headlight bulbs

[Rossi-fan]

I'm sick to death of being blinded by oncoming headlights. It must be great to see a nice brightly lit road in front of you at the expense of the poor sod coming towards you.

[wimorrison]

Originally Posted by Simon Jones

According to this, as long as you've got 4 wheels, there is no limit:

http://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/1...chedule/4/made

Of course, the wiring and plastic lens might tell you otherwise....

Hmm, the law used to be 55w maximum but I agree that reading this that would no longer seem to apply - however the law still states that you must not use lights that dazzle other road users, so you you may be able to use powerful lights (assuming the wiring, reflectors and lenses done burn out) but they will still nab you if you are dazzling oncoming traffic.

[volvoid]

Who nabs you - the bright light police ? We’re a bit short of bright sparks in that department

[ThomasG]

Got to defend myself here, it seems.
Yes, I do have powerful bulbs.

No, I don't think I'll dazzle (much) oncoming drivers.

How?

I've set my lights all the way down.
And I'll raise them only if I actually have to.

And spending most of road time in a city with every street lit all night..

Means I'll raise them maybe once a year. If that.
Otherwise its a short-short beam.

[derek vivian]

This is all very interesting. I see that each headlight has it own 15amp fuse. 100 watts is 8amps so there shouldn't be any problem, but can there be any other reason not to use bulbs brighter than 55W?

[Simon Jones]

The downside of fitting brighter & brighter bulbs (especially in headlamps that are not designed for them) is that it becomes a race to the bottom such that everyone is being blinded by everyone else. Bog-standard headlamps that are well maintained with good quality standard bulbs should be perfectly fine when setup correctly & used by a driver with decent eyesight. If someone is having difficulty seeing where they are going at night, then it would be prudent to get their eyes or car tested to establish what the problem is.

[ThomasG]

Uhhhh that hurt..
I've got astigmatism..

-2.75 points..

But real reason: I fitted them out of curiosity.
And for now the only remaining valid reason for keeping them, is that they dont seem to blow that easily.
And I still have 2 left..

When (if?) I run out, I may fit "normal" 55W. Until then I see no point.

Edit:
By then I think I'll be owner of an P3 anyways, me thinks. Current P2 V70.

[Rossi-fan]

Done an awful lot of night driving, so I'm putting my blindness down to all those retro fitted headlights and stupidly bright bulbs people feel the need to fit. Thank goodness I've got brail on my keypad

[owyn]

Originally Posted by ThomasG

Uhhhh that hurt..
I've got astigmatism..

-2.75 points..

But real reason: I fitted them out of curiosity.
And for now the only remaining valid reason for keeping them, is that they dont seem to blow that easily.
And I still have 2 left..

When (if?) I run out, I may fit "normal" 55W. Until then I see no point.

Edit:
By then I think I'll be owner of an P3 anyways, me thinks. Current P2 V70.

So do the 100 watt-ers make a big difference? I found the standard halogens on the Volvo pretty good but the ones on my Audi are really poor. The beam pattern seems about right but there just isn't the welly to light the area up. That's with Philips extreme bulbs as well.

[prc68]

Without wanting to enter the legality or not of running 100W bulbs there will probably be 2 other issues not mentioned:
1- the added current draw on those tiny wires used in the healights
2- the added heat of the 100w bulb will eventually yellow out the lamp reflector.