hi everyone

bout a month ago the headlights on my octy just went dimmer so far so that the visibility would be around 6 to 8 meters straight ahead, i also noticed sometime with a gear change the lights will go even dimmer and get back again as if every gear shift were to produce a surge or something.

since my battery was very old i changed it to new and also bought OSRAM NIGHT BREAKER XENON lights and fitted them, it has become better than before but still far less brighter then the same xenons on other cars.

any ideas or same experiences would be really appreciated

thanks.

Night breakers are normal bulbs with some Xenon gas in them, they are not HID lamps.

You will never replicate the light output of HID bulbs

Normal bulbs can be made to look like them, by adding a blue tinge to the glass...but will be 300% less in light output terms

Roads are filthy at this time of year - you'll probably have a film of crud across the lense. Clean your lamps - makes a big difference.

Roads are filthy at this time of year - you'll probably have a film of crud across the lense. Clean your lamps - makes a big difference.

+1

and to be fair headlight washers are fairly useless!

I've never noticed a big variation of headlight brightness with engine revs such as your describe.

Check the battery voltage when the engine is running , should be about 14V above tickover.

Sounds like your alternator might be on the way out esp if the battery was old.

cheers guys,

i was told by someone else about the alternator as well, in that case i'll just have to wait for it to pack up

just got a brand new battery so thats not a problem. can anybody explain what HID lights are tho and any decent easy procedure on cleaning the lense.

thanks

cheers guys,

i was told by someone else about the alternator as well, in that case i'll just have to wait for it to pack up

just got a brand new battery so thats not a problem. can anybody explain what HID lights are tho and any decent easy procedure on cleaning the lense.

thanks

Don't do that as mine went and it was just the pulley. That's about £70 to fix, but if you wait too long you could knacker the whole alternator or even some of the car electrics.

can anybody explain what HID lights are

thanks

High Intensity Discharge Lights.

The work by creating an electical arc across two electrodes in a tube filled with Xenon gas, they look blue because they produce light across more of the Spectrum than conventional halogen bulbs which produce yellow light. They run at a much higher voltage 20-50kv, so they have a ballast attached to the back of the unit to generate the higher voltage to supply the lamp. They are a factory fit option, the law says that if fitted to a car they must be active self levelling and have headlight washers so they're quite an expensive option. There are aftermakert kits but they tend not to address the self levelling so can end up blinding on-coming drivers.

Normal lightbulb works by passing current through a fine wire called a filament which gets very hot and glows, filling the bulb with inert gas such as xenon can produces a better light but not match the intensity of HIDs.

you guys are all legends, dont think ill go for the HID kit caz i dont want to **** ppl off by dazzling them,

will get my alternator checked,

thanks again for the cool suggestions