Team-BHP - Are you happy with your OEM headlights?

I am satisfied with the headlights on our Elite i20. These are the Halogen variant, not projectors.

Angle of throw of the low-beam is very well tuned, and the high beam is decently strong as well. Fog Lamps also have a good throw.

My reason for voting No in the poll is with respect to our S-Cross. The so-called projectors are pure crap. The throw is off, the illumination is very weak. In the city, it is adequate, but out on the highway, especially for night drives, it is downright scary in some situations.

Quote:

Originally Posted by nakul0888 (Post 4478888)

Here is my headlight situation.

Polo GT- All round pathetic and useless, whether high beam, low beam with or without foglights
Honda city 3rd gen- Average, Mediocre
Honda Brio- Now this might be a surprise to everyone, But least expensive Brio has the better headlights in my garage

Brio: I walked downstairs in the morning to take a closer look at this. We have one in our garage, belongs to my uncle . The bug-eye looks have this distinct advantage of having a large almost round reflector. Among the cars you have mentioned this appears to have the largest headlamp reflector especially a round one . (Probably the largest of all hatchback and Sedans)

The older car lights were all large parabolic dish shape, the never ones in the name of style has moved to using just a part of that shape. Few like Brio has almost the entire dish shape intact.

Somewhere I read long ago that reflector type headlamps with 60W H4 works well if the reflector is at least 5 inch across and round, 7 inch is even better.

I voted yes and its for the Micra Active that we have at home. I would rate my experience with the cars owned as below and all my feedback are on stock setup
Cars sold
=======
800 :- Low beam bad, High Beam bad
Zen :- Low beam bad, High Beam ok
Alto :- Low beam bad, High Beam ok
Optra Magnum :- Low beam and high beam horrible :Frustrati (I always felt that I have taped 2 fireflies in the front)
Cars currently being used
================
Micra Active :- Low Beam good, High beam excellent clap:
Rapid :- Low and High beam ok (low is projector lamp)
Nano XTA :- Low and High beam ok (I have not taken it out on a highway)

By the way I tried many upgrades in Optra with and without relay, all failed and I had to go to chevy ASS to switch back to stock wiring setup so that at least I will have a functional light, rather than just having park light and fog lamps during my night drives, which is a scary experience.

I think the other side of the coin is the nuisance of the extremely dangerous and bright aftermarket headlights that dazzle your eyes on the highway. I read somewhere that a major portion of the drivers on indian road lack adequate eyesight for night driving, which could be leading us to this situation. Here's another factory: I have noticed that when I am driving within a reasonable speed limit, the lights (both in the Linea and now the Nexon) were sufficient. But any speed over 80 or thereabouts has a negative impact on the effectiveness of the lights' throw. With these in mind, I have to say the lights are doing their job and I am happy with the OEM lights' performance.

Quote:

Originally Posted by prakash_ajp (Post 4481418)

Very valid point. I know of many people who have this issue, they avoid driving at night . But when they do drive, it's high beam heaven.

And if the stock lights are sufficient for a safe highway speeds at night, may as well leave it that way and replace the bulbs every two years.

I think most highway leading in and out of Bangalore , 80 is a good speed at night, there is not much to gain going above this and then having to see all the vehicles you overtook in the next signal or toll booth.

Quote:

Originally Posted by prakash_ajp (Post 4481418)

I think the other side of the coin is the nuisance of the extremely dangerous and bright aftermarket headlights that dazzle your eyes on the highway.

That's not even a surprise when most people even in this thread mention they are running 100/90W bulbs. I assume they have aligned it correctly and run it on low beams considering they must be aware of the brightness of their setup. Hopefully. And we are supposedly the better 1% of the drivers on the roads. Imagine the rest.

Before people get angry with me, at least as far as I know, bulbs brighter than 60W are illegal. Im surprised Team-BHP even allow such upgrade posts in this forum honestly. Maybe someone can clarify or correct me if I'm wrong.

I don't know where this 'who has the brightest light on the road' will take us.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Yieldway17 (Post 4481457)

Your opinion matters. It's best to avoid upgrade when it is not necessary.

Any modification to the vehicle can be termed illegal - depends on how one looks at it, providing technical advice is not the same as asking people to do these modifications. It is each owners responsibility to maintain their vehicle as per the law of the land.

In some vehicles an upgrade is necessary to be able to safely drive on highways. I had this upgrade on my previous vehicle as the lights weren't safe, but the two current ones are completely stock.

I drive around 1.5 hours in the night every day, the high beam fellows I encounter are usually small trucks and cabs.

I once was hunting for an H4 bulb in Bangalore Mysore road, finding 60/55 is very difficult, every store had plenty of 100/90 in stock.

So a good number of vehicles you encounter on highways at night are running upgrades lights.

Your safety, in some cases(thankfully) is your own choice.

When I took delivery of my EcoSport in Jan this year, I was relatively happy with my lights as I was coming from a Chevy Spark.

EcoSport has H18(65 w) projectors for the low beam and H1 in the high beam.

After a few drives, I thought that more light would be good to have and decided to try out HID's for low beam and fogs.

I had my low beam and fogs upgraded to 4300k 35w HID's in March and I absolutely love the new lights.

I mostly drive around with only the low beams and use the fogs in complete darkness.

Details here:

Answer - NO

My March 2017 Ecosport Titanium Diesel is a really good car in all aspects. But, and this is a BIG ONE - Its headlights - To sum it up - I have seen better illumination from scooter headlamps (with 35W AC setup).

It is a real shame - That I did not check about this by organizing a night time test drive on the highway.

The day I took delivery, I was stunned (not in a good way) by these piddly little things. I cursed myself for not waiting for another 7 or 8 months to have taken the new ecosport with its' quad headlamp setup.

I initially tried using Osram night breaker laser - Low beam was improved; but high beam was shot

I then tried Philips Racing Vision from powerbulbs UK; but even in this case, the high beam gets scattered everywhere.

Finally I have found solace in the H4 & H11 fanless LEDs from aliexpress as they are somewhat marginally better than the Philips bulbs.

Have raised the issue with Ford India multiple times; but to no avail. Every time I get a courtesy call and they try to wash it away talking of homologation and regulations by ARAI. When I asked them about poor reflector design to their face; they simply flailed their arms up in air.

I have now done a custom alignment to suit my driving needs. The low beam cut-off is high; but it serves my purpose. And, am headed to the dealer this week for checking on this one more time.

Even now am willing to pay 20k for an "OEM accessory" quad headlamp setup if Ford India offers it; as it will give me peace of mind for warranty.

I had fitted Hella Rallye 3003 for 2 weeks before removing them due to warning by the dealer that Ford India will void warranty. Those two weeks were the best of my night drives so far.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Surya-TJet (Post 4482988)

Why don't you opt for fog lamp projectors? Quite a few BHP'ians have had this setup in the EcoSport.

I currently have two cars, an Ecosport AT for in city use, and a Nissan Terrano for intercity. The lights in the Ecosport are down right pathetic, unless the reflectors themselves are changed there is no way to improve them.
Terrano is something else, the Osram 60W H7 in the low beam are adequate, I'm not upgrading, most of my city driving is in low, the issue is the high beam 60W H1 in high are no good. On empty country roads when I use high, it barely gives any distant vision.
I tried 4300k 52W Cree LED lamps, but light was scattering, so I'm back to the OE bulbs.

Rahul