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Poor Headlights

44K views 85 replies 16 participants last post by  ianodel 
#1 ·
Has anyone successfully upgraded their dipped beams without showing a fault
 
#2 ·
You could just fit better bulbs,I found Philips racing vision bulbs along with raising the lights to the correct height helped to improve the poor lights.there is plenty of choice in upgraded bulbs on eBay.
 
#4 ·
BigToe555 said:
Did you think the same as me that the factory lamps are pants, is because they are projector lamps?
I dont know for sure that the bulbs inside the lamps in my used Astra K are the factory fitted ones, but if they are, i can tell you that they are philips longlife bulbs that, in a test i read, got a mediocre score of 68. Philips Xtremevision bulbs got 117 points in the same test and was test winner.

I bet a lot is gained, just by putting in brighter bulbs and adjusting the bulbs to the correct height.

Being a tight git, i am goint to live with the poor light of the longlife bulbs, but when they blow, i am certainly going to replace them with something else.

Hopefully the EU will change the rules and allow LED bulbs for retrofitting into existing projector lamps, as far as i have read, they are a massive improvement over halogen bulbs.
 
#8 ·
BigToe555 said:
I wouldn't worry about EU regulations if putting LED's in the projector lamps gave a better, safer light without showing dash errors. I tried LED's in the rear number plate lamps, they looked great but 'error on the dash'
In my country, fitting anything not approved with better light would be noticed straight away by the police as this is one of their focus points, you would be pulled over, get a fine and be asked to take the car for a MOT to show you legalised the car.

Seems that Philips is pushing really hard for approval of LED lamps for headlight replacement for existing cars with their ultinon series, but unless the EU changes the laws, lawabiding citicens will have to keep using the Halogen bulbs.

If EU some day approves LED's, i guess that it would not be that difficult for Vauxhall to reprogram the car to accept these.

They should just add a setting in the infotainment system to enable "LED's installed" and have this feature disable the "bulb is blown" testing on the headlamps.

It seems strange that the same EU people that decided that the rear lamps on my car can be off in the day to save power and thus minimize emissions would find it a good solution for saving 2*5W, but not find that it was a great idea to be allowed to retrofit for example Philips Ultinon's that draw 14W instead of a 55 W halogen.

Saving 2*41W = 82W is 8 times more than the rear bulbs would.

With 28W total, and "infinite" running hours between changing, it would be possible to just make everyone run their dipped beams all the time again, which would make cars much more visible than with the tiny LED DRL of todays cars.

PS. Philips Ultinon's will not fit the low beam on the Astra K and in any case they will need balast resistors to avoid bulb warning.
 
#10 ·
Same here, swapped out the stock bulbs for some brighter, whiter ones that match the white LEDs of the running lights. Got the warning nag with the ones I fitted from Halfords, but when one blew I had my local (independent) garage replace them both for a different variety and the nag has disappeared.

The original bulbs were shockers...surely it's pennies for VX to fit better ones in the factory?
 
#11 ·
Just decided to check headlamp adjustment as i dont think the light is that good either.

From what i have learned the correct height is for the beam to drop 1 centimeter for every meter.

I found that both my lamps were set so that they dropped 5 centimeters at one meter.

Also they were not set to the same height, at one meter they were offset by about 1 cm in relation to eachother.
 
G
#12 ·
Hi all. First of all Vauxal/Opel should know better if we need for LED to drive better, why there are in opposite Halogen lights that in dark raining nights we cannot see the road lines!?
I did spend a lot of money to find a solution for this real problem of driving safety.
I now use a Kit xenon H7C 35W 6000K (less glaring), the Ballast it is a Slim Canbus III this kind of ballast bring to small boxes that eliminate flickering and computer error.
There is some other better things, if a small box fail, if a xenon bulb fail, if a ballast fail, the car computer say there is an error on the headlight and shutdown the power of that bulb prevent that something went much wrong. It is great!
The other thing is, make complaint to the Caudal/Opel as I did and after that I started to use xenon, non car driving was troubled by my headlights, surprise was when I tried to use Philips White Vision, some drivers made headlights signal to me.
Try to show in UK the danger that comes from Astra halogen headlights, and before the authority being stupid by no reason, show the improvement from this xenon configuration which is a white light with more 25% of light.
To me it is stupid, making a car, some with spectacular LED lights and the same car with poor halogen lights.
 
G
#13 ·
Hi all. First of all Vauxal/Opel should know better if we need for LED to drive better, why there are in opposite Halogen lights that in dark raining nights we cannot see the road lines!?
I did spend a lot of money to find a solution for this real problem of driving safety.
I now use a Kit xenon H7C 35W 6000K (less glaring), the Ballast it is a Slim Canbus III this kind of ballast bring two small boxes that eliminate flickering and computer error.
There is some other better things, if a small box fail, if a xenon bulb fail, if a ballast fail, the car computer say there is an error on the headlight and shutdown the power of that bulb prevent that something went much wrong. It is great!
The other thing is, make complaint to the Caudal/Opel as I did and after that I started to use xenon, non car driving was troubled by my headlights, surprise was when I tried to use Philips White Vision, some drivers made headlights signal to me.
Try to show in UK the danger that comes from Astra halogen headlights, and before the authority being stupid by no reason, show the improvement from this xenon configuration which is a white light with more 25% of light.
To me it is stupid, making a car, some with spectacular LED lights and the same car with poor halogen lights.
 
#18 ·
I use the method I have allways used -- set them against a wall to get them level and then tweak on the open road until the aim is correct and I dont get flashed. Even one flash is too much. Check against the back of cars in front that the lights are ok and not too high. I've set headlghts that way for years, passes the MOT every time.
 
G
#19 ·
I am trying to Opel make an upgrade of homologation to let use "disarge" xenon lights on Vauxhall/Opel Astra K.
In Portugal last month happen 5 night accidents by dim headlights.
I hope that EU stop car use halogen lights on cars!
 
#20 ·
I must disagree with the people who say that the 'k' headlights when adjusted etc are ok, THEY ARE NOT ! I drive my wife's Suzuki Swift on occasion at night and can directly compare the lights and my Astra in comparison are dreadful,and this is not comparing to a high quality car,the Suzuki lights are immensely superior and if we have to travel at night we always take the Suzuki,the difference is huge,on the same roads we both feel more comfortable leaving the Astra at home.
 
#21 ·
Alanw said:
I must disagree with the people who say that the 'k' headlights when adjusted etc are ok, THEY ARE NOT ! I drive my wife's Suzuki Swift on occasion at night and can directly compare the lights and my Astra in comparison are dreadful,and this is not comparing to a high quality car,the Suzuki lights are immensely superior and if we have to travel at night we always take the Suzuki,the difference is huge,on the same roads we both feel more comfortable leaving the Astra at home.
Did you get them properly adjusted and did you fit "Nightbreaker", "Philips X-Tremevision" or similar lamps with higher than normal light output.

I saw the difference between "low beam adjusted way to low, philips longlife bulbs that were a couple of years old" and "Properly adjusted lamps with high, light output lamps" and there were a world of difference.

It's not xenon or intellilux bright, but way better than original.
 
#24 ·
Hi astraowner,to answer your question-I have done all I can to try to improve the lights,first I had them adjusted then I fitted GE mega light +120 bulbs which were slightly better then I read some tests and bought Phillips Racingvision +150 bulbs which were the biggest gain but still compared to other vehicles I travel in for a modern car they remain very poor and I can do no more to the lights.
 
G
#25 ·
I have an answer from Opel that propose me to buy another Astra with LED, looks like they're are not an adult company!
Do as I did force them to homologate xenon H7C 35W canbus iII.
I did propose Opel to test my Opel Astra with this xenon configuration and they do not care, but the Opel representative in my town did check and they say the light it is great and compared with other Opel Astra J it is the same!
We should force Opel to make xenon legal before someone get an accident and an investigation show that was poor light the responsible by the accident.
 
#26 ·
damas7 said:
I have an answer from Opel that propose me to buy another Astra with LED, looks like they're are not an adult company!
Do as I did force them to homologate xenon H7C 35W canbus iII.
I did propose Opel to test my Opel Astra with this xenon configuration and they do not care, but the Opel representative in my town did check and they say the light it is great and compared with other Opel Astra J it is the same!
We should force Opel to make xenon legal before someone get an accident and an investigation show that was poor light the responsible by the accident.
I dont think that it is Opel you need to be mad at.

In my country you need headlamp washers, automatic level adjustment and approved lamps to be able to legally fit Xenon.

So no matter what Opel wanted, they could not just retrofit your car with Xenon.....Headlamp washers are not even an option on the astra as far as i know and the automatic level adjusting is only available on Intellilux lamps.
 
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