Improving original headlight visibility/coverage?

Actually Donmacn, it wasn't aimed at you. But generally, anyone who seems to like the idea of having brighter lights than everyone else. Where will it all end. Some car lights are so bright that they dazzle oncoming drivers and it seems to me that many people who change their bulbs themselves do a crap job of it and end up with misaligned lights. There also seems to be a trend (amongst younger drivers) to drive with their front fog/spot lights on. I'm pretty sure many of these super bright bulbs are illegal on UK roads. It is one of my pet hates along with muppets who undertake just to get one car ahead.

Col

Colthebrummie said:

Actually Donmacn, it wasn't aimed at you. But generally, anyone who seems to like the idea of having brighter lights than everyone else. Where will it all end. Some car lights are so bright that they dazzle oncoming drivers and it seems to me that many people who change their bulbs themselves do a crap job of it and end up with misaligned lights. There also seems to be a trend (amongst younger drivers) to drive with their front fog/spot lights on. I'm pretty sure many of these super bright bulbs are illegal on UK roads. It is one of my pet hates along with muppets who undertake just to get one car ahead.

Col

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Fair enough Col, my apologies for taking the huff. I totally agree with the principle of what you're saying - it's a kind of 'arms race'. Like you, folk using front fog/spotlights is a pain. On the other hand, my Def was made in 1994, so I guess that probably means it was using 1980's lighting technology or even earlier. These days, on minor, unlit roads, I sometimes struggle to see past oncoming cars - even on their dipped beam. There's a few spots on my journey home where we've had bike and pedestrian accidents, and I really feel the need to improve my lights (on dipped beam) to see past oncoming traffic to see what's ahead of me. I reckon what I've done just with the loom, and new road legal H4 bulbs will achieve that. I will get them properly aligned when they're fitted .

Any auxilliary stuff I fit, or have fitted, is wired to the main beam and never used against oncoming traffic. In fact a lot of the time, when on the outskirts of town, they're not even switched to come on. It's only heading into more open country that I'll use them.

On the question of what's legal - knowing how the UK often 'gold plates' any legislation I was quite surprised to see quoted (various places) that the regs for auxiliary lighting, wired to come on and dip with the main beam, are so relaxed. So stuff sold as 'off road only' seems OK to use, as long as it's wired to the main beam. Or maybe it's a bit of a grey area...... (sorry!)

Cheers
D

flat said:

Got a link to the loom you used?

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Flat - here's a link: https://shop.landreiziger.nl/lichtversterker-met-keramische-connectoren.html
It's a Dutch site/shop - I just translated using 'Google translate'. (Interesting website to wander around) The loom was delivered very quickly via DHL. I think there are others available though, including cheaper versions on ebay. I got this one because I'd seen it recommended in a couple of places, and the ebay ones seemed to need some mods to make them work properly. It's nice stuff. Good quality cable and connectors, solidly put together. It really was an easy fit. Because it connects to one of the existing headlight connectors, the lights work just exactly as standard.

donmacn said:

... I didn't... As I said, because I didn't have new bezels and fixings to hand, I decided to leave well alone and just use the new loom with the existing lamps and bulbs.

I'll get new bezels and screws sorted and then put in the new lamps/bulbs. When I do that I guess I'll use something like the "marks on the inside of the garage door" approach...?

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Really, you are fitting high powered lights to your car, get them aligned properly.

Colthebrummie said:

Actually Donmacn, it wasn't aimed at you. But generally, anyone who seems to like the idea of having brighter lights than everyone else. Where will it all end. Some car lights are so bright that they dazzle oncoming drivers and it seems to me that many people who change their bulbs themselves do a crap job of it and end up with misaligned lights. There also seems to be a trend (amongst younger drivers) to drive with their front fog/spot lights on. I'm pretty sure many of these super bright bulbs are illegal on UK roads. It is one of my pet hates along with muppets who undertake just to get one car ahead.

Col

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Couldn't agree more Col, someone said above about 80s tech etc etc, in the 80s lights were just as bright as they are today, the problem is people don't understand that batterys, bulbs, wiring etc wears out and needs fixing from time to time, to dismiss this by assuming people drove around at night unable to see where they were going in the 80s is just bollocks.

nobber said:

Really, you are fitting high powered lights to your car, get them aligned properly.



Couldn't agree more Col, someone said above about 80s tech etc etc, in the 80s lights were just as bright as they are today, the problem is people don't understand that batterys, bulbs, wiring etc wears out and needs fixing from time to time, to dismiss this by assuming people drove around at night unable to see where they were going in the 80s is just bollocks.

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I remember when sealed beam headlights came out, they were a big improvement over the old incandescent bulbs, then came tungsten halogen filament bulbs which were about 50% brighter than sealed beams, or at least it seemed like it. That was in the 1970's. You are correct Nobber, those halogen filament lights were as bright as standard lights of today. The main difference seems to be that in the old days the light lens was made of glass and was easy to clean and keep clear. These more modern headlights have plastic covers which start to oxidise and absorb some of the light.

Col

I never had a problem with car headlights until lately when they started heading more and more towards the blue end of the spectrum, thats the annoying end of the spectrum,

nobber said:

I never had a problem with car headlights until lately when they started heading more and more towards the blue end of the spectrum, thats the annoying end of the spectrum,

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Agreed. I find the transition between lighter and darker areas (the contrast) much harder on the eyes than older style yellow beams