Dull yellow headlights

JustinR1979

sparky260500 wrote: »

total sense of humor failure.

Oh and you Americans are well known for your sense of humour....

sparky260500

JustinR1979 wrote: »

Oh and you Americans are well known for your sense of humour....

American where did that come from

JustinR1979

sparky260500 wrote: »

American where did that come from

Here:

sparky260500 wrote: »

total sense of humor failure.

Anyway this isn't helping your lighting issues

sparky260500

JustinR1979 wrote: »

Here:






Anyway this isn't helping your lighting issues

Bad spelling sorry but your right this is not helping so lets call it a day.

JustinR1979

Maybe try a car forum, other people with same car must have had same issue and found best solution.

mrmot

sparky260500 wrote: »

this model has manual leveling and no headlight washers so will not pass MOT
also still only 1 plug on the xenons headlights just more wires going into it. not a extra plug.

Automatic levelling and headlamp cleaning is only testable if it is fitted, unless you're having the car tested in Northern Ireland.

Iceweasel

mrmot wrote: »

Automatic levelling and headlamp cleaning is only testable if it is fitted, unless you're having the car tested in Northern Ireland.

I agree - here is the exact wording:

Vehicles equipped with High Intensity Discharge (HID) or LED dipped beam headlamps may be fitted with headlamp washers and a suspension or headlamp self levelling system.

Where such systems are fitted, they must work.

Note the words 'may be fitted' are used - it doesn't say 'must be fitted'.

Just that if they are fitted they must work.

sparky260500

Iceweasel wrote: »

I agree - here is the exact wording:

Vehicles equipped with High Intensity Discharge (HID) or LED dipped beam headlamps may be fitted with headlamp washers and a suspension or headlamp self levelling system.

Where such systems are fitted, they must work.

Note the words 'may be fitted' are used - it doesn't say 'must be fitted'.

Just that if they are fitted they must work.

I was told yesterday by a MOT tester that hid headlights must have working self leveling and washer jets.

Retrogamer

If using Halogen bulbs, the whiter they are the less bright they will be.
Naturally they burn bright yellow at approx 3500k for modern OEM ones.

To get the light more white, a blue filter / coating is applied as it filters out the yellow light.
The thicker the coating the whiter the light, but the less bright also and the less lifespan of the bulb (the thick blue coatings bake the bulbs internals)

Our eyes evolved around a yellow sun, so in the rain / snow yellow light from the headlights strains the eyes a lot less. Whiter light is better for road markings and signs mainly.

I've found Osram Cool Blue and Philips Blue Vision are whiter than most standard bulbs (still yellow @ approx 4000k) but still have ok lifespan and brightness.

Osram Nightbreaker Plus and Philips X-Treme Vision are brighter than the ones mentioned above but not as white.

As mentioned by others, if the headlight lens is plastic and cloudy looking giving it a polish with headlight polishing kits should make them a lot brighter as well.

Joe_Horner

sparky260500 wrote: »

I was told yesterday by a MOT tester that hid headlights must have working self leveling and washer jets.

If you're in NI then they must have washers and auto levelling fitted, and will fail an MOT if they don't.

If you're in the rest of the UK then they must have washers and auto levelling fitted, but won't fail an MOT if they don't. They will fail if washers / levelling are fitted but not working.

The reason is that HID lighting didn't exist when the Road Vehicle Lighting Regulations 1989 were written so, under UK law, they're not legal at all because they're not an approved lighting type.

But we also have to accept cars with European Type Approval equipment, under which HID lighting is legal if it's fitted in accordance with its type approval. Part of the type approval for HID lights is that washers and auto levelling are fitted. They must also be fitted to light units specifically designed for HID burners rather than halogen bulbs to maintain type appr1oval of both the bulb and the light unit.

If you're curious about why washers, levelling and correct lamp units are required, there's a good in-depth article here:

http://www.danielsternlighting.com/tech/bulbs/Hid/conversions/conversions.html

which covers why burners don't work as they should in halogen units, and includes links to American DOT research which shows just how bad the light coverage of cheap "conversions" can be. You think you can see cos they're bright, but you really can't, and you'll dazzle the crepe out of anyone coming towards you!