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[triumphjon]

see it wasnt a hard job after all , even the humble smiley faced ford fiesta its quicker to remove the grille & headlamp to replace the bulbs ! my own current car you have to remove the trim panel to remove the whole lamp , its still fitted with sealed beam fillaments ! !

[787Eng]

Changing the  Head lamp bulbs was even easier on my Toyota.
Took it to the main Dealer and they changed them for free, all I had to do was pay fro the new bulbs...sum total of a tenner and had a nice free hot chocolate while watching TV in the warm....Bliss

Mark

[CF-FZG]

 PS. Did you know you can by non-road legal headlamp bulbs in Halfords?!?!? I nearly did!
      Apparently, they are call "rally bulbs" and are for "show cars".... 'street racers types'  I think!

They're only 'non-road legal' if you're fitting them to a, IIRC,  post '85 car 

When I replace the headlights on my imported '84 Nissan Patrol, I fitted 110/85 bulbs - really lit the roadside up at night


Mark.

[john s 2]

A word of warning. Not all car electrics can cope with the extra current draw of 100w bulbs. My Fiat switch failed, it got to hot. John.

[Colin Bishop]

really lit the roadside up at night

And blinded everyone coming in the opposite direction! Round here with the country lanes, cars fitted with extra bright headlights can be an absolute menace and a danger to others. It's almost as bad when they are behind you and flooding your mirrors with light too.

Colin

[Martin (Admin)]

What confused me were that the rally bulbs were 55w the same as the standard bulbs?!?!?

[malcolmfrary]

Its not really the brightness of the lamps that causes the problem, its where the light beams put the light - that, and the fact that many drivers are unaware of the presence of the dip switch and/or the proper function of the level adjuster on the dashboard. 
Possibly the "rally" ones have their filament sited differently which will give a different beam pattern, better for seeing where you are going to go, but not at all friendly to oncoming traffic because on a special stage, there shouldn't be any.  Mind, back when my best mate was playing a rallying, it was considered proper to have a planation of spots and fogs mounted on a bar across the front.Back to the original subject - my Scenic had a new bulb a few months ago - 5 minute job, cover off, unclip, new bulb, cover back on, done.  Its a good job the battery doesn't live under the bonnet, though, it might have been a bit crowded if it had.  Anybody know how to change tailgate gas struts? 

[Colin Bishop]

Its not really the brightness of the lamps that causes the problem, its where the light beams put the light

There are certainly a lot of cars around with badly adjusted lights and that doesn't help. But as you suggest, putting uprated bulbs into reflectors that were not designed for them can result in light patterns which are not what the designer intended eithe,r plus there is a lot more light as well. A further problem occurs when you are in an ordinary car being tailgated by a SUV which has its headlights mounted at about the same level as the back of your neck!

Colin

[malcolmfrary]

Any vehicle is subject to construction and use regs, which includes headlamp height, but poor adjustment doesn't help.  I suspect that there is more brainpower under the dashboard than facing it in many SUVs.  And SUVs are not the only class of car with that particular problem.
Gas struts sorted - between this post and my previous one, including finding a way through the packaging, reading the instructions (important), change of shoes, talk to the builder doing my windows and actually doing the job.