Recommend me some car headlamp bulbs please

Madame has acquired a 10 year old Yaris, nice motor but the headlights are really poor. Very yellow and just frighteningly weak on rural roads.

I am wondering if better bulbs might help – what would be a good brand as an upgrade?

Cheers

We have this problem with an old Fabia, so interested if there’s an answer

Phillips Racing Vision in whatever fitment your headlight bulbs are.. Apparently 200% brighter..  not sure on the exact figure but a huge improvement on the cheapy yellow headlight bulbs

I always like Osram Nightbreaker. Definitely have a spare set to hand though, because the brighter they are, the shorter the life.

We fitted Philips X-treme vision H7 bulbs to my partners VW Polo. Made a worthwhile difference and have the advantage of being legal unlike some( although the nightbreakers and racing vision are also legal) and have lasted a number of years, but she doesn’t drive much at night since she retired.

Have you checked the condition of the headlamp lenses?  They often “yellow” and restoration kits can be had from places like Halfords, etc.

Have you checked the condition of the headlamp lenses?

Good point, cheers. Will have a look tomoz before I buy

Osram Nightbreaker 150%

Be careful going too bright, the brighter the bulb the quicker the filament blows out.

Lens restoration kits are pricey but with a bit of effort do work quite well, I’ve used them on several vehicles, a brighter, more energy intensive bulb won’t make much difference if it’s trying to shine through frosted plastic!

Nightsomething 200 or any of those road legal  200% bulbs. Also a headlight restoration kit to get it clear again.

ABD have all this stuff.

Lens restoration kits are pricey but with a bit of effort do work quite well, I’ve used them on several vehicles, a brighter, more energy intensive bulb won’t make much difference if it’s trying to shine through frosted plastic!

Definitely this.

And be prepared to look like you’ve just escaped from the worlds largest bukkake party.

Philips range is well made. The more accurately manufactured bulbs focus better; there’s a balance between brightness and longevity.

I went for H4 VisionPlus 500hours v 60% better beam

10 year old

In my experience bulbs slowly degrade. ANY new bulb will be an improvement.

Always whatever the highest rating of standard legal wattage bulbs Philips do for me. Thats the 200% versions currently as far as I’m aware from the last set I bought.

Yes the lifetime is lower as the filament when is slightly hotter, producing the most light it can for the wattage.

I have used the Osram equivalents in the past without issue, but from what I remember the recent Osram variants have substantially lower quoted lifetimes than the Philips ones do.

timba

Philips range is well made. The more accurately manufactured bulbs focus better; there’s a balance between brightness and longevity.

I went for H4 VisionPlus 500hours v 60% better beam

Yes I’ve always found their bulbs to be good quality, They also do a really good headlamp lens restoration kit that comes with an anti UV final coat that keeps the lens clear for longer. its around £17 from the likes of Amazon or eBay

https://www.philips.co.uk/c-p/HRK00XM/restoration-kit-headlight-restoration-kit

I swapped to the Philips extreme vision 150 pro based on this test

https://www.autoexpress.co.uk/exclusive/76760/best-car-headlight-bulbs-2024

Only had them in a week and the difference is amazing.

I found RingMax bulbs had the best balance between brightness and lifespan compared with Osram or Phillips. 150% or 200%

Bookmarking

Thanks everyone for an enlightening thread

Lens restoration kits are pricey but with a bit of effort do work quite well

Don’t bother spending loads on fancy kits, all you need is some masking tape, a bottle of T-Cut and a tin of Brasso. Mask around the lens, polish the lens with the T-Cut in circles, and polish every so often. Once it’s clear, use the Brasso to clean up any fine scratches. Repeat on the second lens.

Don’t bother spending loads on fancy kits, all you need is some masking tape, a bottle of T-Cut and a tin of Brasso. Mask around the lens, polish the lens with the T-Cut in circles, and polish every so often. Once it’s clear, use the Brasso to clean up any fine scratches. Repeat on the second lens.

I used toothpaste and elbow grease to do the lenses on my GFs 24 year old car. And new bulbs (bought 3 of the same model so we have a spare.) They’re massively better and a much cleaner beam. A stop gap measure until the car is replaced next year.

Osram Nightbreaker 150% job done.

In my experience bulbs slowly degrade. ANY new bulb will be an improvement.

This. Also, if you fit uprated bulbs, shine up your headlight plastic and it’s still disappointing, check the voltage drop between battery and headlight. If there’s a big drop, it may be that the wiring harness is inadequate and things can be improved by fitting an uprated wiring loom that feeds direct from the battery and is switched by a relay from the original circuit.

Don’t know if this is an issue with the Yaris, but it was a classic fix for many older VWs and fairly straightforward to rig up.

Very timely thread.

The headlights on my Octavia are absolutely terrible, so I’ll grab some of those Night Breaker bulbs from ECP tomorrow.

Do the lenses need scrubbing even if they don’t look visibly frosted?

but it was a classic fix for many older VWs

Exactly what our T5.1 does…shockingly poor headlights, and at some point I need to update the loom.

I always like Osram Nightbreaker. Definitely have a spare set to hand though, because the brighter they are, the shorter the life.

+1

Lens restoration kits are pricey but with a bit of effort do work quite well, I’ve used them on several vehicles, a brighter, more energy intensive bulb won’t make much difference if it’s trying to shine through frosted plastic!

+1

check the voltage drop between battery and headlight. If there’s a big drop, it may be that the wiring harness is inadequate and things can be improved by fitting an uprated wiring loom that feeds direct from the battery and is switched by a relay from the original circuit.

+1

The other option, which isn’t legal in the UK unless they’re type approved for each car is an LED kit, but plenty of other countries have changed their rules to approve the LED bulbs as halogen replacements.  DO NOT GO WITH CHEAP KITS THEY’RE OFTEN RUBBISH AND WON’T FOCUS THROUGH THE CARS REFLECTORS / LENSES.  But I’ve had Osram LEDriving kits in the MG for years and the beams are sharper than the halogens they replaced.  They’re brighter than the +200% bulbs, last indefinitely, draw far less current and aren’t sensitive to voltage drop

They aren’t cheap though (but cheaper than 3x sets of nighbreakers / racing vision over a few years), and it does depend on the headlamp design and your MOT tester. IF it’s a design where you can see the bulb then you’re relying on them not looking for it. If the bulb is hidden behind a reflector or the lenses themselves obscures it then it will probably pass because they just look like very white bulbs and focus just fine.

I’d recommend just giving lenses a polish – car polish or t-cut even if they look OK – you’ll see the rag go black. I’ve successfully re-polished lenses with t-cut or autoglym super resin when they started to go yellow. I just re-do them every 6 months. If bad it can take some elbow grease.

Bulbs, as mentioned above. Osram/Philips/Ring and even Halfords own 150%/200% (you’ll find they are Ring or Osram) They are often on a deal.

@thisisnotaspoon – how are they for glare/ dazzling other folk? I’ve seen them when shopping for replacement H4s, but stayed away so far and stuck with the constant cycle of expensive nightbreakers etc.

Exactly what our T5.1 does…shockingly poor headlights, and at some point I need to update the loom.

We have one of those, I think it’s partly that the base level headlight – rectangular with H4 bulbs – is just very poor optically. As an experiment, I bunged a Philips aftermarket LED bulb in. It’s legal in some parts of Europe and is a good quality bulb that in a Mk2 Golf’s round lights gives an excellent beam with defined cut-off etc.

Anyway, in the T5 headlight, they were really poor, horrible uneven beam pattern and nowhere near as much light as they give in the simple, round Golf lights. I think the T5’s  optics simply don’t optimise the light outlet and beam pattern regardless of the actual output from the bulb.

Apparently the answer is to fit the lights from a Caravelle model or some sort of aftermarket equivalent, so your starting point is a headlight that actually works to begin with. Thats my plan anyway, the stock lights are, as you say, dreadful.

The upgrade bulbs don’t glare – they have a better and tighter filament and are more focussed, so probably better than a poorly made bulb with less tight tolerances.

Don’t go for the illegal 100w bulbs, as you are likely to damage the loom or indeed the lamp assembly due to extra heat.

– how are they for glare/ dazzling other folk? I’ve seen them when shopping for replacement H4s, but stayed away so far and stuck with the constant cycle of expensive nightbreakers etc.

I can’t answer for TINAS obviously, but in a Mk2 Golf GTi, the Philips aftermarket LED H4 bulbs are really good. The cut-off is super defined on dip and arguably better than halogens. They’re actually not quite as good on main beam, but as I have a four lamp grille with central driving lights which come on with the mains, it’s not an issue. I take them out for MOTs and replace with halogens.

As per my previous post, the same bulbs in a T5 are actually quite poor, though still better than the original halogens and I think it depends a little on the specific headlight. In classic, round-type housings and reflectors, they work really well ime. Both Philips and Osram sell LED aftermarket kits and I trust them to have optimised the light source placements so they work.

But for me, no dazzling of others, good beam pattern with lots of light where you need it and not where you don’t, not as good on main beam.

wet sandpaper from 100>2000 then very quick polish then the uv coat sold in those kits ^ did *wonders* for my lights. be sure to tape up your paintwork!!! Also startling how much better the car looks.

Ok thanks. I have an old T5 currently running Nightbreakers, on the original loom. So, whilst not great, are the LEDs on par with Nightbreakers, or thereabouts to make the cost/longevity worth it?

Ok thanks. I have an old T5 currently running Nightbreakers, on the original loom. So, whilst not great, are the LEDs on par with Nightbreakers, or thereabouts to make the cost/longevity worth it?

The T5 headlights with LEDs in – the exact same ones that are really good in the Golf – are still poor I’m afraid. There’s more light, but the beam pattern is poor and distractingly uneven with an annoyingly patch beam. On balance they’re a bit brighter than halogens, but it’s really not worth it ime and the beam pattern arguably actually makes them worse.

I’d upgrade the actual headlights if you’re going to invest in seeing where you’re going or maybe switch out your bulbs for new ones as they do lose performance with age. That’s my plan for this winter, changing the actual lights that is. There’s something wrong with the basic optics of the T5 lights/reflectors I think. Sorry.

if your car uses projector headlights you can fit LEDs without much issue – the headlight unit itself ensures that the road pattern is correct. if you’re on oldschool reflector headlights (I suspect a yaris is) – some LEDs claim to have the correctly placed light sources but I’m not convinced.

@thisisnotaspoon – how are they for glare/ dazzling other folk? I’ve seen them when shopping for replacement H4s, but stayed away so far and stuck with the constant cycle of expensive nightbreakers etc.

As BWD said the dipped cut-off is razor sharp, so any dazzling isn’t going to be any worse than any other +200% type bulbs.

I think there’s three components to “dazzling”, there’s the badly aimed (or cheap LED’s that don’t focus the cut-off) lights, there’s the sheer lumens, and there’s the sharp cut-off typical of LED’s which makes them strobe oncoming drivers on rough / undulating roads.

The first is solved with decent bulbs.

The 2nd is just because we’re talking about +200% bulbs in general.

The 3rd is a harder one to solve.

I agree they do seem to do something slightly odd with the beam pattern, I think they’re actually more accurate/smaller/focused/defined than the filament bulbs, means that when you look closely you can see the individual shards of light beams whereas the halogens gave softer edges to them so they blended together better? I keep meaning to tinker with the MG’s switching to see if keeping the dip on when the main is on improves it by adding more overlapping beams.

It’s doubly obvious in the MG though because your sat down low almost between the headlights and a long way behind them, so you can actually see the edge of the cone of light they project when there’s any rain or mist.

if your car uses projector headlights you can fit LEDs without much issue

I think I have these in the Fabia – glass ‘ball’ inside the headlight unit?

Like so:

some LEDs claim to have the correctly placed light sources but I’m not convinced.

I kind of figure that a company like Philips with its research and testing resources can be trusted to get that stuff right and that’s my experience. What I wouldn’t do is buy bulbs from some unknown eBay / Aliexpress / Amazon seller / brand as the exact placement of the light source within the bulb is crucial.

On top of that, as per my other posts, Philips H4 LED bulbs that work well in a classic round headlight were pretty terrible in a basic T5 one. So while I understand your doubts – LED and halogen bulb light sources are different shapes and dimensions I guess – my actual experience of the Philips ones suggests that they’ve done a pretty good job.

To be honest, I fitted them out of curiosity as much as anything else and was pretty skeptical, but they work well in my Mk2. I have no idea how well that would translate to other vehicles / headlights though. Sorry, this seems to have strayed a bit from the original Yaris question.

Thanks for the LED upgrade (or not to upgrade) info. Apologies for the stray from Yaris to T5.  I guess it’s a pertinent subject for all us lot running old vehicles and suffering in the lighting arms race.

guess it’s a pertinent subject for all us lot running old vehicles and suffering in the lighting arms race.

Yeah that’s a big part of the problem

So as suggested I checked for fogging today and it looks pretty good and clear.

I see the headlamps are shining through a round semi sphere shape, almost like a thick magnifying glass. Looks like the picture Matt posted

Does that change anything about bulb choice or can I just crack on with one of the Philips or osram options?