AHall_at_home

I was in Halford's earlier and noticed they had xenon buls (claiming 30% brighter) - and some ineresting "blue laser" headlight and sidelight bulbs. (10 quid for headlights, can't remember sidelight prices)

Has anyone tried these to see if they're any good? I'm hoping to see where I'm going at night (without spending the money on full headlamp conversion) - otherwise blue might be good

Beastie

iTrader: (2)

Ive got the xenon 30% brighter lights on my car. They are better than standard but dip is still a bit dark. I see some guys are running 80/100's with no problems so I will try those next.

I have the halfords 130W bulbs in my PIAA's, just as good as the PIAA bulbs and far less cost.

Beastie

Big Den

I've fitted the 80/100 headlight bulbs & the blue sidelight bulbs both from Halfords. I believe it has made a great improvement to the performance of main & dipped beam. Only reason I fitted the blue sidelight bulbs was because the higher power headlight bulbs made the sidelights look even more yellow than they already looked.

Den

Bal

Yep,
I agree with the above mob. I've got Phillips Blue vision's and they are much more brighter that the old "yellow" bulbs + you can tell that they emit a blue light.

ScoobyJawa

I got Phillips Vision Plus which IMHO are better than the halfords stuff. Not sure on cost but can be got from www.powerbulbs.com

Mungo

I have to agree with Scoobyjawa on the Philips VisionPlus. They're £20 for a pair, including delivery, and about 10 days ago they had an offer for free bluevision sidelight bulbs.
They're also e-marked so are legal for road use - unlike any of the higher wattage stuff that Halfords sell. I'm not exactly sure where you're supposed to use them....

Autolamps

Unfortunately the UK is the European dumping ground for poor quality and unreliable bulbs. I have worked in over 30 countries worldwide in the Automotive Lighting world and I know where most of the UK sold bulbs are made. To further support this view I was International Sales and Marketing manager for Philips for 7 years.

What is unique about the UK market is that there are only one or two real suppliers that are so big that if anyone challenges them they are very quickly brought into line with the UK practices. This means that the bulbs are globally sourced mainly from Asia and Eastern Europe. It depends on the lamp type but is always dependent on price. Very Very little of this product is made to a quality standard that is demanded by the Car Manufacturers but they sell container loads here in good old blighty. Now you may think this is a good thing that how bad can they be and they are going to be cheap. Well no that’s not the case as these large concerns buy very very cheap but pass the product onto the market at the same prices as other countries that have real OE quality product for the aftermarket. If you look at countries like Netherlands, France or Germany to mainly have Philips or Osram lamps there prices are the same as those from Korea, Czech and Taiwan.

How many times have you read here on the forum that my lamps keep failing? Before you just accept this firstly try a lamp from a lamp manufacturer and not just a brand. You can buy for example Hella and Bosch bulbs. They are great companies with great product and a great brand to support their operation. What they do not do however is make BULBS.

Some questions to ask to try and give yourself a better chance of buying a quality bulb.

Where is it made, not what E number is on it. The importer can buy in Korea and get it approved in the UK and as such have it market E11. This does not mean it’s a quality lamp. The best mark to look for and the strictest house are E1 and Germany. The easiest to pass through is E13 Luxembourg.

What is the light output in Luminous flux?
What is its Tc figure or characteristic life?

High Voltage will kill lamps, a 4% voltage increase will cut 40% from the bulbs life but nothing kills them faster than poor quality.

Nick

ScoobyJawa

Blimey

Thanks for that Nick - very interesting.........

mole

Cor!

Just about sums up all the sh1te that I've been sold over the last 10 to 15 yrs that I've been "playing" with cars! (make that 20yrs)

Moles Dad.

By the way, rightly or not, running 130/90 in Morettes, (Halfords bulbs)...ok so far, touch wood!!!

[Edited by mole - 1/29/2002 9:55:56 PM]

IanK Spec C

See my post(Powerbulbs tip), if you need bulbs for Prodrive lights as fitted to the UK300.

Regards,

Ian

Chris L

Auto Express did a very comprehensive test on bulbs last week. A lot of what Nick has said is backed up by what they reported.

Very expensive replacement bulbs (namely PIAA) were slated as grossly over priced and offering poor performance. Halfords own brand weren't very highly rated either. The best ones were the old favourite Philips Vision Plus and the new Osram Silverstar.

Incidently, all the talk you hear about bulb x being 50% brighter etc, doesn't refer to the actual brightness of the beam, but the spread of light at 50 and 75 ft. Different bulbs perform better at different lengths. Interesting article. Details on the Auto Express website (look under 'Specials' and then 'Product tests'.

Chris

[Edited by Chris L - 9/26/2003 11:24:59 PM]

markwild

I 'was' running PIAA platinum whites in mine (98uk), but these were 40 quid EACH.....

One has blown, so need another anyhow...

Anyone know if the Philips Vision Plus H4 are better (20 quid a pair !)

From the above, it looks like they might be, I wondered if anyone knew for sure ....

Mark

Chris L

Mark

I had at least three PIAA bulbs replaced by the UK supplier after they blew for no reason. The Philips Vision Plus offer just as good light output and I never replaced a single one up to the day I sold the car.

Draw your own conlusions....

Chris