How to improve astra j reverse lighting?

I take it that all these people saying it's not a problem have built in night vision then? We have no streetlight at our end of our cul-de-sac where my parking slot is and it's pitch black at night so reversing can be a problem. Luckily my Astra G has a pair of reversing lights so it's not too bad. My old Focus only had a single reversing light though so I understand what the OP is on about completely.
 
My E39 had two enormous reversing lights that fully illuminated behind me, which makes the current cars piddly little LED's even more annoying.
 
One said:
There's never a situation where you have to reverse and you don't know what's behind you. To reverse you have to have come from the direction you now want to go so you should remember what was there. If you were parked you get to see everything before getting in the car to reverse.
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You try reversing up a pitch black single track lane blocked by a fallen tree or flood with no place to turn for half a mile. Both my reverse lights are Cree LED now and much better than before and with fog light and brake lights on I could reverse for eternity.:D
 
Something which I've always found to be a head-scratcher is that reversing lights aren't required for an MOT. Apparently telling people that you are going backwards isn't that important...
 
Finglonga said:
You try reversing up a pitch black single track lane blocked by a fallen tree or flood with no place to turn for half a mile. Both my reverse lights are Cree LED now and much better than before and with fog light and brake lights on I could reverse for eternity.:D
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Do you still have that X6? Did the Cree LED's go in ok without bulb warnings etc?
 
With my car I found the unfortunate spec combination of privacy glass and auto-dimming rear view mirror made the visibility for reversing at night to be much worse than in any previous cars I'd owned :rolleyes: I also have to park on a road with no streetlighting.

Couple of alternatives bulbs here

http://www.alltronix.co.uk/cree-leds/

Obviously makes the lamps much brighter but sadly for me even going to a double reversing lamp set-up with a pair of the 50W lamps didn't overcome the problem till I upgraded the head unit with a Chinese built DVD/sat-nav plus reverse camera :cool:

From memory going to CREE bulbs I think the polarity of the bulbs didn't match the car's wiring but I got round that as part of doing the twin lamp conversion, and as I tried a few different types the later ones weren't polaity dependent in any case.
 
tl45 said:
With my car I found the unfortunate spec combination of privacy glass and auto-dimming rear view mirror made the visibility for reversing at night to be much worse than in any previous cars I'd owned :rolleyes: I also have to park on a road with no streetlighting.
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I feel your pain, never thought about it when it got my current car but tinted rears and dimming mirror means reversing at night is almost guesswork!
 
This is what is currently in there.

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Although looking at the rear of the car is looks bright but because its not outputting much light into the reflector its actually poor and not illumination anything behind.

I have now ordered some of these to try.

2pcs-CAN-bus-Error-Free-24-SMD-4014-H21W-BAY9s-120-degress-LED-Bulbs-For-Position.jpg_640x640.jpg


Hopefully they will reflect more.

I have been informed that the car will fail its test next year in Germany if it still has its fog on the right hand side so I may get a LHD reverse cluster so it then has 2.
 
[TW]Fox;30383853 said:
Do you still have that X6? Did the Cree LED's go in ok without bulb warnings etc?
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No got rid of the X6 and got a new Mk7 Golf GTI now but uses same Canbus system requiring an error free LED bulb to avoid errors.

I am using these.....

 
Hyburnate said:
I fitted some LED bulbs to my fiesta which dramatically improved visibility - Although it did have 2 lights. The leon sadly only has one rear reversing light and I am considering upgrading it shortly - However it does have LED rear lights which light up anything I'm about to hit
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I changed mine to an LED the other day, quite a bit brighter and looks more modern too. Already changed the rear indicators to LEDs a few months back.
 
One said:
There's never a situation where you have to reverse and you don't know what's behind you. To reverse you have to have come from the direction you now want to go so you should remember what was there. If you were parked you get to see everything before getting in the car to reverse.
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Er, there are loads of situations where you have to reverse and not know what's behind you! Think about it.

OP on my cars I always upgrade the reverse lights to some kind of Cree type LED arrangement, seems to work well. On one of my old 205s I removed the fog lamp blank and replaced it with a square Ring spotlight hooked up to the reverse lights. MUCH too bright for sensible road use but an absolute godsend on road rallies in the middle of the night.

Haze said:
this thread is amazing, i think you need a trip to Specsavers if you can not see at night
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Were you equipped with night vision at birth or something?
 
Giving the brakes a little tap every now and then if probably the answer here. My mk2 Focus only had one reverse light and it was very low so not much use but luckily I never had to reverse anywhere pitch black in it!

Out of interest, where are you regularly reversing where the streets aren't lit up by street lighting? Because most towns / streets / car parks are never pitch black, even in the middle of the night.
 
Were you equipped with night vision at birth or something?
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Tbf you must have pretty poor eye sight to not see something behind you illuminated by the standard red tail lights. You're only going to be moving a couple mph you don't need to see more than a meter or two
 
Jamesyboyjim said:
Out of interest, where are you regularly reversing where the streets aren't lit up by street lighting? Because most towns / streets / car parks are never pitch black, even in the middle of the night.
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Have you ever heard of the countryside :p My driveway is pitch black as no street lights anywhere near my house so i regularly encounter this problem, especially if i end up having to reverse on one of the unlit single track lanes as you've met another car or something

I tend to have to either turn on the rear fog light of have my other foot lightly on the brakes so give me a bit more illumination, it's very annoying that the reversing lights don't really do what they're meant too.

I'll have to look into some Cree type bulbs in my cars as it would be really helpful.
 
sovietspybob said:
Have you ever heard of the countryside :p My driveway is pitch black as no street lights anywhere near my house so i regularly encounter this problem, especially if i end up having to reverse on one of the unlit single track lanes as you've met another car or something

I tend to have to either turn on the rear fog light of have my other foot lightly on the brakes so give me a bit more illumination, it's very annoying that the reversing lights don't really do what they're meant too.

I'll have to look into some Cree type bulbs in my cars as it would be really helpful.
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A fair point!

Does the op live in the country too?
 
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