Suggestions For Brighter Reversing Bulbs
- Thread starter ReganAndCarter
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Amazing what difference that makes to number plate lights in particular
Yes, dazzling, gleaming silver paintwork after recent clean and polish. Not bad for a 20 year old!
If I was reversing along roads a lot which I very rarely if ever do, maybe a bit of glare. Don't think I'm going to blind anyone on my drive, in a pub car park or manouvering in a parking space.
Reverse lights are only on a very short time, whereas modern vehicles festooned with LEDs, especially headlights and day running, are a much greater hazard for dazzling other drivers.
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One was a bit smoky.
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Prize is incorrectly described
Looks big difference in light output though
The appearence in photos can be slightly deceptive, but yes, massive improvement. The contrast is more marked in the daylight photo than appears on here. Old lamp was like a candle in comparison. In the night photo the fact the LED throws light down onto the drive/surface, whereas old one doesn't, will make manouvering in dark areas much safer.
Ain't that the truth.
I was backing onto my drive last night, and the twonk in the Kia in the road opposite was sitting there with his headlights on, blinding me. So severely, I couldn't have driven forward safely at any speed above walking pace.
Worrying, as he was almost 100yds away.
Yes, I find that sort of thing a lot. I wonder if one reason is headlights on the latest cars are automatic. The Clio I hired in France recently didn't seem to have any way of turning them off when ignition on or engine running. Like a lot of modern cars, etc - they seem to be in charge and control over many functions has been lost.
As I'm doing more night driving on the continent these days, I thought I might also upgrade the headlight bulbs. Maybe there's nothing wrong with old tech bulbs, just my eyes.
Been in France a few days now and done a fair bit of night driving on all sorts of roads, inc plenty of dark, winding country roads. I'm amazed at the difference the new Philips Racing Vision headlight bulbs have made to lighting the road ahead. Can see much further ahead, better side vision, pick out lots more detail. On main beam on deserted roads it's like a floodlight and overall I'm more confident at night. The massive improvement in vision could make the difference between spotting danger in time or not. Night driving is now a lot safer and more relaxing.
I recommend anyone who drives at night and has an older vehicle with traditional bulbs to try these. From amazon, worth every penny of £16 the pair. Won't ever go back to old tech bulbs again.
...which is why everyone likes brighter lights in their car, and everyone hates them in anyone else's car...
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Based on your strong recommendation I have just bought a H7 pair ( please supply contact details for any complaints
) and I notice that - in line with some comments here - the rear of the pack now has a remark about "limited lifetime" and has a white mark on the lifetime bar ( 0 -800 hours ) printed "up to" which covers an area of 180- 300 hours .Looking back over the adverts, there is no mention of this "limited lifetime" at all, which I do find rather deceptive of them. Having taken the trouble to read this far, I poked around some more and discovered that when they make remarks such as "+200%" this is compared to the legal minimum and not necessarily any other specific bulb. Having been a salesman I suppose I should have remembered this kind of thing, but since this wa a product highly recommended by Regan and Carter - an esteemed member of this site, but do send the contact details for any complaints - it didn't occur to me !
If you have further interest, there is a comparison chart of various other bulbs if you tap on further details on the link below. There is also this Zethors LED bulb which claims 30 000 hours and a very high light output, but I could find no details about the company, although I saw at least one complaint where someone siad it wasn't canbus compliant and there is a note on the Zethors page saying contact them if this does happen.
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Philips-577928-RacingVision-GT200-headlight/dp/B08KHJHZVQ
EDIT:
Also found this actual test by a French guy who fitted ZETHOR bulbs to his old Peugeot 205 needing H4 bulbs. He does use some testing equipment giving lumen output. Actual testing starts at 11:20 and when doing direct comparisons he leaves halogen on the left side initially and concludes that the LED lumen output is around 9 000 vs 4 100 for halogen on dipped beam. At 15:10 on main beam the results are 11 000 LED and 5 700 halogen.
At 17:50 he goes out for a drive with the LEDS. His judgement was that the LEDS are much brighter, had good white colour and mimic very closely the beam-shape of the Halogens
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Based on your strong recommendation I have just bought a H7 pair ( please supply contact details for any complaints
Looking back over the adverts, there is no mention of this "limited lifetime" at all, which I do find rather deceptive of them. Having taken the trouble to read this far, I poked around some more and discovered that when they make remarks such as "+200%" this is compared to the legal minimum and not necessarily any other specific bulb. Having been a salesman I suppose I should have remembered this kind of thing, but since this wa a product highly recommended by Regan and Carter - an esteemed member of this site, but do send the contact details for any complaints - it didn't occur to me !
If you have further interest, there is a comparison chart of various other bulbs if you tap on further details on the link below. There is also this Zethors LED bulb which claims 30 000 hours and a very high light output, but I could find no details about the company, although I saw at least one complaint where someone siad it wasn't canbus compliant and there is a note on the Zethors page saying contact them if this does happen.
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Philips-577928-RacingVision-GT200-headlight/dp/B08KHJHZVQ
EDIT:
Also found this actual test by a French guy who fitted ZETHOR bulbs to his old Peugeot 205 needing H4 bulbs. He does use some testing equipment giving lumen output. Actual testing starts at 11:20 and when doing direct comparisons he leaves halogen on the left side initially and concludes that the LED lumen output is around 9 000 vs 4 100 for halogen on dipped beam. At 15:10 on main beam the results are 11 000 LED and 5 700 halogen.
At 17:50 he goes out for a drive with the LEDS. His judgement was that the LEDS are much brighter, had good white colour and mimic very closely the beam-shape of the Halogens
Perhaps I should have been more careful with small print. I hope you are happy with them, nonetheless. How did you find the light output?
I can only speak as I find, and the performance was much better than originals. I wear very low magnification (is this the right word?) specs from the opticians for night driving only, with anti-glare. The new Philips bulbs were so good I sometimes forgot my specs, and didn't really need them. That told me all I needed to know about increased bulb performance.
Yeah, the high performance filament lamps (Philips, Osram, or whoever) achieve some of their improved brightness by running the filament hotter, so they don't last as long. You pays your money and you takes your choice, as they say! I do think they make a noticeable improvement, though.
The LED retrofits are usually illegal. There is usually small print that says something like "not for highway use" on them. Headlamp reflectors are designed on the assumption that the light source (centre of the filament) is going to be in a particular position. The reflector will collect the rays and try to focus them in a particular pattern. If you move the light source relative to the reflector, the beam pattern changes. Some of the cars that people are moaning about, as having headlights that are "too bright", will be people who have retrofitted illegal LED "bulbs" and their headlamps are now just scattering light in all sorts of directions that they shouldn't. I don't think MOT testers are always diligent enough, when it comes to checking beam pattern.
The LED retrofits are usually illegal. There is usually small print that says something like "not for highway use" on them. Headlamp reflectors are designed on the assumption that the light source (centre of the filament) is going to be in a particular position. The reflector will collect the rays and try to focus them in a particular pattern. If you move the light source relative to the reflector, the beam pattern changes. Some of the cars that people are moaning about, as having headlights that are "too bright", will be people who have retrofitted illegal LED "bulbs" and their headlamps are now just scattering light in all sorts of directions that they shouldn't. I don't think MOT testers are always diligent enough, when it comes to checking beam pattern.
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Have only just received them. Won't fit for a while when I get round to a number of tasks. When I do fit, it will initially be one side only to actually be able to verify real difference.
QUESTION
On the Racing GT200 page at the botttom where they list different bulbs ( COMPARE WITH SIMILAR ITEMS ) with tech specs, there is the following line ( each comment refers to a different bulb listed acrosss the top) Any idea what it refers to ?
In more poking about, I found on another page that the expected life-time is 400 hours which doesn't match what is on the packaging. They must have had another marketing meeting and revised the life: obviously the right bulb doesn't know what he left bulb is doing.
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