Fitted a pair of Osram nightbreakers in an attempt to rectify the miserable main beam the Octavia II is cursed with.

They are miles better than the 100watt bulbs I tried and I have lowered the beam output as well.

Just to clarify:

With the bonnet open you can see two hex nuts one above the other on each light fitting, these adjust the horizontal and vertical position of the projector lens, this is the same with halogen and xenon bulbs, you don't need to mess with these unless you intend to fiddle with the dipped beam alignment.

If you look inside the engine compartment at the rear of the light fitting you will see the white nylon nut that keeps the fitting in place, directly underneath this there is a single upward facing hex nut, this is what adjusts the up/down position of the main beam.

Note, this screw adjusts the entire main beam unit - that's the bulb AND the surrounding reflector.

I found mine needed to be wound down quite a bit to achieve the desired effect and as a result there is no longer a gap between the top of the xenon cut off and the main beam. The output from the nightbreakers means the colour difference is minimal and the light output is excellent too.

These are what you need if this is of any interest to you:

OSRAM H1 NIGHTBREAKER ( +90% LIGHT & 10%WHITER LIGHT) on eBay, also Bulbs Lenses, Lights Lighting Accessories, Car Tuning Styling, Cars, Parts Vehicles (end time 27-Dec-07 17:41:19 GMT)

cheers, any chance of a picture as not to getmixed up or miss it

Sounds good - which 100W bulbs are you comparing them to, out of interest?

Chris

I was comparing them to the Ring Rallysport 100 watt bulbs.

Yes they are pretty bright but the K value is quite low compared to the Nighbreakers and the xenons. The Osrams get much closer to the xenon K value.

I will provide a picture tomorrow during the day as it's rather dark here now.

Fitted a pair of Osram nightbreakers in an attempt to rectify the miserable main beam the Octavia II is cursed with.

Done the same, with the 90% nightbreakers. A lot whiter light that seems to reach better. Still need to do a better job with the alignment as the main beam seems too high.

Yeah you need to crank the main beam down by quite a way to stop the mains lighting up the trees as you drive along

I've got the bottom of the main beam just below the top of the dipped cutoff to provide a constant spread of light from the road upwards.

I quite like that the main lights up wide throw of the area.

I have a friend with 100W mains in his car and the colour and light output is very good. I believe they are the cheap Bosch ones you can buy in halfords and the like.

I have a friend with 100W mains in his car and the colour and light output is very good. I believe they are the cheap Bosch ones you can buy in halfords and the like.

With 100W bulbs you only destroy your reflectors and possibly your car electronics. I would suggest you fit a nice aftermarket HID kit to mains also. That's what I've done and the light output is excellent.

What comes to the mains pointing up to the tree tops, that seems to be a common problem. As the thread starter instructed, it's easily adjusted. I adjusted the mains way down. I think in my case, the top of the main beam pattern is just a little over the top of the low beam cutoff. It gives a nice uniform white field in front of the car and the visibility is great.

With 100W bulbs you only destroy your reflectors and possibly your car electronics. I would suggest you fit a nice aftermarket HID kit to mains also. That's what I've done and the light output is excellent.

What comes to the mains pointing up to the tree tops, that seems to be a common problem. As the thread starter instructed, it's easily adjusted. I adjusted the mains way down. I think in my case, the top of the main beam pattern is just a little over the top of the low beam cutoff. It gives a nice uniform white field in front of the car and the visibility is great.

HID's are not suitable for main beam as flashing them/turning them on/off regularly will destroy the bulbs and not do the ballast much good either.

As I said, I like the light being thrown a little further upwards.

I don't think people here have seen issues due to 100W or 130W lamps in their cars, although obviously that is a chance people who run it take.

Xenons for main beams are to be avoided, bi-xenon works by using one lamp to do both jobs, they design them like that for a reason.

A friend of mine has just retrofitted xenons to his Mondeo and the ballast startup current popped the fuses. His solution? fit bigger fuses

Xenons can draw over 250% of their running current during their startup cycle, something to bear in mind when retrofitting.

Yes, that's something I'm well aware of. The problem is that when having separate main xenons, they're not "warmed" liked in bi-xenon setups, so they take longer to have their full light output available.

I've been using this setup over 6 months, and not a single problem. I'm using the lights as I would use normal main beams, I'll flash them, burn them etc. Just like normal halogens.

I can almost bet my balls that people using 100W bulbs are going to have more issues than people using retrofitted HID kits.

A friend of mine has just retrofitted xenons to his Mondeo and the ballast startup current popped the fuses. His solution? fit bigger fuses

Actually, that's pretty much correct method. Usually the headlamp fuse is 10AMP and for the HID kit's you should use 15AMP fuses. Most of the kits sold here in Finland include the new fuses

Fuses are there to protect the wiring and the wiring only, uprating fuses (potentially past the max safe current carrying capacity) isn't something I would want to do.

A 100 watt bulb will draw about 7 amps (@14.4volts).

A xenon ballast will draw double this and more for several seconds while warming up, despite the short time span it could force a 10amp cable to handle 150% of it's safe capacity and that's not even considering relays etc.

As long as the cables can handle the current then that's not a problem but I see these aftermarket sites aren't forthcoming about such things and Mr DIY man wouldn't be aware of this.

I've ordered a set of these so I'll see how I get on.

Fuses are there to protect the wiring and the wiring only, uprating fuses (potentially past the max safe current carrying capacity) isn't something I would want to do.

A 100 watt bulb will draw about 7 amps (@14.4volts).

A xenon ballast will draw double this and more for several seconds while warming up, despite the short time span it could force a 10amp cable to handle 150% of it's safe capacity and that's not even considering relays etc.

As long as the cables can handle the current then that's not a problem but I see these aftermarket sites aren't forthcoming about such things and Mr DIY man wouldn't be aware of this.

Yes, all true.

I think the biggest problem with bad quality aftermarket HID kits and 100W bulbs are the reflector burning. 100W bulb can burn your reflectors to a nice brownish caste in a very short amount of time. But also so can bad quality HID kits if there's no UV protection on the bulb glass.

Anyway, the bottom line on both of these is that they both have their share of risks, and both are very illegal on road use But hey, all the things we are prepared to do, just to see better and drive safer.

It's not like any of us have ever bent the odd law or two is it

I fitted these at the weekend, superb bulbs. Headlamps are much better.

£20 well spent!

Thanks for the tip off

I can almost bet my balls that people using 100W bulbs are going to have more issues than people using retrofitted HID kits.

How would you like to post your balls?

I know of plenty of people who have been running 100W bulbs and I have done it in old cars for many years with zero problem. Just get the 100W bulbs using Quartz glass and that will do most the UV blocking

How would you like to post your balls?

I'll think of something, possibly Bit by Bit.....

I know of plenty of people who have been running 100W bulbs and I have done it in old cars for many years with zero problem. Just get the 100W bulbs using Quartz glass and that will do most the UV blocking

I think that the problem with the 100W bulb is the heat dissipation compared to standard 55 W bulb. Of course with bad quality bulbs the UV problem is there also.

I'll think of something, possibly Bit by Bit.....

I think that the problem with the 100W bulb is the heat dissipation compared to standard 55 W bulb. Of course with bad quality bulbs the UV problem is there also.

The thing is however that to make a 55W bulb let out 30% or 50% or 80/90% more light there is only one way of doing this. That is to make the element burn brighter and therefore hotter.

in the 30% bulbs it was just put a bit of Xenon in the gas mix so that the filament didn't burn out.

In the 50% and 80/90% ones they have shortened the filament, played other tricks with it's construction and winding and also probably put more Xenon in the gas mix.

All of this results in a bulb that is burning it's element hotter than the standard bulb from the factory. Chances are the heat generate from a 55W 80/90% extra bulb isn't too far from a 100W with standard internals.

As such it is more efficient but is still generating a lot more heat than usual.

Yes I know that 55W in can't possibly Generate 100W of heat out, but the 55W bulb is turning more of the 55W into heat/visible light than the cheaper 100W bulb is.

All a bit of a catch 22 really, but I would be quite certain a reflector could deal with 100W main beams. Maybe not so for dipped beams on all the time, but in these days of standardised parts, I would think there are places such as india etc where people can put 100W bulbs in and probably do as the roads are poor and dark.

Just my 2p worth and IMHO of course

The thing is however that to make a 55W bulb let out 30% or 50% or 80/90% more light there is only one way of doing this. That is to make the element burn brighter and therefore hotter.

in the 30% bulbs it was just put a bit of .....

Very true, and very well argumented by the way.

That's true that the main beams are actually used very rarely, when compared to dipped beam. But I still think that there's a small risk of burning your reflector surface. Everyone can decide by themselves are they willing to take that small risk.

In our country the 100W bulbs are quite rare. Most of the people here either go for +30% or +50% bulbs or even aftermarket HID kits.

I can't see any problem with +90% bulbs as they still draw the same current as bog standard bulbs. The +90's are just better at converting the electrical energy into light output (Lumens per watt), heat is just a waste product in this application, more light from the same wattage must equate to less heat output. A combination of the filament composition and the gas mix/pressure is what boosts the efficiency. The filament didn't look too different from the OEM effort.

A 100 watt rally bulb must give off almost 80% more heat than a nightbreaker as the light output seems to be similar yet there is almost 100% more current being drawn, that energy has to go somewhere.

A typical halogen is about 9% efficient, it would be interesting to know the efficiency of the Nightbreakers, I would guess around 15-16%- either that or I'm talking cobblers