Headlight bulb upgrade ?

Hi
I’ve a 79 bay with standard headlight bulbs ! I just wondered what upgrade H4 headlight bulbs and make , are commonly used to improve night vision without going to LED ? any help would be greatly appreciated
Cheers

 

Osram Nightbreaker, awesome bulb. I've just upgraded to the 200% ones, they're around £24 a pair on Ebay.

 

Thank you

 

Are they direct replacements, no need to change any wiring?

 

I’ve used nightbreaker and led upgrades in various cars over the years.

although osrams / upgrade halogens etc are an improvement they don’t last as long in my experience. LED are brighter, last longer and they draw less power too.

I have LEDs from classiccarleds.co.uk Excellent upgrade imo. Easy to install, plugs straight into the existing wiring, looks oem, legal for pre-86 so no issues at mot.

 

No they just plug straight in. As @rob.e says they don't last as long though. I've never tried LED ones as I thought they interfered with the CAN bus on modern cars (not exctly relevant to a Bay ), I ought to look nto it more.

 

With LED’s so cheap now it doesn’t make sense to me to just to fit upgraded Halogens. I bought my LED’s from AliExpress for less than the cost of Osram Nightbreakers, choose carefully, don’t simply buy the cheapest, the position of the LED must mimic the position of the filament in the Halogens and make sure there is sufficient space in the headlight bowl for the heat sink and cooling fan.

And don’t forget the reflectors, good quality and good condition reflectors and lens are just as important, if not more so, than the bulbs.

 

It’s amazing what a good clean up of the connectors the fuses, the fuse holders and earths can do.

 

I went through a lot of disappointing H4 LEDs from eBay. Some were nearly as bright as halogen bulbs even. The best two of them got converted to nice bright reversing lights..crunch glass bulb off a pair of 21W bulbs, rip LEDs and regulator out of H4, solder LED power wires to bulb metal cup and cap, glue with Araldite..
Then I also went to classiccarleds, paid out AFAIR £100 at the time, ending up with a good bright beam pattern from my Hella H4 reflectors, with a clean cutoff .

 

59 quid now I think. Pretty sure these are the ones I have

https://www.classiccarleds.co.uk/pr...-lo-beam-conversion-9-32v?variant=42325174794

 

I bought the cheaper LED's from classic car leds and they didn't work unfortunately, the high beam wouldn't energise even though both elements worked when connected to a battery. The low beam was fine, high beam didn't work.

 

Its probably a wiring, headlamp relay or earthing issue, most people seem not to have trouble with the classicarleds headlamps.

 

https://www.classiccarleds.co.uk/pr...-472-476-led-hi-lo-beam-conversion-5-15-volts

These were the ones I bought, tested on a battery they work fine, installed in my van and then my TVR and the high beam element doesn't illuminate, probably a wiring/relay issue as you suggest..

 

They do a H4 type Sarah that will fit straight in. That's what I've used and Mike too, i think.
Although the LEDs Mike and myself have fitted do not have cooling fans , the ones ClassicCar LEDs sell now have cooling fans, probably just as good or better.
Duncan at ClassicCarLEDs is very helpful if you need any advice etc

 

Yes if you need an adaptor for H4 halogen bulbs, keep it for the LEDs. In my case, the Hella H4 fit reflectors were £40 each back in 2012, as the old reflectors were a bit grotty.