Replacement Xenon bulbs

Clarkey

Clarkey

Clarkey

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18 Oct 2002
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Guys, now that the nights are drawing in and the weather has gone downhill I'm obviously using the headlights a lot now. My car has factory Xenon lights with D4S bulbs, and frankly I've been finding the light is pretty poor. When the roads are wet in particular, it's hard to tell if the lights are even on sometimes, and it's a little scary driving on unlit country roads, with oncoming vehicles it can be hard to see anything tbh. It's a little odd because on dry tarmac the light isn't bad.
I'm thinking of taking the plunge and buying new bulbs, obviously they are quite pricey and I'm sceptical whether it is really going to be the answer to the problem since my lights don't have any of the usual tell-tale signs of failing bulbs like flickering or changing colour.

In your guys opinion do you think spending £110 on Xenarc nightbreaker lasers is a good move?

FWIW, the lights are aimed properly and the lenses are nice and clear.
 
I've got D4S bulbs in my Focus and thought they were looking dimmer than they had in the past.

But after trying both Osram Xenarc Nightbreakers and Phillips Xtremevision I can't honestly say either are better than the standard bulbs to be honest.

Can't fault high beam on any of them, I was looking for brighter low beam performance but can't say either of the aftermarket units work better than the pen Osrams
 
Hmm that's not a glowing report. This car only has Xenon low beams, halogen high beams are very good.
It's a bit odd that the lights aren't good on this car. I had the same car before with the same lights and the old one had phenomenal headlights.
 
Problem I find is that at night on streetlit roads you pretty much can't see the low beam. Could be there's something going on with the ballast unit built into my lamps, don't know if these can deteriorate with age or they've always been like that.

Didn't realise some cars use the Xenon only for low beam - reason a lot of Xenon lamp cars also have a halogen for high beam is due to the delay (maybe very small I'll admit) for the Xenon to fire up if you flash your lamps. So they use a halogen to supplement the high beam Xenon. Not all cars seem to have this so maybe technology has improved to light the Xenon quicker.
 
I've used Osram ones and unbranded Chinese ones, never noticed any difference in light output. Weird, because the difference between branded and unbranded halogens is pretty huge.
 
tl45 said:
Problem I find is that at night on streetlit roads you pretty much can't see the low beam. Could be there's something going on with the ballast unit built into my lamps, don't know if these can deteriorate with age or they've always been like that.

Didn't realise some cars use the Xenon only for low beam - reason a lot of Xenon lamp cars also have a halogen for high beam is due to the delay (maybe very small I'll admit) for the Xenon to fire up if you flash your lamps. So they use a halogen to supplement the high beam Xenon. Not all cars seem to have this so maybe technology has improved to light the Xenon quicker.
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My car has halogen bulbs for main beams, but only for 'flash' function. The switched main beam actuates the cutoff shutter in the xenon projector. However the facelift model did away with this and just used the single xenon bulbs for all headlight functions.
 
The way xenon bulbs die is by going dimmer or over time and changing colour. Replacing them is the same as any other bulb really.. if I remember correctly my is250 had same type and one of the bulbs died (would turn off after 10-15mins) so I replaced them with Chinese xenon bulbs and they've been going strong for over a year now. Were only like £30/2 compared to 75ish/for branded units.
 
Having done a little more digging since reading these opinions here, it looks like the spec on the Osram bulbs is the same across the range. From the basic Xenarc Xenon to the range topper Xenarc nightbreaker laser, they are all 3200lm.
How can they claim some have +200% when they have the same lumen output?
 
Clarkey said:
Having done a little more digging since reading these opinions here, it looks like the spec on the Osram bulbs is the same across the range. From the basic Xenarc Xenon to the range topper Xenarc nightbreaker laser, they are all 3200lm.
How can they claim some have +200% when they have the same lumen output?
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different warmth of the bulb? or throw? lights up more road etc.. as said old bulbs = go dim so any new bulb should be better.

unless it's your balast failing and not providing enough output.. that will be more expensive
 
I don't think there is a ballast issue, the lights both strike up immediately and don't have any flicker or anything like that.
The only thing I have noticed is that with the driver side light the beam cutoff is a little fuzzy and out of focus where the passenger side is sharp.
Maybe I'll pick up some OE replacement Phillips from euro in a bit and try that. Think i'll try to clean the projector lens if I can reach it too.
 
There's some worthwhile videos reviewing xenon bulbs floating about where they're tested for light output and projection patterns etc. Now obviously your cars projector may well be different to the ones used, but it should still give a decent indication as to the spread rather than just the lumens measured in the hot spot at the centre
 
What sorts of roads are you talking about, because even with LEDs on some proper narrow country roads when its proper dark (no street lights etc) its practically impossible to see the road from your own lights when someone coming the other way is outputting similar levels of light that are towards you. As the lights get every brighter your eyes will react more

When I got my first car I remember the lights were terrible, but then so were everyone elses, so it didn't feel like you were being blinded by oncoming cars. Now most cars coming the other way on narrow roads feel like they are blinding you.

Luckily for me my bad bit of driving (its also called the awesome bit in the summer)I probably meet 10-20 cars over about 12 miles. So when its dark I just slow a fair amount, let them pass and carry on.
If it was 50+ cars that would be tricky.
 
Clarkey said:
I don't think there is a ballast issue, the lights both strike up immediately and don't have any flicker or anything like that.
The only thing I have noticed is that with the driver side light the beam cutoff is a little fuzzy and out of focus where the passenger side is sharp.
Maybe I'll pick up some OE replacement Phillips from euro in a bit and try that. Think i'll try to clean the projector lens if I can reach it too.
Click to expand...

Sounds like an issue with the projector itself, not the bulb. The internal coating could be failing, or if any of the covers are missing it could have dirt or moisture inside.
 
Possible, it is a 2006 car after all. I think that one of the bulbs at least is on the way out. I measured the light output, 1 of them is 5900 lux, the other is only 2100 and that result follows the bulb when swapped sides. I'm going to grab new bulbs tomorrow and see what the improvement is like. If that's no good then maybe I'll look at the rx350 projector swap, meant to be the best projectors going. Thinking about it, maybe my old MarkX already had that conversion, the lights were seriously good.
 
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