LoFi

I second what 964russ says.

PiersLoFi

meek

Police officer interviewing other road user. "So, what kind of car was it that caused you to crash?"
ORU, " Not a clue; bloody HIDs blinded me".

Must admit I don't get the whole HID thing. If another car is coming the other way, lights are low beam and neither car can see much of the road as they pass; brighter lights aren't going to help. Main beam is the important bit, and standard H4 in high beam are just fine for non-insane road speeds. Someone educate me?

Paz

There's no UK restriction on wiring/relays, only that anything above standard 55 Watt bulbs are not road legal.

Paz

Well said MEEK, standard halogen lamps reflectors and lenses are designed to emit their particular beam pattern specifically for halogen bulbs.
Xenon lamps have clear lenses (usually) and thus have a totally different reflector design.
Putting aftermarket HID's into halogen lamp units simply causes glare.

My previous car had factory fitted xenon headlamps and they were brilliant, the light emitted does help immensely even on lit roads but they do glare oncoming drivers also . . .

PorscheZen

Using silverstar ultras (or the brightest) as well as ultra fog lamp bulbs - aimed higher. The combination is not too shabby...

DaveK

Previously, I would have agreed with you (which is why said I'd always thought my lights were OK before) - but at the moment, my main beam doesn't seem good enough even at non-insane road speeds (i.e. not good enough to do 60mph on a country road).

That's why it seems more like something has "broken" - even though they seem to be working fine. Which makes me wonder if John's suggestion about new bulbs might solve the problem.

meek

Dave, I would be interested, as I am sure others would, what results new bulbs will give. Please do post up your thoughts when done.

Scottie

I guess it depends how deep your pockets are. AP Car design has a nice 964 Xenon headlight upgrade for 1299- €.

boxsey911

I saw a lot of improvement when I replaced the bulbs. I used the halfords brighter bulbs which are pretty much the same as the silverstars. I would describe the lights as adequate for normal night time driving.

warmfuzzies

An EU requirement is also to have headlamp washers, as well as the self levelling system.

kevin

DaveK

I'm beginning to suspect the problems may not be the headlights themselves.

After a long run yesterday, the car was quite sluggish to turn over. I just started it up in the garage (it's been on a trickle charger all night) and it seems the headlights don't increase in brightness as I increase revs on the car. Even with a fully charged battery, that doesn't seem right.

So I'm wondering if I have a basic alternator problem and the poor headlights were a result of that. I'll dig out a multi-meter at some point and test it properly, but probably not today.

Edited to add : I did just stick a multimeter across the battery terminals, and it does look like I might have a shot alternator. I have a healthy 12.75v from the battery before I start the car - but after starting it, it seems to drop to about 12.5v and stay there - and even increasing engine speed didn't help. In several attempts I did see it once go up to about 13.75v but only briefly and couldn't make it do that again.

So perhaps my headlights themselves are fine - if they're actually fed with enough power! I'll wait until we get a decent dry weekend (that's not too cold or trying to snow!) and then have a proper look. But I suspect it's time for a new alternator.

Second edit : Checked it again - engine at idle, 12.45v across battery terminals. From the threads I've found, replacing the alternator doesn't look difficult - I'll decide over the next few days if I want to do it myself or I'll book it in to have it sorted. I am quite impressed the car did about 90 miles yesterday with apparently no alternator!

ThomasC2

It will not do any magic, but here's three things to improve the lights.

1 Clean the reflectors. They get dirtier than you think.

2 Get new bulbs and use quality bulbs like OSRAM etc

3 Replace the lenses. They get worn and chipped after some years.

All these things are cheap to do and will make a difference, but we're not talking 200% better :-)

Thomas

vernon

I bough a new set of H 1 lights ten years ago an relays for them they have been in my 964 for ten years . They are just like new! their is two bulbs in each light an I run 60 for low an 100 for the high I really like them. Vernon.

watsonj0

Put these on From AP design yesterday I like

Jonnygo1

VERY nice! I like the looks of those, although a bit spendy for me