Headlight upgrade

[Brenda]

Halfords tell me that it is possible to upgrade my headlight bulbs without having to upgrade the wiring.

What do you lot think?

Never before has Elton Johns\'s \"Candle in the Wind\" been more appropriate!!

CXan ytou help me?

Brenda

[Oilydad]

My advice would be to simply replace both headlight bulbs with new standard bulbs, but get decent ones. Lucas or similar.

Like everything else on the car, bulbs deteriorate with age, and they really aren't that expensive to replace say every 2 years. Cheap (market stall and car boot type) bulbs (like you get in a lot of bulb kits) aren't worth the money, and are invariably poor quality.

My 940 standard headlights are awesome just as they are. Just about everyone who travels at night with me remarks on them. I do A LOT of night driving, especially this time of year, and they are more than adequate.

[roadcar2000]

I 2nd OilyDads remarks.

[treehorndogsbody]

As said in oildad's post stick to standard good quality bulbs such as Phllips ,Osram ect, you will be suprised the difference they make. I am suprised at a retailer even sugesting you use 'upgraded bulbs' and say the circuits need no upgrade, this would sugest the use of 100 watt bulbs, which are illegal for road use, very bright but illegal and an MOT fail. If all the lamps in the headlights were fitted with 100 watt bulbs then there would be a chance you could overload the circuits when on man beam. HID lights, very bright and almost pure white, which you can buy a kit for around £70 to £100, are also illegal as a retro fit. To be legal the car must have self leveling headlights and some type of washing system, personally I think they should ban their sale.

[Toplights]

I agree,the lights on my 960 are great,When i first bought the 960 i considered changing them till the first night i tryed them out,they where perfect.
Much better than the lights on my V70 which i changed imediatly i bought the car,they where rubish,i changed them for Philips,cant remember what the name was,but the improvement was no better the ones in the 960 which i presume where standard.

[mikealder]

Some bulbs are better than others but at a price, Halfords charge some stupid amount for the decent bulbs so make sure you shop around.

Avoid the 100W units as they are illegal as are HID's.

Osram Night Breakers are a good choice but don't go paying a fortune for them £20 for a pair is about the top price I would pay - Mike

[Richard_TD]

I've had 100W headlight bulbs before. They tend not to last long and I always ended up replacing one of them with the standard bulb that came out. On the road I could never tell which side still had the high powered bulb in.

The other problem I had was they overloaded the relay and made it unreliable. Being suddenly plunged into darkness is not pleasant. This was in a SAAB but the same issues apply to other cars.

I've had good results with Osram Silver Stars, which were around £10 delivered from eBay or £1000000 from Halfords (but free fitting, as long as you have a car where fitting is easy). I think Silver Stars have been superseded though.

[vjck_uk]

if you think the 960 headlights are candle in the wind you should try the phase 1 v40's they are more like a poorly gloworm in the wind lol,i find my 960 headlights are great

Originally Posted by Brenda

Halfords tell me that it is possible to upgrade my headlight bulbs without having to upgrade the wiring.

What do you lot think?

Never before has Elton Johns\'s \"Candle in the Wind\" been more appropriate!!

CXan ytou help me?

Brenda

[Brenda]

Thanks for all your answers.

It seems that Halfords are wrong then.

Could my dim headlamps be related to my mattery fault detailed on an earlier post?

Perhaps the alternator is indeed faulty and not pushing out enough voltage etc???


Brenda

[Oilydad]

Brenda, it's just OLD bulbs. Replace them and you'll probably be amazed at the difference, and YES.....easy to do yourself. Just DON'T ever touch the glass on halogen bulbs. Handle them with disposable gloves, some tissue paper or kleenex or something like that.

You don't say what model Volvo it is, but assuming it's a 940 you will need 2 x H4 bulbs. Get Osram, Lucas or some similar well known make. Avoid anything cheap, as a lot of them come from asia and are very poor quality and performance.

My advice would be to go to a local car accessory shop......NOT Halfords.

Halfords, to most motorists, including me, are VERY EXPENSIVE.

The advice they have given you is wrong, could get you a fine, and not solve your problem.

Sadly it seems that they have seen you as a female driver, not knowing much about cars, and decided to spin you a tale!!

Any problems come back.

Change them yourself. I reckon you'll have NO trouble doing it. :-)