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Chaps,

If anyone's interested halfords have buy 1 get 1 free on their h1,h4 and h7 lights at the mo. the 120% brighter ultra brilliance ones are 29.99 for 2. The chap in halfords said you only really need the h7's for the Octy as the dipped beam stays on whn you 'switch' to main beam. as a cautionary tale I bought some bosh off ebay and they weren'y any brighter tan my OE ones so recon I was sold a set of pups!

I've had these fitted for a year, and they don't make much difference at all. A whiter light, but no difference in visibility.

A HID kit though does make a difference - legality aside.

These are available http://www.demon-twe...nce-light-bulbs

Meant for offroad only but I ran them for ywears in the Mk 1 Octy with no issues. Considering plod turn a blind eye to many cars without working headlights I cant see them rushing to stop you if they are a tadge to bright. I think I ran something like 130 / 90 but tried the 100/80 & they were a vast inprovement on std

Edited 8 November, 201213 yr by Stuart_J

The CANBUS monitoring and the CECM might complain about higher wattage on an Octy II though.

Not for the main beam. 100W H1 are fine 'off road'

Edited 9 November, 201213 yr by cheezemonkhai

Yep, but the OP seemed to be talking about dipped.

So 100w H1 are fine in a FL Octy then?

So 100w H1 are fine in a FL Octy then?

In a Pre fl octy they are. (for off road of course)

Edited 10 November, 201213 yr by cheezemonkhai

I'd change the fuse to deal with the increased wattage.

Sent from my LT26i using Tapatalk 2

Edited 11 November, 201213 yr by 07 vRS Taxi

One way some of the high performance bulbs get more light out of the same wattage bulb is bulb making the filament thinner, hence it runs hotter and brighter, but does not last as long. I ran high performance bulbs a few years back and never had a bulb last more than 12 months.

thing is if you do a lot of driving at night or really like decent lights (like me) then bulbs lasting less than 12 months isnt a problem

More light on the road can be a great safety feature BUT:

Be aware, you're going to get a lot more heat from 100W bulbs. The plastic headlight lenses and the wiring harness were not designed to take this extra load.

The car manufacturer always looks to keep costs down, including using the lightest wiring that will be fit for its designed purpose. Changing the fuse to a higher rating risks a wiring fire. The heating effect of a DC current through a wire varies with the square of current drawn. A wire supplying a 100W bulb, drawing around 8 amps, will get nearly twice as hot as one supplying a standard bulb drawing about 6 amps.

More light on the road can be a great safety feature BUT:

Be aware, you're going to get a lot more heat from 100W bulbs. The plastic headlight lenses and the wiring harness were not designed to take this extra load.

The car manufacturer always looks to keep costs down, including using the lightest wiring that will be fit for its designed purpose. Changing the fuse to a higher rating risks a wiring fire. The heating effect of a DC current through a wire varies with the square of current drawn. A wire supplying a 100W bulb, drawing around 8 amps, will get nearly twice as hot as one supplying a standard bulb drawing about 6 amps.

I ran bigger bulbs in the Mk 1 & never changed the fuse, the fuse is designed to be the weak link in any circuit, If you try bigger bulbs & the std fuse dosent blow then its "probably" Ok

I ran bigger bulbs in the Mk 1 & never changed the fuse, the fuse is designed to be the weak link in any circuit, If you try bigger bulbs & the std fuse dosent blow then its "probably" Ok

The fuse is actually designed as a safety item and work best under high load fault currents such as you would experience in a short circuit. Fuses are notoriously unreliable and stubborn when you are running a sustained current at or slightly above their rated load current - such as higher wattage (and illegal btw) 100w lamps in the headlight. They also have in-built redundancy in their current rating to allow for shock loading currents (such as motors starting up etc), and I think that most people would be shocked by just how much current they will allow through before they do actually "blow" - why do you think houses/buildings etc are all now on MCB'S?

A fuse is a safety item that is used in fault conditions only - not as a indicator of how much current a particular circuit might be capable of handling.

Yes, Stuart_J is right, "probably" is the operative word.

Chappers is spot on too - no fuse will guarantee to protect your wiring from overheating.

Of course, putting bigger bulbs in is your choice - it just needs to be an informed one. That's what this forum does so well.