Rubbish dipped beam

[A.J.]

its already in Mkt, Mondeo with optional LED has it, as does (I thought) quite a few BMs. There's no high beam it just morphs around the issues in front on oncoming

LostKiwi, was right. Lots of current stuff running H7 don't have bits in the way to create the beam pattern. I was forgetting my BM bike just has an H7 with nothing else and an absolutely clear glass, must have a funny reflector. Main beam is a separate unit and another bulb.

This sounds a little like the headlight I had in my Velocette some years ago. It was a Cibie and there wasn't a dipped beam, the light just dimmed when you hit the switch. In those days they weren't all that successful because when you dimmed the light you couldn't see a thing !! :|

 

[C350Carl]

Adaptive lamp control is, but I've never yet seen a car that can steer bright areas within the beam pattern to illuminate a distant road sign, steer high beam away from a single oncoming car, blank off illumination of an overhead gantry sign that's quite close and giving significant glare back...

Mercedes Multibeam LED and Audi Matrix LED are two that spring to mind.

Mercedes System.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=qqgcnXtCPPk

Audi System

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=GBc5b4YhbNc

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=jHBbEcHW8PI


A good friend of mine is the chief lighting engineer/designer for McLaren. Two cars that the headlight design is his are the Aston Martin One 77 and the McLaren P series.

He was helping develop this sort of technology 5yrs ago. I used to think it would be a boring subject and it can't be that hard to do. But the amount of regulatory control in the UK and US in particular is immense. It's really not just the case of stick a lamp into a reflector. There is a massive amount of design work that goes into modern headlights.

He's also the one who taught me the Bulbs Grow and Lamps Glow saying

 

[om613]

Back to the OP, it could well be that the lamps are the originals, in which case just fitting new 'standard' wattage halogens will give a big improvement (with all that extra tungsten present).

 

[Craiglxviii]

Mercedes Multibeam LED and Audi Matrix LED are two that spring to mind.

Mercedes System.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=qqgcnXtCPPk

Audi System

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=GBc5b4YhbNc

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=jHBbEcHW8PI


A good friend of mine is the chief lighting engineer/designer for McLaren. Two cars that the headlight design is his are the Aston Martin One 77 and the McLaren P series.

He was helping develop this sort of technology 5yrs ago. I used to think it would be a boring subject and it can't be that hard to do. But the amount of regulatory control in the UK and US in particular is immense. It's really not just the case of stick a lamp into a reflector. There is a massive amount of design work that goes into modern headlights.

He's also the one who taught me the Bulbs Grow and Lamps Glow saying

He likely knows our Lamps design manager then as he came from McLaren a few years ago, likely another mate of mine as he's very "in" with automotive lighting.

By the way, Aston, JLR, BMW, Nissan, Toyota, in fact none of the automotive manufacturers design their own lamps any more- they manage the parts instead. All they do is provide a styling shape and specification + cost to the various Tier 1's, who do the lamp design for them. Everything else is managing the design that the Tier 1 has submitted, and then supplies to the plant.

LED lamp design is highly non-trivial, my last job was centred on it as we did design (and develop, build, market, sell and support) LED lamps... they're a completely different animal to traditional lighting and need to be treated (and thought of) as glowing electronics, really. The term "light engine" sums it up well.

 

[Ben Longden]

1) Check the headlight alignment (up and down as well as left right)
2) Check the globes are correctly fitted (yep. sometimes this is the fix as the filament is not at the reflectors centre of focus)
3) Replace the globes with Nightbreakers (I had a set in the W124 for over eight years doing 30,000km at night per year)

As Xtractorfan said, take note of how the globe is fitted before you remove them.

 

[Botus]

Mercedes System.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=qqgcnXtCPPk

Audi System

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=GBc5b4YhbNc

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=jHBbEcHW8PI

BMW had it out in 2012

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kZ1NOzIbadk

 

[JBell]

Oddly one of my nightbreakers went this morning

 

[Miles1812]

My second question then is are they easily fitted bearing in mind I am a complete novice when it comes to this type of thing ??

Hi, I've just upgraded my dipped beam , fitted 2 x 55w HID 5000k. The only stress i had was getting the clips back on ,that did take some patients. The electrical side took 5 mins, the only part that isn't obvious is the pair of spade connectors ,which way round.ie one is positive the other is neg. If doesn't light up just swap it .

The light output is much improved even on grotty nights.

If still unsure have a look at utube.

Hope this helps

Miles

 

[LostKiwi]

Good luck with them. Totally illegal and may invalidate your insurance. Legal max is 35w and then only if everything is e-marked.

 

[A.J.]

Just got the car back from servicing. Had Osram Nightbreakers fitted in the dipped beams. A big improvement, brighter light and a much better light spread, can't wait for my next dark journey !!

 

[onefortheroad]

I've fitted night breakers this morning , looking forward to an improvement over standards.