V50 halogen headlights - Retrofitlab projectors halogen H7

[CraigV50]

Hello all,

Just thought I would share my “upgrade” experience. We all know that the V50/S40/C30 standard halogen headlights are a weak point of an otherwise great car.

I shelled out £130 on the H7 E46 projectors at Retrofitlab; they’ve made a massive difference. Car feels safe to drive at night again. The projectors were an easy enough swap and had a short drive last night and didn’t get flashed, but to be honest the cut off on the light beam is very obvious (now), so didn’t expect to. Recommend as a fix to our rubbish H7 headlights.

If you’re interested, make sure you select H7 for the UK in the “projector type”, then you can re-use your own bulbs.

https://retrofitlab.com/products/aha...c3bb6f97&_ss=r

[Sidonas]

If anyone's interested, there's a huge thread with comparison pictures of different types of projectors (both halogen and xenon).

https://www.volvoforums.org.uk/showthread.php?t=263340

[Trellis]

Thanks for sharing the H7 update experience. I'm new to V50 ownership (2008 T5) and I'm looking at going the same upgrade route myself. Is yours a facelift car...? I'm just a bit worried about the new projectors being longer than the old ones.

[LizardOfBodom]

Originally Posted by Trellis

Thanks for sharing the H7 update experience. I'm new to V50 ownership (2008 T5) and I'm looking at going the same upgrade route myself. Is yours a facelift car...? I'm just a bit worried about the new projectors being longer than the old ones.

Just FYI, facelift cars has much better projectors from stock with clear lens, unlike fresnel "milky" one on pre-FL cars. Unless you have done already, I would pull out 1 projector out from the lamp and inspect it/clean it, sometimes it does wonders if lens is just dusty and reflector chrome is not flakey.
You will also notice how much "spare room" you have left as yes Aharon projectors are a bit longer but never heard anyone having problems with them when fitted to FL cars anyway.

Bear in mind, although light output on those new H7 projectors will for sure be better, the beam is MUCH more narrow and bit annoying on unlit rural roads (properly adjusted foglamps come in handy then...)

[ymc30]

Because this platform has projector headlights the easiest way I have found is to use good quality LED replacement bulbs with proper focus point.

Oh, you are blinding the oncoming traffic!!! You are reckless mate!
Let me tell you that the light pattern is exactly the same, just brighter, that's why you need to buy quality LED bulbs. All done for £50.

[Trellis]

That's very useful info - thanks LizardOfBodom.

I took both projectors out yesterday actually - having judiciously removed enough of the load adjuster mounting plastic to be able to extract the tricky third projector mounting screw.

I was quite surprised to find that the chrome in both projectors is in pretty good condition, especially considering how cr@p the lights are! Anyway, I cleaned everything and refitted them - noting, as you say, the 'spare room'!

Haven't had a chance to test them in the dark yet. I'm expecting only a minor improvement, at best, so I'm still tempted by the Aharons, although I appreciate your caution about the narrow beam.

[Trellis]

Originally Posted by ymc30

Because this platform has projector headlights the easiest way I have found is to use good quality LED replacement bulbs with proper focus point.

Oh, you are blinding the oncoming traffic!!! You are reckless mate!
Let me tell you that the light pattern is exactly the same, just brighter, that's why you need to buy quality LED bulbs. All done for £50.

Sounds reasonable. The oncoming traffic is blinding me too! Any bulb recommendations please?

[LizardOfBodom]

Originally Posted by ymc30

Because this platform has projector headlights the easiest way I have found is to use good quality LED replacement bulbs with proper focus point.

Oh, you are blinding the oncoming traffic!!! You are reckless mate!
Let me tell you that the light pattern is exactly the same, just brighter, that's why you need to buy quality LED bulbs. All done for £50.

em, yea and no, I would advise looking into general light optics rules and refraction issues caused by some "dyi combo" as you cant generalise it in the way "projector headlights well then yo can put whatever you want".

pre FL models had fresnel lenses and by design it refract the light much more than clear ones, so putting LED/HID into that would cause a lot of dazzling, check the beam pattern from fresnel lens and compare it to razor sharp cutoff of clear ones and thats this.
also dont forget the LED bulb is never the same as H7, no matter what tricks producent will do it may only mimics 360deg light emitance of H7, sometimes better sometimes worse but it doesnt have to be "the same" as per rule. So yes as you said "proper focus point" is one thing but another one is using it in non-conforming projector with wrong lens, improper cutoff/shutter etc etc. Its not black/white as it seem, unfortunately lots of people do exactly this and some results are, well....

[LizardOfBodom]

Originally Posted by Trellis

Sounds reasonable. The oncoming traffic is blinding me too! Any bulb recommendations please?

ugh, cmon, dont go that route "im blinded so I will blind others" otherwise lets all happily remove shutters from our projectors and put aircraft grade discharge bulbs in them
Whatever bulbs you will try, do the same test - go to unlit place with nice wall in front of the car, park few meters away and observe the light pattern. Do it on your current lights, and then try the same (with the same distance) on replacement ones - just make sure there are no light leaks over the shutter, no odd haze/dazzle or refractions. If needed - adjust beam slightly as LED bulbs can seat differently to halogen ones. you want nice, sharp light/darkness contrast and not being one of those tools that are blinding you - for that you have high beams to fight with but other users are jus passers by so dont applky that logic to them.


As they say, "with more power, comes more responsibility" and I always found this to apply for light retrofitting aswell

[rxtian]

I put the retrofit labs projectors into our C30, but put the lenses from the original lights into the new projectors. This gave the best of both worlds in my opinion - you get the new reflector and the moving shutter for extra high beam, but the original lens gives some extra width/diffusion to make them more like the OEM lights were when new.