Poor dipped beam

mjc54321

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Now the winter nights are drawing in I have noticed that my dipped beam headlamps are almost useless and therefore dangerous, I have a 2003 S class with the lens type lamp.
When driving down the road I can see everyone elses beam pattern on the road but mine is not evident unless there are no other cars around.
I have tried beam adjusting, after market HID kit but they are still like a pair of candles!! No different from my Land rover defender headlamps(surely that can't be right) main beam are great though.

Is there anything else I should check/clean, or are they generally rubbish lights?

Thanks in advance

Mods

Sorry if I 've posted this in the wrong area, but I thought this was a fairly general question.
 
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television

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Just for the sake of it,I would measure the actual voltage on the bulbs where it should be the same as the running voltage on the car at 13.8 volt
 

Alex M Grieve

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Is there anything else I should check/clean, or are they generally rubbish lights?

Sadly, I believe you have it in one. In spite of theoretical performance, some car lights do very well (Peugeot 205, W 203 C Class) whereas others which should be similar (Toyota Carina Exec, W 220 S Class) are very poor.

I had some demented notion that the S Class had xenon lights as standard spec (my W211 E Class AG did), and that would have been fine. Sadly, it doesn't. I thought of better bulbs, but a thread here at the time did not encourage me. I upgraded to xenons (with all that entails) and they are superb. There are the lights that a car of this price and calibre should have had in the first place.

Shame on MB for putting second division lighting on its flagship product.
 
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mjc54321

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ok, will do, I'll report back later.
 
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mjc54321

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Voltage at the lamp is 14.05v, lights look very bright to look at they just refuse to put the light onto the road :(
 

television

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OK that was a long shot,, if you are keeping the car you could convert to Xenon as Alex did
 

roadhog

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What condition are the reflectors or the lenses in? Perhaps a good clean might help but if they were poor from the beginning it might not do much.
There's a thread on here about different light bulbs (Phillips Xtreme & Osram Nightbreakers) and some people including me have had some results from them. Worth a try in any case IMHO. :)
 

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I upgraded to xenons (with all that entails) and they are superb. There are the lights that a car of this price and calibre should have had in the first place.


Out of interest Alex (and to save me searching the forum!), roughly how much did that cost you?
 

Alex M Grieve

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Out of interest Alex (and to save me searching the forum!), roughly how much did that cost you?

Around £800. Rather less than the OEM lights if specified on a new car. The luminance is said to be 10% better than OEM - it is certainly excellent.

Others have expressed concerns over the acceptability of retrofits at MOT. I have had no problem at all.
 
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mjc54321

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What condition are the reflectors or the lenses in? Perhaps a good clean might help but if they were poor from the beginning it might not do much.
There's a thread on here about different light bulbs (Phillips Xtreme & Osram Nightbreakers) and some people including me have had some results from them. Worth a try in any case IMHO. :)

I only got the car in spring of this year and hence have not really noticed how poor the lights are. I think I may have a crack at cleaning the lenses and reflectors, will let you know the results.
Any tricks to removing headlamps before I start?
Cheers
 

jberks

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I wonder whether we all get spoiled with xenons then when we have to drive something with halogens (which we all thought were great when we switched up from tugstens) we proclaim how crap they are.
 

television

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I wonder whether we all get spoiled with xenons then when we have to drive something with halogens (which we all thought were great when we switched up from tugstens) we proclaim how crap they are.

And what was wrong with the carbide lamps that you lit before you set off,,, Eco friendly too as water fed them
 

Alex M Grieve

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I wonder whether we all get spoiled with xenons then when we have to drive something with halogens (which we all thought were great when we switched up from tugstens) we proclaim how crap they are.

Possibly, but I drive the C Class W 203 and its lights are vastly superior to the halogens I replaced on the S Class.
 

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And what was wrong with the carbide lamps that you lit before you set off,,, Eco friendly too as water fed them

converted my 240 for carbide lights after polishing the lenses, bit of a sod when it comes to dipping though - have to stop and get out to adjust them:D
 

Alex M Grieve

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converted my 240 for carbide lights after polishing the lenses, bit of a sod when it comes to dipping though - have to stop and get out to adjust them:D

Can't the man with the red flag have this included in his terms and conditions, Roger?
 

Xtractorfan

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Your car should have an excellent set of fog lamps, I find they even enhance the light from the xenons and as they are integrated in the headlamps few oncoming drivers realise that they are in use..
 

television

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Your car should have an excellent set of fog lamps, I find they even enhance the light from the xenons and as they are integrated in the headlamps few oncoming drivers realise that they are in use..

If you are using fog lamps and no fog,,you can get fined for this and many people have been
 


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