Clementine's Garage
Clementine the Cat
 
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Yellow R4
 
Réparateur d'automobiles

Headlights

Richnd1974

Enthusiast
Messages
554
Location
Bournemouth
My 4s still got its French yellow headlight bulbs, as retro and cool as they look they are pretty useless to see by, any one fitted any led equivalents, or HID bulbs, suggestions please.
I have safety in mind over and above a cool look.
 
I don't think HID or LED bulbs are available with the P45t base fitting.
I assume you have the standard '410' tungsten yellow bulbs. Have you thought about yellow halogens? Standard 410 tungstens are 40 watt dipped and 45 watt main beam, whereas the halogens equivalents are normally 55 & 60 watt respectively, which is about 33% more.
 
Hi Richard, if you fit 60/55 watt halogen bulbs, there are plastic, yellow coloured covers available from De Franzose, so you can still have that French period look, but with more night vision.

Regards Brian
 
... I have safety in mind over and above a cool look.
Safety is good, but I prefer the old cool original look and hmmm 33 years ago the light from the original bulbs where sufficient everybody had them. Can't remember that over the past 35 years nights are getting darker or vision has decreased ;):D
 
The 60/55 halogen bulbs really do help! The selective yellow covers slide over the H4 bulbs and the effect is great! If you wanted to improve things further it MIGHT help if you powered the headlights through a relay, thus reducing the load on the switches, delivering the full wham to the bulbs and not losing anything in the switches. I did this on a Daf 33 and it helped when changing from dipped to main beam as the lights changed more quickly than they did before.
 
Cheers all, I think my first step is the halogen upgrade and see what the difference is...
 

I'd heard that LED headlight bulbs are too directional and don't spread the light evenly onto the reflector, resulting in a poor beam pattern (and an mot failure) The second photo on the ebay listing confirms that, showing dipped beam as a sort of U-shape with more than enough light at the sides to dazzle oncoming traffic whichever side of the road you are driving and insufficient light to see straight ahead!
I hope the (6volt) ones in the second link are better, as they cost £60!
 
Hi Richard, if you fit 60/55 watt halogen bulbs, there are plastic, yellow coloured covers available from De Franzose, so you can still have that French period look, but with more night vision.

Regards Brian
Mine are glass not plastic. Also, the trouble with buying just the yellow covers by themselves is that the part of the bulb that it attaches to isn't standardised amongst bulb manufacturers so may or may not fit whatever make of bulbs you have or can buy from your local supplier. This is why I sell them complete with the bulbs that they fit.
 
Silly me, of course they're glass, and I agree, they can be tricky to fit to the bulb, if not matched with it. TBH, the old style yellow bulbs I bought off you a while back are quite adequate, and are doing the job just fine.

Regards Brian
 
theres a tiny glass-bottle to be had,containing transparent yellow laquer. A tiny amount (a small dot)at the top of the bulb is enough to have
your light look yellow,but doesnt effect the "light-flow" significantly -Reid.
 
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What's your thoughts on these.. Should do the trick I think
 
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I haven't seen those bulbs before Richard. They're twice the price of mine but perhaps they're twice as good.;)
 
The 60/55 halogen bulbs really do help! The selective yellow covers slide over the H4 bulbs and the effect is great! If you wanted to improve things further it MIGHT help if you powered the headlights through a relay, thus reducing the load on the switches, delivering the full wham to the bulbs and not losing anything in the switches. I did this on a Daf 33 and it helped when changing from dipped to main beam as the lights changed more quickly than they did before.
 
I'm not sure to what extent it's acceptable to advertise on here, (otherwise I would have put a link to my bulbs several posts ago!) and on my phone I can't see how to send you a pm, unless some else on here, who's used my website before, wants to put a link or mention the name (or tell me it's ok to advertise), you'll have to google my user-name, (or just add .com to the end of it!).
 
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