New headlamp bulb tests

I should have qualified that statement. OTOH, it's pretty simple to get
good sealed-beams or Hella type high performance lights. With most
newer cars, you are stuck with just putting out more light at bad
patterns. GOOD sealed-beams are simple to aim and work well most
every time. I especially like the big 7 inchers that some of the
older cars use.

Now, true, they are getting better, and some new cars are fine, but
GM and Dodge are still amazingly worse than even those old rectangular
halogens were. My new Neon beater(well, new to me)? Lights are so
dim I run around with the high beams on. My mother's recent model
LeSabre? Much brighter and wider light pattern with low-beams that the
Dodge crud on high beams.

So far, I've not had ONE car flash me.

Ozone is the big culprit, actually. Here in Los Angeles, they almost
disintegrate after a few years. Most Volvo 240s with the larger single
lights are on their 2nd or 3rd set by now.

The first thing I did with my Volvo was replace the lights with GLASS
Euro lenses and bulbs. OMG what a difference. Then, I did the relay
trick and got another 30% on top of that. Totally new driving experience
when you can see everything clearly at 40mph.

 

1995. Problem is, that they are WORTHLESS. The low-beams aim at
the ground about 100 ft in front of me. Fine for 25mph, but
useless at 40mph. High-beams are half as bright as

I meant full voltage - whatever it was. The wiring and relay kit
for the Volvo was a truly enlightening experience. I expect the Neon
is in serious need as well. I've never seen such a bad set of headlights.

Dunno - borrowed it from my friend.
(looks)
Oh - NOT 3M.

http://www.pbresource.com/cleaner.html
The #3 was amazing. A bit of car wax on top of that and it cleaned
them right up. Still dim and nasty, but not completely worthless.

Oh - NASTY stuff. Ventilate and wear gloves. Even with both,
I got a headache after two minutes of exposure. Works, though.

I'll try new bulbs next. Oh - the car is a fine little econobox
with plenty of power. Who made it? Mazda?

Also - it says it uses the 9007 bulbs. They also were selling
9007 high output ones. Are they brighter or is it a color
shifting trick?

Yeah. Does the Euro version of the Neon have them?

 

If you're in SW England and can get to a Trago Mills store, they
have Philips Visionplus at £10.50 a pair!

Al Reynolds

 

But the Philips VisionPlus H1 *does* have a blue tip on it.
Is that OK? You can see the image of one at:
http://www.eur.lighting.philips.com/automotive/eur/html/products_visionplus_images.html

Just wondering whether it's only a problem if the *whole*
of the glass is blue?

Al Reynolds
SW UK

 

Why do we have these crappy, moulded plastic lights with a bulb stuck in
the back?

Simple, air moves better over a nice smooth curve at the corner of the
car than a big, flat sealed beam. It is all about aerodynamics, which
is all about fuel mileage. The manufacturers have been kind enough to
use a few fairly standard bulb configurations in all of the varied

 

Yes, most places, but we would hate to have to walk or use the dog-sled
for 8 months of the year!

And according to alt.autos.toyota we're a bunch of pantie-waisted,
peace-nick socialists. |>)

Dan

 

And given the number of freeze-thaw cycles most of inhabited Canada
receives, while there is snow on the ground, that is exactly why we use
salt. There are alternatives, but you can't afford to use them |>)

Dan

 

[snip lotsa good stuff]

Hi Daniel,

Do you know if similar tests (on the web) for 9006 and 9005 bulbs?
In your opinion, what are the best available (in Canada)? I am not
really interested in over-wattage as I am still using the stock
wiring.

Thanks,
Dennis

 

The Neon was exported to Europe (and still is). Perhaps Dan Stern can look
into a set of e-code lamps for you? Although I supposed it's possible for
Chrysler to have designed bad e-codes as well, but I would imagine that
nearly any e-code version would be better than its US equivalent.

Brighter (they use the filament construction trick to do this (details are
on Dan's site somewhere)), but I'm not sure it'd be enough to solve your
problems but every little bit helps. Regardless of what lamps you have in
your Neon I'd say check your voltage at the plugs and if you're not getting
at least 13 volts with the engine running, you should add relays. If your
alternator is working correctly, a relay harness will get you close to 14
volts a the lamp sockets.

 

[followups trimmed]

Check the reflectors carefully. They need to be new-mirror perfect. If
they are not (dull, filmy, peeling, dark, corroded) you need new headlamp
assemblies.

Won't help much without good wiring.

Both are on the market. Find and get Sylvania Xtravision 9007XV in the
pink and black package, or Philips High Visibility 9007HV in the
black-and-red package, or GE High Output 9007HO in whatever kind of
package they put it in. If you don't find those locally, get them from the
same lighting specialist you get your relay package supplies from -- me or
someone else, but I don't know of anyone else who keeps the 9007 sockets
with 12ga wire in stock!

No, the Euro Neon has polycarbonate, but a half-decent beam pattern with
an H4 bulb.

DS
To write to me, remove the headlamp from my address

 

So does the H4, a blue ring right behind the black obscuration cap.

It doesn't really hurt anything, because it's at the tip of the bulb.
Light passing through the forward end of the bulb is not collected and
focused by the reflector. If no bulb shield is present in the headlamp,
it's visible to an observer. Either way, the blue tip (or ring) is
reflected by the reflector so an observer looking at the headlamp will see
some slightly blue areas -- it doesn't hurt lamp performance though, since
all the light that's actually used goes through the untinted portion of
the bulb.

Makes a nice gimmick for Philips to write creatively about, though.

DS

 

No. These bulbs, though they are worldwide approved, are primarily used in
North American automotive lights, and North Americans haven't yet gotten
into comparative, non-advertising-based testing of things like headlamp
bulbs.

Depends on the application.

DS

 

E-code headlamps for the first-generation Neon do exist -- I see them go
by every now and then on www.ebay.de by searching: Chrysler Neon
(scheinwerfer,hauptscheinwerfer) . Be sure to get the complete assembly
with bracket, if you get these, because the US bracket is different.


DS

 

Joseph Oberlander wrote:

So aim them correctly and polish the lenses. They ARE decent units, but
won't perform well unless installed and aimed correctly and properly
maintained. Fix the problem, don't claim a different problem where none
exists.

 

Héhé, GM DoT headlamps ain't that wonderful, but to be fair they do
tend to be just about passable and a heck of a lot better than a lot
of the other crud out there. The low beams on my '89 Pontiscrap are
still PP imo but they are still a notch or two above the junk on the
'91 Mazda that I now drive. The beef that many r.a.d-ders have with
GM's lighting is their obsession with searing, glarey high beam
drls. If you've ever been faced with a Splaturn coming your way,
you'll be well aware.

That doesn't necessarily mean you're not causing glare. Some people
have a high glare threshold 'cos they're used to all the Ford
pickups out there. I flash just about anyone who's causing excessive
glare, and that includes Ford pickup LOW beams and maybe some
GM-driving doofi who run their high bum drls at night. I try not to
flash too much though myself, because just about everything on the
roads here causes a lot of glare. The NHTSA is correct about one
thing, you do sorta get used to it and driving by your "kismet" (as
the Turks say) while being blinded by oncoming Ford pickups becomes
virtually second nature, but that neither makes [excessive] glare ok
nor does it make Europeans, Australians etc., who are much more
civilized when it comes to vehicle safety, especially as lighting
goes, "silly" for being "glare-o-phobic"(tm).

I probably won't be forking out $$$$$$ for the real headlamps for my
'91, though it would be nice. I can pretty well see where I'm going
with the *high* beams, because the headlamps have a decent size
reflector and the high beam pattern is nicely formed to provide good
broad transverse vision and surprisingly reasonable forward range,
the only problem being the light is just too darn dim, but that's
where the driving lights help a LOT. Oddly enough they don't seem to
help much with the distance range on reflectorized roads (yes they
are aimed properly), but on unreflectorized roads they increase
range by a factor of at least about 1½ AND allow me to see little
critters that I wouldn't even otherwise know were there (squirrels,
raccoons, cats, dogs, deer, wolves, bears, groundhogs, hedgehogs,
armadillos, giraffes, white tigers, exotic east African elephants,
you name it).

Like I always said, the REAL test of high beam range is completely
pitch dark roads WITHOUT any kinds of side reflectors or cats' eyes
whatsoever, because those wonderful reflective inventions that are
installed on any decent major highway can be very good at masking
the dogshite performance of many US high beam lamps. Actually that
should be a testament to the effectiveness of cats' eyes and
reflective sidemarkers - these shiny wonders facilitate rapid night
time motoring and almost certainly save lives.

 

Euro spec composite aero lamps typically aren't so crappy. 'Nuff
said really.

 

Thanks. I'd love to get euro-code lights on the thing.

(pulls out multimeter)

 

They are fine. The lowbeams look NASTY, but the highbeams are white
and clean(if underpowered lumen-wise)instead of yellow - almost like a
different set of lights.

I'll check. I bet I'm only getting 10.5v or something. The light
is way too dim.

Check - I saw them. Been a bit wary of marketing tricks like xenon
and blue tinted and whatnot. Oh - how much do they shorten life?

Neat. Where would I locate a pair without spending a fortune?

 

I did polish the, and aim them correctly. I guess I got too used to my
euro-spec 240 lights. My Buick has the same problem - the low-beams are
set to 30mph or something silly and there is a white spot on the road
from them not 100 ft in front of me. If I aim them up, the high-beams
are aiming about 20 degrees high.

What gets me is that the low-beams are dingy and yellow and the high-beams
are white and clear, if weak.

Any ideas?

 

That sounds like undervoltage. Try this sometime - go to a lighting
store(dedicated one) and ask to see a long-life 130V bulb versus a
120V bulb of the same wattage. Note how much brighter the 120V
is - on the order of 20% or more.

The same thing happens with most smaller budget cars(and a lot of
the new more expensive ones as well). 16 gauge wiring instead of 12.
Wiring run all over the place instead of proper relays. 10-11V is not
uncommon in most older cars.