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Improving the lightening ?

2K views 22 replies 11 participants last post by  briggs248 
#1 ·
My front headlight are old and need to be changed. I do the mistake of trying to clean the reflector...now it's clean, there is no more the reflecting aluminium paint !!! :evil:
So i will change it...but it seems that even with new headlight, the power of the light is poor...
Does anybody know what to do to improve all the light system: New voltage (more higher) for the lamps (14-15Volts) ? Specials lamps (blue vision....) ? Rallye lamps (75W rather than 50-55W) ?
 
#2 ·
A couple of things to try - get the reflectors resilvered if you can find a place that will do it. I have heard you can buy chrome paint as well which might work. One source of poor illumination is the condition of the earthing point on the front crossmember - try unscrewing this and cleaning up the contact surfaces- screw it down tight and slap on some heavy grease or underbody sealant. You can get several same wattage bulbs with improved outputs from Bosch, Philips etc which I have found to be a vast improvement. Buying new reflectors is an expensive option!
 
#8 ·
Hi Niko
:D

I was at the rolling road with you a few weeks back ( I had the blue c900 with the extra lamps!).

My car suffers the same, and my extra lamps only provide light on full/high beam. So on dipped my vision is poor.

I tried the bosch blue bulb, but it doesnt seem to have made a difference. I was told because my headlamp glass is fairly scratched also this could affect performance.

Perhaps for me, the best option is new headlights? :oops:
 
#9 ·
Hi Ross ! Sure i remember you and your clean car !
I think that i will try the Crystalvision bulbs as it seems working well. Maybe new headlight for Christmas ? Impossible, i still have spend money for my own gift !!!
Hope to find crystalvision in France...
 
#14 ·
Johann F said:
Don't mess with those blue look bulbs - apart from the 'boy racer' associations they actualy reduce visability because the blue end of the spectrum is more easily scattered in water.
Well then why do the high end cars come stock with them? Not just "boy racers." I do belive that the bmw 7 series come with the purple lights
 
#15 ·
High end cars have HID lights that look slightly blue - they are very powerfull and require a transformer and other electronics to run them. Blue look bulbs are just that - they look blue due to a blue coating -they actualy have a lower output than conventional bulbs and the blue light they do emit is scattered easily by water droplets which means the glare in rain mist and fog.
 
#16 ·
Johny F :wink:

You are 100% right, i should have recalled that from my A level physics lasers and optics days :-? But i was probably reading a saab mag in that lecture.

However in my defence, and wanting to put the record straight, there not the kinda blue/green glow ala saxo/corsa/nova/ scooby boy. In fact, its only at a certain refracted angle can you see a hint of blue. They were genuine bosch, ive tried the 4 seasons, extra bright and now these and to be honest there all panse.Perhaps they'd be more responsive to a better lighting system?

True HID is what uberfast is referring too, fitted to omega's etc. Think maybe new 93/95 may even boast them :-?
Anyway to convert to that system is much ££££s so i think ill stick to my original plan.
 
#17 ·
My headlights are still pretty poor even with claimed 50% brighter bulbs and the cleaned up earthing - although both these things are 100% better than when i first got the car. Around town it's not a problem but out on country roads at night it's pretty scarry at times I'm toying with the idea of fitting some extra 'driving' lights at the moment.
 
#20 ·
My extra lamps are driving lamps. However i wired them up to energise off main beam. Great when flashing, and the heads are brilliant now, but on dip, im still faced with the same problem. So do i venture further and get more lamps to act as switchable aux lamps with/ without heads :-?

Thing is you start to ruin the lines of the old T16s by bolting on these bricks! And placement is not easy when considering things like not to block convection for the oil cooler, water cooler for the chargecooler etc etc :roll:
 
#22 ·
Alex said:
Having working headlight wipers makes a huge difference
Removed mine after 1 stopped working and i was fed up with the amount of screenwash I was getting through :oops: I had some above the bumper/fender lights on one of my pre- facelift Saab's and they came on with full beam. On my 91'sleeper' I'm looking at some under bumper lights.
 
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