector it's possible that a round reflector can have some of its lower half removed without affecting the main beam too much. The GS's light units were anything but round but I've never known anything anywhere near as good on anything ancient or 'modern'. Then again I've never tried these enormous ones..

 

[Bobthebeard]

Thanks for all the helpful replies. Much food for thought.

Am going to attempt to try and find someone that can correctly set up the headlights,as mentioned, rather than just ok for MOT, and take it from there. Next will be a new pair of Osram or similar,bulbs. Hopefully this will solve the problem!

One thing I did notice when checking the lights last night was that the access is so awful it is easy to fit the bulb without it seating properly. Ten inch long pipe cleaner thin fingers seem to be required to accurately fit the bulbs! The near side bulb wasn't seated fully, but after re fitting and test drive not much improvement really. Light onto the road slightly improved but can now see into nearside hedges on a straight road far better..... Not altogether useful!

[FredTransit]

Another vote for poundland bulbs here! I bought two 'blue' ones for emergency use and had to fit them one day, they're great! I can't believe how much bulbs are normally now!!

[gtd2000]

The problem really is the design though. Headlamps should have a patterned glass lens and the reflectors should be smooth, large and roundish. Unfortunately the fashion is for plastic clear lenses with small patterned reflectors.

 

I agree, some of the best headlights I've known were on Citroen's GS, they had a simply massive reflector surface area with a large glass. Similarly on the original-type CX units, flipping huge, awesome results.

 

To perhaps contradict this position - the one of the best sets of headlights I've had on any of the cars I've owned, is on my Nissan 240SX.

 

Not very big and certainly made of plastic on the US versions...example shown below:

 

 

Here's the actual car surrounded by loads of shite in the garage...

 

 

I had to clean up the light units due to UV damage last year as well - the lights worked just fine at night but the look of the car wasn't great.

 

Original state after 10 years of Florida sunshine (under our ownership):

 

 

Using a bit of elbow grease got them back up to this condition:

 

[Guest]

There are companies who can re-coat the silver backing in headlamp units. SCTSH_ANDY did this on his 9000 Carlsson before it took to throwing every toy possible out of its pram. He reported a huge difference in conjunction with Osram Night Breakers. Apparently the new flavour of the month is Philips True Brilliance bulbs, they're about £20 a set off eBay. I have a set for the 460 which has legendarily shit dipped beams.

 

The Amazon's headlights were similarly crap - although I wasn't expecting much from a pair of fixed beam Robos powered by a generator. I shelled out a shitload on a set of Cibie H4 Halogens from Amazon Cars - and it transformed driving the car at night. Not a cheap option but a definite recommendation - so much so that MM5 wants a set on his Rebel when he gets it on the road.

 

I haven't seen SCTSH for ages but I will ask him who did the work if that helps at all.

 

The C4's headlights are excellent - although changing the OSF bulb is a cunt of a job.