Driving Spirit » Headlight Upgrades

Philips Offer Replacement LED Bulbs

Chris — Fri, 28 May 2010 11:29:57 +0000

With LED bulbs continuing to become more common on new cars there’s a growing demand for fitting aftermarket LEDs to old cars. Talk about perfect timing, as here comes Philips with their latest range of LED Bulbs that allow you to replace existing halogen sidelight and interior light bulbs.

The LED bulbs are available in W5W and C5W sizes and are available in two colours – standard bright white (4000K) or with a blue tint as part of the Blue Vision range (6000K).

The advantage of these Philips bulbs over other LED alternatives is that they are direct replacements for your car’s existing bulbs. Now you don’t have to worry about messing about with wiring and voltage conversion, you simply take out your old halogen bulb and drop in the replacement LED bulb.

LEDs offer big advantages over halogen bulbs – they give out more light (almost twice as much in this case), they can last up to six times longer and they also give out less heat.

As part of an introductory offer PowerBulbs.com are offering 10% off if you use the code LED10 at the checkout.

Philips Offer Replacement LED Bulbs is a post from Driving Spirit. Are you ready for the release of Gran Turismo 5 on November 2nd?

Fitting Philips X-Treme Bulbs Into A Ford Focus

Chris — Mon, 30 Nov 2009 16:49:24 +0000

The dark nights are upon us and one of my headlight bulbs had blown, so I thought it was time to upgrade to some Philips Xtreme Power bulbs.

So I went to Powerbulbs.com and ordered a set of H7 bulbs for my Ford Focus. They cost £27 and included free delivery and a set of Philips Blue Vision sidelights and arrived the next day (I’ve bought from Powerbulbs before and know they offer great service).

Some people find the thought of fitting their own headlight bulbs rather daunting, but it really is quite easy. On my current Ford Focus, which is a 2008 model, it’s even easier than on my old Mk1. All you need is a large flat-bladed screwdriver and a set of rubber gloves. The screwdriver is for the one and only screw that holds in the headlight unit, the gloves are to protect the bulbs from any greasy fingerprints.

Undo The Headlight Unit

Because the bonnet is crammed full of stuff you need to remove the entire headlight unit to get at the bulbs, but on the current shape Focus this is really easy. Pop open the bonnet and undo the screw (pictured) and then pull the headlight towards you. You might need to give it a wiggle, but it should come free quite easily. Then maneuver the unit out from the wing.

The next thing you need to do is to remove the power cable, which is a large plug that fits into the rear of the headlight. There’s a little tab on the plug that holds it in place and this needs to be pushed upwards (away from the headlight). You should hear a little click and then you can pull the plug out.

Remove The Old Bulb

With the headlight free of the car you can get at the back of the unit. The dipped beam is the innermost bulb of the three (outermost is the sidelight, middle bulb is the full beam). Remove the rubber cover and you will see the connector for the bulb. There is a clip on here that needs to be squeezed before you can remove it. With the connector free you can get at the old bulb and remove it. Now PUT ON YOUR GLOVES – any greasy fingermarks on the surface of the new bulb will cause it to heat up and blow.

Fit The New Philips Xtreme Power Bulb

Carefully insert the new bulb into the slot and then position the connector over it, taking care not to bend the pins on the bulb. Push the connector until it clips back into place. Don’t forget to replace the rubber cover and then re-attach the power cable.

Now slide the headlight unit back into the gap until it slots back into place. The screw hole on the headlight should line up with the hole in the bodywork, allowing you to fit the screw. Make sure the screw is nice and tight and that should be it … job done. Now go and switch on your lights to make sure the new bulb is working. If it isn’t you’ll have to remove the headlight again to check the electrical connections are in secure.

Now Get Out And Test Your New Bulbs

Make sure you double check the fitting of your bulbs by taking your car out for a quick drive in the dark. This will highlight any problems with bulb fitment, something I spotted on one of my headlights because the bulb wasn’t sitting properly in the slot. It was easily fixed by checking the fitment but you don’t want to get caught on a long night-time drive with one of your headlights lighting up just a few feet in front of you.

You’ll also get a chance to enjoy the improved glow from the Xtreme bulbs. I found mine to be an improvement on the standard Ford bulbs, although the increase in range wasn’t quite as big as expected. However, they were definitely worth buying because the light is much whiter and easier to see with and the strength of the beam is better up to the maximum distance. The old bulbs were good closeup but the beam wasn’t very good at full distance.

Conclusion

The first thing to note is that it’s really easy to fit headlight bulbs yourself, so don’t go throwing money at dealers when they’ll only spend five minutes working on your car. The second thing is that Philips Xtreme Power bulbs make a decent upgrade on a Ford Focus and it’s a shame you can’t get them in an H1 fitting to upgrade the full beam.

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Fitting Philips X-Treme Bulbs Into A Ford Focus is a post from Driving Spirit. Are you ready for the release of Gran Turismo 5 on November 2nd?

20% Off Osram NightBreaker Bulbs

Chris — Mon, 01 Jun 2009 05:36:59 +0000

Osram NightBreaker bulbs are probably the brightest road-legal halogen upgrade you can get for your headlights and easily outperform standard headlight bulbs, and the good news is that there’s a 20% discount available at Powerbulbs at the moment. The Osram NightBreaker bulb is a very popular headlight upgrade as it offers 90% more light than standard halogen bulbs as well as 10% whiter light. This obviously means that you’ll be able to see more at night, but you’ll also have less eye strain as the light is closer to natural light than standard bulbs offer. In terms of brightness the Nightbreakers are slightly better than their closest rivals, Philips X-Treme Power, and to top that they’re also significantly cheaper.

“Again, the Osram offering provided excellent consistency, and the NightBreakers claimed to deliver plus 90 per cent power. Tinted bands on the lamp glass give the beam a bluish tinge, but the top-spec bulbs are the best of the rest after X-treme Power.” – Auto Express Review, 2009

With the Powerbulbs discount any of the main headlight bulb sizes (H1, H3, H4, H7 and H11) can be had for less than £20 per pair. Also, because the Osram NightBreaker bulbs are over £15 you’ll qualify for a free set of Philips Blue Vision sideight bulbs, as well as free worldwide delivery. I’ve always had good service from Powerbulbs, and the free Blue Vision sidelights were a big improvement on the standard items in my Ford Focus.

As you can see in the image above (yes, it’s a promotional image but it’s pretty accurate IMO) the Osram NightBreaker bulbs offer a much brighter light immediately in front of your car, but on top of that the reach of the beam is improved. This has obvious safety benefits when driving on dark roads against oncoming traffic where you can’t use full beam, but it also helps to make night driving a less stressful experience.

20% Off Osram NightBreaker Bulbs is a post from Driving Spirit. Are you ready for the release of Gran Turismo 5 on November 2nd?

25% Off Philips Xtreme Power Bulbs

Chris — Thu, 21 May 2009 08:26:50 +0000

PowerBulbs are currently offering Philips Xtreme Power bulbs for just £19.99, a discount of over 25% on the most expensive H4 fitting. Auto Trader have voted them Car Accessory of the Year for 2008 and their Best Buy for two years running.

Philips Xtreme bulbs are great, I’ve fitted them to my Focus and they make a huge difference over the standard units. The light is much whiter than the standard bulbs, with a slight blueish tint, and the increase in illumination is huge. Both the width and length of the area covered by the headlights is increased, and while I haven’t done a detailed examination to check the claim of being 80% brighter it is obvious that the Philips Xtreme Power bulbs do a great job of illuminating gloomy country roads. The downside – you might get the occasional flash from oncoming traffic who think you’re still on full beam!

The service from Powerbulbs is top notch. I put my order in on a Monday morning and the bulbs arrived the next day, with no charge for delivery and also a free set of Philips Blue Vision sidelight bulbs. Fitting them all was easy and took about ten minutes.

If you want a cheap upgrade for your headlights then grab some Philips Xtreme bulbs while you can, as the offer is only available while stocks last. Because the Xtreme bulbs are over £15 you’ll automatically qualify for the free Blue Vision sidelight bulbs, and as I’ve already mentioned delivery is free (and that includes worldwide).

You can get Philips Xtreme Power bulbs in H4 and H7 fittings, but if you’re not sure what your car might need you can check it out using the search tool.

Philips X-Treme Power H4 Bulb

Philips X-Treme Power H7 Bulb

Source: Powerbulbs

25% Off Philips Xtreme Power Bulbs is a post from Driving Spirit. Are you ready for the release of Gran Turismo 5 on November 2nd?

Philips Diamond Vision

Chris — Thu, 09 Apr 2009 05:03:59 +0000

There’s a new range of headlight bulbs for the car owners looking for something a bit more stylish and distinctive – Philips Diamond Vision.

The Diamond Vision bulbs are halogen bulbs that burn at 5000k. Typical halogen bulbs burn at just under 3000k, giving a yellow tint to the light. At around 4000k you start to get a bright white light, and as the bulb burns hotter you then start to get progressively more blue tint to the light.

This gives Diamond Vision a bright white light with a subtle blue tint, giving your lights a distinctive appearance that is much closer to HID xenon lights than most other aftermarket bulbs. It also helps make your lights look a lot more upmarket than some of the cheaper ‘blue’ bulbs that look like the headlights have been coloured-in with a blue marker.

Philips Diamond Vision bulbs are available in in H1, H4 and H7 fittings. Because they are replacement bulbs you don’t need to worry about messing about with wiring or changing fuses, it’s a simple case of removing the old bulb and popping these in instead.

Legal matters: thanks to the excessive blue tint Philips Diamond Vision bulbs are not legal for road use in the UK, so are really only useful for show cars or off roaders. If you fit some of these and then get pulled by the police, please don’t say I didn’t warn you! If you’re after the brightest road-legal upgrades you should choose either Philips X-Treme Power or Osram Nightbreakers.

Philips Diamond Vision is a post from Driving Spirit. Are you ready for the release of Gran Turismo 5 on November 2nd?

Want Blue Headlights? No Problem!

Chris — Tue, 13 May 2008 07:52:17 +0000

At some point you must have been driving along a motorway or main road at night when suddenly you see an intensely blue glow in your rear view mirror. No, it’s not an imminent alien abduction, but the piercing beam of a car that has been fitted with xenon headlights.

You might have wondered why they seem to have blue headlights. The light you see from these xenon headlights is generated by High Intensity Discharge (HID) xenon bulbs, which are special units that work differently to normal halogen headlight bulbs. These HID units are filled with xenon gas and use a very high voltage spark to ignite that gas, resulting in an intense and powerful light. Because these headlight units use very different technology to metal-coil halogen bulbs they are usually only available as an expensive option when ordering a new car.

The light itself is a brilliant white, and not the blue that you see as these cars approach. The blue tint is actually due to refraction of the light as it bounces around the reflectors and lens of the headlight unit. There are other colours generated but blue is the most prominent and gives cars that appearance of having blue headlights. So is there any way you can recreate that xenon look using ‘normal’ halogen bulbs and without resorting to an expensive aftermarket kit?

Yes, you can, by simply buying a set of upgraded headlight bulbs and fitting them yourself. You don’t need to worry about complicated wiring or changing fuses, just pop the old bulb out of your headlight unit and replace it with your new bulb.

There are a number of choices from different manufacturers but it is worth knowing that ECE regulations limit the amount of blue tint on the bulbs, as well as the maximum brightness, so in the end a lot of the blue headlight bulbs are very similar. Another point of note is that as the blue tint gets darker the bulb will get hotter, resulting in a shorter lifespan.

Two of the better known ranges of blue xenon bulbs are Osram Cool Blue and Philips Blue Vision. Both of these bulbs burn at 4000K, making them brighter than the typical 3200K you get on standard headlight bulbs. This means you get the benefits of making your car look more stylish as well as improving your night-time visibility with a brighter light.

Philips X-Treme Power H7 Bulb

Want Blue Headlights? No Problem! is a post from Driving Spirit. Are you ready for the release of Gran Turismo 5 on November 2nd?