Brighter headlamp bulbs

Has anybody tried the replacement bulbs that are supposed to be brighter or better than standard?

Some are claiming 50% some 20% and some are "Xenon" which "gives better illumination due to different temperature light"
Also there's 100w ones which are obviously going to be brighter, but can the wiring cope with the extra load? (plus they are not legal but would anybody know?)
The headlamps on my 2005 Defender are marginal on an unlit road at night, but l don't want to spend £100 on new HID units.

Anybody tried these "brighter" bulbs for £10 and are they better? Many are reputable makes such as Philips/Osram and could they legally claim to be 50% brighter if they were not? I recall fitting them many years ago to my Alfa Romeo and there wasn't much difference that l could see.

Im about to fit one of these -

http://www.paddockspares.com/boomslang-performance-headlight-loom.html

Who knows if it will make much of a difference, but it seems (on paper) a good idea.

As long as you don't buy the cheapest bulbs available they're all pretty much the same, I've tried 50% brighter bulbs at £20 each in the past and thought it was all a con. With a defender its all about getting more power to them, via the loom mentioned or similar using relays.

Or stick four spot lamps on the front that come on with main beam

lightning said:

Has anybody tried the replacement bulbs that are supposed to be brighter or better than standard?

Some are claiming 50% some 20% and some are "Xenon" which "gives better illumination due to different temperature light"
Also there's 100w ones which are obviously going to be brighter, but can the wiring cope with the extra load? (plus they are not legal but would anybody know?)
The headlamps on my 2005 Defender are marginal on an unlit road at night, but l don't want to spend £100 on new HID units.

Anybody tried these "brighter" bulbs for £10 and are they better? Many are reputable makes such as Philips/Osram and could they legally claim to be 50% brighter if they were not? I recall fitting them many years ago to my Alfa Romeo and there wasn't much difference that l could see.

Click to expand...

lightning a number of things you need to do to improve the dipped and main beam on a Defender,
1/. Check the power getting to the headlights. Using a meter check the voltage at the plug (the one that plugs onto the bulb) with the engine running should be up to 14 volts but if standard wiring it's not likely to be that high probably less than12 volts.
2/. If Voltage at the plug is less than 13 volts even changing for better output bulbs is not going to make much difference to the brightness of the headlights. In this case you need to upgrade the wiring to get the voltage up to what is achievable. Using relays located close to the front of the vehicle and larger capacity wire (plenty of information on this site to explain how to do this)
3/. At this point having upgraded the wiring you should see a marked improvement in the light output from the standard setup. Fitting the upgraded bulbs at this point will give another improvement in light output. If still not satisfied then:
4/. Change the lamp units to the crystal type which have clear lenses (clear lenses reduces the amount of light lost).
5/. The next bit is my understanding and I could be corrected:- The crystal type lenses are plastic so use only bulbs which have UV filter glass as without it will over time discolour the plastic crystal lenses reducing the improvements you have just made.

I have done the above in stages as described and at each stage it improved the light output to the point they are perfectly adequate for road use and 100% legal.
When I started upgrading I did change just one bulb for an upgraded version and just visually checked the difference between them and I could not identify and difference but upgrading the wiring made the most significant improvement.

I ran mine through relays but also changed the light itself to them crystal things, don't know what made the biggest improvement as I did both jobs at the same time and now my light scatter is white not yellow.
The coloum switch contacts are barely man enough for the standard output bulbs.

Thanks, l thought it was too good to be true!

As in just changing the bulbs.

Yep, don't know how they get away with it.

Crystal headlights with standard bulbs but fed through a relay system off the back of the alternator works for me. Full voltage at the bulbs and saves the switch. Plus looks standard enough and no gay extra lights cluttering up the front.

The rule is, if your Landy needs e-marked light units, the bulbs also need to be e-marked. The cutoff date is 1986. Cars built before that can use non- e-marked bulbs, even if the light units themselves have an e-mark.

For additional high-beam lights, the same rules apply, except the cutoff date regarding approved lights is 1991.

Rather than changing bulbs at this point, start by making sure the wiring is up to scratch, so minimising voltage drop at the bulbs.