HEADLIGHTS: SUM UP

IMPROVED HEADLIGHTS, WHO NEEDS THEM?
In my (biased) opinion, everyone, since the car should have had them in the first place.
But, I'll admit there are a few exeptions. If you're living in the heart of a city where it never snows and hardly ever rains, never leaving the light pole illuminated roads, and you're perfectly happy with the car's light-performance -dont bother.
For the rest of us, who have seen the light, I say; Gentlemen: Open your bonnets!

WIRES:
The very first place to start upgrading lights. If you're having gremlins in the aux. driving light wires, and you've NOT upgraded the harness on the original headlights, -don't come running to me!

VOLTAGE:
Increased voltage at the bulb, and thereby increased light output, is a result of proper wires, and a dedicated regulator. Some may argue that this will shorten the lifetime of the bulbs. This is true, but in practical life, I doubt that you'll ever notice the difference. I finished the wiring harness on my Saab 99 in october. The next july I blew a dip beam bulb, and in september a full beam bulb went dark. The next january, the other dip bulb blew. They might have lived a little longer with the original feeble harness, but I enjoyed them so much more while they lasted. And remember: We've got daytime-running-lights.

BULBS:
Standard halogen bulbs are completely out. If there is a "+30%" version of your bulb available, this is the one to use.

Blue bulbs; does anybody need them?
Actually, YES. The motorcycles. Why? Well, here goes:
Most car drivers out on the roads are not highly skilled specialist drivers, they're ordinary people. It's difficult for them to see/calculate the speed/predict direction changes of a motorcycle, because it's so small (narrow). When turning left at a junction, the car driver might accidentally run down an oncoming motorcycle, that he/she never saw.

To make motorcycles more visible, day time running lights became compulsary for them (sometime during the seventies, I think). It actually worked, the number of accidents were reduced. In fact, it worked so well that in the early nineties, the government implemented compulsary day time running lights for cars aswell. (In Norway, that is, Sweden has had it as long as the hills have existed)

Suddenly the motorcycles had lost their advantage, they were drowning in a sea of light. A blue bulb's irritating effect might be the little extra that catches an unaware car driver's attention.

Yellow bulbs, who needs them?
If you, like me live in an area with snow covered roads most of the winter, I will strongly recommend you to try them. If you dont like it, go back to white bulbs.

The yellow bulb can also serve an other purpose. If you have a car with feeble wiring harness and a weak voltage regulator, your white headlight bulbs will look unhealthy yellowish. Put in yellow bulbs and no one will notice!

Xenon bulbs, the light of the future?
Definitely! Sometime in the future they will surely solve the problems that the xenon bulbs are full of today.

LIGHT PATTERNS
In theory, they all should look alike. (the pattern from each car, that is…) The car companies make their cars for anybody who is willing to fork out cash, we drive on the same set of roads, even the cars have started to look like each other. And yet: No car's light pattern is like the next car's. One trick is to have much of the light close to the car. It gives the driver a visual impression of very strong lights. But if you take such a car out on a lonely dark motorway, you'll soon realize its shortcomings.

PARABOLIC vs DE vs FF
It's hard to tell which is the better one, there are good and bad versions of all three out there. BMW switched to 5 ¾" DE dip beams in -87, but they somehow failed to outperform the Bifocus units they replaced. The manufacturers claim that computer calculated FF-unit's efficiency enables them to be much smaller than conventional units. Don't believe the hype. As for both the parabolic and FF reflectors, there is no substitute for sheer size.

HOW COME THE LIGHTUNITS FEATURED IN THIS ARTICLE ARE MOSTLY HELLA AND BOSCH?
Well, there are other manufacturers out there. Carello, Cibiè, Koito, Lucas, Marchal, Piaa, Valeo, just to mention a few. These companies mainly adress car manufactorers, and their product range is a well kept secret, (unless you make cars, or, like me, start digging) exept some aux. driving lights, and a few foglights.

Another (bloody) good reason for this is…quality.
Take a walk in a street parked with cars and look at five-to-fifteen year old cars. Or even better, visit a scrapyard.
Now, look closer on the cars with corroded/rusted lights. What make are they…?

Apart from the build quality, the beam pattern is important. Hella and Bosch units are simply the best lights available. Why settle for less?