Headlight upgrade

[elPaulio]

Hi Guys/Gals,

Right, as Winter is now well and truly upon us I have realised that the dipped beam on my A4 is about as much use as shining a torch out the front window!
The beam is ok and clearly defined, but further forward than that there is no light being spread and the road is as dark as with the lights off practically!

I'm looking for some recomendation on what to do, whether to go the whole hog and get a HID kit or are there any replacement bulbs that are actually worth buying.

All suggestions gratefuly received :beerchug:

Cheers

Paul :biglaugh:

[Tris]

Having recently got myself a (almost new) B7 S-Line Special Edition Avant, i was wondering the same question..

Vagparts.co.uk have some replacement upgrades from Osram, does anyone have any experence of these ?

Cheers
Tris

[kodkod.84]

I was pretty impressed with the Philips X-Treme Xenon bulbs I had in my previous B7- which were kindly replaced by Audi West London one service as they said they were blown- which was complete ********- they just wanted to charge my lease company more money :zx11:

[Karl]

look back a few posts, some one asked about retro fit upgrades and I posted up the bulbs I use, I did the full lot for under £15 and they do work, and they are bloody good!

[Karl]

http://www.vwaudiforum.co.uk/forum/showthread.php?t=50027

[elPaulio]

Cheers Karl,

Worth a punt I'd say!
Do I need to buy two pairs, one for dipped and one for main? Or did you just buy two pairs so you'd have a spare??

Cheers

Paul :biglaugh:

[Audoman]

Yeah, i upgraded my Audi bulbs for extremes. Was great until one of them popped less than six months old.:zx11:

[Karl]

Cheers Karl,

Worth a punt I'd say!
Do I need to buy two pairs, one for dipped and one for main? Or did you just buy two pairs so you'd have a spare??

Cheers

Paul :biglaugh:

I got 2 sets, as theres one pair of H7 for dipped, then another for main, and as im vain I also got the fog lights too in the same type of bulbs so they matched. (they are H11 I think......but double check as im having a senior moment)

[Turbokiisseli]

The fogs are indeed H11s.

[STAGMAN]

The high brightness lamps get most of their extra light output from being over run. Therefore they do not last long, especially if you have auto lights. HID is the real solution, some of the kits are not that expensive, especially when you factor in the cost of replacing uprated bulbs.
John.

[Karl]

The high brightness lamps get most of their extra light output from being over run. Therefore they do not last long, especially if you have auto lights. HID is the real solution, some of the kits are not that expensive, especially when you factor in the cost of replacing uprated bulbs.
John.

they use a xenon gas not halogen, this allows the filament to burn hotter safely. I have had a set fo H4s now in my other car for 5 years! no probs at all and have been used on full beam so both filaments going, for alot of the time.

the replacment HID kits as ive said in the other post arent as good because of the way a HID works, ie a arc through a tube of gas, this means the source of the light ie the filament if you like, moves and is not controlled, so the beam pattern becomes distored and scattered. HIDs only really work with projector lenses, hence why oem hids are projectors.

[STAGMAN]

they use a xenon gas not halogen, this allows the filament to burn hotter safely. I have had a set fo H4s now in my other car for 5 years! no probs at all and have been used on full beam so both filaments going, for alot of the time.

the replacment HID kits as ive said in the other post arent as good because of the way a HID works, ie a arc through a tube of gas, this means the source of the light ie the filament if you like, moves and is not controlled, so the beam pattern becomes distored and scattered. HIDs only really work with projector lenses, hence why oem hids are projectors.

I am amazed that you can get that life especially when running both filaments simultaneously. Normally only one H4 filament is run at one time. I used to have uprated H7's in my Peugeot and they only lasted a few months. These were made by one of the main 2 makers, no cheapo Chinese products. I have to disagree with you about the HID lamps, the source of the are is shorter than a filament, so providing the mounting position is correct, the light source is more tightly controlled. Your H4's running both filaments would consume almost 20 Amps. A pair of HID's would give out more light and consume around 6 Amps. In addition HID life is 3000 hrs against 500 hours of a standard Halogen.

[Karl]

the bulbs I run use xenon gas not halgoen for a start...

and you are telling me that that is a more controlled source

http://img.diytrade.com/cdimg/505088/3540185/0/1177401222/hid_xenon_lamp.jpg

Im sorry the dft must have got their beam parttern tests very wrong then when retro fit hids were made illegal for road use.