To be honest, when I fitted Osram nightbreaker plus on our octavia and fabia headlights, both projector types, I didnt notice any difference whatsoever, even the colour was only marginally whiter, compared to the factory fitted standard Osrams.

When I check Osrams technical spec sheets, all their h7 bulbs, original line (as oem), cool blue, ultralife, silverstar, night breaker unlimited etc ALL H7 road legal types HAVE IDENTICAL LIGHT OUTPUT OF 1500 LUMENS +-10%. The only difference I can see is nightbreaker is colour, 3600k as opposed to the standard 3200k and a wide spread of expected bulb life.

So how can they claim +110%? Perhaps it refers to the pricing.

http://www.osram.com/osram_com/products/lamps/vehicle-and-bicycle-lighting/cars/halogen-headlight-lamps-for-cars/index.jsp

Edited 8 February, 201511 yr by xman

I've never seen a difference in any of the Halogen bulbs I bought in terms of light output, that includes OEM, Halfords, Halfords Ultra Brilliance, Philips Extreme Brilliance, Osram Nightbreaker... not tried PIAA. All have lasted about 11 months or so.

 

HID kit does make a difference however

I have wondered for years about the real light output of so-called uprated headlight bulbs. The light output of all headlamp bulbs gradually diminishes with age. So changing the existing 'old' bulb, even for a new standard bulb, will give a perceived improvement.

However, in my last car (Honda Civic with projector dip beams) I did try fitting new standard and then uprated dip beam bulbs and there did seem to be a discernible improvement with which my wife and a couple of friends agreed.

The 'upto' 110% brighter is measured by looking at key areas (by no means all of it) of the beam pattern in a lab. A brighter output using the same lumens light source is achieved by better positioning / geometry of the filament.

In reality it makes very little difference, IMHO it's the optics of the lense that makes the most difference. Oh, and a brighter light source helps (HID, LED etc)

Edited 9 February, 201511 yr by xpower

I have found in projector headlights they seem to make a slight difference but not such as to warrant the cost but any improvement is better than none. The wife runs a Fabia S with the non-projector lights that take a H4 and they do make a noticeable difference in this format.

You are correct absolutely rubbish dont last long the biggest con going.

How come that so many people dont seem to get any decent changes when they swap bulbs out.

 

I bought some off ebay that were ice blue and they made a massive difference to what was there before. Maybe though the ones i replaced were total rubbish and very yellow.

 

i got mine from XENONS_UK cant fault them TBH. i drive with my lights on nearly all the time because i cant be Ar5ed to fit some DRL's and after 2 1/2 years one went so really cant complain.

 

I would do the HID change if i knew somebody locally to code them in and had the cash.

Well well, I found the definitive answer from an american website!

 

Apparently under EEC? Euro type regulations, the maximum lumen output permitted with a halogen headlight bulb is 1500 lumens +- 10%, i.e. exactly what all of Osrams bulbs offer identically. Any brighter and they would be illegal!

 

The difference is the "upgrade" bulbs are fitted with a shorter filament, so although the light output is the same, its concentrated in more of a point source.

 

In conjuction with the headlamp optics, the idea is to focus more of the light to a hotspot in front of the car, but at the expense of light elsewhere in the beam pattern. The effect is to have a bright patch ahead of the car, but they dont mention that away from that patch the illumination is actually lower than the standard bulb!

 

This trick fools the eye into thinking "brighter" by increasing perceived contrast betwwen the hotspot and the surroundings.

 

I would argue that may actually be less safe as you cant see stuff off centre as clearly!

 

This method is also only likely to work with conventional reflector optics, and is unlikely to work with projector optics, in fact, imo its likely to be worse.

 

I refrained from saying in my original post, but in the case of the fabia projector lights, my distinct impression was of worse light on the road than the standard factory bulb!

 

So, what do we get for four times the price? Much shorter life span, and with projector headlights, no improvement, possibly worse .

 

My conclusion is, YES THEY ARE A CON!!

Edited 9 February, 201511 yr by xman

one trick which is used to fool people is the "whiter" light. Which is impossible from a halogen bulb as you cant make it run at 4.3k. They just coat it in blue paint and actually reduce the output but make them look whiter. This is why Philips diamond vision are not just non e marked but actually so poor they are dangerous to use

So basically it's a trick of the eye that makes the likes of myself think they are brighter even though they are not?

With full beams on they certainly seem brighter to my eyes.

Despite the scientific / technicalities.

I guess we all have different eyes so two people would see different brightnesses.

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

My view was always that these extra bright bulbs were a con. So much so that when I had a pack of Osram Night Breakers on the shelf and one of my OEM bulbs blew I just changed one side that had blown and didn't bother with the other.

I actually couldn't have been more wrong, when driving at night it was noticeable that one side was brighter than the other. Looking at the front of the car from outside you could clearly see that one side was brighter, I changed the other to match as I was worried about being pulled over. Now as others have pointed out, that could have just been the different colour temperature or beam pattern playing tricks, but it did definitely seem to improve visibility.

The downside of course was that these bulbs used to pop after about only 10k of use, so I suppose you could still argue they were a con! I reverted back to standard bulbs as I got so tired of the uprated ones blowing. That was in a Citroën Xsara by the way, I never bothered with them in the Octy.

Edited 9 February, 201511 yr by nick74

Have to agree....they are a con.

 

I ran one in one headlight with a standard bulb in the other, and noticed a very slight difference, but in hindsight that was probably down to the slight difference in colour temperature between the bulbs. I then fitted the other "high output" bulb and one blew after only 6 months (during summer use!).

 

Either stick with standard bulbs, or get a HID kit.   

mroberts and nick74 - were your headlamps the traditional reflector type or the VAG projector type with a lens??

 

Yes, with the reflector type they will appear brighter, because of the spread of the beam has been manipulated, but only in the "hot spot".

 

The projector type used by VAG on some models, the beam forming is done by a shutter/aperture in front of the bulb/collector and just behind the lens. There is no complex  beam forming done by the simple collector the bulb sits in, its basically a parabolic mirror.

 

I am also comparing the OEM Osram "original line" with the OSRAM "nightbreaker" ranges. Price wise I can get the OEM bulb for £1.80 where the Nightbreaker costs about £8 and has a lifetime of at least 2 times less.

 

btw in my 2nd post it should say ECE regs not EEC

Edited 9 February, 201511 yr by xman

My view was always that these extra bright bulbs were a con. So much so that when I had a pack of Osram Night Breakers on the shelf and one of my OEM bulbs blew I just changed one side that had blown and didn't bother with the other.

I actually couldn't have been more wrong, when driving at night it was noticeable that one side was brighter than the other. Looking at the front of the car from outside you could clearly see that one side was brighter, I changed the other to match as I was worried about being pulled over. Now as others have pointed out, that could have just been the different colour temperature or beam pattern playing tricks, but it did definitely seem to improve visibility.

 

Given that the original bulb blew is it fair to assume it was near the end of its life, and that therefore the other remaining bulb was also close to blowing?

 

I understand that the performance / light output of an older bulb reduces as the bulb ages, therefore when you put in a single performance bulb it was indeed brighter, but only because the old original bulb was much dimmer than when it was new?

xman, mine are projectors in my octy.

currenlty i have one OEM and one Xenon uk ice blue.

The ice blue gives better light for my eyes and find them better when driving, especially at full beam, but at dipped i would say they do not give as good coverage.

xman, mine are projectors in my octy.

currenlty i have one OEM and one Xenon uk ice blue.

The ice blue gives better light for my eyes and find them better when driving, especially at full beam, but at dipped i would say they do not give as good coverage.

is that oem bulbs in both H1 and H7 guise in one unit and the other ice blue ones in both h1 and h7 in the other?

Ryan yes it is currently.

 

i will get round to replacing the OEM ones again at some point although having seen the cost of HID i may just do that TBH.

Well well, I found the definitive answer from an american website!

 

Apparently under EEC? Euro type regulations, the maximum lumen output permitted with a halogen headlight bulb is 1500 lumens +- 10%, i.e. exactly what all of Osrams bulbs offer identically. Any brighter and they would be illegal!

 

The difference is the "upgrade" bulbs are fitted with a shorter filament, so although the light output is the same, its concentrated in more of a point source.

 

In conjuction with the headlamp optics, the idea is to focus more of the light to a hotspot in front of the car, but at the expense of light elsewhere in the beam pattern. The effect is to have a bright patch ahead of the car, but they dont mention that away from that patch the illumination is actually lower than the standard bulb!

 

This trick fools the eye into thinking "brighter" by increasing perceived contrast betwwen the hotspot and the surroundings.

 

I would argue that may actually be less safe as you cant see stuff off centre as clearly!

 

This method is also only likely to work with conventional reflector optics, and is unlikely to work with projector optics, in fact, imo its likely to be worse.

 

I refrained from saying in my original post, but in the case of the fabia projector lights, my distinct impression was of worse light on the road than the standard factory bulb!

 

So, what do we get for four times the price? Much shorter life span, and with projector headlights, no improvement, possibly worse .

 

My conclusion is, YES THEY ARE A CON!!

 

On projector headlamps. Would you recommend longer filaments than shorter ones? Do you think that it would make a difference for the better?

I dont think there's much you can do h7 bulb wise, except avoid really cheap or unknown brand bulbs. They should all be pretty much standard lumen output. Just different colour output.

Personally, after spending far too much money on three or four sets of these +xxx% upgrade bulbs Ive now started buying NEOLUX bulbs from ECP which is an OSRAM aftermarket brand, as far as I can tell its the same as a standard OSRAM bulb but at a fraction of the price. I am not the main user of these cars though, so I cant give a definitive opinion on these, but they don't look much if any dimmer to me.

A problem with these projector lights is alignment. As many others have also found, the factory sets the lights very low. Get them readjusted to the correct height and aim (6mm hex allen key required, there are two adjusters per side).

Or go down the hid route (not something I feel inclined to do)

Edited 2 December, 20169 yr by xman

I have just fitted a pair of Philips extreme 130% bulbs to my Volvo & i have seen a improvement,how long they will last though i will have to see. 

I have just fitted a pair of Philips extreme 130% bulbs to my Volvo & i have seen a improvement,how long they will last though i will have to see. 

Ditto, apart from the fact I got some improvement with fitting them to my VRS.

the + 50% bulbs or the +33% longer life ones are a good compromise and not too expensive

After driving a Fruad car for some time with OEM lights, I plucked for O.N+ and the difference for me in the dark on my country roads was great but not brillaint. However, I'm to try some LED's shortly............other than that it's all in the game.

I personally recommend Cobalt II bulbs for brightness, longevity and price.

Although I maintain the Octy headlights are a flawed design, too wide a spread of light on high beam with an M shape projection. You can see great in the verges but there's a dark void in the middle where I want to see in the distance.

If you see me jinking left/right on dark rural roads I'm not drunk, just trying to zigzag the bright spots of light up the road instead of in the bushes.

Although I maintain the Octy headlights are a flawed design, too wide a spread of light on high beam with an M shape projection. You can see great in the verges but there's a dark void in the middle where I want to see in the distance.

 

Not so much the design, but the adjustment. The high beam is not part of the MOT test so it is never adjusted. At least you can adjust the high beam independently from the low beam on the octavia......on a lot of cars the low beam adjustment also adjusts the high beam.

 

You can have a go yourself. Small adjustments make a big difference, so adjust a tiny bit and go for a drive to see how they look. Repeat until the aim is good.