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PostPosted: Tue Aug 21, 2018 10:16 am 
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Some H7 headlight bulb bargains on Halford's website at the moment, for example a Bosch twin pack for £7, apparently reduced from £20. Their own brand bulbs seem to be at least half price, eg £5 rather than £10 for a single bulb. (Assuming prices are the same in the shops.)

But I was in Tesco Extra in Dundee yesterday (not far from Halfords) and I see they're selling H7 twin packs for £3, so £1.50 each :shock:

So wonder if Halford's price drive anything to do with that? Of course, you can get H7 bulbs for cheaper than £1.50, but from some obscure source on ebay, and not just to put in your shopping basket while you're buying the bread and milk.

So bought half a dozen from Tesco so I'll have plenty of spares for the dark nights - never liked the idea of having £60 worth of spare bulbs sitting around, but less than a tenner seems more palatable.

Of course, the million dollar question (or at least the £1.50 one) is how long they'll last. But last winter I bought a £20 twin pack of Halford's ''heavy duty' bulbs hoping they'd last a couple of years, but the first of those has just gone after less than a year.

But hopefully the Tesco ones will last as long as the £6.50 one I bought last week at the all-night garage - from past experience I'm only expecting it to last a few months.

Of course, the blurb always tells you to replace headlamp bulbs in pairs, but does anyone actually do that? Does it actually affect the life of the bulb if you replace them singly?

Of course, replacing a pair of bulbs at £3 seems a lot more feasible than for £20 and discarding one that's working, but on the other hand changing bulbs is always a bit of a hassle, although my current motor is *a lot* easier than the last one.


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PostPosted: Tue Aug 21, 2018 1:36 pm 
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I normally use osram nightbreakers unlimited, great light output and I usually get 12mths or so out of them. Usually around £12-£15 a pair. Europarts have them on offer now and again or buy off Ebay.
Last winter I had a problem with one of my headlights misting up and continually blowing the bulb.(after a couple of days) I swapped them out and fitted osram ultra life and although not the brightest output they have lasted.


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PostPosted: Tue Aug 21, 2018 8:17 pm 
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A mate who has the same car as me rang me the other day saying his headlamp bulb had blown.

So what I said, change it then.

He then told me the front bumper has to come off before it can be changed.

Needless to say he changed them both even the working one.

But two hour labour to change a f***ing bulb. :sad: :sad: :sad: :sad: :sad: :sad: :sad: :sad: :sad: :sad:

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PostPosted: Wed Aug 22, 2018 8:11 am 
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Sussex wrote:
A mate who has the same car as me rang me the other day saying his headlamp bulb had blown.

So what I said, change it then.

He then told me the front bumper has to come off before it can be changed.

Needless to say he changed them both even the working one.

But two hour labour to change a f***ing bulb. :sad: :sad: :sad: :sad: :sad: :sad: :sad: :sad: :sad: :sad:

We used to have the same problem on our renault megane's we got it down to 10-15 minutes to remove the bumper, change the bulb and replace the bumper.

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PostPosted: Thu Aug 23, 2018 8:54 am 
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Location: Scotland
If your vehicle has projector lenses fit a set of HIDs 430K, nice and bright and long lasting.


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PostPosted: Thu Aug 23, 2018 9:46 am 
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skippy41 wrote:
If your vehicle has projector lenses fit a set of HIDs 430K, nice and bright and long lasting.


I hate being in front of/travelling towards a car fitted with HID’s that aren’t standard fit ( I can always tell!) It’s just a blob of light. The higher up the light spectrum they go the worse they are (4300,5000,6000 etc)


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PostPosted: Fri Aug 24, 2018 5:23 pm 
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skippy41 wrote:
If your vehicle has projector lenses fit a set of HIDs 430K, nice and bright and long lasting.
If it doesnt have self levelling and headlight washers it'll fail an MOT.


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PostPosted: Sun Aug 26, 2018 10:03 am 
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sasha wrote:
skippy41 wrote:
If your vehicle has projector lenses fit a set of HIDs 430K, nice and bright and long lasting.
If it doesnt have self levelling and headlight washers it'll fail an MOT.


Not with HIDs had them in mine for years , but they only work properly, by giving the right light cut off in projector lenses.( thats the light kick up on the left of the beam you can see when they are on,)


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PostPosted: Mon Aug 27, 2018 4:28 pm 
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Some confusion here, this site https://greyhead.co.uk/other-things/are ... s-legal-uk says you have to change the whole unit, whereas http://www.ukmot.com/manual/1.7/Headlamps says washers and levelling must work if fitted - but makes no mention of the correct housing or whether washers/levellers are required !

I think the MOT was changed to 'washers and levelling system must be fitted' a few years back and then in January to 'must work if fitted'.


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PostPosted: Wed Aug 29, 2018 7:46 am 
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sasha wrote:
Some confusion here, this site https://greyhead.co.uk/other-things/are ... s-legal-uk says you have to change the whole unit, whereas http://www.ukmot.com/manual/1.7/Headlamps says washers and levelling must work if fitted - but makes no mention of the correct housing or whether washers/levellers are required !

I think the MOT was changed to 'washers and levelling system must be fitted' a few years back and then in January to 'must work if fitted'.


Thats for xenon headlights, HIDs are a straight swap for your normal bulbs, but only work if you have projector lenses so if you look through your headlight and can see what looks like a round disc inside you have projector headlights, if you can see the bulb you haven't


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PostPosted: Wed Aug 29, 2018 8:14 am 
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skippy41 wrote:
sasha wrote:
Some confusion here, this site https://greyhead.co.uk/other-things/are ... s-legal-uk says you have to change the whole unit, whereas http://www.ukmot.com/manual/1.7/Headlamps says washers and levelling must work if fitted - but makes no mention of the correct housing or whether washers/levellers are required !

I think the MOT was changed to 'washers and levelling system must be fitted' a few years back and then in January to 'must work if fitted'.


Thats for xenon headlights, HIDs are a straight swap for your normal bulbs, but only work if you have projector lenses so if you look through your headlight and can see what looks like a round disc inside you have projector headlights, if you can see the bulb you haven't


Just found this on the web~

In January 2018, the Driver and Vehicle Standards Agency ("DVSA") announced that some changes were being drafted to tighten up the MOT rules on the fitment of aftermarket HID kits.

These changes are still in draft, but the essence seems to be that, if you want to upgrade a car to HID headlights, you must use a headlight unit specifically designed for the fitment of the HID bulb you're upgrading to. So, for example, if you wanted to fit a D2S-type HID lamp, you would need to use a projector or reflector specifically designed for that bulb.

The specific wording, on page 7 of the draft document (which you can read here), is:

Some vehicles may be fitted with High Intensity Discharge (HID) headlamps. It is not permitted to convert existing halogen headlamp units for use with HID bulbs. If it is clear that such a conversion has been carried out, rather than replacing the entire unit with one designed and approved for use with HID bulbs, the headlamp should be rejected.

About time too. As previously stated, it doesn’t matter what type of HID kit you use, if the headlight was designed to use HID it would have been fitted with them instead of being converted ‘boy racer’ style.


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PostPosted: Sat Sep 01, 2018 9:00 am 
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x-ray wrote:
skippy41 wrote:
sasha wrote:
Some confusion here, this site https://greyhead.co.uk/other-things/are ... s-legal-uk says you have to change the whole unit, whereas http://www.ukmot.com/manual/1.7/Headlamps says washers and levelling must work if fitted - but makes no mention of the correct housing or whether washers/levellers are required !

I think the MOT was changed to 'washers and levelling system must be fitted' a few years back and then in January to 'must work if fitted'.


Thats for xenon headlights, HIDs are a straight swap for your normal bulbs, but only work if you have projector lenses so if you look through your headlight and can see what looks like a round disc inside you have projector headlights, if you can see the bulb you haven't


Just found this on the web~

In January 2018, the Driver and Vehicle Standards Agency ("DVSA") announced that some changes were being drafted to tighten up the MOT rules on the fitment of aftermarket HID kits.

These changes are still in draft, but the essence seems to be that, if you want to upgrade a car to HID headlights, you must use a headlight unit specifically designed for the fitment of the HID bulb you're upgrading to. So, for example, if you wanted to fit a D2S-type HID lamp, you would need to use a projector or reflector specifically designed for that bulb.

The specific wording, on page 7 of the draft document (which you can read here), is:

Some vehicles may be fitted with High Intensity Discharge (HID) headlamps. It is not permitted to convert existing halogen headlamp units for use with HID bulbs. If it is clear that such a conversion has been carried out, rather than replacing the entire unit with one designed and approved for use with HID bulbs, the headlamp should be rejected.

About time too. As previously stated, it doesn’t matter what type of HID kit you use, if the headlight was designed to use HID it would have been fitted with them instead of being converted ‘boy racer’ style.
this is why the headlight must be projector only and they pass any mot


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PostPosted: Mon Sep 03, 2018 9:12 am 
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The wording is “if you wanted to fit a D2S-type HID lamp, you would need to use a projector or reflector specifically designed for that bulb.”
Your fitting it to a projector lens SPECIFICALLY designed for a halogen bulb.


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