Headlight bulbs - both gone at same time??

[bobbycfc]

Well there I was reading last week's Autoexpress which said that they would feature a bulb test this week. Ha, says I, must be about 5 years since I had to last change a bulb and what is wrong with standard bulbs anyway?

Today went out to my car (Seat Altea XL) and the bulb warning light was lit on the dashboard signifying a bulb was out. On closer inspection it would seem that both main headlight bulbs are not working. I have still to check the actual fuses (its dark and pouring down) but according to the book they run off different fuses for each side so it does look like both bulbs are gone.

Has anyone else had this problem happen that both bulbs seem to go at the same time?

Also, has anyone replaced their Altea bulbs with any of the increased light bulbs? If so, would you recommend it?

 

[megadyptes]

Yep, had the same thing happen on our XL sometime last year (and a Leon a few years ago). Had a set of old bulbs so quickly managed to identify the bulb as the issue.

Ended up replacing with some Philips X-Treme from Powerbulbs. The light is certainly more white than yellow-white and at the time I'm sure I thought they gave more illumination - but having got used to them I can't really say how much brighter. Philips say 80-100% more light depending on whether you have the Vision or Power bulb set - how that equates to what you see when looking out the windscreen is more subjective, I guess.

Took about 10 mins to replace both sets of H1 and H7.

 

[iain1970]

Apparently, unless you increase the wattage, you don't get any significant difference in the amount of light from bulb to bulb, regardless of price or promise. The colour spectrum gives the impression of added brightness with the whiter bulbs. It was described to me as "selling snake oil" by one factor that supplies us.

Anyone put higher wattage bulbs in? I'm particularly interested for the dipped beam on mine.

 

[megadyptes]

So, bog standard Seat bulb are 12v 55w for H7 and H1?