Upgrade lights that aren’t annoying?

[disago]

The transit mk8 in base trim has birthday candles for headlights. We’re talking 1980s Hyundai Pony quality light pattern here.

Ford fit a better headlight unit on higher trim levels, having driven that I’d be totally happy with a retrofit. The upgraded factory ones are perfectly good enough for my needs. But it appears that no one in the history of mankind (at least as seen through the lens of Google search) has ever successfully retrofitted the brighter brights.

In 2024 has mankind cracked the aftermarket lighting problem in a way that doesn’t have wonky beam patterns? Or are all these promises made by the new fangled LED H7 vendors the same kind of lies the xenon hid retrofit (without projector lens) brigade used to make?

[Smint]

Presumably standard H7 halogen bulbs?

Have you tried upgrading to Osram Lasers or whatever their latest legal better bulbs are called, Philips also make decently priced legal upgrade bulbs, i've used both these makes on various cars and 4x4s and despite reading about short bulb life with some of these brighter bulbs can't say i've had any issues, maybe those having issues are getting their sweaty mucky fingerprints all over the glass area of the bulb.

[disago]

Smint said:

Presumably standard H7 halogen bulbs?

Have you tried upgrading to Osram Lasers or whatever their latest legal better bulbs are called

That’s what I’ve got just now, they’re better than stock but they don’t pass the “good enough” mark.

With my expertly tuned, only 40 year old, eyeball mk1 measuring instruments, I don’t think they’re actually any stronger, I think they just have a better colour for seeing things. Which helps, but isn’t enough.

My test setup was just turning the lights on when I did one side and not the other to check it was all working then I went for a drive about - one side expensive osram the other side stock.

I didn’t need to beef up any wiring or fuses to fit these either which was another tell tale not to expect massive difference since it’s the same tech old vs new.

[Smint]

Have you tried resetting the beams yourself, some dipped beam designs illuminate vast areas of nearside verge and the hedges and trees beyond with barely any light where you are heading, i've had to reset lots of lights over the years particularly on German trucks the beams of which were great for spotting snipers in trees to your left but useless for seeing where you were going let alone trying to make a right turn into unlit areas..

Surpised you didn't notice a bigger difference though, the lights on my ageing Prado were hopeless on standard bulbs, not a patch on the previous model with standard H4 bulbs (weirdly), after nearly cleaning an unlit skip up one night had to do something sharpish.

Are your headlight lenses getting too cloudy or is the light design just rubbish.