H4 headlight bulbs - help

Got Bosch in mine, seem pretty good. Or as good as last millennium lighting is Vs LED deathrays
Are both bulbs seated correctly?
I have had an MOT fail as whatever the black coating on the end of the bulb had been damaged. Affected the beam pattern apparently.

Ring Pro, Osram etc all good.

Surely the bulb itself doesn't greatly affect the beam pattern? If you're being flashed it's more likely the headlights are badly adjusted.

@butcher, until the current bulbs I never got flashed. The beam pattern is awful. On dip the beam is a long way down the road, on full power the area close to the van is bright but no length to the beam, is also very jagged!

That sound like the wrong wire to the wrong pole on the bulb. Dipped beam should be close, Full away down the road.

They can't be wrong though, can they??

Incorrect installation (not fully seated in its clip) or badly adjusted headlights, perhaps having moved during the bulb replacement.

Sounds like either wrong bulb type, bulb and fitting not sat in the reflector right, bulb wiring somehow not right or whole headlight misaligned.

150000% brighter bulbs are in reality marginally brighter and won't be having the effect you describe by themselves, something else is wrong.

Osram Nightbreaker 200 are the best halogen bulbs I've used. Headlights on my 2017 Transit Custom were abysmal with the original bulbs; these are an improvement but still shite compared to LEDs/lasers on newer vehicles.

Sounds like you've got some dodgy bulbs at the moment.

are they filament bulbs or LED? Some places sell LED 'conversion' bulbs to fit in the place of H4 but he light source isn't the same shape as a filament bulb so the light hits the reflector in the wrong places

Are you getting good voltage to the headlights? Still getting the full ~14v? If not, restoring that will be the best upgrade.

Osram Nightbreaker or Phillips Racing Vision are a good shout. Avoid anything bluey or 'ice' in tint. Looks nice (subjective) but gives less light output on the road. Trouble with 'high performance' bulbs is that they will dim fairly quickly so they might need replacing every year.

Ideally, measure the voltage at the connectors for the lamps and find a bulb which works most efficiently at that voltage. Some are designed for 12ish volts (for older cars) and will give a better output than a bulb designed for 13.8v that's only getting 12. If that makes sense...?

It’s perfectly possible for the bulbs to not be correctly seated in the housing, and a millimetre misalignment will make a big difference fifty or sixty feet down the road. I put some new extra-bright bulbs in my EcoSport when one of the original bulbs failed, and it was a bit awkward fitting them. When I next drove in the dark the light was not very good at all, the beam pattern all over the place, so I had another go, and they clearly hadn’t seated properly, now I’m getting distinct beams on low, and they’re much brighter than the old ones. I think they could do with a tweak, but probably better they were checked on a proper rig.

With regard to fitting. All tabs in the correct places, not any wriggle room. Not sure what else to do??
I'll end up taking it to Halfords when I've got the time for more bulbs and fitting/aligning

Did you get flashed before the new bulbs? Some cats just seem to have poor headlights - too bright or too dull or beam pattern. I only realised how poor some are after owning a V70.

If you bought LED H4 bulbs then two things will happen:
Beam pattern will be all over and
They'll fail the next MoT because LED headlamp bulbs (not LED units) are an automatic fail

Buy the better names because quality control will probably be better and it's the combination of an accurate bulb and an accurate headlamp that make the best beam patterns.
Kelvin (K) ratings are about the colour of the beam; lower is more yellow, white is mid-range and blue is higher

Look at the lifespan of a bulb and don't worry about lumens. It's all in the manufacturing, materials, gases, etc
I settled for Philips VisionPlus H4 https://www.philips.co.uk/c-p/12342VPS2/visionplus (1650 lumens/400 hours life)
The other choice was Philips Vision https://www.philips.co.uk/c-p/12342PRC1/vision-car-headlight-bulb (1815 lumens/500 hours life) but the VisionPlus were on offer online and the Vision weren't

If you use quality bulbs and the beam is still a mess get the lamps checked at a garage/MoT station

Just had to fit 2 (H7's) yesterday ... I went for the long life guaranteed Osram Ultralife from Europarts..
(About £12 for both)

They even have secure bike parking at mine... (and 50' from RideFox)

I didn't buy led
I didnt get flashed before the new bulbs

def worth a check to see if they are correctly seated, with the tabs etc is possible to get them in bit not correctly seated and this will affect the beam.

also drive square and close up to a wall / garage door to test as makes check dip pattern / heights.

failing that, try some some std philips units.

You have probably fitted them out of whack! With H4 this is easy to do, and Peugeot Citroen love to use them. I fitted some Osram +150 last year to my Citroen and couldn't believe how dim they were. And other drivers were flashing me cos I was dazzling them...
I went out and checked after dark , squatting down to check where they became bright, and it was when I was standing up!
A couple of hours of fun later and they were right again, Burning hedges with their fiery glow, but not blinding oncoming drivers.
Check you've fitted them correctly, and double check. They're probably in cock eyed.
Peogeot Citroen are probably the most powerful lights around. It comes from being restricted to yellow 45W bulbs for nearly all of the 20th century.

"With regard to fitting. All tabs in the correct places, not any wriggle room."

That's what I thought too! I was wrong! You could have bought shit bulbs though; what brand are they? Osram or Phillips for the win!

Brand - shite
I'll have a squiz tomorrow

I suspect that the bulbs are still misaligned, even though you think they're not.

Been there, done that on Mrs officers SEAT.

Looked seated properly but wasn't. Give away was the alignment of the actual glass bulb, which wasn't horizontal.

If you bought LED H4 bulbs then two things will happen:
Beam pattern will be all over and

not if you fit good quality ones, mine are h7 and my mate said they are spot on when he checked them on his MOT equipment the other day when it was in for a tyre, the h4's in my wifes mini are spot on as well.

They’ll fail the next MoT because LED headlamp bulbs (not LED units) are an automatic fail

depends on the tester, if the patten is ok a lot are happy to pass them.

we tried uprated halagens in the mini but my wife still struggled at night to the point she wouldn't drive, with the led's she has no problem.

nobodys ever flashed her with them fitted which is also my experiance in the van and when she's been driving behind me they look no differant to any other car with factory led's. ours are both good quality ones, about £80/£90 a pair, i have heard cheap ones are not good for beam pattern and error codes.

I can't argue with a beam tester, but they are an automatic fail if fitted to an existing halogen headlamp, "...light emitting diode (LED) bulbs. If such a conversion has been done, you must fail the headlamp for light source and lamp not compatible."

It's a major fail, "(c) Light source and lamp not compatible Major"

Guidance published in March 2021 was withdrawn this month https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/special-notice-01-21-headlamp-conversions

H4 is more complex because it's a bilux lamp. H7 is simpler and in many ways better, but LED bulbs are illegal in the UK and in many other countries

i know they should fail but my tester will pass them and on the transit sites plenty are using them ( custom dipped beam are really bad) and most have had no problem mot time although there has been some fails.

only reason they're illegal is they have never been approved for use and have no e markings(and the cheap ones are shit).
i did read recently some led bulbs are close to being approved for use in germany, i'm guessing they are going for germany first as they are pretty strict there, if that happens i would think it would follow in other countries.

( custom dipped beam are really bad)

Not my experience. Driven early and late ones.
So where do go about getting a dodgy MOT if I fit non Compliant bulbs to keep up with the arms race?

i know they should fail but my tester will pass them

Let's hope that your tester doesn't take too many liberties with other major faults 🙂

Auto Express ran this test... https://www.autoexpress.co.uk/product-group-tests/76760/best-car-headlight-bulbs-2023 200% extra H7, and it's legal 🙂
LED bulbs are easy to spot without taking anything apart, £50 FPN, I think

Useful little link. Surprised by how well Halfords did. Instinctively or maybe snobbery I'd normally avoid them.

( custom dipped beam are really bad)

Not my experience. Driven early and late ones.

it's my experiance and the same as a lot of people i know who drive customs both pre and post facelift and also the custom websites are full of people complaining about how bad they are which is why so many now are running led's.

Finally got round to some pics

The first shows the crap bulb

The rest show how they are fitted, are they incorrect

https://photos.app.goo.gl/jCyii9oBVWag32nD9

Well the first pic looks a bit like:-

I have had an MOT fail as whatever the black coating on the end of the bulb had been damaged. Affected the beam pattern apparently

Yep I appreciate that james

The one with the scratched cap is not the wonky one

it’s my experiance and the same as a lot of people i know who drive customs both pre and post facelift and also the custom websites are full of people complaining about how bad they are which is why so many now are running led’s.

Maybe myself and my colleagues have lower expectations, although Google didn't show much about poor dipped beam.
Perhaps in comparison to led equipped vehicles they are poor.

Nowt to do with my question

Sorry, yeah looks to be fitted properly from here.

They look OK from the front, but you really need to see the back to make sure.

I've never heard of anybody complaining about Custom headlights, and I've got no issues seeing with mine.
However from experience those who complain about headlights being poor, are often those who have no comprehension of a how the headlight adjuster works, and think that the higher the number, the higher the light.

However from experience those who complain about headlights being poor, are often those who have no comprehension of a how the headlight adjuster works, and think that the higher the number, the higher the light.

????

the adjuster is numbere3d 0-4 i , 0 is the highest light setting.

Despite them appearing to fit perfectly I think they are upside down. The coil part of the filament should hang downwards and yours seem to be going upwards if that makes sense.

Despite them appearing to fit perfectly I think they are upside down.

I didn’t think that was possible - the housing surely only allows the bulb to sit properly in one place, because of the tab arrangement. It’s been a couple of years at least since I last fitted H4’s, but the H7’s I’m using will only fit one way, but they’re a bit awkward to get into place, and it doesn’t take much for a bulb to be slightly misaligned but still work. Until you drive in the dark. I haven’t bothered getting mine checked, I can see ok to drive in the dark now*, and I’ve not been flashed.

*The benefits of cataracts being replaced!

I agree, but I wonder if they are either the wrong bulbs for the car, been assembled incorrectly or perhaps they are fake?

I'll just get some new bulbs I reckon

I have a h4 bulb in my scooter headlight. It is orientated in the other direction so like mentioned earlier I think yours is upsidedown.
The writing on the bulb in my headlight reads the correct way up.