headlamps

[frank horton]

I drive a 1999 T4 VW transporter with original GLASS headlamps.....
went out in it last night and frankly the H/L are rubbish.....adjusted correctly.....esp as I live 1/2 way up a mountain.....
I did buy some ceramic bulb holders thinking that I'd replace the 50/55w original bulbs with 100w halogens just after I bought the van.....but it never got done....
Now tech has changed a lot in 15 years so what is the recomended upgrade these days.....
I dont want to start putting extra miles of wire and relays just for the fun of it.....
Just plug and play......
ta...

 

[carbon]

With my T4 and T5 I use Phillips xtreme vision pro150 bulbs. Not cheap but seem to be durable and better light output without making any changes to the wiring

 

[sako243]

Depending on the rules in Greece (if any) then Classic Car LEDs sell very good LED bulbs that fit (mostly) into standard bulb holders. I say mostly because you need a bit of space to screw on the heatsink, at least for the H4 bulbs.

I've got a set fitted to my Defender and I'd say actually the light output and pattern is better than my 2011 Range Rover's Bi-Xenons. Certainly when it went for its MOT the tester has commented on how good the pattern is all perfectly defined within the legal limits rather than blurring the edges like most headlight bulbs if they do conform.

They're not the cheapest at £70ish but given they're a straight swap with no upgrades of wiring loom or holders required I think they're good value for money. You can now get them in a warmer colour too for that classic look rather than the brilliant white default.

Oh and so far they've survived sixish years of heavy offroad abuse (including getting flooded).

 

[northwest]

They're not the cheapest at £70ish but given they're a straight swap with no upgrades of wiring loom or holders required

Well they work on a CANbus system though? My only complaint about my little van are the blooody lights!

 

[sako243]

I think I've seen mention of them working - not sure because it's on old Land Rovers I've got them so they don't care.

There was a recent MOT change (last year?) which meant they're now not allowed to be fitted to newer vehicles. My tester made the comment that he didn't really have a problem if they were fitted to new ones because they were such a clean pattern but legally they shouldn't have been.

 

[voipio]

Modern vehicle lighting seems to be getting worse for the receiving end!! Please be careful and considerate when using alternative lighting technologies.

www.lightmare.org

 

[Trevorleach]

Over the years I tried all the uprated hlamp filament bulbs, cheap and bloody expensive, all failed sooner or later.
H4 are just poor, H7 not that much better.

Set of high powered driving lamps will see you right, or a led roof bar like all the 4x4 boys have.

 

[slim_boy_fat]

thinking that I'd replace the 50/55w original bulbs with 100w halogens just after I bought the van.....but it never got done....

Iirc, the 100W bulbs are not road legal?

 

[brightspark]

Iirc, the 100W bulbs are not road legal?

there not but i fitted them to all my vehicles the existing 60 w 50 s were pathetic.and fitted 100w cibie long range driving spots as well needless to say if anyone didnt dip they got the full lot. the main lamps were slightly to the left. the spots were to the right and came on with the main beam and could switch them off seperately. i find my pug van has decent light so just standard

 

[Robotstar5]

there not but i fitted them to all my vehicles the existing 60 w 50 s were pathetic.and fitted 100w cibie long range driving spots as well needless to say if anyone didnt dip they got the full lot. the main lamps were slightly to the left. the spots were to the right and came on with the main beam and could switch them off seperately. i find my pug van has decent light so just standard

I bought a set of those in the early 80's, they got moved each time I bought another car, the shells eventual started to rust out after 25 years service, I think I got my money's worth.

 

[optima21]

and now I know why Im being dazzled by what seems like every other car on the road

 

[rtcosic]

.. i fitted them to all my vehicles the existing 60 w 50 s were pathetic....

The old Rover 800s had dip/main and additional mains.
Glass lenses.

I fitted 100/100W to the dip/main and 100W to the auxiliary mains, 2x100W on dip and 4x100W on main beam.

Excellent beam pattern, no scatter so no dazzle to oncoming traffic on dip.

Never had lights as good since.

The only slight downside was I had to switch to dip beam within a few hundred metres of large motorway signs - otherwise, the reflected light was dazzling!

Edit: I lived in a fairly rural area with narrow unlit roads with little traffic. We didn't have a fixed speed camera in the county. (There wasn't a set of traffic lights or a roundabout either when I first moved there).

Edit the edit: I have fitted LEDs to all the lights on the Alvis, also from Classic Car LEDs. The headlight ones are like miniature projectors with their own built in reflector as the reflectors on the car are in poor condition. I don't drive it at night so they are mainly 'decorative' though, so i cannot provide an endorsement.

 

[Bornfree]

Those led headlights on modern cars are amazing. I had a bmw following me the other night and the headlight beams were lighting up the trees on both sides of the road a good 100 yards past my full beam. But not dazzling me at all.

 

[bricol]

The old Rover 800s had dip/main and additional mains.
Glass lenses.

I fitted 100/100W to the dip/main and 100W to the auxiliary mains, 2x100W on dip and 4x100W on main beam.

Excellent beam pattern, no scatter so no dazzle to oncoming traffic on dip.

Never had lights as good since.

The only slight downside was I had to switch to dip beam within a few hundred metres of large motorway signs - otherwise, the reflected light was dazzling!

Edit: I lived in a fairly rural area with narrow unlit roads with little traffic. We didn't have a fixed speed camera in the county. (There wasn't a set of traffic lights or a roundabout either when I first moved there).

Edit the edit: I have fitted LEDs to all the lights on the Alvis, also from Classic Car LEDs. The headlight ones are like miniature projectors with their own built in reflector as the reflectors on the car are in poor condition. I don't drive it at night so they are mainly 'decorative' though, so i cannot provide an endorsement.

My old 1400cc Renault 11 had four steel bodied, glass lensed Cibie lights - 100W H1s in the dip and 130W in the mains . . .the main bulbs didn't used to last too long. Then just in-case, 100W cibie super oscars in between them all - only allowed on Uni scatters, anything run by "proper" motor clubs to rules, I had to decide which two lights I didn't want, as only allowed four forward facing beams.

Roll on 6 years, and I had my had my first Lancia integrale . . . way more power, way more speed, and now I understood why people drove with fog lights on - the Hella lamps on it were crap! Shoved 100W bulbs in and they were good for a while . . . until the plastic body distorted, and the silvering burnt off . . .

I jammed a set of Autolamps HID conversions in it, bought on a scooby net bulk buy - there were expensive - but nearly 30 yrs later, they are in the second integrale, and have played their part in illuminating a couple of hundred thousand miles (off highway use only, controlled conditions, professional driver, never used in the dark etc etc).

Got a set of unknown HIDs in my Alfa 159 dips - wondering how good they are now, as the light seems yellow and poor - or it might just be my eyes getting older.

Those Renault lights are still the best I've sat behind.

 

[voipio]

Those led headlights on modern cars are amazing. I had a bmw following me the other night and the headlight beams were lighting up the trees on both sides of the road a good 100 yards past my full beam. But not dazzling me at all.

Those beemer headights are actually quite disconcerting, distracting and, for those reasons, even dangerous.

 

[slim_boy_fat]

Might they have been the laser lights, and not LEDs?

 

[finyuk2005]

with the T4's the headlight wiring is really long and pretty thin wires, so you get a kit for about 30 quid thats very easy to fit, its just a pair of relays and fuses and a very short wiring loom, powered straight from the battery,
It makes a huge difference, on one of my T4's it was about 2 volts being lost in the original loom!
That and osram night breakers is what i have

 

[Jack_K]

A couple of good H4s and maybe a couple of driving lights should be plenty.

There are reasons LEDs are not good

 

[MoreWellie]

I had a bmw following me the other night and the headlight beams were lighting up the trees on both sides of the road a good 100 yards past my full beam

I had a lift from someone in a top end BMW and it had what he called adaptive lights. They cut areas of the beam out around other vehicles. Amazing technology to watch in real time and nobody flashed us so I guess it was effective from the other direction as well
This explains it

I hate to think how expensive it will be to maintain for future owners

 

[sako243]

I wonder how well it works with mucky roads. Admittedly I've just had wider tyres fitted because they came up cheap but just from driving on the road you can hardly see out of the second row windows in my Defender. Windscreen isn't much better and it seems I'm filling up with washer fluid every other week.