front lights VERY poor.

[The hairy angler]

Hi all,
at present I am doing a fair amount of night time driving. my standard lights on an E85/2004 2.5 are not really up to it. At present Halfrauds have as part of their winter promotion 2 for 1 on H7 lamps. I propose going down the ultra brilliance (up to 120% brighter) on main beam, and extreme brilliance (90% brighter) for dipped headlights to give a balance between light output and reliability. At the same time I have sent to Sopers for new headlight covers as I am getting traces of moisture in. The main beam gives me what I would consider to be good dipped headlight coverage at present!
I also need to adjust the lights for height, on full dash adjustment they still seem to illuminate just in front of the car and I can almost get away with driving everywhere on full beam without being flashed!
Is there an easy way of fitting non BMW fixed headlight washers? I find it crazy that BMW did not fit washers as standard!! At present I need to clean lights with water or wet wipes before each trip.
It is a bloody nuisance that our local councils have switched off lighting on many of our roads as part of their campaign to make life as difficult as possible for their ratepayers/motorists. This along with the poor lighting on my Zed makes night time driving a nightmare.
regards, John Duggan aka. The hairy angler.

 

[andya1]

I have to agree the dipped beams on my 2007 E85 are really poor I still can't believe that BMW launched a car with headlights so bad, I want to do something about them but I have no idea what to do.

 

[TonyP]

I have to agree with this also, I'd be inclined to describe them as verging on dangerous & likewise I'm surprised BMW could sell a car with such bad headlights. :|

Regarding the fitting of brighter bulbs, I'm not convinced that will necessarily help as I find that the beam shines approx a car lengths distance forward & then projects no further, fitting brighter bulbs will only surely illuminate this area but a bit brighter.

Others have suggested using the adjuster screws to raise the headlamps upwards a couple of turns, & then winding them down again when it comes to the MOT, before even considering doing this I'm going to look to see if mine have been adjusted for driving on the right, apparently there's a difficult-to-find lever that lowers some kind of cover/flap for continental use within each headlamp assembly.

Tony

 

[Bing]

Much as I love my dim lights, as they make driving at night more of an exciting, danger and thrill filled experience, I replaced mine with Osram Nightbreakers and am going to upgrade to the latest version soon which are brighter. I also need to wind mine up a bit this evening - fortunately my mechanic doesn't fail the at MOT time, he just winds the back down... But doesn't tell me so I get a shock next time it's dark :lol:

 

[cj10jeeper]

I have to agree with this also, I'd be inclined to describe them as verging on dangerous & likewise I'm surprised BMW could sell a car with such bad headlights. :|

Regarding the fitting of brighter bulbs, I'm not convinced that will necessarily help as I find that the beam shines approx a car lengths distance forward & then projects no further, fitting brighter bulbs will only surely illuminate this area but a bit brighter.

Others have suggested using the adjuster screws to raise the headlamps upwards a couple of turns, & then winding them down again when it comes to the MOT, before even considering doing this I'm going to look to see if mine have been adjusted for driving on the right, apparently there's a difficult-to-find lever that lowers some kind of cover/flap for continental use within each headlamp assembly.

Tony

Just face the car towards a vertical wall about 10' away and with the dipped beam on you should see a distinct flick up on the beam to the left (to illuminate the hedge/kerb). If it's flat then the cover is cutting off the 'flick'.

Lever is easy to reach on the left side of the beam when the rear inspection cover is off. Just as a point of note the lever has to raise the shutter as the beam is inverted as it passes through the projector lens.

This procedure should ONLY be done on halogens with the lights on as xenon are very high voltage...

 

[Bing]

Thanks cj - reminded me I had an MOT advisory about no kick up on my drivers beam and I think this is the issue so need to have a look and sort

 

[srhutch]

As above brighter bulbs on their own do very little. You need to adjust them up a complete turn or two.

 

[nfarmer]

Lever is easy to reach on the left side of the beam when the rear inspection cover is off. Just as a point of note the lever has to raise the shutter as the beam is inverted as it passes through the projector lens.

(I have a 'knackered' headlight in bits and these photos might help)

Here

The shutter is raised by the lever going down

Lever UP


Lever DOWN


(dont forget the lower two photos are from the FRONT and the first from the REAR)

Hope these help

 

[Bing]

Stupid question - do I need the lever up or down to get the kick up ?

 

[cj10jeeper]

From memory raising the lever lowers the front ent if it. That then reveals more of the beam that becomes the kick up 'flick.

 

[Bing]

Ace, thanks cj

Did occur to me after asking that I could just go try it :slaphead: