Poor headlight output

ca2n

A2OC Donor
A few days ago I found myself driving on some dark roads with my A2. I found that the headlight (dipped beam) output was very poor. The glare from oncoming vehicles only made it worse. Needless to say, I didn’t enjoy driving my A2 at that time.

From what I can tell from the driver's seat, it appears that most of the beam is pointing downwards to just a few feet from the front of the car. Road signs, however, were perfectly illuminated.

My headlight lenses are far free from oxidation so I suppose there is some room for improvement there. As far as headlight aim is concerned, the seller sold the car to me a few months ago with a fresh MOT so I’m guessing the headlight aim is spot on. The rear of my A2 is sitting quite low probably due to wrong springs and/or worn spring bushes so it might affect the headlight aim as well to a certain extent. It might just be addressing these issues to get optimised illumination, but in the mean time:

1. Is the headlight output generally poor on the A2? I think I’ve read something about this on the forum which has led to owners retrofitting e.g. projector headlamps.

2. What other solutions are there to this problem? E.g. new bulbs? I don’t think I’m quite ready to go down the projector headlamp retrofit route just yet.

3. Is adjusting the headlight aim something to DIY or should I take it to a garage? What are the costs?

Seeking advice. Need some more confidence in night-time driving. Thanks in advance.
 
The lights on the A2 are very old school and are quite dim by today's standards, but it sounds to me like your bulbs are not seated properly, or your headlamp motors are defective - the latter is easily tested by altering the headlamp position dial next to the light switch - if the lights move, then the motors are good.

First thing I'd check is that the bulbs are seated properly - I've seen loads where they're not and they generally either point skywards or at the ground right in front of the car. As long as you have a T30 driver, checking the bulbs is a DIY job and is covered in detail here under the lights section:

http://www.a2oc.net/forum/showthrea...-of-the-quot-How-To-s-quot-and-useful-threads
 
Even correctly adjusted the A2's headlights are "state-of-the-art" 1999.

I fitted LED-bulbs (as did several drivers on the Dutch forum, 25W) and these work great. Where xenon will only work properly with lenses, LEDs just replace the old halogens, use less power and deliver much brighter light.
Untitled.png
 
Even correctly adjusted the A2's headlights are "state-of-the-art" 1999.

I fitted LED-bulbs (as did several drivers on the Dutch forum, 25W) and these work great. Where xenon will only work properly with lenses, LEDs just replace the old halogens, use less power and deliver much brighter light.
View attachment 32596

Which LEDs did you use? I think the standard halogens are quite acceptable and I don't like HIDs, but I might be interested in a LED upgrade.
 
I agree with Mike, my money is on a badly seated bulb.

The reason that this happens so much is that many people / garages try to replace the bulbs in situ instead of simply undoing the two screws and removing the headlamp.

That way you can check and double check that the bulb is in correctly.

But while checking, why not replace the bulbs with uprated bulbs.

The best ones are technically illegal because they are 100w, but the way I see it the A2 headlights are so bad that the 100w bulbs are just about right.

But we as a club can't be seen to be recommending illegal bulbs, so many use the uprated 55w bulbs to stay within the law.

This is much easier than fitting HID or projector units.

Steve B
 
2 x T30 bolts (top one is easy, inside one is often stiff, as water collects there) and then slide the lights inward toward the radiator and then forwards and out.

No need to undo the wiring - there's sufficient slack to enable you to get into the back properly. You're looking for a bulb that's seated like this:

power unplugged.jpg

Well positioned and centrally positioned, with the tab in the right place. Bet you find it's twisted out of position.
 
Had a similar issue on mine when I got it. One of the springs that retain the lamps wasn't putting much force onto it, so it could move in the housing. Much as mentioned above. In addition to that the aim was completely off (both were low and pointing somewhere left of the kerb), once I'd adjusted them too they aren't that bad.
 
In an only slightly off topic swerve - I followed the excellent advice on the forum and equipped with a T30 bit to set to undo the headlamp retaining bolts - inside one indeed stiff, but after what felt like only moderate force snapped off neatly above the ? Rivnut.
Any advice on how to get that out / replace it??
Apols if this is a blindingly stupid question - I can only admire the technical skill of the A2oc from my extremely low level of mechanical skill!

Chris
 
In an only slightly off topic swerve - I followed the excellent advice on the forum and equipped with a T30 bit to set to undo the headlamp retaining bolts - inside one indeed stiff, but after what felt like only moderate force snapped off neatly above the ? Rivnut.
Any advice on how to get that out / replace it??
Apols if this is a blindingly stupid question - I can only admire the technical skill of the A2oc from my extremely low level of mechanical skill!

Chris

Drilling out is about the best bet - you'l need some super sharp bits though and I'd recommend my new favourite bits - cobalt steel drill bits. Start off small and dead centre and work up to bigger sizes. You'll probably find that an extractor bit will then finish the job off and if the worst should happen and you ruin the threads on the hole, you can use either a rivnut or a well-nut as you said, with a smaller bolt obviously.
 
Which LEDs did you use? I think the standard halogens are quite acceptable and I don't like HIDs, but I might be interested in a LED upgrade.

I found them on eBay - they were about € 60 a pair (7 months ago). Below is picture of the box.

They have 3 hi-power LEDs on each side in exactly the right spot where the halogen filament used to be.

I ordered H7 and H3 versions for low and high beam. The heat sinks / cooling strips as well as the small box of electronics all fit in the head light housing. No additional cabling and boxes in the engine bay like with aftermarket xenons.

LEDs.jpg
 
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I found them on eBay - they were about € 60 a pair (7 months ago). Below is picture of the box.

They have 3 hi-power LEDs on each side in exactly the right spot where the halogen filament used to be.

I ordered H7 and H3 versions for low and high beam. The heat sinks / cooling strips as well as the small box of electronics all fit in the head light housing. No additional cabling and boxes in the engine bay like with aftermarket xenons.

View attachment 32598

Thanks for the info, just did a search on eBay for the H7 bulbs, same manufacturer as those and they are about £48 per pair - Ouch!
No sign of H3 models though.
 
Thanks for the advice re snapped bolt - but hanging on in there with just the outside bolt so will wait for weather to warm up a bit before having a go with drilling!
Great forum - brilliant informative supportive community!
Lots of good info has helped keep our x2 tdi SE going happily.

Chris
 
...........

But we as a club can't be seen to be recommending illegal bulbs, so many use the uprated 55w bulbs to stay within the law.


Steve B

First a short ramble/rant, not in any way at you Steve, but a pet hate against the lighting industry.

In relation to household light bulbs I think the the general public are slowly cottoning onto Watts are really nothing to do with brightness but are a measure of running costs. This has been driven by the changing technology employed in bulb manufacture over the recent decades. Thirty years ago and earlier with incandescent bulbs a rough rule of thumb was 100w for room main light and 60w for a bedside light. Along came compact fluorescent bulbs (and more recently LED's) and typical claims of 18w CFL are equivalent to "old" 100w and the fallacy/confusion of Watts as a measure of brightness was laid bare. All the manufacturers lied in thier equivalences as none were anywhere near as bright as the "old" 100w, erroneously downsizing thier CFL watts equivalence to attract your custom. Amazing how many people still ask in my local DIY for "something like an old 100w" (which are still available there) and have absolutely no idea about colour temperature [remember those horrible early blue LED's that make every look like a dark and stormy night]. At some point I began to take notice of what matters which is of course Lumens and K values. In fact I now only look first at Lumens and K values and the Watts are so low nowadays the wattage is almost irrelevant. Incidentally IMHO 100 "old" watt = 1350 Lumens.

And finally to the point. Steve,

1. By uprated you mean a higher Lumen value, which begs the question, what kind of Lumen value should I be on the lookout for?

2. What is the legislation I have to abide by to keep within the law?

Thanks - Andy
 
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Hi Andy

all good points and well made.

From what I can gather (and I have searched high and low) the rules / laws do not actually limit the wattage bulbs that can be used.

The problem is that the law states that the bulbs must be E marked and due to the additional current that they draw they are not E marked. The extra current draw COULD cause wiring to overheat.

I have had 100w bulbs in my A2s for many years and have checked for any signs of overheating inside the headlamp unit and along the wiring loom. No issues found and I am not surprised because the circuit is protected by fuses. These are designed to blow before the wiring overheats and certainly before it melts.

But because of this genuine concern over the wiring I feel that I should state clearly that I will no longer recommend them, but I will continue to use them because they priprivide me with sufficient light to drive safely at night and they are adjusted meticulously to ensure their aim is perfect.

Steve B
 
On a related rant to @Andrew’s: a couple of years ago we had a lot of building work done at home; all of the new / renewed rooms of the house were specced with LED lighting. Bulk buying from the local electrician’s suppliers, I was paying £5 per bulb. As these were going to save me so much in reduced electricity consumption, and bulb life was going to be measured in years, I bought them. Some of these bulbs started to fail in the first year, some in the second year. In the end I took all back to the supplier and paid to upgrade to Osram, which would have cost something like £8 per bulb, but have a 5 year warranty and a brand image to maintain. (I have subsequently found these same Osram bulbs cheaper on the internet for retrofitting into other rooms in the house.)
There are lots of crap LED light bulbs out there: the crap ones aren’t necessarily cheap. It is a fuss to change a failed bulb, either on the car or in the house: it is a fuss to make a warranty claim for a bulb which has failed. In my experience, the difference in cost between a no name brand and a reliable brand does not justify the saving.

Andrew
 
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I find Osram Nightbreaker bulbs and properly aligned headlamps produce a quite acceptable illumination.
I use Nightbreaker Laser for the dipped beam, and Nightbreaker Unlimited for the main beam.
I also use LED's for the sidelights - and Depronman was quite impressed with those when he saw them.
 
Just went out to check bulb seating (it was freezing, and having only an L-torx didn't help!). O/S bulb was not seated properly, N/S seated fine. Haven't had a chance to take it for a drive yet to see if it made any difference.
 
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