I can understand the drive towards brighter lighting, but what's the obsession with running colder and colder light colours?

IME anything about about 4.5k is impossible in thick fog and not ideal in heavy rain.

Personally think that you want to be around the yellow end of it all in fog to minimise reflection.

I understand that people want more light, closer to daylight for normal dark lights, but surely there is a trade off.

Being able to see a bit better on a dark night is helpful, but not worth it an the expense of not being able to see at all in bad weather.

Is this just me being an old git, or does anyone else agree?

I'm running 3k yellows lol

I think they look better.

I don't have xenons but chose whiter look bulbs. An upside of some of the whiter look bulbs, is improved visibility (Phillips XTreme and Osram Nightbreakers).

I think they look better.

I don't have xenons but chose whiter look bulbs. An upside of some of the whiter look bulbs, is improved visibility (Phillips XTreme and Osram Nightbreakers).

But the increased visibility is nothing to do with the colour and more to do with the extra light thrown out.

Surely a H7 + 50% will be just as good in green/yellow/another colour that works well with the human eye than bordering on blue?

My opinion.

(grumpy old man)

Shame that while others think that they need to improve 'their visability' while reducing 'my visability' as i drive towards them,

or as they come up behind me.

I think all drivers that fit uprated bulbs or lights should get someone else to drive towards them a few times with the vehicle to see

what it actually looks like to others.

Not just fit and then stand and look at them from a little bit away & think 'nice, looks good'.

george

That'd be most people that fit HID kits then. Popping Xenon bulbs in to a normal headlamp unit designed for halogen bulbs is real bug bear of mine because the reflectors aren't designed for that sort of output and dazzle the hell out of everyone. Self-levelling is a legal requirement for a reason!

One thing I have noticed is that the MkI Fabia is pretty bad for dazzle, I followed a friend home for a few miles once and he thought I had full beam on. Also noticed it from another Fabia on the A1 when I was overtaking, so I tend to drive around with them dipped to "1" now.

I got a set of Philips Bluevision for the Audi ages ago, after a friend raved about them.

I've driven in torrential rain, and mild fog, and not noticed any real issues. The Missus' car now has them too, and she's driven behind me at night, and the lights don't seem any different in light levels to any other vehicle on the road.

I brought them, because A) they give far better visibility at night and most modern premium cars seem to have white lights.

Personally, i can't see why the likes of Mercedes would be fitting white lights to a car, when they introduce safety issues.

My opinion.

(grumpy old man)

Shame that while others think that they need to improve 'their visability' while reducing 'my visability' as i drive towards them,

or as they come up behind me.

I think all drivers that fit uprated bulbs or lights should get someone else to drive towards them a few times with the vehicle to see

what it actually looks like to others.

Not just fit and then stand and look at them from a little bit away & think 'nice, looks good'.

george

Couldn't agree more. They really hurt my eyes and are really distracting.

Grumpy young(ish) man.

Surely 4.5k is the best trade off? Hence why most oem setups are about that temp. Iv got 5k in mine and don't have any issues in fog or rain, but they are fantastic at night too.

I'm running 3k yellows lol

+1, Apparently even the cheap HIDs bulbs are dipped in vertical polarity tint or something so it doesn't reflect glare from puddles etc at all. It does take some getting used to though, at first you think its lower light as its less irritating on the eyes, but once your eyes adjust to yellow you can see things with higher contrast in terms of shades rather than actual colour (human eye receptors are more sensitive to shades than to different colours).

Well somebody has to fight those bloody Germans and their yellow lights! White all the way!

Nah, just kidding. I'm putting on yellow tints as well. Cant fight genetics I suppose, I'm hard-wired to like it.

Shame that while others think that they need to improve 'their visability' while reducing 'my visability' as i drive towards them,

or as they come up behind me.

I don't want to reignite a debate but yup I've been dazzled many times by cars with high K lights. It's not going to be safe for you if I'm blinded and run into you.

Iv recently been blinded by yellow, purple & green lights. The colour of them doesn't blind you, it's the alignment & poor headlights themselves that do that.

That'd be most people that fit HID kits then. Popping Xenon bulbs in to a normal headlamp unit designed for halogen bulbs is real bug bear of mine because the reflectors aren't designed for that sort of output and dazzle the hell out of everyone. Self-levelling is a legal requirement for a reason!

One thing I have noticed is that the MkI Fabia is pretty bad for dazzle, I followed a friend home for a few miles once and he thought I had full beam on. Also noticed it from another Fabia on the A1 when I was overtaking, so I tend to drive around with them dipped to "1" now.

+ 1. Our Mk 1 Fab is just the same and we tend to suffer many drivers flashing us up when on dip.

Most of the younger driving set down this way seem to now adopt yellow as the light colour of choice & often add the yellow self adhesive film to the lens to enhance the effect. My lad did exactly this on his Golf and to be honest I wouldn't follow suit having been out with him a few times at night

The factory fit xenons are 4300K on my Octavia and offer better visibility than any car I've driven with halogens...

4.3k I can understand, but there are plenty around with 6k and even some that look purple which must be at least 8k+

And my local MOT station takes great pleasure in failing their MOT's!!

And my local MOT station takes great pleasure in failing their MOT's!!

Wish they all did.

Whiter light does look better imo but its a fashion thing, who knows what will be popular in the future. I just run my standard halogens and can see perfectly well. Have had xenons before and didnt rate them. Fine if they are free but i would not waste my money on them. I live in Scotland and drive on a lot on unlit country roads and xenons did not offer any advantage to me. When the road was empty i used full beams and could see everything. When cars were driving towards me it didnt really matter what lights you had as the glare from the oncoming car dictates your viewing distance not how bright your lights where. When car is past you flick full beams on again. In both cars ive owned with xenons the dipped beams were just as useless as the halogens on these unlit roads, thats why cars are fitted with full beams. I dare say new LED lights will be the same i.e look good and be very fashinable but you will still need to use full beams on unlit roads. The halogens on my VRS actually look quite good, a lot better than my BMW. This is probably as they are projector style lamps so they do appear to be whiter for some reason than the reflector units in my BMW. Its strange how some cars get bad reputations regarding their lights. Subaru used to get critisced for having poor lights even on the subaru forums but i found them to be quite good and were actually far better than my Audi S3's lights despite the fact that the S3's lights did look cooler. In conclusion white lights = fashion.

Whiter light does look better imo but its a fashion thing, who knows what will be popular in the future. I just run my standard halogens and can see perfectly well. Have had xenons before and didnt rate them. Fine if they are free but i would not waste my money on them. I live in Scotland and drive on a lot on unlit country roads and xenons did not offer any advantage to me. When the road was empty i used full beams and could see everything. When cars were driving towards me it didnt really matter what lights you had as the glare from the oncoming car dictates your viewing distance not how bright your lights where. When car is past you flick full beams on again. In conclusion white lights = fashion.

+1; the real issue is not full beams (+50% full beam in an Octy 1 gives a mile of range), but how much dipped range you have, and I've yet to find anythign that goes much past 150m. Going to +100%s from +50%s will take that from 150m to a whole 155m!

+1; the real issue is not full beams (+50% full beam in an Octy 1 gives a mile of range), but how much dipped range you have, and I've yet to find anythign that goes much past 150m. Going to +100%s from +50%s will take that from 150m to a whole 155m!

I fully understand uprated bulbs for the full beams but as you said its the range on dipped lights that is the problem not how bright they are. Xenons are very bright but the range is not justifiably better than the standard lights. The only way to increase the range is to alter the angle (dip) of the lights which is illegal hence why i found xenons pointless. Some may argue the range is better on xenons but it certainly isnt in my experience, you could have the brightest lights in the world but if they are constrained by MOT guidelines as to how high they can project then its overkill. They still look cool but thats not worth the extra cost IMO especially as they arent cheap.

Many will come on here now and argue otherwise or cry Troll and thats fine (apart from troll bit) but seeing as ive had xenons before i know first hand the differences between standard lights and xenons and they offered no advantage for me. Im actually quite anal when it comes to replacing wiper blades etc as i think its crucial to have good visibility when driving so if xenons were so much better i would be at the front of the queue to specify them but they just werent.

I say bring back selective yellow! Who's with me!? :think:

The criteria he pointed out were as follows:

1. That the headlight units must be projector lenses if Xenon/HID is fitted

That is not the case though. My 2001 Audi A8 has factory Bi-Xenon lights known as Xenon plus and were a £1K plus option back then. I have self levelling, and headlight washers as you expect but the lamps themselves are actually standard reflector lenses without a single projector in sight.

It's alignment and levelling under load that are most important.

Most after market bulbs are not the same size as a Halogen and have a point light source rather than a longer filament. As in a halogen. This means the focusing for halogen won't work.

Edited 10 October, 201213 yr by cheezemonkhai

I fitted a 4,300K kit to my (projector) MKI Superb (dipped beam only) and the difference from the uprated Philips halogens was excuse the pun literally night and day.

Now with my MK2 Superb with factory fit Bi-xenon's (and additional halogen main beam units) the lights are amazing, the only way you could see the halogens come on was because of their colour temperature difference between them and the xenon's , once I fitted whiter Philips bulbs into the halogens you cannot make out where the xenon ends and the halogen starts.

as for distance, I have not measured it, but it is certainly over 150m.... by a long way.

The only downside to the bi-xenon's is when they reflect on the road signs (whilst on main beam) ... they are then too bright and dazzle you.