Bulb upgrade

[wwmnw]

Tried asking this on the AON forum, not one reply. So, as usual the standard headlights are dogshit (Mk4 astra W reg) what bulbs would be a good upgrade now the darks here most of the day.

[Stuart]

Ebay gyppo Xeonssssss blind others but should be good for you lol

tbh I just use "not quite the top" halfords bulbs with trade card. They do the job

[wwmnw]

Not sure I'd trust xenon bulbs off ebay but halfords aren't cheap lol

[Stuart]

they are with a trade card lol

[wwmnw]

Important question that I never researched, apparently the standard wattage is 55w, a lot of the bulbs on egay are 100w, would they be safe to run on standard everything?

[Stuart]

Double the current.... Umm, no!

[wwmnw]

I don't mess with electrics but that did make sense, so 55w bulbs it is... Will 55w xenons make any difference?

[Jack]

If you want to run higher wattage bulbs, just make up your own loom and use the standard loom to open a relay (assuming you take into account any excess heat).

Surprisingly I found Halfords bulbs to be decent; their old Rally ones were best (with aforementioned independent loom) but I don't think they sell them any more. The 90/100% ones were good though iirc. Also tried Nightbreakers, some people rave about them but I thought they were crap.

I've not bought filament bulbs for a while - Celica has HIDs with no ill effects but they never worked out on the Nova or Cav so I'd avoid them - so not sure if they're still any good but PIAA XTreme Force were good back in the day. Mega $$$$ though.

[wwmnw]

Someone recently said to me a bulb is a bulb and wont make a difference, I'm sure a decent bulb will make a difference but obviously I'd rather be sure before I buy. Halfords sell some that claim 130% more light on the road, might be Philips bulb. As for wiring things up, wouldn't even know where to start lol

[NovalutionGSi]

1st thing I do on any of my daily cars.
Straight in with a set of the 120% Halfords bulbs. You may find they are BOGOF at present as well.

I do have a set of LED bulbs to try on my Mk5 Astra, had an issue with the last set but when they were on looked like 200% of light.. hopefully the beam pattern will be right.

[wwmnw]

The aim on my right headlight is slightly off I think its down slightly and I was thinking about LEDs but do they require any loom chopping? Only other issue I never thought of before is the headlight lens on the early MK4 is plastic, apparantly this can cause melting issue.

[NovalutionGSi]

The ones I have are rated at 30w so they use less power so in theory should be fine on the standard loom.

Heat could be an issue. Although LEDs run cold, these ones have fans on the back.

Mk4s, do they have Canbus?

[wwmnw]

I'm not sure about canbus, Stuart would be the man in the know on that I think lol (if hes reading this, W reg Astra)

[Stuart]

Non of them have canbus.

some are likely to have CAN though :p as it turns out the mk4 didn't get CAN, that came in at mk5
iirc they had rudimentry diagnostics, but most bulbs should pass that

[NovalutionGSi]

That removes the error issue then and probably opens up a few more options then.

Best bet, have a look on eBay but don't buy cheap cheap ones. Hopefully if the rain stops tomorrow I'll have mine fitted.

[wwmnw]

Cheers Stuart.

NovalutionGSi, you reccomneding the LEDs there? Jack mentioned some good bulbs but they're verrrrrry expensive, I would pay £30 tops I think.

[NovalutionGSi]

Depends on how tomorrow goes. This is the 2nd set I've had, 1st set failed within seconds of starting the car which was strange. The canbus then shut the other light down.
These were £45 but yes I have seen sets at well over £130. Think they are Philips ones, there is a slightly cheaper set out there at £85 I think it was.

However if this set fail then I'll be going for a refund! Will keep you posted on my thoughts, plus some photos as well.

[wwmnw]

Ebay seems to have very cheap H7 LED bulbs, but what else do you need to make them work?

[Stuart]

How hard are you making the process of buying two bulbs? lol

[NovalutionGSi]

Lol... for me Stu... very fucking hard!

Seems that Canbus on the Mk5 doesn't like the LED bulbs.
I bought the techmax bulbs. £45.

I didn't want to go for the cheap ones just in case the beam pattern isn't right.

[Stuart]

Its not the CAN that dislikes LED's, its the fancy pants (and crap as Edd or Andy would put it) modern controllers that can detect when the current pull isnt enough/expected and therefore assumes the bulb is dead and kills the feed.
You could chuck in a wire wound ali resistor in parallel with the LED lights to try an bump the current draw up to make it happy.

[wwmnw]

lol I didn't know you could use LEDs until quite recently, might just do as suggested and get some from Halfrauds.

[NovalutionGSi]

Its not the CAN that dislikes LED's, its the fancy pants (and crap as Edd or Andy would put it) modern controllers that can detect when the current pull isnt enough/expected and therefore assumes the bulb is dead and kills the feed.
You could chuck in a wire wound ali resistor in parallel with the LED lights to try an bump the current draw up to make it happy.

Good shout Stu, however, the bulbs already have their own "canbus controller". I'll measure the resistance of a normal bulb and see if I have any kicking about and give it a go.
I'll post a pic of the bulbs I have.

[NovalutionGSi]

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v224/novaload/20171213_194446_zpsm3oqf8pq_edit_1513197007436_zps zlewg4jf.jpg~original
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v224/novaload/20171213_194435_zpsebp5cqzn.jpg~original
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v224/novaload/20171213_194440_zpsbvz3zdln.jpg~original

I'm going to guess that the little box controls the little fan on the back of the LED.

[Stuart]

Just 12v and ground on the two pins? That's got chuff all to do with CAN and merely down to the diagnostics. I've no idea why the sellers of this stuff keep getting it so wrong lol

[Jack]

Your bulbs have turbos? lol


Non of them have canbus.

some are likely to have CAN though :p
fnarr

[NovalutionGSi]

Your bulbs have turbos? lol


fnarr

Makes the light go fasssssttteeeeerrrrrr! Lol. What would you expect with a v16 in you headlights. Lol

2 pin goes into the existing bulb holder, the bulb itself has a 5 core cable, can only guess it's 2 for the LED, 2 for the Fan and 1 I have no idea over.
With self check on, the car brings up the message of Low beam before turning them off.

[wwmnw]

So I went to Halfrauds and bought some new bulbs, GE +120 (found here clicky (http://www.halfords.com/motoring/bulbs-blades-batteries/car-bulbs/ge-megalight-ultra--120-premium-bulb-477-x-1) ) £33 BOGOF. They are brighter thats for sure, noticebly so, but not £33 brighter fu*k pics coming

Old
http://i220.photobucket.com/albums/dd220/lostboy_014/Lights1_zpsyh6ov5cu.jpg (http://s220.photobucket.com/user/lostboy_014/media/Lights1_zpsyh6ov5cu.jpg.html)

New
http://i220.photobucket.com/albums/dd220/lostboy_014/Newlights_zps0gze454m.jpg (http://s220.photobucket.com/user/lostboy_014/media/Newlights_zps0gze454m.jpg.html)

As you can see, it is an improvement but on the road its not really much. I guess HIV's are the way to go, but seeing as my lenses are plastic that isn't going to happen lol

[Jack]

HIDs project the heat backwards iirc, my lenses don't get hot anyway (although they are glass). Beam pattern is the tricky thing with HIDs though

[wwmnw]

So theres a chance it could melt wiring if it projects heat backwards? Either way I've already spent too much on this car as it only cost me £360, its using a lot of fuel and coming up as P1405 which is EGR related, the egr is unplugged but the code showing up is 'Exhaust Gas Recirculation Sensor Circuit High' how can that be when its unplugged and the hole blanked off?

So bought a lambda and a throttle body air intake thing (big black inlet like the old dustbin nova one) as its using more fuel than it should and has a judder when coasting. Not bad for £360 but the sudden extra fuel consumption is pissing me off.

[Stuart]

K4 Astra petrols always had piss poor fuel consumption anyway :(

[wwmnw]

Apparently the book figure of mine is 38 which isn't bad for a 75bhp hearse but I did see better, I drive like a grandad these days lol also considering its w reg and 116K miles.