Why do they always fail in winter? Not a balmy summer’s evening?

Accessible only by form of contortion/cramp.

Frigid cold windy dreich conditions for changing them, check.

Skint knuckles, check.

I could pay Halfords to do it but you’d need to prise the faux xenon bulb out of my cold dead skint hand.

Just get some LED’s off of Amazon. They last aaaages and loads of light

And asaid LEDs are really **** shite to come towards.

Never mind if your headlights are shit I just flash 2600lumens

Just get some LED’s off of Amazon. They last aaaages and loads of light Just buy a Volvo. Two pins and voila the headlight is free from car.

Ftfy

I’m making a stand and not joining the retina searing led club..for now.

Why do they always fail in winter? Not a balmy summer’s evening?

It’s probably got something to do with not needing to use headlights on a balmy summer’s evening….

2005 V70 don’t just pop out.

2005 V70 don’t just pop out.

I remember a lot of contortion and the involvment of a child’s mirror.

I used to pay Halfords to do it, then I bought a Volvo. 🙂

2005 V70

2013 do.
And 2005 V40 and 2009 S40.
And 2018 XC90.

And asaid LEDs are really **** shite to come towards.

Glad it’s not just me. One of the problems with night driving now seems to be the complete disparity between “fancy” lights and normal halogens. If you’re in the halogen equipped car the LEDs in oncoming cars really seem to drown out your own puddle of light. Presumably your eyes adjust to the brighter source.

Worst car so far for changing bulbs has got to be a MK2 Mégane accessed through a hole in the filthy front wheel arch which required jacking the car up and removing a wheel.

Its a design feature by French manufacturers to get around the law which says you must replace a failed bulb at the roadside. You can produce the manual and say sorry officer the book says this a dealer only job.

Had a Mk4 Golf R32 a few years ago and the dealer price for fitting a new bulb was £300 as it involved taking most of the front of the car apart to get at it (Halfords wouldn’t touch it!)
Ridiculous design (but a **** awesome car 😆)

You can’t retrofit LED bulbs into halogen reflectors, not only are they illegal, the beam pattern is wrong and either the lights will be crap, or you’ll blind every one.

I tend to carry a spare bulb as one seems to go once a year on our two cars. Fortunately, ours are a 2 minute job to do, although add on a few minutes when it’s pitch black.

Just get some LED’s off of Amazon. They last aaaages and loads of light

This is an aggrevated form of ****ery that should be punished by riding a rusty turbotrainer facing a brick wall until your legs fall off.

You might be able to see, but no one infront of you or facing you will.

I had an old Renault and Mitsubishi, they were awful for changing bulbs. Needed 3 hands, and to reach through a portal on the wheel arch (obviously manky in winter). Terrible design.

Got two VAG cars in our house at the momement, mercifully all the bulbs can be changed using human hands in a standing position. Luxury.

The official workshop time for a Renault Modus is about 2h IIRC.

I do have LED replacement stop/tail lights and a mid level bulb, and these have sailed through the MOT as they work perfectly in the reflector. Same brightness, but it’s mean’t I’ve not been replacing bulbs all the time as the high level light used to go regular.

My 2005 V780 is a bumper off job!

’06 Focus, big flat bladed screwdriver needed but otherwise dead simple.

I do have LED replacement stop/tail lights and a mid level bulb, and these have sailed through the MOT as they work perfectly in the reflector. Same brightness, but it’s mean’t I’ve not been replacing bulbs all the time as the high level light used to go regular.

I doubt anyone would object to the other lights, it’s the aftermarket LED headlights (H1, H4, H7 etc) bulbs that are the problem. The headlamps would/should be an MOT fail as they would be difficult to aim as they won’t work with the reflector correctly.

My gripe with modern LED headlamps is actually the super sharp cut-off. The slightest ripple in the road and it looks like someones flashing you.

I doubt anyone would object to the other lights, it’s the aftermarket LED headlights (H1, H4, H7 etc) bulbs that are the problem. The headlamps would/should be an MOT fail as they would be difficult to aim as they won’t work with the reflector correctly.

When I fitted mine I marked the beam pattern on my fence with masking tape before and after and it was identical. It also passed the MOT.

That was a good quality pair by Novsight. The emitters were in the same place as the filament would be.

My gripe with modern LED headlamps is actually the super sharp cut-off. The slightest ripple in the road and it looks like someones flashing you.

Agreed, somewhat true of any projector lens light, but LEDs seem to have made it worse.

I’ve just got some of the ‘road legal’ Philips Racing Vision H7 halogens as one of my current bulbs went on the way to the station this morning…..

Will fit them tonight and see if they’re better than the standard bulb I had – which are frankly crap.

Would be interested to know what the best road legal solution for the H7’s is though.

You can’t retrofit LED bulbs into halogen reflectors, not only are they illegal, the beam pattern is wrong and either the lights will be crap, or you’ll blind every one.

Philips does LED replacement bulbs designed specifically to work as a replacement for a Halogen bulb – X-tremeUltinon LED in H4 and H7 – and while they’re not road legal, my experience is that they give a decent beam pattern and the same cut-off as the original bulbs, but more light. Presumably that’s because Philips is an international company with a lot of resource to devote to proper product development As a result they work properly, but are also really expensive:

https://www.powerbulbs.com/product/x-tremeultinon-gen2-led-headlight-bulbs-h4-twin

I’m not suggesting anyone buy them, but they do, genuinely work. I wouldn’t touch cheapo amazon / eBay LED bulbs with a barge-pole. Ditto HIDs.It’s all about where the light source sits and its dimensions, if it doesn’t accurate replicate a halogen bulb filament, it’s not going to produce light from the headlight in the same pattern. Presumably that’s what Philips has done.

It also depends on the original headlight design. The simple H4 Hella headlights on a Mk2 Golf work well, the same bulb in the godawful standard H4 headlight is still pretty bad.

The problem with the uprated halogen bulbs is that they don’t last as long as standard halogens – Powerbulbs will only warranty the Philips mega ones for six months as a result – though they’re significantly better ime. Bear in mind too that halogen bulbs tend to get dimmer as they age, so even a new, standard replacement is likely to be brighter than the one it replaces.

Would be interested to know what the best road legal solution for the H7’s is though.

It’ll be either the bulbs you’ve just fitted – they tend to win every Auto Express headlight bulb test going – or, if the car you have has an alternative HID or LED OE headlight set-up, retro-fitting the alternative light units complete with self-levelling gubbins, washers etc as required to your own car. Tends to be ruinously expensive, unless you can pick it all up from a breakers.

If there’s a voltage drop between the battery and the headlight, which is common with older VWs because of crap gauge wiring and circuitous routing through the headlight switch, you may also be able to improve output by fitting an upgraded wiring harness that takes power direct from the battery and is triggered by a relay from the original headlight loom. Worth looking at if the voltage across the headlight is significantly lower than that across the battery terminals with the engine running.

Sorry to blather on, the whole headlight thing goes with owning 90s VWs – they’re all pretty shocking as standard.

They fail in winter because it’s dark for 18 hours whereas in summer it’s dark for 6 hours.

@globalti really?

Imagine that eh!

Ha ha, I mean they’re more likely to fail during darkness.

Oh, wait…..

Volvo C30, V40 and V70 here…all 5 minutes to change bulbs. Mind you the V70 has self leveling and steering HIDs that rarely need changed.

LED aftermarkets are an MOT fail now are they not, and rightly so.

The laws on headlamps are utterly out of date.