H7 headlight bulbs

cyclonebri1

We have a couple of cars with bloody awkward to fit H7 bulb equiped headlights, the situation where you need to take off the wheel, remove the wheel arch liner etc etc, just to change the bulb:mad::mad::mad:

We have suffered a spate of bulb failures over the last few years and it's dam annoying when the things don't last a winter out.
I've tried white light bulbs, premium brands, 100w bulbs and the standard off the shelve stuff. Nothing seems any better than the rest.

To put this in perspective this is over a period of ownership of 6 and 4 years of the cars.

So I've gone to the extreme by way of a test and this is where my disgust comes in.

I bought Osram 3X lifespan bulbs, cheapest £14 pr online. But on the back of the pack is a bar chart for 4 characteristics of the lamps.
Yes, an indicated 3 x increase in life expectancy, and they are the same colour shade as standard, but the beam distance and the brightness are drastically reduced, nothing in the promo blurb about that:mad::mad:
So that's 2 bulbs for £14 that will last forewer(:D), but give poor driving light :eek::eek::eek:
So to compare I looked for the cheapest option as a comparison.
Ebay provides a seller offering 10 x H7 bulbs for £7.95 delivered, they arrived within 2 days from Ireland.
Well, we will have to see as the 1st of those went in yesterday, but the biggest suprise, on the pack it says "long life":rotfl::rotfl:

This should be interesting;);)

GolfBravo

cyclonebri1 wrote: »

I bought Osram 3X lifespan bulbs, cheapest £14 pr online. But on the back of the pack is a bar chart for 4 characteristics of the lamps.
Yes, an indicated 3 x increase in life expectancy, and they are the same colour shade as standard, but the beam distance and the brightness are drastically reduced, nothing in the promo blurb about that:mad::mad:
So that's 2 bulbs for £14 that will last forewer(:D), but give poor driving light :eek::eek::eek:

Osram H7 Ultra Life are just fine. The 4 bar chart is just a marketing blurb to show the "superiority" of their more expensive bulb - don't worry about it.

Osram H7 Ultra Life luminous flux (brightness) is 1500lm. Osram's "most powerful and whitest" H7 Nightbreaker Plus bulb is also 1500lm. The only difference is the colour temperature (Nightbreaker Plus is "more white"), and also their filament is slightly smaller to supposedly give a "better light focus" to the front of the headlight in a test lab environment - this is where they claim they may give you up to 90% "more light". Oh, and you would be lucky to get more than 150 hours out of the Nightbreakers.

There is no such thing as more light - they are both 55W halogen bulbs, mainly they just produce different light colour and have very different expected lifespan, that's all.

I would recommend you fit the Ultra Life bulbs to save the hassle in the future. Just make sure you don't touch the bulb glass when fitting them - fingerprints significantly reduce their lifespan.

colino

I'd certainly be looking for more efficient bulbs on most cars (the 55w or whatever is just their power consumption, not related to their light output) but I'm surprised that your going through so many of them, especially as they appear to not be poundland ones. Is your charging system up to scratch, is it giving a reasonable range around 14.5V? Are the light units OK? Lots of vibation here soon knocks even quality bulbs out. Does the car have an electric levelling system? You might find that has broken and the unit is flopping around. Not really noticeable until you go hunting.

StrongWork

cyclonebri1 wrote: »

We have a couple of cars with bloody awkward to fit H7 bulb equiped headlights, the situation where you need to take off the wheel, remove the wheel arch liner etc etc, just to change the bulb:mad::mad::mad:

What kind of cars are you running?

It's scandalous that you need to do so much just to replace a bulb. IMO, bulb changes should be doable on the side of the road with minimal/no tools in less than 15 mins.

cyclonebri1

GolfBravo wrote: »

Osram H7 Ultra Life are just fine. The 4 bar chart is just a marketing blurb to show the "superiority" of their more expensive bulb - don't worry about it.

Osram H7 Ultra Life luminous flux (brightness) is 1500lm. Osram's "most powerful and whitest" H7 Nightbreaker Plus bulb is also 1500lm. The only difference is the colour temperature (Nightbreaker Plus is "more white"), and also their filament is slightly smaller to supposedly give a "better light focus" to the front of the headlight in a test lab environment - this is where they claim they may give you up to 90% "more light". Oh, and you would be lucky to get more than 150 hours out of the Nightbreakers.

There is no such thing as more light - they are both 55W halogen bulbs, mainly they just produce different light colour and have very different expected lifespan, that's all.

I would recommend you fit the Ultra Life bulbs to save the hassle in the future. Just make sure you don't touch the bulb glass when fitting them - fingerprints significantly reduce their lifespan.

Yes they are Osram ultra life, and it's not the first time I have bought them, they don't seem to last any longer than standard bulbs, I fully realise the importance of no greasy finger marks that burn out the glass shell.

In answer to the colino, 1stly this is the 1st time I have bought "poundland" bulbs, the 1st 1 went in yesterday as I said.
2ndly, this is in two almost identical cars, but 1 is a facelift model with different reflector arrangements, they both have the same issue. There is no damage or looseness.
I haven't logged it but I'd guess I replace 2 per year over the 2 cars, that a lifespan of 2 years per bulb I suppose.
However I don't recall changing a single H4 bulb on my last car that I owned for 7 years I'm dam sure it's a design thing and that the bulb quality is largely irrelevant, hence this post which eventually I can draw a few conclusions from.

Should I mention the word Renault at this stage?, I've deliberately not done so far:o:o:o:o

cyclonebri1

StrongWork wrote: »

What kind of cars are you running?

It's scandalous that you need to do so much just to replace a bulb. IMO, bulb changes should be doable on the side of the road with minimal/no tools in less than 15 mins.

Did you see the Top Gear thing when they got a golf and a Megane side by side and got an AA or RAC man to try to change the Renault bulb? It took him 55mins from memory.
But to be truthful I believe more and more cars are now affected, Fords and Vauxhall definitely. The issue is you cannot access the lamp assembly from above, in these cars there is so much additional welded in steel work to gain the 5star ncap rating that it is trully impossible.
The only question I have is how the hell can VW do it and others can't?, but I would have to check the safety rating of Golf V Megane.

forgotmyname

I think that was 5th gear. My mondeo is easy though.

Pull 2 pins by hand no tools needed. Removed the headlight. Swap the bulbs in the warm comfort of the kitchen table as long as her indoors isnt indoors

Pop the kettle on and you will have refitted it before the kettle has boiled.

Strider590

My last pair came from ebay, after getting sick of the fancy expensive ones blowing every 6 months. Theyre crap by comparison but ave been going strong for 2 years now.

spacey2012

The best option is to do a yearly winter service, drain the radiator, refill with new coolant and anti-freeze, get the winter tyres out of the shed and get them fitted, replace all bulbs in clusters, gone or not, with cheap bulbs, a set is around £6 or £12 for the lot they usually last 12 months and doing the set gives a year free of bulb hassle, such as changing one only for another to go.

jase1

cyclonebri1 wrote: »

Should I mention the word Renault at this stage?, I've deliberately not done so far:o:o:o:o

Quelle surprise.

You know what to do next time then :rotfl:

cyclonebri1

Strider590 wrote: »

My last pair came from ebay, after getting sick of the fancy expensive ones blowing every 6 months. Theyre crap by comparison but ave been going strong for 2 years now.

My experience exactly, lets see;);)