Bulbs...

[December]

Ok, so i was thinking of buying a couple of xenon bulbs high beam, low beam and fog lights.

Fog H3
Low Beam H7
High Beam H1

Is that correct ?

Also if i want to simply replace the old ones with these new ones they need to be "12V 55W" right ? If they are they don't need any transformers; am i right ?

 

[BEOWULF]

i brought a complete set of bulbs of eBay at £15.99 great improvement over the standard one lot brighter

 

[December]

And you just removed the old ones and and fitted in the new right ? I remember looking at some spanish website where they also used some transformers for the power input :|.

I found Xenon bulbs at the hypermarket just outside the city at about the same price for the complete set.

Do you know where i can find a guide on how to replace the bulbs ? Preferably in english and with tons of pictures

Or maybe you could give me a few pointers ?

 

[TheOtherSimon]

There are two different types of Xenon bulb.

There are the ordinary Tungsten Halogen filament bulbs, which have a bit of Xenon added to the mix. These cost 10-20, although some really cheap ones are on ebay. Osram SilverStar and Philips VisionPlus are the acknowledged best buys.

Then there are arc discharge HID bulbs. These come as a kit with a ballast to get the hundreds of volts the arc needs. These kits are illegal to fit, although legal to supply. Many people have fitted them and few have been caught.

Simon.

 

[cymrucupra]

Anybody tried the PIAA types? They draw 55w but give out 110W of light and give a Xenon effect.
Not cheap at about £40 a pair but rally boys swear by them.
Not sure how legal they are though

 

[BEOWULF]

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/SEAT-LEON-XEN...6QQihZ015QQcategoryZ72235QQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem
i got these in mine make a lot of difference

 

[Rookwise]

Mmmmm I'm looking at that sellers item list and especially at teh ice blue ones

Edit:

Sod it. Decided to go for the Xenon ones from there

 

[Brucel]

Anyone know the life span of these bulbs? Was looking at the phillips one's but they are around £21.... Are these any different?

Thanks

 

[December]

Never heard anyone talk about the lifespan; you may at one point want to carry a spare, probably .

 

[Brucel]

Never heard anyone talk about the lifespan; you may at one point want to carry a spare, probably .

I always carry a spare but these one's I have now last about 6 months then pop..... The headlamp bulbs in my Astra however lasted 2-3 years.... so is it worth buying bulbs at £21-25 quid for them to last the same amount of time as a similar one thats cheaper?

 

[daniel_owen_uk]

Anybody tried the PIAA types? They draw 55w but give out 110W of light and give a Xenon effect.
Not cheap at about £40 a pair but rally boys swear by them.
Not sure how legal they are though

They definitely aren't within the laws of physics that's for damn sure

 

[December]

They definitely aren't within the laws of physics that's for damn sure

LOL ... i'm speechless

 

[AshCupra300]

I had Phillips Blue Vision in my Volvo as the standard bulbs were rubbish, these were the closest thing I got to Xenon without going down the HID route, depnds how much you want to spend, as said http://www.powerbulbs.co.uk/ are good and you get free Phillips Blue Vision side light bulbs with every purchase of headlight bulb set. These really set the look off.

Try these sites for HID setups

http://www.piaa.co.uk/bulbs/bulbshow.asp?ID=hid

or

http://www.h-i-d.co.uk/products1.shtml

These are the folks I bought my Xenon look bulbs from when I had my BMW 328M Sport and they were ace as well, see HIGH WATTAGE XENON -LOOK BULBS about a quater of the way down.

Hope this helps you decide

 

[TheOtherSimon]

PIAA ones are rubbish - they failed pretty much all the test when AutoCar tried them. What they mean by their claim is that their filaments are wound more precisely to give you a bright spot in the middle of the beam - effectively 110W brightness in the centre, even though it is a 55W bulb.

It's the same idea that allows other manufacturers to claim +30% and +50%, even though the bulbs still put out the same total light (in order to comply with the ECE rules).

Osram SilverStar and Philips VisionPlus were tested to be the best by Autocar - everything else is hearsay and marketing. Their lifetime is excellent.

 

[RobM]

How easy is it to change the headlight bulbs on the Leon?

 

[Rookwise]

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/SEAT-LEON-XEN...6QQihZ015QQcategoryZ72235QQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem
i got these in mine make a lot of difference

Mine came today from that seller. Quite a good set. Swapping the bulbs over was well easy apart from the sidelights which were a right pain to get out. Finally managed to do it with the help of a thin flatblade screwdriver

Sidelights/Running lights

Dipped Beam

Full Beam

 

[December]

Where's the "blue tint" ?

 

[RobM]

You'll never get much of a blue tint from replacement bulbs alone. Perhaps when they have heated up a bit, if you catch them at the right angle, but still not a great deal. It's the extra visibility that's the real bonus

 

[Vicky M]

if you've changed your fogs to "blue" i would suggest you change them back, unless you intend to use them for winding up other drivers instead of using them in fog.

yeah they look cool when cruisin' and trying to impress people while failing miserably.
but in fog, they are shite. all you get is a wall of white light that reflectsback at you off the fog, whereas yellow fogs undercut the mist and light up the edges of the road

 

[Vicky M]

You'll never get much of a blue tint from replacement bulbs alone. Perhaps when they have heated up a bit, if you catch them at the right angle, but still not a great deal. It's the extra visibility that's the real bonus

i see your point, but disagree.
most "blue" bulbs aren't blue, they have a slight blue filter to the glass which eradicates any yellow light, thus making the light appear whiter.

some bulbs have xenon gas inserted which means the filament burns at a lower temperature, so therefore, at the same temp (ie 55w) will produce 30/50/whatever % more light (political bullshit that will never be proven)


it's the colour temp of the bulbs/amount of gas discharge that depicts the colour of the light.
standard halogens are 1900k
most blue bulbs are arond 4000-5000k
HID discharge kits start from 6000k

i've just ordered 8000k bulbs for the pug, these have a purple highlight to the blue halo

although these are not turned on, it just shows how much blue comes back from the reflector as well as the bulb