Upgrading headlights to something brighter

HurdyGurdy

My daughter has an old Kia Picanto (54 plate) and her journey to work is along mostly unlit winding country roads. She is finding that the headlights are not really bright enough, and she'd feel much more confident with LED type lights. 

Is it possible to upgrade the lights easily? It is just a case of getting different bulbs for it, or is it more complicated than that? 

droopsnoot

Possibly. The first thing to check is to see if there are any dodgy connections that might be causing the lights to not be bright enough. The other thing is that a lot of headlights are plastic and have a lacquer coating which can cloud over, and polishing it (or even removing and re-lacquering) can help. You can usually see if this is the case, the headlamp will look less clear than you might think.

If you come to brighter headlamp bulbs, consider that there are legal limits on the wattage of bulbs that you can fit, and some may cause a greater load on the wiring and connections which might in turn cause overheating or fuse blowing issues. Some types of bulb can lose power over a period of time - I'm not sure what type your daughter's car would have, but maybe replacing with new decent-quality bulbs of the same wattage might also help.

And of course, have them checked for alignment - though the last MOT would have shown if that was out - and make sure they're clean.

facade

Do as droopsnoot suggests, polish the lenses, and if they are still too dim, change the bulbs for Osram Nightbreakers.

These are xenon filled, and run a bit hotter than the standard halogen, giving a whiter light (supposedly 35% brighter than standard).

Obviously, the brightest star shines for the shortest time though, and they are not cheap at about £27 from ECP.

Don't mess with LEDs, the cheap ones are no good, they fail quickly and blind oncoming traffic.

chrisw

How about something like this?

molerat

Check bulbs are fitted correctly - easy to fit bulbs wrongly

Check the alignment - if incorrect it will give poor light throw

Check the headlight lense for discolouration - kits available from motoring stores to restore the finish

Replace the bulbs with uprated items - Osram Night Breaker for instance are advertised as "up to +150%", even replacing with standard will likely give an improvement as bulbs degrade over time. Don't replace with higher wattage bulbs as modern car wiring capacity is often based on the current it should be carrying and using a 100W+ bulb on a wire designed to operate with a 60W load may end badly (and the bulb may not actually be as bright as a standard one !) Many years ago I upgraded my bulbs and fitted to one side of the car first.  The difference was obvious - bright white against the originals' yellowish beam.

HurdyGurdy

Thank you for the advice. The lenses were definitely discoloured, and she got a lens cleaning kit and used that, which did help a bit, but they're still quite dim. It's due its MOT next month, so she will get it pre-tested/serviced and ask them to check the lamps. It's good to know that it's possible to improve the brightness though, so again, thank you for the advice. 

WaywardDriver

My wife complained of poor headlights in her new car which on investigation turned out to be the range adjustment being set incorrectly. So Google "kia picanto headlight adjustment". 

droopsnoot

Another thing I forgot to mention is having an eye test to see if perhaps poor night vision is contributing to the problem.

Car_54

Young people today ....

If you think your Picanto is dim, try a 1960 VW Beetle with 6 volt power.

Mind you, petrol was three farthings a gallon ...

JustAnotherSaver

Unfortunately you won't rectify it. Standard headlights are just poor as in usual H7 bulbs for example. HIDs give good output but then if you don't meet requirements like auto levellers and headlight washers then you're knackered.

I've spent a small fortune on various bulbs over the years as I was annoyed with the poor light output. My conclusion was that they're all basically the same. So don't waste cash getting super expensive Philips extreme visions or whatever they're called these days - your best value for money will be Osram Nightbreakers... But they won't be 'fantastic'. 

And that's with cleaned and polished lenses. 

With all that said, I don't know what the previous owner of my new car put in. I suspect they're not technically legal but they passed an MOT at the start of the month. Theyre flipping good though. With the colouring and the output, I suspect they're LEDs. Standard my headlights should be H7 - so as crap as I had in my last car. I was pleasantly surprised and wondered if I actually had D2S / DS2 (always get it the wrong way round) but my lights aren't projector lenses.