Replacement H7 bulbs with brighter but legal ones

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mohawkman

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Have a 2016 Fiat 55 watt headlights but would like a brighter head / dip lamp but what have members changed to and stay legal ????
 
I replaced mine with the brighter halogen ones to stay legal, struggling to remember which ones at the moment.
 
Lenny HB said:
If you want to stay legal, Osram Night Breakers.

I fitted LED's to the last van it passed 3 MOT's with them.
Click to expand...
Thought night breakers were 100watt so not legal.

Just seen they are just 55watts...dont understand how they can be more than twice as bright.
 
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So what is legal nowadays? I no longer understand vehicle lighting regs. They used to be in a simple booklet, I bought a copy years ago to make sure my sidecar lighting was legal. As far as I recall, for all vehicles the maximum power was 55watt dipped, 65watt high beam. Most modern vehicles put out far higher than that in sheer light power but, no longer being filament bulbs, probably fit within the old wattage requirements. Just googled the 1989 lighting regs, now far more complicated. Like most EU documents it consists of loads of headlines quoting various schedules and appendices, they lead to lists with only reference numbers and no titles so you have to tunnel even deeper to find lists of exemptions etc. Gave up at that point.

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pappajohn said:
Thought night breakers were 100watt so not legal.

Just seen they are just 55watts...dont understand how they can be more than twice as bright.
Click to expand...
They are brighter by running at a higher temperature. This means the fillament is easily damaged and so tend to have a short life.
 
I think we've moved on since the days of candles 68c
 
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Driventemple said:
They are brighter by running at a higher temperature. This means the fillament is easily damaged and so tend to have a short life.
Click to expand...
Just how do they burn at a higher temperature.
They are a 55watts filament and use halogen gas.
The only difference I can think is the filament material
 
Osram Nite Breakers are what I always used. Never had any reliability issues. They run hotter and give a significantly better light than OEM. I think that just from a better quality filament and design. I think they're still approved. I never had any issues with fuses or the MOT.
 
pappajohn said:
Just how do they burn at a higher temperature.
They are a 55watts filament and use halogen gas.
The only difference I can think is the filament material
Click to expand...
Tungsten metal used for the filament has a melting point of 3422°C, the highest melting point of any metal. When it is very hot, but before it melts, it slowly evaporates. In a non-halogen bulb, the tungsten metal deposits on the inside of the glass envelope. You may have noticed the glass of old sidelight bulbs looking shiny and metallic.

Tungsten halogen bulbs have a glass envelope filled with a halogen gas. When the tungsten atom evaporates from the filament, it reacts with the halogen gas to form a tungsten halide compound. This circulates round as a gas instead of depositing on the inside of the envelope. When a tungsten halide molecule hits the hot filament, it splits apart, and the tungsten metal deposits back on the filament again. The halogen gas is free to roam around and capture another tungsten atom. This effectively stops the tungsten filament from evaporating.

The upshot of all this is, the filament can run at a hotter temperature than a filament without halogen gas. That means it is brighter, giving out more light for the same wattage. There is a trade-off between the temperature and the lifetime of the filament.
 
www.hids-direct.co.uk

Philips XtremeVision Pro150 H7 55W 12 V Headlight Bulb (Single)

Upgrade your car headlights with With Philips X-tremeVision Pro150 H7 55w bulbs and enjoy up to 150% brighter light. Advanced filament design provides greater precision and luminance for better illumination of the road, while new Diamond Precision quartz-glass technology ensures more brightness.
www.hids-direct.co.uk www.hids-direct.co.uk

I looked at the Osram but they were half the lifespan.

Philips were the highest rated I could find with normal lifespan.

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Tried all sorts of halogen. None give any worthwhile improvements from what I found. +200% is just marketing nonsense so don't be suckered in. HIDs were good but not remotely legal. LED were just a pain to fit with the cooling fans required in the old days. Not tried any newer variants but the science is donkeys years old so can't be bothered experimenting. Driving during the day is my work around
 
Just bought some Katur LED's for my van, bought Katurs as I used them in the last van and they were very good. These are the higher brightness ones 16000Lm. They have changed the design the back end is much smaller now & look direct replacement for the bulbs. The older ones you had to use different retaining clips and fiddle about getting the led to line up in the same plane as the halogen, no need to do that now.
 
CAB96 said:
www.hids-direct.co.uk

Philips XtremeVision Pro150 H7 55W 12 V Headlight Bulb (Single)

Upgrade your car headlights with With Philips X-tremeVision Pro150 H7 55w bulbs and enjoy up to 150% brighter light. Advanced filament design provides greater precision and luminance for better illumination of the road, while new Diamond Precision quartz-glass technology ensures more brightness.
www.hids-direct.co.uk www.hids-direct.co.uk

I looked at the Osram but they were half the lifespan.

Philips were the highest rated I could find with normal lifespan.
Click to expand...
Does half the lifespan matter in a motorhome? They'll probably still last 10 years. I used the Osrams in several vehicles and never had one fail.
 
Lenny HB said:
Just bought some Katur LED's for my van, bought Katurs as I used them in the last van and they were very good. These are the higher brightness ones 16000Lm. They have changed the design the back end is much smaller now & look direct replacement for the bulbs. The older ones you had to use different retaining clips and fiddle about getting the led to line up in the same plane as the halogen, no need to do that now.
Click to expand...
When I installed Katurs, the MH failed its MoT. The tester was kind enough to take me into the test bay to show me why…the light pattern has to fall within a limited area and not spill outside it. He showed me the Katurs, which were spilling light in all directions, blinding oncomers even on dip. He then changed to Nightbreakers and the pattern EXACTLY filled the permitted area. The difference was stark. I switched to Nightbreakers and have not failed since. The light they give is much brighter than normal, and legal.

Thankfully, Amazon accepted a return of the Katurs without question.

The MoT tester is also a motorhomer, so had sympathy and understanding of why I wanted to change the bulbs! 🤣
 
pappajohn said:
Just how do they burn at a higher temperature.
They are a 55watts filament and use halogen gas.
The only difference I can think is the filament material
Click to expand...
It is probably several things part at least being filament design. The imitation on tungsten is as you say the filament if it gets too hot the metal evaporates and fails it's the reason the inside of the bulb goes black. With halogen the filament evaporates combines with the halogen to form a metal halide gas that circulates and is redeposited on the filament. The filament can be run at a higher temperature meaning more of the energy is used to produce light rather than heat and a bluer light. Only a very small percentage of the energy used in a filament bulb actually produces light
 
dunnah01 said:
Tried all sorts of halogen. None give any worthwhile improvements from what I found. +200% is just marketing nonsense so don't be suckered in. HIDs were good but not remotely legal. LED were just a pain to fit with the cooling fans required in the old days. Not tried any newer variants but the science is donkeys years old so can't be bothered experimenting. Driving during the day is my work around
Click to expand...
Agree that the wording +200% is misleading, however, they did make a big difference in my car and I would recommend them. LED the way to go and when (if) the nightbreakers give up I will convert to them
 
If you are running a lamp that is brighter and hotter does this not affect the headlamp cover.

After all they arnt glass anymore and cloud over easily with just sunlight 🤔

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Nightbreakers or Philips Xtreme, either in +150% or 200% versions will give a noticeable improvement over old standard bulbs. Most folks don't realise that the light output deteriorates with age, especially with older halogen types.
There are new LED replacement bulbs which have been approved in some EU countries and are a simple retrofit, but cost more.
 
ManTheVan said:
When I installed Katurs, the MH failed its MoT. The tester was kind enough to take me into the test bay to show me why…the light pattern has to fall within a limited area and not spill outside it. He showed me the Katurs, which were spilling light in all directions, blinding oncomers even on dip. He then changed to Nightbreakers and the pattern EXACTLY filled the permitted area. The difference was stark. I switched to Nightbreakers and have not failed since. The light they give is much brighter than normal, and legal.
Click to expand...
They improved the beam pattern on my last van, they work well with projector headlamps. The van pasted 3 MOT's with them, one at a fussy Fiat Professional.
 
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We don’t often drive the Transit at night during our travels but the standard headlight output dosnt seem too bad.
Managements Fiesta headlights are like candles in jam jar. I am going to update them but the listing says it needs two different bulbs because it’s on the model change. I will have to take the headlights out to find out what is fitted.
 
Dolmen said:
Agree that the wording +200% is misleading, however, they did make a big difference in my car and I would recommend them. LED the way to go and when (if) the nightbreakers give up I will convert to them
Click to expand...
They could well be twice the light output (200%) but as the eye responds logarithmicly to light levels it won't feel twice as bright. As an example indoors in an office 500 lux is pretty well lit. Outdoors on a sunny day it could be 20,000 lux but it won't feel 40x brighter
 

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