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-   -   Are you happy with your OEM headlights? (https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/technical-stuff/202542-you-happy-your-oem-headlights-8.html)

Warranty is usually not an issue with 100/90 setup as it is plug and play, the harnesses of good brands come with fuse etc.

The easiest thing to do in single lane roads is to use the headlamp leveler and dip the lights down a bit. This will give you better kerbside lighting and helps you hold the line, we are after all trying to reach somewhere safely.

Ford Service told me 100/90w setup violates their warranty terms.

I have seen them rejecting warranty claim for headlight reflector issue on cars running after market bulb or 100/90w setup.

They have already changed the headlight twice on my Aspire for this burning issue. And I am due for the 3rd change since this burning issue refuse to go away.

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I would love to snatch away your award and hand it over to my Fiat Palio.
The earlist generation of Palio [ refering to those before Palio Stile] has really poor head light design. Though it has double barrel set up, the low beam is outer headlight and high beam is the inner lights [ closerto bonnet grill]. This version of Palio does not have headlamp levelling device either.
I upgreade to Philips 80W, and since now only the low beam is worth, high beam continue to be pathetic:Frustrati

Andy

I voted "No" for my 2018 facelift EcoSport. Both the low beam (Halogen projectors) and the high beam (halogen reflectors) are useless on the highway. Planning to upgrade to Xtreme vision or Nightbreakers. Which one is a better plug and play solution?

Earlier I had a previous gen Swift, which was running on a 100/90 setup which I loved. The only problem was frequent bulb blowouts - I used to have atleast one every year.

Big NO, 2016 Ford Figo Base 1.5D. Night driving makes up for 95% of my drives.

My initial attempt at better visibility was to get the showroom guys fit the OEM fog lamps for 6000 rs. I had to come out of the vehicle to check whether its switched on every time I switch it on for the night drives.

The next attempt was Philips XtremeVision. Perfectly useless.

I upgraded to 90/100w bulbs after that. They were marginally better but still the meciless heavy vehicles lowered the visibility to a dangerous extent. I noticed my headlights having the burn marks rampant in Figo and Aspire cars shortly after upgrading to 90/100.

I finally decided to find a better option and fitted 4 Hella 500FF(now running 100w bulbs, after nearly three years of running 55w).
I didn't give a lot of consideration for warranty because it was a question of life or death. But because of these lights running in parallel wiring, my warranty was not affected. I had some parts replaced in my engine after a minor oil leak when the car was under warranty after fitting the hella 500s.

That looks like a design flaw. You are correct, if the upgrade destroys the headlight, warranty won't cover it. In this case the headlamp assembly seems to be poorly made and the metalized coating has some issue in that patch.

An auxiliary lamp is the alternative, a bit of focus adjustments can fix the low beam and then add an auxiliary lamp wired to the high beam. You get some rally looks as well.


That's now a rally car, Awesome.

Your comments on the Extreme Vision are spot on, I bought one pair just to try and see how it works, it throws the light further, but poor spread. Seems like it's designed to output X% more lumens at 200ft. It did not last more than 6 months.

Are the Hella's activated by high beam?

I voted No though, OEM headlights are not at fault. It's our uncultured road manners that is the problem. I still use OEM halogen bulbs in my car and drive with low beam mostly. I often drive between namakkal and trichy. The winding roads following the banks of river cauvery are exhausting during night drives. 80 kms of torture for my eyes from blinding lights from on coming traffic. Even if I flick beams and try to let them know that they are blinding me, only a few vehicles respond. Most irritating ones are the trucks and buses plying with high beams. After market aux lights are a pain too.

My first generation Fabia has served me well and I prefer driving through Europe mostly at night. The headlamp covers have scratched a lot but the lights are spot on and their throw is more than satisfactory.

The OEM headlights on the Eon are more like candles.

In many parts of the city, I am forced to drive on high beams just to understand 15-20 ft of the road that's ahead of me. And even then it just about makes the cut - literally.

My Alto and Zen had miserable headlights. Now that both have been fitted with 90/100 with a relay, the difference is night and day. Need to do the same thing to my Esteem and then figure out a simple way to improve the lights on the Fiesta.

As a rule OEM lights on the lower price bracket cars are not all that great. But to be fair, it has more to do with maintaining the lights as well. They are generally not too bad when new, but after a couple of years you really need to take care of the lighting system

Personally I dont like drilling holes into any parts of my car.

If there were any option for simple plug n play type setup, I would have taken that. I went with rally type setup with my previous car (Lancer). Yes, they were extremely useful. But after a few years, I started to face few issues like holes developing cracks in fiber/plastic parts, holes developing rusting issue in metal parts and A/C cooling issue for that hole made in cabin rubber seal near the passenger side footwell for running the switch wires.

May be the job wasn't done properly in my case but the niggles were enough to keep me away from those setup in a new car.

Thank you:thumbs up

I opted for this after toying with opting for Philips Ultinons. At 21w, I somehow expected them to perform inadequately, irrespective of euphoric reviews online.

I opted for simple rocker switches, one per pair, to keep the initial installation parallel. They are installed on the dash and at times become tiring to toggle on highways.

I am desperately trying to source a few 30$ WOLO RC100 remote switches from US(retailing in Indian sites at 5k+). This will make them easier to toggle for the comfort of oncoming traffic.

Absolutely true, even the Figo headlights were adequate on zero lit roads with no oncoming traffic. The opposing beams are the issue, some are improperly aligned and others are bent on unleasing mayhem to 'over compensate'.

OEM Xenons on my 2014 BMW 116i are fine and are not one of the things that immediately come to mind to mod.

The headlights of Duster are pathetic. I just came back from a 1400 KM trip to Western Ghat and Karavali regions on my 2015 Duster. Planned in such a way that I din't have to drive in night. I just can figure out where the headlights are focusing and where it is converging.

Have tried few times now to get the focus corrected, but doesn't seem to stay focused.

Regards

V40 - OEM Bi-xenon headlamps are perfect. Never have any cause for complaint. They are so good that oncoming cabbies running high beam immediately dip when flashed. It has the Auto high-beam function but it isn't very useful in India.

Polo - Pathetic OEM headlights. The low beam is just about barely adequate but the high beam is terrible with lots of shadows between the spread of the low and high beams.

Voted "Yes" for the primary car.