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Author Topic: poor headlight beam  (Read 1073 times)

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Muskie

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poor headlight beam
« on: 05 December 2008, 20:43:53 »

Can anyone offer any help . Got a 97 estate and the dip headlight beam is poor . I cannot see the lights in front whist driving down the road. The alignment is ok. any help greatly appreciated. Thanks Ian
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holtender

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Re: poor headlight beam
« Reply #1 on: 05 December 2008, 20:57:27 »

There is adjustment for your beam under the headlight switch, have you tried this?
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HerefordElite

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Re: poor headlight beam
« Reply #2 on: 05 December 2008, 21:07:54 »

Quote
Can anyone offer any help . Got a 97 estate and the dip headlight beam is poor . I cannot see the lights in front whist driving down the road. The alignment is ok. any help greatly appreciated. Thanks Ian

basicaly you've got the old crap lights - they are rubbish (had them on mine ;))

you can try and clean the lenses a bit but thy still won't be very good, best bet is to swap them for the later 'mini facelift' (98 on) 'projector' headlights.

These lights are available new from vauxhall for a fortune or you can get a pattern pair off ebay for around £50-60 each.

or you could buy a secondhand GM pair from ebay (or one of the breakers on here) like i did, but you run the risk of the adjusters being broken (like mine were)

 :)
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ngrainqey

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Re: poor headlight beam
« Reply #3 on: 05 December 2008, 21:23:06 »

Quote
Quote
Can anyone offer any help . Got a 97 estate and the dip headlight beam is poor . I cannot see the lights in front whist driving down the road. The alignment is ok. any help greatly appreciated. Thanks Ian

basicaly you've got the old crap lights - they are rubbish (had them on mine ;))

you can try and clean the lenses a bit but thy still won't be very good, best bet is to swap them for the later 'mini facelift' (98 on) 'projector' headlights.

These lights are available new from vauxhall for a fortune or you can get a pattern pair off ebay for around £50-60 each.

or you could buy a secondhand GM pair from ebay (or one of the breakers on here) like i did, but you run the risk of the adjusters being broken (like mine were)

 :)

...not if you keep the old adjusters ;)
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nabsim

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Re: poor headlight beam
« Reply #4 on: 05 December 2008, 21:33:49 »

I was really suprised how bad the dip beam was on my 96 Elite, can't see how they could have been legal. I got some 50% brighter bulbs from Halfords, (2 for 1 offer as well) as a stop gap. I am really suprised at the difference. Lots of country lanes round me that I couldn't see on with dip beam before, can now see okay. Certainly a vast improvement on what they were like and still 55Watt bulbs.
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TheBoy

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Re: poor headlight beam
« Reply #5 on: 05 December 2008, 22:37:13 »

Quote
I was really suprised how bad the dip beam was on my 96 Elite, can't see how they could have been legal. I got some 50% brighter bulbs from Halfords, (2 for 1 offer as well) as a stop gap. I am really suprised at the difference. Lots of country lanes round me that I couldn't see on with dip beam before, can now see okay. Certainly a vast improvement on what they were like and still 55Watt bulbs.
Remember they were better when new, but 12yrs of fade and microscopic chips to the plastic lenses have degraded them badly ;)
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ngrainqey

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Re: poor headlight beam
« Reply #6 on: 06 December 2008, 13:27:35 »

Quote
Quote
I was really suprised how bad the dip beam was on my 96 Elite, can't see how they could have been legal. I got some 50% brighter bulbs from Halfords, (2 for 1 offer as well) as a stop gap. I am really suprised at the difference. Lots of country lanes round me that I couldn't see on with dip beam before, can now see okay. Certainly a vast improvement on what they were like and still 55Watt bulbs.
Remember they were better when new, but 12yrs of fade and microscopic chips to the plastic lenses have degraded them badly ;)

they dont look too bad if you bother to give them a good going over with brasso :S
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HerefordElite

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Re: poor headlight beam
« Reply #7 on: 06 December 2008, 14:10:26 »

Quote
Quote
Quote
Can anyone offer any help . Got a 97 estate and the dip headlight beam is poor . I cannot see the lights in front whist driving down the road. The alignment is ok. any help greatly appreciated. Thanks Ian

basicaly you've got the old crap lights - they are rubbish (had them on mine ;))

you can try and clean the lenses a bit but thy still won't be very good, best bet is to swap them for the later 'mini facelift' (98 on) 'projector' headlights.

These lights are available new from vauxhall for a fortune or you can get a pattern pair off ebay for around £50-60 each.

or you could buy a secondhand GM pair from ebay (or one of the breakers on here) like i did, but you run the risk of the adjusters being broken (like mine were)

 :)

...not if you keep the old adjusters ;)


which is what i did - made 2 good projectors out of 4 secondhand lamps ;)
the 1 ebayer (i bought each lamp separate) gave me the money back after i complained that they were described as perfect but arrived broken, so 2 good lamps only cost me £26 and some elbow grease ;)
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frank1

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Re: poor headlight beam
« Reply #8 on: 06 December 2008, 16:03:23 »

before u do any light swaping try checking the voltage at the plug that feeds the bulbs, for whatever reason the voltage drops on a lot on cars with age,  i know you might think it sounds daft but ive come accross loads, mk2 astra used to be tw!"s for it., they often had only 6 or 7 volts at the plug, you can usually just add a lenth of wire from the high low beam switch or fit a relay like u would on spotlights
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nabsim

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Re: poor headlight beam
« Reply #9 on: 06 December 2008, 17:37:35 »

Quote
Remember they were better when new, but 12yrs of fade and microscopic chips to the plastic lenses have degraded them badly ;)
They have not worn anywhere near as well as my 11 year old Vectra did then. I agree it has to be through ageing but it must be different plastic to the Vec

Quote
they dont look too bad if you bother to give them a good going over with brasso :S
I have seen this mentioned but haven't tried this yet. Is it the liquid brasso and a polishing mop that you use? Will toothpaste do the same job, that used to be good for polishing glass?

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