V70 headlights
 

I know these headlights arnt the best but has anyone seen a noted improvement by just adding some stronger bulbs in daybreakers or Phillips elements?
Regards
Dan

Nightbreakers are good. Problem is its very much dependent on how much reflective material (and its pattern!) is left in the lights. If there isn't a lot left then it doesn't matter what bulbs you use!

Had to replace both headlight, MOT failure!
Bought two new from PFS and fitted Osram Nightbreakers, results are very good, much brighter and longer beam pattern.
In fact I would say better than my C class Merc with Osram CoolBlue fitted.

I had great results just fitting a decent H7R HID kit into standard OEM headlamps. (cost is approximately £50)

Stronger bulbs won't really make the night/day difference if your lamps are aged. HID's would help a lot more. If your headlamps are shot, just get some better 2nd hand units or new pattern parts.... makes a world of difference.

Avoid projector upgrades on the 70' cars, they are f*cking useless even with HIDs in.

All very well and good but its illegal and can fail you in your MOT too. Beyond that it also messes with your beam pattern and will have so much glare other road users will detest you.

Hi Cookeh, DSK is the guy who knows all about HID kits. Thanks to his help I purchased an H7R kit for my 1998 V70 new reflector headlights. The headlights are good quality and cost about £90.00. I fitted a 35w 5000k certified HID kit at a cost of about £70.00 from ebay uk. The beams were aligned by a garage and there is no glare to other road users. The clear white light is wonderful and I can now see where I am driving. DSK has I believe fitted several different kits to his car and it would therefore follow that MOT is not a problem. jack

Glare is usually caused by idiots fitting bulbs upside down (how the hell that happens is beyond me), not having headlamps adjusted at an MOT station after removing/refitting them and using the wrong type of HID kits for the headlamp type.

So far I have never had any issues with any of my lights and HIDs at MOT time and been running them for years.

The fact you can get good quality HID kits does not detract from the fact that it is illegal to retrofit them to a car, especially one with reflectors which are not designed to be used with HIDs.

Please see the gov.uk listing here. It makes everything quite clear from a legal standpoint.

This should also correlate to an MOT failure as the lamps on our cars will not be stamped with the CE98 type approval and they do not have self-levelling systems (and often aren't self-cleaning as we all know how often wiper motors like to die!).

If I'm being totally honest I think such a rule is ridiculous and good quality HID that can be shown to have a good beam pattern without glare should be legal. Unfortunately that is not the case and I do not think it is a wise idea to recommend an illegal solution to someone publicly when it could create trouble for them. There are ways of emulating the performance of HIDs whilst avoiding any legal or MOT issues, namely through new headlights and good quality bulbs like Nightbreakers.

Thanks for your replies and I will start by checking my headlight gets and getting better bulbs and good night from there.