[tweaker]

I've installed the Osram Nightbreaker Laser Gen2 in my Jetta (with reflector type headlights) and there is a noticeable improvement in the light throw over the stock bulbs. It's not a night and day difference but if you want to improve the visibility at night, installing a pair these or any other equivalent from other brands is definitely the quickest way to improve your headlights without breaking the bank. The only thing you need to be aware of is that these bulbs won't last you as long as the stock ones due to their higher output but in terms of plug and play, it can't get easier than this.

[BrakingBad]

Originally Posted by Tjv777

They're not dull and are clear. Yes., will look at this. Thanks, mate.

Hi There, I would suggest you post a picture of your car headlamp. that would give very good idea of the condition (Note - I am not questioning your judgement on condition). since it is ~8+ year old car, there would certainly be some dullness, some amount of dust or shades.... but if you have specifically maintained it by polishing, i may be wrong. If needed, you can get the headlight polished (lot of DIY articles here in this forum).

I am not a big fan of 100/90 kind of setup since these reflectors are old and not made of metal in full, they tend get impacted by the heat generated by these bulbs. if you get an average mechanic, you may end up with problems later (my friend ended up with frequent blown fuses for his Getz).

I would recommend to go with Philips Xtreme vision plus (https://www.philips.co.in/c-p/12342X...headlight-bulb). In my experience, philips ones have better life than Osram. this is not expensive but it certainly improves visibility and no modification to your headlight wiring. (Certainly i am using it).

If you have fog lamp for your car, see whether that also requires an upgrade of bulb. if you don't have one, you can look for fitting one or go with additional driving lights from Hella.

[Kosfactor]

Originally Posted by dhanushs

For regular highway runs, you are better off adding additional driving lights, if you think you can get away from the cops!

Upgrading the stock headlights comes with a cost, and the result ain't that great when compared adding a good set of driving lights.

Very true, a lot of these upgrades aren't going in the right direction, bling factor in abundance though!

The issue with most of the vehicles that need an upgrade is with the reflector shape, too small or weirdly shaped. Putting more light inside this is going to help but not that much. A good set of AUX driving light with cover mounted a bit below the headlamps will work best and cops are fine with this set up, keep those covers on in city.

[indrasis_gun]

You have two options:
1. Economical: Get Philips Heavy Duty Wiring Kit with Philips Rally 100/90W bulbs. This will cost you approximately 1400. I have been using this setup in Swift from last 2.5 years. It is extremely powerful and the reflectors are like new till date.
2. Costlier: Get the light retrofitted with projector with hid kits. This will give you best output if your reflector and clear lens are in good condition. Otherwise you have to change the lights as well. But the retrofitting work should be top notch. It is costly too.

[swapnil.awate]

I was also not satisfied with headlight illumination of my Ford Figo which is equipped with H4 55/60 halogen bulb. Options considered:
1. Better halogen: Osram Night Breaker or Philips XtremeVision. Pros: Plug n play, inexpensive, good improvement. Cons: Not a huge improvement. Shorter life.

2. 100/90 bulb with cut-out: Pros: Better Illumination than option 1. Cons: Electricals may trouble sooner or later. Lense dulls quickly. May overheat the reflectors.

3. LEDs: Pros: Looks cool.
Cons: Improvement in illumination is not that great. IMHO perform poor in rain and on two lane highway when you encounter light beams of incoming traffic. Expensive.

4. Projector Xenon/LED: I haven’t experienced them like options mentioned above. But, what I reckon is they are the best option however exorbitantly expensive.

5. Auxiliary light: Never thought and tried so cannot comment.

I went for option 1 with Osram NB and satisfied with it. Web and personal reviews suggested to go for Osram than Philips. The improvement is not as high as claimed by manufacturer, however I found it ~33% better with a lux meter installed in my phone. Price ₹ 1500/- for pair.

[rakesh_r]

I have an S-Cross 1.6, comes with HIDs. Was never Impressed with the headlights. I did replace the fog lamps with an HID with Projector set up which somewhat helped me out. I went ahead and Installed aux lights (Driving type) which houses a 100W halogen bulb. Pretty happy with the setup. Planning to upgrade to Hella Rallye 3003 (Pencil beam).

[Kosfactor]

Originally Posted by rakesh_r

I I went ahead and Installed aux lights (Driving type) which houses a 100W halogen bulb. Pretty happy with the setup. Planning to upgrade to Hella Rallye 3003 (Pencil beam).

Among 500FF and 700FF driving lamps, it's the 500 that's more useful as the 700 feels a bit too narrow for highway use although it is a driving lamp. Will pencil beams help?

[rakesh_r]

Originally Posted by Kosfactor

Among 500FF and 700FF driving lamps, it's the 500 that's more useful as the 700 feels a bit too narrow for highway use although it is a driving lamp. Will pencil beams help?

The reason for opting for a pencil beam is, the stock headlights along with the projector fogs on my car take care of lighting up the near periphery, Pencil beams are ideal for longer throw especially on highways.

[aveemashfaq]

I have tried all the above options and here are my observations.


1. Yellow bulbs are better than white bulbs in the feel good department. When we drive on highways at night in my maruti 800 with halogen setup, my dad can see the yellowness on the road and is happy that his headlight is going that far. When he drives Getz with an expensive LED setup which illuminates much further, the black road is simply dark grey but he cannot see what his headlight is doing or how far it is going. He complains that they are useless. I find that I can see much further with an LED setup. I have actually parked my car on a deserted road and compared beam brightness between both and I found out that I can see objects much further with my LED setup than my halogen setup. It's just that the white light makes it less dark whereas yellow bulbs makes the objects popup more and identifiable but the actual illumination is miles better for LED. BTW, I drive with yellow shades at night because they make others' high beams less intense but at the same time make the whole backdrop bright yellow to create an illusion of better visibility. Highly recommended.


2. 100/90 bulbs is way better than 60/55. You can talk about expensive 60/55 halogens which are brighter than regular bulbs but nothing beats wattage. 100/90 is way better in terms of actual illumination. Make sure that you buy a quality headlight kit with two relays for individual headlights. Installing 100/90 bulbs without the kit is foolish. Many mechanics told me that 100/90 generates more heat and can potentially melt the headlight housing but I never experienced any of that despite using it for long journeys. Maybe headlight fades faster but it wont fade away in days or months. Maybe after years.


BTW, a 25 watt LED headlight gives more illumination than a 100/90 headlight.


3. Buying and installing LED headlights is a pain. First, you need to buy proper headlights with good quality beads and good wattage consumed. The first set of LEDs that I bought had 25watt low beam and 5 watt high beam beads. When I engage low beam, it gives 25 watts, when I engage high beam, it gives 25 + 5 watts, making high beam utterly useless. BTW, that 5 watt high beam gives the equivalent light of 60/55 bulb but because low beam is so MUCH brighter, you cannot even see if the high beam is turned on. I had better luck the next time with 30 watt low beam and 30 watt high beam which is killer. The only problem is that even if I flash my headlights, it only engages the high beam. I wished it engaged both so I can bully those high beamers when they irritate me. On a sidenote, please remember to use ONLY low beams when driving with powerful LEDs. Your high beams might create problems for other road users.


After buying them comes installing and because LEDs have fans behind them (good quality ones have fans), it is hard to install them in conventional bulb holders. I had problems putting the clip on and the dust cap needed to be cut to accommodate it. Your car might need more work.


4. I briefly dabbled with projectors but found out that while they are awesome for highways because they have much narrower focus and can shine for longer distances, they shine the furthest making them awesome for highway drives, they are close to useless on windy roads or city because you have no idea what is anywhere else other than in front of you. You can miss pedestrians and cyclists and unlit bikes who are beside you until they overtake you and that was scary for me.


5. Headlight housing definitely fades away and so replacing it might help you a bit.


6. Aux lights are useful but trouble other road users. Aux lights have a circular beam pattern and so if you align them parallel to the road, the other half of the beam is torturing incoming traffic. If you point it on the ground, the spotlight is on the ground 2 feet away from your car and useless because you want to see the distance.


7. Some bhpians have replaced their fog lamps with projector setup and that might be your best bet because it illuminates long distance whereas your stock headlight still spreads light nearby.

[scorpian]

Just go for the 100/90 Phillips rally bulbs along with a high quality harness with ceramic holders. After doing trial and error with all including LEDS the best so far is what I have mentioned at the start.
LEDS are all bling atleast in my opinion and they aid very little in driving. Our eyes adapt more easily to the yellow light.
I usually switch off my headlights when in traffic and that helps quite a bit to keep the heat in control. Either ways in slow traffic fog lamps are more then enough.

[Sasanka_Sanga]

Originally Posted by Tjv777

Hi, I own a 2011 Fluidic Verna (Petrol) and the headlights are pathetic on low and high beam. And it hardly has a long-range when driving on highways. Very low clarity/ illumination. I had upgraded it to some LED brand in the past, but it is hasn't helped much rather than getting white beams. The Swift has much better lighting than the 2011 Verna. What is a long-term solution? I don't mind changing the entire unit, but need to get a clear and powerful illumination especially on long-distance highway rides. Please advise on an option, brand and where I can buy online or in Kochi

My personal experience:

I had the same problem with my Honda Mobilio stock headlights. They were very pathetic and the irony was I had tough time using it on highways and my headlight always got compromised with the oncoming vehicle's.

I had taken to a car decor nearby and was suggested to use Quby Car LED Headlight and got it installed at 6,000/- rupees and BOOM!! I noticed the difference instantly. The low beam and high beams were noticeably strong and better than before. Moreover, it has 36 months unconditional replacement guarantee.

[COMMUTER]

Though the LEDs are a great option they haven't got standardized for neither projectors nor reflectors and end up dazzling the oncoming traffic while providng lower than OEM visibility, especially when it rains. It is better to go for HID projectors for low beams and halogen OEM/aux for high beams.

You can opt for sealed projectors in fog lights too.

[Chhanda Das]

Please do not install bulbs with wattage higher than 60 watts as those are illegal for use in cars in India. Higher wattage bulbs can also cause damage to the headlight housing assemblies over the long term due to intense heat generation and have been known to also start fires. I do not know how the Team-Bhp moderators and/or admins are even allowing illegal suggestions for higher wattage bulbs. Also please avoid white LEDs as they are useless in rainy and foggy conditions. Moreover, LEDs often lead to dust and moisture-related issues in the headlight housing assembly over the long term. Please try to get your Verna's beam spread, focus and direction adjusted at any authorized service centre according to your requirements or you can even do it yourself. I know this because a similar headlamp issue happened with my Creta and I got it rectified during 1st service. After that we even went for a tour of Assam and Meghalaya from Kolkata. We found that the lighting performance of the stock Sylvania 60 watt headlamps was good enough even during dense foggy conditions in the middle of the night on the treacherous hills of Meghalaya and we didn't even need to use the foglamps. Another option, only if your Verna has projectors and not reflectors, would be to go for 35 watt 4300k HIDs kits. Please do not go for 6000k as it is whitish and suffers from the same uselessness as the LEDs in rainy and foggy conditions. You can go for 55-60 watt HIDs too provided the light is within legal limits. However, for 55-60 watt HIDs, you would definitely need to install relays which is not the case with 35 watt HIDs. According to different user experiences from our Creta group members on facebook, Osram's HID kits are the best budget options while the absolute best ones are made by Morimoto and priced accordingly. As far as I know, Verna, Creta and Jeep's Compass use the exact same headlamp sizes ...

[Samir Taheer]

Originally Posted by Chhanda Das

Please do not install bulbs with wattage higher than 60 watts as those are illegal for use in cars in India. Higher wattage bulbs can also cause damage to the headlight housing assemblies over the long term due to intense heat generation and have been known to also start fires. I do not know how the Team-Bhp moderators and/or admins are even allowing illegal suggestions for higher wattage bulbs...According to different user experiences from our Creta group members on facebook, Osram's HID kits are the best budget options while the absolute best ones are made by Morimoto and priced accordingly. As far as I know, Verna, Creta and Jeep's Compass use the exact same headlamp sizes ...

We've used 100W and sometime ago 130W bulbs in our Gypsies, Estates, Pajeros, LC, Etc thru the ages with no problem's - No Fires, No Lens Destortion, No Flaking, Etc

Additionally, HIDS's in a standard projector are useless and just as illegal. I currently Have a full Morimoto setup, including Projectors and 55w bulbs and those are something else!

On LED's I agree with you. But after hours of research, I have ordered two sets from the USA. One from Cougar Motor (Budget Option) and another from Headlight Revolution which is the S-V.4. I am going to try these out in my High Beam, since the Low Beam already has the Morimoto Mini H1. I don't expect these LED's to work, but it's an experiment.

[Reinhard]

Originally Posted by Chhanda Das

You can go for 55-60 watt HIDs too provided the light is within legal limits. However, for 55-60 watt HIDs, you would definitely need to install relays which is not the case with 35 watt HIDs. According to different user experiences from our Creta group members on facebook, Osram's HID kits are the best budget options while the absolute best ones are made by Morimoto and priced accordingly. As far as I know, Verna, Creta and Jeep's Compass use the exact same headlamp sizes ...

Absolutely agree with all your points & I have done the conversion with Osram kit myself.

Just one doubt. I don't think we'll need to use a relay harness to install a 55W HID conversion kit. The stock halogen bulbs are already 55W and the wiring harness is made to support those. So a 55W HID also should work the same right? Only when we install an equipment that needs more power than original specifications would we need a relay harness to draw "cleaner" power from the battery directly.