poor headlights

[jonnyfive]

Hi

just come back from the pub in my new zed and found the headlights barely lit up the road , i think they are standard halogens (car 3.0 2003) lights have been changed to clear lenses.
I don't really want the fuss of changing to hid or exons.Is there a better halogen bulb on the market any sugestions please
Cheers

 

[ksher]

Auto Express did a lot of product reviews on halogen bulbs. Go and have a look. I used Philips BlueVision on my E60.

 

[srhutch]

Been discussed many times, brighter bulbs make little difference. Your best bet it to turn the height adjuster under the bonnet, I have turned mine by 720 degrees (2 turns) from a known dead centre alignment. I also have brighter bulbs but the adjustment makes the most gains.

Just remember to lower again for MOT to ensure it doesn't fail.

 

[bmwangler]

Probably being so low has a lot to do with it.

My zenons are very bright but ultimately only really do the business when on full beam

 

[a11y]

Best combination if you want to avoid HIDs or a full xenon conversion is a combination of better bulbs AND raising the aim of the headlights as described above (full instructions are on the forum somewhere if you search). I used Philips Xtreme +80% bulbs in the dipped beam and combined with 1.5 turns up on the adjusters it certainly helped, but not greatly. I ended up going for HIDs purely from a safety point of view (and made sure they didn't dazzle oncoming traffic using trial and error - again for safety).

Quite what I'll do when the rumoured changes to the MOT come in in the next couple of years I'm not sure...

 

[chris]

You can always use the adjuster if you find you blind people

 

[tdz840]

Quite what I'll do when the rumoured changes to the MOT come in in the next couple of years I'm not sure...

Can you tell me what the proposed changes are. I was hoping to fit a set of HIDs to my classic
Russ

 

[chris]

No HID's basically, but the article that was published on a lot of forums was complete crap, so not sure yet. Ive had HID's in all cars with never a failed MOT, and ive told the tester as well! (with bulbs in the boot just in case ).

But ive always used projector headlights, so not reflector type. Though you can get HID kits for reflector headlights.

I would not be without mine, as std BMW lights are poor imo. And for all the people saying dont use them, then say adjust your lights up instead :roll: are you not still blinding people

 

[aquazi]

Even my xenons are pretty crap.... much worse then my mums E90.

Even my old S2K which was lower then the Z were better.

 

[Hotride]

I find the xenons work great. Never had any issues with low light

 

[jamiez]

Even my xenons are pretty crap.... much worse then my mums E90.

Even my old S2K which was lower then the Z were better.

Interesting as i thought the same until BMW did some warranty (totally unrelated to lights)
when it came back i noticed my lights were incredabily better - no idea what they did and i forgot to ask them

 

[ksher]

I find the xenons work great. Never had any issues with low light

x2

 

[a11y]

I've not been in a Z4 equipped with xenons so can't compare against halogens, but IMO the Z4 halogens are particularly poor. Probably not helped by the low driving position and also the low height of the lights - certainly compared to the Z4, my VW T5 van's halogen lights are MUCH better and that's really saying something as the van's lights are apparently "crap" according to user forums...

 

[srhutch]

And for all the people saying dont use them, then say adjust your lights up instead :roll: are you not still blinding people

It all depends how hight they are in the first place. I took my car to the dealer and complained about the crap lights, when they checked them one was below legal limit the other just above. This was how the car came out of the factory so they set them to mid limit.

I raised mine two turns so they may still be legal.

 

[aquazi]

Even my xenons are pretty crap.... much worse then my mums E90.

Even my old S2K which was lower then the Z were better.

Interesting as i thought the same until BMW did some warranty (totally unrelated to lights)
when it came back i noticed my lights were incredabily better - no idea what they did and i forgot to ask them

interesting... mine is booked in Friday to have the misting fogs sorted i will get to to have a look at my headlights too then.