Poor headlights on Audi A4 B8

[Ray Singh]

My wife has an Audi A4 B8 estate and has taken over the mega miles a week commute to and from work from me.
She has complained that the headlights are poor on her journey to and from work on a mixture of A roads and Motorways. I drove her car today and she is not wrong. The lights are not worth having. The car has the standard headlights - not the led tick day time running lights.

What is the best way to replace these to a better, safer light pattern? Are the wise people of this forum able to share with me their knowledge on what bulbs to buy for the car?

I did think of a retro fit to xenons - but this looks to be mega bucks.

[shtu]

Few things to look at,

Are the outer lenses crystal-clear? If not, a dose of polishing will help.
If they have projector-style lenses, these can fog up too, and need cleaned.
After that, uprated bulbs. Both Philips and Osram do good quality uprated bulbs, I've used Osram Nighbreakers in a variety of cars.

There's no need to go for high-wattage bulbs (it's a bit of an old fashioned approach tbh), and don't get sucked into the world of aftermarket LED or HID conversion bulbs. They're mostly garbage.

[Ray Singh]

Thanks Shtu.

The perfect response. I checked all the lenses etc and they are all decent. I have ordered a set of OSRAM night breakers from ECP and will collect tomorrow and fit.
I will update this thread with my failure/glory.


Update: Collected a set of H7 Night breakers today.

Edited by Ray Singh on Wednesday 29th December 09:58

[Dr G]

Ray Singh]Collected a set of H7 Night breakers today.[footnote]Edited by Ray Singh on Wednesday 29th December 09:58[/footnote said:

These are the business. Genuinely transformative.

[OldGermanHeaps]

Chect the voltage at the bulb while the lamp is lit and engine running. On various older cars i have seen the voltage at the bulb as low as 8v due to corrosion in the wiring, bad earths, pitting in relay contacts etc.
Calibras had a reputation for piss poor headlights, but it was the wiring that was crap right from new. A couple of relays and heavy gauge wiring straight from the battery and they actially gave decent output.
Also halogen bulbs do reduce in output with age, your osrams will sort that.

[Ray Singh]

Thanks all.

I changed the bulbs last night and immediately noticed that the old bulbs left a dark area right in the middle of the light pattern. On removing the old bulb i noted that they were both different. H7, but different shapes and brands.

I drove the car after the change of bulb and noticed that the light pattern is better - its still not Tesla model 3 light output, but that is a different ball game. High beam is stunning, while normal dipped headlights are better.

Thank you all.

[shtu]

Ray Singh said:

High beam is stunning, while normal dipped headlights are better. Thank you all.

No probs.

Might be worth a check\adjust of the headlight aim now that you have bulbs worthy of the job.

Edited by shtu on Thursday 30th December 22:35

[Superleg48]

Read with interest. I have an AMG E43 Estate and I find the dipped headlights woefully bad. The car does not have headlight washers and I recall reading somewhere a link between lack of headlight washers and output being restricted. I also had a S550 Mustang with the same characteristic.

I shall also try a set of Osram Nightbreakers to see what impact it has.

[Ray Singh]

Eurocarparts have them for around £30 - £40, thus worth a go.

[Robotron70]

The downside is that they don’t last very long, you’ll probably get around a year out of them in my experience.

I’ve also seen these get good reviews, but it does depend on the vehicle, some cars just don’t have enough room behind the headlight fitting -

https://www.powerbulbs.com/product/philips-ultinon...

You might also need a canbus error corrector -

https://www.powerbulbs.com/product/philips-led-hea...

[shtu]

Robotron70 said:

The downside is that they don’t last very long, you’ll probably get around a year out of them in my experience.

I’ve also seen these get good reviews, but it does depend on the vehicle, some cars just don’t have enough room behind the headlight fitting -

https://www.powerbulbs.com/product/philips-ultinon...

You might also need a canbus error corrector -

https://www.powerbulbs.com/product/philips-led-hea...

Philips own info said:

PLEASE NOTE: These headlight bulbs do not have ECE approval and are currently not approved for use on public roads: their usage is limited to ‘off-road’ applications.

While the build quality is probably there, and those are the closest I've seen to the size and position of the "filament" when compared to a real bulb, they're still not legal.


tbh, I've had a lot more than a single year out of the Osrams, being ultra-fussy on handling while installing might make a difference there.

Edited by shtu on Friday 31st December 11:40

[silentbrown]

shtu said:

While the build quality is probably there, and those are the closest I've seen to the size and position of the "filament" when compared to a real bulb, they're still not legal.

Also an MOT fail (except for motorbikes and pre '86 cars, AIUI)