10w tail bulbs

Watching the horrific pictures on the Tele of the M5 crash, a sense of guilt overcame me that I drove back from the North yesterday with a blown tail-light bulb - doesn't take much to cause an accident.

Anyhow, I pulled the rear bulb holders and noticed the other tail light bulb was almost black, I also noticed that Halfords sell 10w bulbs in the same size, I bought two, but before I changed the "good" one I compared the two to see the difference - literally night and day! From a rather dull and pathetic glow to a nice bright tail-light. I changed the indicator bulbs for good measure which also looked dull. I also bought two "ultra" headlight bulbs - they are doing two for one at the mo. Supposedly 120% brighter than a standard H4.

I guess I'll find out if anything melts from the more powerful tail-light bulbs soon!

Great Post Steve,

I too, looked at the news and saw this terrible tragedy....

I think we can all heed good advice from you and we should all check our exterior lighting, even if it works to a degree, for the sake of a few sheckles, something so simple could save your life....

With thoughts to those who lost loved ones...

StuckAgainSteve said:

I also bought two "ultra" headlight bulbs - they are doing two for one at the mo. Supposedly 120% brighter than a standard H4.

I guess I'll find out if anything melts from the more powerful tail-light bulbs soon!

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not advisable to fit 10W if it should only have 5, plus peeps behind wont appreciate you blinding them .

how good are the +120's?

If you're worried about higher wattage causing electrical problems, best thing to do is to get LEDs. They're brighter and also lower wattage and last for years.

If you have an OBC which tells you when a bulb is out, you will need a special LED bulb, otherwise it will always think you've got a dead bulb. (due to there being a lower current)

I believe it's also a grey area in terms of legality. Older vehicles technically should not have them if they were not factory fitted but loads of people do it and for the rear clusters, I honestly don't see why not. Makes sense.

The Mad Hat Man said:

not advisable to fit 10W if it should only have 5, plus peeps behind wont appreciate you blinding them .

how good are the +120's?

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Haven't driven it at night yet since changing the bulbs, but the rears are certainly not blinding - they aren't as fierce as most modern LED tail lights!

Tbh, I can't say I've ever seen blinding tail lights. (except for people who misuse their rear fogs) Sure, LEDs are much more noticeable but that's the whole point!

Something I've done in the past to many older cars is to wash out the rear light clusters. I've often been amazed at how much dirt comes off the reflectors and the inside of the lenses.

RichM said:

If you're worried about higher wattage causing electrical problems, best thing to do is to get LEDs. They're brighter and also lower wattage and last for years.

If you have an OBC which tells you when a bulb is out, you will need a special LED bulb, otherwise it will always think you've got a dead bulb. (due to there being a lower current)

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When I put LEDs on my bike I fitted (6.8 Ohm if I remember rightly) resisters in parallel to correct the load on the flasher unit so they flashed at the same rate - I suspect you could do the same for the rangie to fool the ECU into thinking bulbs are fitted.

I think the wattage of the rear lamps is laid down in the construction and use regs and is specified at 5 watts, precisely to stop over bright rear lights affecting the night vision of following drivers. I reckon your lights are technically illegal unless the rules have changed.

Datatek said:

I think the wattage of the rear lamps is laid down in the construction and use regs and is specified at 5 watts, precisely to stop over bright rear lights affecting the night vision of following drivers. I reckon your lights are technically illegal unless the rules have changed.

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Will agree with that Keith, think tail lamps must be max 5 watt. 21 watt stops. 21 watt indicators. But as you say things may have changed.

wammers said:

Will agree with that Keith, think tail lamps must be max 5 watt. 21 watt stops. 21 watt indicators. But as you say things may have changed.

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Hmmm, sounds about right. Begs the question of why 10 watts ones are made though. Where would they be used?

dsolds said:

Hmmm, sounds about right. Begs the question of why 10 watts ones are made though. Where would they be used?

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interior lights

dogsbody said:

interior lights

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Correct

Ah, of course.

Datatek said:

I think the wattage of the rear lamps is laid down in the construction and use regs and is specified at 5 watts, precisely to stop over bright rear lights affecting the night vision of following drivers. I reckon your lights are technically illegal unless the rules have changed.

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Yes I suspect you are right, but the output from my rear lights looked pathetic - 1 candle power! Just comparing them to modern cars driving past they were much, much dimmer. My eyes are very sensitive to bright light - I'm easily blinded, I stood behind my car last night with the lights on - they looked nice and bright but not startlingly so.

one of the problems with fitting higher wattage light bulbs, over time the extra power
consumption cooks the copper causing higher resistance, this can cause fuze's blowing,
and could cause loom melting, worst case..... a fire, go for LED's, the work well, and dont drain the battery out when parked with lights on, engine off..

For info my VW golf manual specifies 10w tail bulbs.I have just had to replace one and it was 10w.

I drove the opposite way up the M5 on Friday and passed a car with NO lights on at all, it was 6pm, pitch black and heavy rain and I only just noticed it in lane 1 due to a glimmer of reflection.

I can't believe the stupidity of some people.

It also made me notice quite how many people drive around with a headlight out, rears I could understand if they didn't notice or have a car that told them but to drive in bad conditions with lights out is madness.

Dr W said:

It also made me notice quite how many people drive around with a headlight out, rears I could understand if they didn't notice or have a car that told them but to drive in bad conditions with lights out is madness.

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So many cars these days require a lot of spannering to get to the headlight bulbs, dealer only job for many people.

The Mad Hat Man said:

how good are the +120's?

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Now I've had a few days to try out the Halfords "ultra" headlight bulbs I must say I'm rather underwhelmed by them. Maybe a tad brighter - not a huge difference.