Over 25? Your eyes need more light, so the best headlamps are?

[fordperv]

Is it childish that I giggle because the number plate says rot?

[beko1987]

I need to get some nightbreakers or other fancy main mean bulb for the ZX, the sidelights are some modern white light job, and seem brighter than the main beams, obv they don't throw as far though.

 

Spotlights looks gr9, but I'd probably only need them for 0.02% of the time!

[pshome]

Is it childish that I giggle because the number plate says rot?

 

Every Tagora has of course the best numberplate in the universe and beyond ...

[Junkman]

It looks like there is a Tagora in my future...

[warren t claim]

I'm using this thread as an excuse to use the word homofocal.

[Noel Tidybeard]

I'm using this thread as an excuse to use the word homofocal.

ahh the maestro lights were pretty epic

i drove a ovlov 740 with one bulb out and it still lit the road better than a sierra 2.0iS with dip, main & fogs all on at once!

[Junkman]

The most shitty headlights of EVAH are on the MKII Granadas.

You literally have to get out and check whether they are really on.

[brickwall]

 

I was going to say that this is one of my pet subjects! Can't really add any more, but I use Osram 64205s which are rated at 2000/1350 lumens - slightly more than the Nightbreaker 90s @ 1895/1150. Although technically not permitted as they are 65/60 watts, and the trade off is short life; rated at only 150/400 hours on main/dip.

 

For that reason I'm considering a soft start circuit to prolong their life a little, just to ramp up the voltage slowly so the filament resistance builds up (with heat) and you don't get the large current surge through the cold filament.

 

I used to use 100/55 w bulbs (2400/1000 lumens), but found the contrast between main and dipped ruined my night vision. The Nightbreakers sound interesting as they may be more of a satisfactory compromise with the output vs lifespan trade off, and also legal given that AFAIK the rules only govern the wattage rather than the light output!

 

 

I did wonder about a soft start as the life span was so short.

[Rusty Pelican]

Best headlights EVA are on first generation Honda Accord ( 76 to 81 ) Made by Stanley and used H4 bulbs with no cover .

Retina removers even using standard 55/60w bulbs .

Never found any headlights this good since 

[twosmoke300]

Can't complain about the ones on the 9-5 to be honest . Glass lenses and wipers ftw .

[HillmanImp]

I hate to sound like a broken records on this subject but it would not be right if I didn't stick my oar in as usual.

 

My standard lights are absolutely fine on all my cars until I can no longer see as some twunt coming in the other direction feels the need to have floodlights on the front of his car that are so bright they probably tan the stunned animals they drive over. 

 

When driving past these people I have to assume that I am driving in a straight line and am not about to go off the road or into the oncoming car, or more importantly that there is not a cyclist/pedestrian/ in front of me as quite frankly I am not going to see anything over the blinding light of the twunt on the other side of the road.

 

Don't get me wrong I agree you need lights that are sufficient to see the road ahead however that's all you need to be able to see, the road ahead, not a hedgehog 3/4 of a mile away. Its not the Lombard RAC out there, the lights should be good enough to light the road ahead and any immediate hazards and not be unsafe for people coming the other way. 

 

TBH I think I am fighting a losing battle and think the only way to stop being dazzled is to buy some brighter lights than the oncoming cars so that my brilliance out-radiates theirs.

[HH-R]

The dipped beam on my car is utter shite. Unless it's perfect pitch darkness, there's so little difference between sidelights and dipped that I have to keep switching the lights from dipped > side > dipped to convince myself they're actually on. The only difference is a miserable little pool of light illuminates three feet in front and signs at the sides of dual carriageways reflect. I'm going to check that I actually put the Nightbreakers in this one, they've been transferred to about three different cars now! There's loads of people with one headlight mis adjusted which is very annoying.

[forddeliveryboy]

HillmanImp, it's not just other car lights which are brighter, it's all lights. Even living out here in the middle of nowhere where the sky is genuinely black at night there's a pelican crossing on an A-road which had new lights put in 4 or 5 years ago. Designed for the middle of the urban jungle, they're so bright that they totally blind you, on a nasty curve and junction. In this case brighter headlamps would make little or no difference, but with everyone trying to out-bright everyone else and eyes tired from staring at computer screens, good dipped lights on a car matter.

 

Roadsigns are so reflective they either blind you or are so knackered you almost need to do a rubbing to see what they once said, markings on the road are often badly worn and only partially visible, kerbs can swing in unexpectedly due to the moron engineers at VOSA or wherever they design roads, who've one too many crap degrees between them, country roads hide potholes big enough to upset a tractor and so on. Brighter lights make things little better, well-designed even lighting improves things much more. Retina-burning single LED or an old lighthouse lens - one shows you something's there, the other gives you detail and allows judgement.

 

I like good lighting for driving in the same way as when tacking a tricky job on a car - it's made so much easier when things are well-lit. Speed has little to do with it - when a car is coming towards me in the dark on a winding, unlit, wet road I always long for yellow bulbs in massive reflectors once again. From the younger cars I've seen in a car park today, reflectors do seem to have become more round compared with 90s stuff.

[Pete-M]

By far and away the best headlights of any car I've ever owned are the (factory) HID jobs on my Focus. They're absolutely brilliant.

 

As for HIDs and that bluey tint, that's caused by people buying those stupid 12000k eBay jobs. Most factory HID lights are between 4800-6000k which is the part of the light spectrum white is in (or something like that).

 

Other than the Focus HIDs being physically different units from the non-HID ones they're not obviously bluey when lit. Probably slightly whiter than Halogens if anything. They definitely work a lot better, and in dodgy conditions like heavy rain or fog they cut through the crap brilliantly with a lot less glare.

[Junkman]

There is help for you people.

 

 

[martybabes]

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

 

I need those for my E39.  Will they fit, do you think?

[PiperCub]

Think the problem is people not understanding that wattage in the normal sense, isn't the same as colour temperature which is what HID's tend to be quoted in. The higher the number, the bluer the light, the lower the yellower the light is. Cameras use filters for this depending on if inside or outside. Hence, the aformentioned 12000K (12000 degrees Kelvin in temp) or so are really blue and annoying to the eyes of the oncoming driver.

 

Might be wrong here but wasn't that the theory behind yellowing the lenses? (Like the French used to do).

[warren t claim]

The most shitty headlights of EVAH are on the MKII Granadas.

You literally have to get out and check whether they are really on.

That's because ALL Fords built between 1976 and 1982 with the exception of the mk3 Capri simply must have driving lamps fitted or you end up driving around looking like a pansy.

[Lankytim]

The dipped beam on the XM is absolutely dire. I think its because theres a weird plastic diffuser fitted inside the headlight unit that goes yellow with age. Will nightbreakers cure this?

[alf892]

The headlamps on my old rover (1947) are fine as long as it is properly dark.

 

If it is not dark enough the beam too weak to reach the road. This applies to good moonlight.

 

Sometimes you need stuff coming the other way just to confirm you are on a road and have not wandered onto a cart track.

[Asimo]

One cause of dazzle is your windscreen being dirty, misty and / or scratched (as it will be when old). A new screen makes quite a difference.

 

Another cause, which you can't do much about, is the other guy's headlights being filthy or their plastic in need of a good polish.

[Junkman]

 A new screen makes quite a difference.

 

On your bank account, yes.

[Pete-M]

That's because ALL Fords built between 1976 and 1982 with the exception of the mk3 Capri simply must have driving lamps fitted or you end up driving around looking like a pansy.

Other than the Mk3 Capri or RS2000 - both of which have excellent lights

[warren t claim]

RS2000 headlights are akin to the Nightsun on the Merseyside Police helicopter.

[NorfolkNWeigh]

That's because ALL Fords built between 1976 and 1982 with the exception of the mk3 Capri simply must have driving lamps fitted or you end up driving around looking like a pansy.

The best thing about Mk2 Granada's with driving lamps and fog lamps is that if you drove with fogs and sidelights , then flashed your main beam the fogs would go off as the driving lamps came on , creating an up/down strobe effect. Fastest way evah,to clear the fast lane( yes,I was an even more annoying twat in 1982 than I am now)

[Pete-M]

And on the Mk2 Granada handbook they're all lit... which is something you can't actually get them to do without faffing with the wiring.

[Richard]

I've just fitted a set of Osram Silver Stars to the 850, so we'll see if they make any difference. Of the bulbs I took out two were Osram, so might have been Silver Stars, one was Philips, which may or may not have been the posh kind, and one was a no-name effort.

 

When I went back in the house SWMBO informed me that one of the C5's lights was out, so it got a no-name H7 that cost less for a pack of ten than a single one of my Silver Stars. I tried posh bulbs in the C5 before but it didn't help. For the first time ever I managed to change a C5 headlight bulb without losing any blood or having to take the bumper off, which was nice.

[Sloth in a bowl]

I turned 25 twice now, so I don't need headlights, I need someone to help me cross the street.

 

However, what I have in the haunted Rover is as follows.

 

Two dipped beams like these:

 

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Crystal-Halogen-headlights-kit-lamp-5-3-4-Westfield-H4-headlamps-lucas-cibie-/380857683767

 

Two genuinely ouch-expensive main beams courtesy of a friend in Norway like these:

 

 

 They are so illegal, that they had to take them off the market even over there.

 

And four of these bulbs:

 

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/2-X-12V-160-100W-H4-P43T-RALLY-SPORT-HIGH-WATTAGE-HALOGEN-HEADLAMP-BULB-BLB486-/291264338386

 

 

This means, on full blast, I have over 1kW luminous power from what effectively amounts to clear glass headlights.

Strangely, a sponsorship contract with the British ophthalmologists association was not forthcoming,

but I can bloody well make the Moon shine brighter.

 

 

The infamous Rover CDL http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Canal_Defence_Light

[Noel Tidybeard]

seemingly standard blubs have a black painted tip and the upgrades have silver

[DSdriver]

Right, I'm in!

The French used to have yellow lights which didn't dazzle and created nice shadows which are also useful in defining objects at night. French giffers think that only the Rostbifs have white lights and have to have it explained to them that the rest of the world has white headlamps.

The reason the UK decided that white headlamps were the way to go was because they were going to use sodium lights on street lamps which give a yellow light and give a good shadow quotient which is good for safety. However this plan went to pot when mercury vapour lights started being used, probably because they were cheaper or they forgot why they were using sodium.

I would asume that using a brighter bulb with a fucked reflector is a bit like using a twelve bore for sniping. I found that replacing the main/dip beam units on the DS with new ones was one of the best improvements I made to the car but oh how I long for the superb ergonomic switchgear of the early CX because the DS and the XM are both crap. I haven't yet got the hang of turning the lights off in the XM without sounding the horn, which doesn't go down too well with the people in the flats next to us when I get back late.