Help choosing brighter headlight bulbs please

I have to concur with Mac here. I've recently invested in a set of the same Osram H7's that he's running, and I know of others who have used them too. They really show up the Philips RV +200% halogens that I had been using, which weren't really feeling like that much of an improvement over standard bulbs. Now I have a very clear white light with decent cutoffs and no apparent scatter. With the beam levels set fairly conservatively, no oncoming traffic has yet flashed me, even when we are underneath each others' cutoffs, over the brows of hills and round bends etc. Just in case though, I did this just after my MOT, and have retained the halogens to swap back in for the next one :oops:
 
Proghound said:
I have to concur with Mac here. I've recently invested in a set of the same Osram H7's that he's running, and I know of others who have used them too. They really show up the Philips RV +200% halogens that I had been using, which weren't really feeling like that much of an improvement over standard bulbs. Now I have a very clear white light with decent cutoffs and no apparent scatter. With the beam levels set fairly conservatively, no oncoming traffic has yet flashed me, even when we are underneath each others' cutoffs, over the brows of hills and round bends etc. Just in case though, I did this just after my MOT, and have retained the halogens to swap back in for the next one :oops:
Click to expand...
Hi
Can I ask what the part number is for the Osrams you fitted please?

best wishes

J
 
Evening all,

I’m another happy user of the Osram LEDriving bulbs:

IMG_8276.jpeg


Been absolutely brilliant the last 8 months in a certain Jaipur Red A2 and long may that continue.

Kind regards,

Tom
 
@Proghound Ian that’s an interesting observation about the Philips RV +200 halogens not feeling that great - as I found them to be a substantial (if not an absolutely amazing) improvement.

I may well try a set of the Osrams next now that the last H7 RV I had in stock has just gone into the Touran (which takes a set of this size both for high and low beam) - do they not upset the car’s faulty bulb detection setup?
 
dj_efk said:
@Proghound Ian that’s an interesting observation about the Philips RV +200 halogens not feeling that great - as I found them to be a substantial (if not an absolutely amazing) improvement.

I may well try a set of the Osrams next now that the last H7 RV I had in stock has just gone into the Touran (which takes a set of this size both for high and low beam) - do they not upset the car’s faulty bulb detection setup?
Click to expand...
The RV +200's were definitely better than my original standard bulbs, but not by enough to get all that enthusiastic about. Possibly that's due to the aforementioned fairly conservative beam height that I'm running, but they definitely weren't leagues brighter and clearer like the LED's are over them. I've been running the RV +200's the last 3-4 winters, to the first failed bulb in each of 2 sets. During this time it seems like soooo many more cars in the oncoming traffic stream now have LED lights, and any halogen bulb in our poor projector lamps just can't compete. Now with two time-served bulbs left (one from each set) it seemed the right time to upgrade.

The Osram LED's are plug and play (although it's not hugely obvious how to fit them until you decipher the instruction pictures - I think there's also a YouTube video). I've had no bulb failure warnings, I'm guessing no-one else has either or we'd have heard about it by now.
 
Following the LED advice with interest. However as my Halfords H7 477 200% (not) brighter bulbs are new I'll be sticking with them a bit longer.
@Phil_B receipt retrieved from car junk and stored safely. Hopefully I will get more than a few months use but if I don't they are going back. Thanks for the tip.
@Oskar I too live in a rural location, I would say the Halfords bulbs have provided a welcome but not stunning increase in light output. At least I no longer feel unsafe even if I am still not 100% confident. I think I have a further problem, my headlights appear to be set up for owl spotting. They are great for spotting owls hunting along the road side. Interesting but not what I need when I need to get my son to work safely.
My NS beam appears set too high and too far left, my OS beam appears set too short. I have no range increase adjustment (I can only decrease range via the dash) and the range is not adequate with two sacks of coal in the boot. That brings me to a question regarding DIY beam alignment, which appears to be critical for LED bulbs too; how do you do it?
 
Last edited:
philward said:
Following the LED advice with interest. However as my Halfords H7 477 200% (not) brighter bulbs are new I'll be sticking with them a bit longer.
@Phil_B receipt retrieved from car junk and stored safely. Hopefully I will get more than a few months use but if I don't they are going back. Thanks for the tip.
@Oskar I too live in a rural location, I would say the Halfords bulbs have provided a welcome but not stunning increase in light output. At least I no longer feel unsafe even if I am still not 100% confident. I think I have a further problem, my headlights appear to be set up for owl spotting. They are great for spotting owls hunting along the road side. Interesting but not what I need when I need to get my son to work safely.
My NS beam appears set too high and too far left, my OS beam appears set too short. I have no range increase adjustment (I can only decrease range via the dash) and the range is not adequate with two sacks of coal in the boot. That brings me to a question regarding DIY beam alignment, which appears to be critical for LED bulbs too; how do you do it?
Click to expand...
There is a sticky thread that’s in the collection put up by @Sarge - have a browse!
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top