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Sport Edition

New Member
Joined
Sep 4, 2011
Messages
16
Location
Perth, UK
Car
W203 C220 CDi Sport Edition
Does anyone have any experience of using 'premium bulb's' such as

PIAA

I've often wondered if there is really any need to upgrade? I live in an area with many narrow unlit roads, and would be happy to deal with the inflated bulb cost if the product "does what it says on the tin", improve my drive home and avoid a ££££ Xenon upgrade.

Any thoughts appreciated.

Euan.
 
Don't go blue please. Apart from 'forward facing blue lights' being illegal, it looks horrible and cheap.

IMO, go for the white.

If you want to spend, around £60-£70 go for a good HID kit. Don't go any higher than 5000k bulbs though otherwise the colour starts to turn blue.
 
Not all bulbs are equal and some of the big brands such as Philips do make bulbs that deliver real improvements over cheap OEM ones.

Auto Express do a bulb test each year which you can read on their website.

http://www.autoexpress.co.uk/products/products/212937/make_light_of_winter.html

The Test


Philips’ 75-metre light tunnel at its plant in Aachen, Germany, allowed us to measure beams accurately, and see the patterns displayed on a simulated road. We assessed pairs of each bulb, and adjusted our Volvo V70 test car’s headlamp each time until there was no glare for oncoming drivers.

Our beam rating is a combination of the light at 50 and 75 metres in front of the car, and an average of readings from two bulbs. Build geometry and light output were also measured against EC regulations. Prices are for a pair of bulbs, and were taken into account only where there were big differences, as costs can vary wildly. We have listed our sources as a guide.

Light show: best vs worst

Seeing clearly
On the road, the difference between the best and the worst bulbs was enormous. Adjusted to prevent glare, the Classic Professional barely reached 40 metres, with a mass of distracting light just in front of the car.

Peripheral vision was a little over six metres either side of the driver.
Our Best Buy, the Philips X-treme Power, illuminated the road over 90 metres away with a 20-metre-wide beam and a bigger spread of usable light ahead of the test Volvo. That’s easily the difference between having a collision and avoiding one.

Feeling blue?
While one section of our test is devoted to ‘blue’ bulbs, the best deliver white beams and headlights. These products were created around seven years ago to imitate the then new gas-discharge xenon or HID systems which were appearing on top-of-the-range models from BMW and Mercedes, giving off super-bright beams and adding a blue tinge to the headlights.

Most halogen imitations use the latest technology to boost light output. And they need it, as the colour change from yellow is achieved by coatings or filters which rob light from the beam. In poor-quality units, the result is low levels of light and a kaleidoscope of colours around the edges. In this test, ‘blue’ bulbs performed mid-way between the plus 50 and plus 30 untreated samples.

Verdict

Head and shoulders above the rest in this test was the Philips X-treme Power, which put in a performance no rival bulb could come near.

However, if you want to spend less than £30, go for the Philips Premium. And for those who prefer the white look, the best is from Narva. Just bear in mind the trendy blue coating has an adverse effect on bulb performance.

The standard entries from Bosch and Halfords get our vote. But most of the build and beam issues were in this class, and it’s well worth upgrading to a plus 30 or 50 plus unit to ensure decent quality.

Standard
1 Bosch Premium
2 Halfords Value Twin Pack

Plus 30
1 Philips Premium
2 Bosch Xenon Power

50 plus
1 Philips X-treme Power
2 Philips Vision Plus

Blue
1 Narva Range Power Blue
2 Philips BlueVision

It will tell you which bulbs you need to be buying and which to avoid and then head over to powerbulbs.com to buy them

Avoid the boy racer blue ones and also remember that even expensive bulbs give out less light as they get older.
 
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Don't go blue please. Apart from 'forward facing blue lights' being illegal, it looks horrible and cheap.

IMO, go for the white.

If you want to spend, around £60-£70 go for a good HID kit. Don't go any higher than 5000k bulbs though otherwise the colour starts to turn blue.

Illegal to fit xenon kits to reflectors designed for a halogen light source.

Thats why barrys who retrofit them dazzle you as they drive along , because the light units are designed for filament light source , not a xenon arc.
 
Thanks for all your advise and links, thankfully I'd already considered the chav factor with the blue, the white sounds as though it looks ok but it doesn't improve anything?

Not sure if I'd be up for a HID kit, are these complicated to fit and maintain, is HID a Xenon system or something in between?

Philips xtreme look to be the choice to go for if I do it, anybody else using these?

Thanks again.

Euan
 
HID and xenon are the same thing - a gas discharge light source. Many unscrupulous traders will include either "HID" or "xenon" in the description of a blue-filtered standard halogen bulb.

An "HID kit" is an HID burner in a standard halogen bulb package that is meant as a retrofit into your existing lamp housing; these come with a separate ballast and require a little wiring. As said, these often give rise to poor beam patterns causing dazzling. On top of that, the DfT states you shouldn't fit them, you'd fail a VOSA check due to contravening the RVLR, and you'll probably fall foul of new MoT test rules in the pipeline. Some combination of those may also give you insurance problems if the dazzling is deemed to be a contributing factor in an accident. In short, don't go there.

I upgraded from good "normal" bulbs in my Mondeo to Osram Nightbreakers, and noticed a small improvement, but the bi-xenons in my S211 are significantly better.

Some further reading:

Daniel Stern: good white/blue bulbs
Daniel Stern: bad blue bulbs
 
The leading brighter-light bulbs are Philips Xtreme as said, and Osram Night Breaker Plus. Very easy to swap. Brighter bulbs burn quicker, so have shorter service life, though Osram's latest 'Plus' is supposed to have longer life than their previous model so if opting for Osram make sure you get the new 'Plus' version. Sadly I have not yet seen any comparative tests in magazines regarding longevity of brighter bulbs from different makes, so this is pretty much left to the manufacturers' own claims, and they are being very coy about it.

Also, you may want to consider purchasing four H7 bulbs, to cover both the driving and high-beam lights.

And, while you will need to inform your insurer regarding any HID upgrade, I doubt if this is required when fitting brighter bulbs - unless someone here knows differently.
 
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Philips xtreme look to be the choice to go for if I do it, anybody else using these?

Thanks again.

Euan

On previous cars before I started specifying Xenons it was always the first thing I would do. The difference really is quite marked especially if the old bulbs are getting errr old.

As you can see on the tests, the difference can be a beam that reaches 90 meters compared to one that reaches 20 meters. Trust me when I say you will really notice such an increase.

For £30 I can't think of a reason for you not to do it.
 
On previous cars before I started specifying Xenons it was always the first thing I would do. The difference really is quite marked especially if the old bulbs are getting errr old.

As you can see on the tests, the difference can be a beam that reaches 90 meters compared to one that reaches 20 meters. Trust me when I say you will really notice such an increase.

For £30 I can't think of a reason for you not to do it.

Thanks Mark, you've given me the answer I was looking for. I'm off to buy a set, it's your fault if their rubbish! :)
 
HID and xenon are the same thing - a gas discharge light source. Many unscrupulous traders will include either "HID" or "xenon" in the description of a blue-filtered standard halogen bulb.

An "HID kit" is an HID burner in a standard halogen bulb package that is meant as a retrofit into your existing lamp housing; these come with a separate ballast and require a little wiring. As said, these often give rise to poor beam patterns causing dazzling. On top of that, the DfT states you shouldn't fit them, you'd fail a VOSA check due to contravening the RVLR, and you'll probably fall foul of new MoT test rules in the pipeline. Some combination of those may also give you insurance problems if the dazzling is deemed to be a contributing factor in an accident. In short, don't go there.

I upgraded from good "normal" bulbs in my Mondeo to Osram Nightbreakers, and noticed a small improvement, but the bi-xenons in my S211 are significantly better.

Some further reading:

Daniel Stern: good white/blue bulbs
Daniel Stern: bad blue bulbs


Thank's for the super fast and detailed reponse Troon, exactly what I needed to know.

Euan
 
I use Philips Bluevision on all my cars and they are really goood... They arent really blue, more of a crisp white.
 
Not all bulbs are equal and some of the big brands such as Philips do make bulbs that deliver real improvements over cheap OEM ones.

Auto Express do a bulb test each year which you can read on their website.

Make Light of Winter | Products | Auto Express



It will tell you which bulbs you need to be buying and which to avoid and then head over to powerbulbs.com to buy them

Avoid the boy racer blue ones and also remember that even expensive bulbs give out less light as they get older.


I've posted this in a previous thread so apologies for the broken record, but it is worthwhile checking out other sites such as Amazon once you have made your bulb choice. I found them considerably cheaper than powerbulbs.
 
Brighter bulbs burn quicker, so have shorter service life
Not sure that's generally the case - they are the same wattage as normal bulbs, so the same current is flowing through the filament. They are just more efficient at turning that into light (so logically they must produce a little less heat).

I put Philips X-treme Power bulbs in all three or our vehicles nearly four years ago (eight bulbs, as the Vito has H7s), and only a single bulb has failed so far.
 
I've posted this in a previous thread so apologies for the broken record, but it is worthwhile checking out other sites such as Amazon once you have made your bulb choice. I found them considerably cheaper than powerbulbs.

You know that is one place I would never have even considered for parts.

Good call
 
Not sure that's generally the case - they are the same wattage as normal bulbs, so the same current is flowing through the filament. They are just more efficient at turning that into light (so logically they must produce a little less heat).

Yes, they use the same power, and yes, they will produce slightly less heat as more of the energy gets turned into light (still <2% efficient I'd guess, so the difference is negligible).

What is important is that they achieve the brighter, whiter light by running the filament at a higher temperature (which is not equal to "heat"), which is the cause of the purported shorter lifespan. This can be mitigated by better materials, construction and gas-fill; but without these factors the filament will burn out quicker.
 
Never thought that HID kit would need to be declared to the insurance :eek:
Anyhow a buddy of mine is involved with "plug & play" HID kits for 80euro they come with bulbs and are crisp white. Just sounds like a better deal to me than going out and buying several H7 bulbs that will make feck all difference
 
tolly said:
Never thought that HID kit would need to be declared to the insurance :eek:

Probably not. It's the MoT fail that should concern you.
 

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