Yet another headlight thread - Nightbreaker Update

[CapstanPlug]

The Osram Nightbreaker Unlimited bulbs, fitted to dip (projector) headlamps in September 2016, finally died last week - Week 2, Jan 2018. 

They both died within 3 days of each other !

 

Got replacements - this time Osram Nightbreaker Laser.

From Amazon. £18-ish for these. (£14 or so for the Unlimited.)

Just fitted them this afternoon.

 

Good news, is that I'm getting the hang of changing these things now !  Got the knack. Battery still has to come out for the NS lamp, but it's easy.

 

These bulbs are appreciably brighter than the Nightbreaker Unlimited - which were a good improvement over standard.  

Still 55W, but Osram are claiming "up to +130%" increased brightness over standard, for the Nightbreaker Laser.

( guessing that the original Skoda ones were 80% less than standard brightness !)  

Osram claimed +110% for the Nightbreaker Unlimited.

 

Being brighter, I imagine these won't last as long (!) as the last ones.

 

But they are brighter. Not LED white, but a lot whiter. Took car for a drive in twilight, and then in darkness - on country roads. Nice extra brightness along the left margin - to pick out those dark-clothed pedestrians. 

These give a noticeable amount of extra light - and confidence. 

 

Will report back on longevity! (Or shortevity, most likely)  

 

 

[KenONeill]

@Dithane - The extra brightness is obtained by using Xenon gas rather than Iodine in the bulb envelopes, which in turn allows the filaments to be run hotter, which produces more light but at the cost of a lower bulb life.

[Arghhhhhelp]

Sorry but today's head lights are way to bright and its no fun being dazzled by what now seems every other car now a days, my opinion no offence in tended

Recall my old driving instructor having a right go at me as i dazzled an on coming road user because i wasn't fast enough switching back down from full beam. ( well it was a Vauxhall viva lol )

[rum4mo]

2 hours ago, Arghhhhhelp said:

Sorry but today's head lights are way to bright and its no fun being dazzled by what now seems every other car now a days, my opinion no offence in tended

Recall my old driving instructor having a right go at me as i dazzled an on coming road user because i wasn't fast enough switching back down from full beam. ( well it was a Vauxhall viva lol )

 

Are you sure that it is not just idiots that have fitted either "for off road use only" high wattage filament bulbs, or HID conversions into normal reflector lights that have been dazzling you? I would not expect any of these Philips Extremes or Nightbreakers, when fitted correctly into correctly aligned headlights to give you any problems.

[AGFalco]

I also have Osram Nightbreaker Unlimited fitted June 2016 and one went last week.

I am waiting for the other one to go and I will fit a pair of Osram Nightbreaker Laser.

I have an old spare bulb in at the minute. I do do a lot of night time driving.

 

A rule of thumb for me is at night with your dipped beam on,

if you are lighting up the rear number plate on the car in front then you are too close to it.

 

I had a Range Rover follow me home one night last week with his HID's on.

I could see the shadow of my car in my headlight beam from the Range Rover's head lights behind me.

So his lights were brighter than mine when they were 10 meters further away.

His lights are up higher and were lighting up the rear window let alone the number plates.

Because of this you end up driving slower than normal because of the dazzle.

 

Thanks AG Falco.

[Arghhhhhelp]

1 hour ago, rum4mo said:

 

Are you sure that it is not just idiots that have fitted either "for off road use only" high wattage filament bulbs, or HID conversions into normal reflector lights that have been dazzling you? I would not expect any of these Philips Extremes or Nightbreakers, when fitted correctly into correctly aligned headlights to give you any problems.

Must just be my eyes then ...

Seems funny i had a brand new range rover behind me a week ago that lit my road in front of me and i also would see my car shadow .. Something needs to be looked into regarding brightness 

[CapstanPlug]

5 hours ago, Arghhhhhelp said:

Sorry but today's head lights are way to bright and its no fun being dazzled by what now seems every other car now a days, my opinion no offence in tended

Recall my old driving instructor having a right go at me as i dazzled an on coming road user because i wasn't fast enough switching back down from full beam. ( well it was a Vauxhall viva lol )

 

 

Don't know if you have a Fabia - but certainly the ones with the Projector lamps with H7s are not up to muster. They only "vaguely" illuminate the road and left margins.

The Nightbreakers bring the lamps up to where my 20 year old Passat was - which also had H7s. I felt very confident on either dark, or poorly lit roads.

The problem seems more noticeable in twilight and where there is poor, or sporadic  street lighting. With the original Fabia bulbs, the eyes have to do a lot more adjusting and compensating for low-light areas. The new bulbs illuminate the darker patches much, much better.

 

They will certainly NEVER be up to Range Rover, or any other, HID brightness levels !!

I'm guessing that the projector glass in the Fabia is probably low quality (i.e. cheap!) glass and is absorbing light trying to pass through them. I doubt it's Leica or even Nikon glass !!

 

Edited 15 January, 2018 by Dithane

[Arghhhhhelp]

Can  you imagine what my old 1994 zx is like ..

Even my 20 year old says lots of lights are way to bright.

So as some reports claim its old eyes ... Find that a bit hard to believe I'm certainly not old

Its funny also about the light pollution issues and to me car lights are not making this any better,

My MOT tester also said modern bulbs are just to powerful 

My conclusion....

Bright lights dazzled you crash this then happens everywhere hey presto..... Half the cars not wanted on the road are write offs lol.

Think i may get a steam engine.... Coal ... Let's not even go there.

Back to my headlamps 

I've owned the fabia classic since last August the lamps have been buffed as it failed mot two yr ago.. To dim.

The service history is very interesting as i clearly see the previous keeper was well ripped off by the garages he was using Beadles .... Shame on you !!!

Brakes to be done soon from and rear have half the items the rest turn up this week , it should be ok to do as I've cleaned up all round last week doing it myself and looking at the service history I'm saving almost £500 ...... Shocking....

Edited 16 January, 2018 by Arghhhhhelp
Spelling

[peter3197]

Bought the Lasers in H4 form off Ebay for £15.74. http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Nightbreaker-Laser-H4-472-130-Twin-Box-Car-Headlight-Bulbs-Osram-64193NBL-HCB/291924335538?ssPageName=STRK%3AMEBIDX%3AIT&_trksid=p2060353.m2749.l2649

Put one in, the easy one on the offside, to compare with the Unlimiteds. Report back after this evening.

[rum4mo]

12 hours ago, Arghhhhhelp said:

Must just be my eyes then ...

Seems funny i had a brand new range rover behind me a week ago that lit my road in front of me and i also would see my car shadow .. Something needs to be looked into regarding brightness 

 

You are right, higher things like Range Rovers, vans and trucks do cause more dazzle than ordinary cars as their lights are higher up off the ground.

 

Both HIDs and LEDs when "off correct axis" get nasty, this can be made worse at attitude changes by the self levelling system being too slow/quick to respond to attitude changes, I'm guessing that this is worse when a car has self levelling suspension, than a car with self levelling headlights and normal suspension.

 

Edit:- there is sort of a fix for that, and that is auto dimming rear mirrors, though I used to find them annoying in inner city driving when nearly everyone drove in hours of darkness using only side lights and the rear mirror had reacted to the odd car with headlights on - so the others almost disappeared, I sorted that potential issue out in my Passat when the mirror started to leak and I replaced it with a later version which had an On/Off switch, like my wife's Polo that she had at that time had, now my S4 has an On/Off switch, but my wife's 2015 Polo does not seem to - progress or things moving round in a circle?

 

 

Another Edit:- okay auto dimming rear mirror only cover the rear of the car, maybe night driving glasses for what is heading towards you - I have not seen these glasses for a while, maybe a good reason for that?

Edited 16 January, 2018 by rum4mo

[Arghhhhhelp]

Maybe Night glasses may of had same illegal reason tinted windows fall under ? 

Makes me wonder what head lights will be like in 10 or 20 years to come

[Rooted]

I complain plenty on lights and those with 'Special Lighting Requirements' or Special Needs where they should be able to see and stuff others, 

but i really wish people would put on lights, front and rear as Day Time / Day Light (DRL's) are not for Snow, Rain, Fog etc.

 

Then those without even those, do they never see other cars with lights on, others with no lights and just think 'Are my lights on'.

or 

are my lights as bad as that car i just spotted with terrible lights that dazzle others?

[KenONeill]

@Arghhhhhelp @rum4mo Well IME the majority of offenders are Suburban Useless Vehicles (SUV) or Audiots. Having said that, at least some of the Audis are genuinely running on dipped beam so it must be a design issue in the focus of the lights for left hand drive nations (at least compared with that for wrong hand drive ones).

[Rooted]

Actually some 'Engineers / Designers' thought up the *Cunning Stunt* of having lights shining this way and that, 

even in towns, at traffic lights, junctions, road works as a driver turns a steering wheel,

regardless of who might be on the other end of the illumination, and in a pretty random way where even drivers of these vehicles with extra Safety Features 

might have no knowledge of what the lights do or when or where they do their thing.

& some Smarty Pants Regulators / Civil Servants / MEP's think that they are fine for EU Type Approval.

http://briskoda.net/forums/topic/429541-adaptive-lights-afl-question 

 

Highest UK MOT Failure i believe is at 3 years & it is Head Lights mis-aligned. (sorry if that is not the main failure, maybe Fake News.)

3 years those cars might be on the road from PDI / First Registration, 

lights set wrong or even faulty, never checked at the PDI or at Services. 

First someone checks from the factory is at a MOT.

Edited 16 January, 2018 by AwaoffSki

[rum4mo]

It is quite impressive/scary the way lots of people either drive at light with DRLs only, I confess to doing that once with wife's Polo, a stupid mistake on my part as these LED DRL's seemed to be lighting the road up nicely, well as long as I was within street light zone, no one bothered to try to wake me up, after about 200 yards I spotted my mistake and switched the lights on.

 

If driving in adverse conditions without lights, it is best done with a light coloured car, well in mist or snow, that "invisible cloak trick" works quite well.

 

Maybe time to remove that "auto lights" switch position and let the car do the thinking - or beef up the police numbers and get some money and points from/to these idiots that like to play hide and seek?

[Arghhhhhelp]

19 minutes ago, rum4mo said:

It is quite impressive/scary the way lots of people either drive at light with DRLs only, I confess to doing that once with wife's Polo, a stupid mistake on my part as these LED DRL's seemed to be lighting the road up nicely, well as long as I was within street light zone, no one bothered to try to wake me up, after about 200 yards I spotted my mistake and switched the lights on.

 

If driving in adverse conditions without lights, it is best done with a light coloured car, well in mist or snow, that "invisible cloak trick" works quite well.

 

Maybe time to remove that "auto lights" switch position and let the car do the thinking - or beef up the police numbers and get some money and points from/to these idiots that like to play hide and seek?

What's Police ? Hardy see any

[rum4mo]

5 minutes ago, Arghhhhhelp said:

What's Police ? Hardy see any

 

I agree with that comment, though it seems the same in other parts of Europe as well, maybe we are seen to be too well behaved - and the hospitals and insurance companies get left to pick up the pieces, well the hospitals at least.

 

Edit:- mind you some European countries probably use more undercover enforcers that UK does, as far as I can work out.

Edited 16 January, 2018 by rum4mo

[Rooted]

You might spot those Police Scotland EV's or Hybrids, the ones with no rear lights on as often as not.

[Bigtow]

you have me worried now I am just waiting for the dealer to finish up the pre-delivery work on the 64 plate Octavia se it has reflector style headlights so will only have halogen bulbs are the standard headlights really that bad. 

 

i was hoping to get away from rubbish headlights by getting a newer car as the headlights on my Jaguar X type are useless they are like having two old fashioned  carriage lamps to light the way ? 

[peter3197]

16 minutes ago, Bigtow said:

you have me worried now I am just waiting for the dealer to finish up the pre-delivery work on the 64 plate Octavia se it has reflector style headlights so will only have halogen bulbs are the standard headlights really that bad. 

 

i was hoping to get away from rubbish headlights by getting a newer car as the headlights on my Jaguar X type are useless they are like having two old fashioned  carriage lamps to light the way ? 

You're far better off with the reflector headlights, the projector dips are pants. Just fit decent bulbs such as the Nightbreakers. I've had 2 Fabias with projectors and deliberately went for an SE as it had normal headlights.

 

Edited 16 January, 2018 by peter3197

[Arghhhhhelp]

I wouldn't worry to much i mean after we've all crashed from being dazzled by on coming cars the head lamp will be the last thing to worry about.

Its when you flash the car blinding you then they flash back and there lights are normal ... Then something ain't normal ,well what is normal

[KenONeill]

3 hours ago, rum4mo said:

It is quite ... hide and seek?

Hard to argue with any of that.

 

The company I work for has a "Human Factors Department". This is not another name for "Personnel", but a department which studies how human physiology reacts to environment and stresses. "Cornering fog lights" are one of the worst ideas ever, because the bright sources flashing in your near field rob you of both range and edge vision, so you're actually less likely to see stuff that you can hit.

[Arghhhhhelp]

4 minutes ago, KenONeill said:

Hard to argue with any of that.

 

The company I work for has a "Human Factors Department". This is not another name for "Personnel", but a department which studies how human physiology reacts to environment and stresses. "Cornering fog lights" are one of the worst ideas ever, because the bright sources flashing in your near field rob you of both range and edge vision, so you're actually less likely to see stuff that you can hit.

Cool this threads getting fun.

I'm wondering if i should up grade my lights

[rum4mo]

3 minutes ago, KenONeill said:

Hard to argue with any of that.

 

The company I work for has a "Human Factors Department". This is not another name for "Personnel", but a department which studies how human physiology reacts to environment and stresses. "Cornering fog lights" are one of the worst ideas ever, because the bright sources flashing in your near field rob you of both range and edge vision, so you're actually less likely to see stuff that you can hit.

 

I'm guessing that you are well (not) impressed with the height and direction of some of the carriage way side lights on the new Forth Crossing?  

[Bigtow]

18 minutes ago, peter3197 said:

You're far better off with the reflector headlights, the projector dips are pants. Just fit decent bulbs such as the Nightbreakers. I've had 2 Fabias with projectors and deliberately went for an SE as it had normal headlights.

 

I know it is a lot of work but is there any options to fit better projector style headlamp units or upgrade to LED units?