H7 bulb dilemma

[Jumi]

We bought Audi A4-97 1.9TDIq for winter, it has H7s for low and highbeams and H1 fog lights all in same housing. I want low beams to be bright but also road legal so no hid kits for me.
I bought few different bulbs for test, lightmeter is built in Mastech Multimeter so these readings only shows bulb differences, not actual values
Lux readings are 1 meter from headlights low beam. I tried to find highest value with regular bulb and left luxmeter there. Car was running and voltage at bulb base 13.2V.
Osram 64210 "standard" 15600lux
Osram 64210L (long life) 16100lux
Osram 64210NBR (Night Breaker) 19500lux
Osram 64217 (Off-Road/Rallye 65W) 20000lux

So Night Breakers for lowbeams, Rallye for highbeams, and others for summertime use About bulb prices: I bought rallyes for 19$ pair
and Nightbreakers 25$ pair, these seems to be only items that can be bought locally cheaper than in internet. Thought it needed many store visits.
I still want to try Philips X-Treme Power or new X-Treme Vision if I can find at reasonable price.
GE also has +90 H7 that I might try for 27$ a pair.

Juha

 

[raj55]

I wonder why there isn't a bigger difference between night breaker and Ralley! Perhaps some one can explain to us un-enlightened ones. It would be nice to see your comparison of night breaker with philips xtreme in a similar way.

Having re-read your post I realise that the light meter was left at a position that was the "hotspot" for the regular bulb and perhaps that was not the right spot for other bulbs. Just guessing!

 

[-Virgil-]

I wonder why there isn't a bigger difference between night breaker and Ralley!

1. Because this comparison measures only one fixed point in the beam, which is not sufficient to do much of any meaningful comparison of the overall safety performance of the headlamp with any given bulb, but that doesn't matter because

2. These readings don't tell us anything useful at all. They don't mean anything because they were taken just a little over 3 feet from the lamp. The beam pattern is not at all focused or formed at that short distance; most headlamp beams are not fully focused/formed until you get at least 10 feet away from the lamp.

3. Also, as you surmise, the point of maximum intensity moves within the beam -- often substantially -- with different bulbs.

 

[Jumi]

Rallye has longer filament than Nightbreaker so that has effect, the "hotspot" values can be similar but overal amount of light is higher.

I measured voltage only with regular 55W bulb, with 65W Rallye it is lower, car has normal wiring. I may add relays and better wiring when I have time.

I agree with Scheinwerfermann that these values doesn't mean anything, only one measurement point and too close, also my light meter isn't good enough.
Headlight is old, lots of small stone hits and some dust inside that cause light to distord wrong places. It really needs new headlights but 2 new Bosch $$$$$

I tried to find article how Finnish Car magazine test their headlights but did't find it, they have made light pattern measurements for all the cars they test. They have automatic test bench in their lightlaboratory and they show 5lux light pattern for low and highbeams. They have done it for 20years now.

 

[Random Guy]

If your headlamp lenses are glass, you may be able to replace just the lens. I did that recently with one of the headlamps on my '84 Mercedes when I broke the lens in a minor accident. It was about $40 for a OEM Bosch lens.

 

[Jumi]

If your headlamp lenses are glass, you may be able to replace just the lens.

They are glass but well glued and not with clips and seal, same car was also with H4 headlights and if they were made by Valeo then there are lenses available.

 

[-Virgil-]

H'mm. That's odd. The USA version of the Bosch early A4 headlamp has a glued lens (in accordance with FMVSS No. 108 requirements) but the ECE (Europe/rest of world) version uses a gasket and lens clips.

Bosch part numbers—

Lens:
1 305 621 664 and 1 305 621 665

Gasket
1 301 016 055 and 1 301 016 056

Clip:
1 301 251 062 (5 per lamp)
1 301 682 094 (1 per lamp)

Hurry, though, all of these are "Remaining stock in warehouse only", no longer manufactured.

If you are finding glue holding your lenses on, perhaps somebody has performed some improper repairs in the past.

 

[Jumi]

Crap, you are right, again. I assumed that H7 headlights are sealed since I only saw H4 lenses for sale. I don't know how I did't see the clip on side, on top clips are under rubber gasket. This is good news now I can start looking for bare lenses, less$$$

Thanks
Juha

 

[Marcturus]

I tried to find article how Finnish Car magazine test their headlights but did't find it, they have made light pattern measurements for all the cars they test. They have automatic test bench in their lightlaboratory and they show 5lux light pattern for low and highbeams. They have done it for 20years now.

This seems to be a mag named "the technical mailmadam"

Great that they are consistently testing this, even for motorcycles. And I love the scary-looking IR shots of the seat heating! (For ignorants like me, Finnish is great fun to explore, almost like Indonesian)

one test in English is here:
http://opelinsigniaclub.files.wordpress.com/2009/07/winter-car-2009.pdf

And there seems to be a graphic depiction of D2S loss of brightness. Nice idea, though I can't tell how objective the test's design was:
http://fin-tuning.net/FTBB/index.php?topic=1578.msg14579;topicseen

In case you'll be ordering from Bosch, and are still interested in testing bulbs, they also have a part# for 65 watts H7: 1 987 302 076