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Winter Nights


GreyRacer
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Apart from fitting the winter tyres I'm upgrading the front lighting.

I'm not a fan of the RAV's headlights and find them really poor on either full or dipped so I've got a set of new bulbs to fit tonight.

For the full beam - Ring ZenonMax +100% and for the dipped beam - Osram Night Breaker Plus 90s.

I ran the equivalent Halfords type in my Aurus T180 and now in my Celica for a couple years now and they are a wothwhile upgrade so Im expecting really good results from Rings and Osrams.

Just need to get some 9 LED 501s for the front sides now.

393256195.jpg

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Apart from fitting the winter tyres I'm upgrading the front lighting.

I'm not a fan of the RAV's headlights and find them really poor on either full or dipped so I've got a set of new bulbs to fit tonight.

For the full beam - Ring ZenonMax +100% and for the dipped beam - Osram Night Breaker Plus 90s.

I ran the equivalent Halfords type in my Aurus T180 and now in my Celica for a couple years now and they are a wothwhile upgrade so Im expecting really good results from Rings and Osrams.

Just need to get some 9 LED 501s for the front sides now.

393256195.jpg

I changed my bulbs to Rings high and low beam. Very good range and clear light.

Blue

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I changed a week ago from a Diesel Legacy with HID lamps - find the RAV4 lamps very poor in comparison - going to fit an HID kit to the dipped beam as it easy to do with projector shadow mask lamps where the light source position not critical, so should be ok.

Fuel consumption not too good yet - averaged 49.6mpg over 67000 miles with Legacy (same CO2 and combined consumption as RAV4), but even driving like an old granny, not cracking 40mpg yet - trust it will improve - do the same 80 mile commute each day.

Had a real fright early on Monday morning - hit a long puddle at 50 mph (lamps so poor could not see it in time with a car coming the other way) - vehicle lurched violently right, left, right, left - real tank !Removed! - guess it must have been the electronics sending all the torque to a wheel that had grip - Legacy with mechanical 4 wheel drive never behaved like that - hope I grow to like RAV4, but not too impressed so far.

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Apart from fitting the winter tyres I'm upgrading the front lighting.

I'm not a fan of the RAV's headlights and find them really poor on either full or dipped so I've got a set of new bulbs to fit tonight.

For the full beam - Ring ZenonMax +100% and for the dipped beam - Osram Night Breaker Plus 90s.

I ran the equivalent Halfords type in my Aurus T180 and now in my Celica for a couple years now and they are a wothwhile upgrade so Im expecting really good results from Rings and Osrams.

Just need to get some 9 LED 501s for the front sides now.

Why are you using Osram nightbreaker plus bulbs here?

Have you got special information about them being good or something?

I have been looking into better lighting for my RAV 4.1 (normal light, not the full beam light) but so far found that Philips Nightguide might be good or the blue visions, but not the osram. I am open however to new information here.

Greetz

Pim

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In a recent edition of Autoexpress(20th October- special issue) they tested a wide variety of bulbs from all manufaturers.The one that came out the best was Osram Night Breaker Plus with a beam rating of 97. Second best was Osram Silverstar with a beam rating of 77.Ring UltraXenon came out with a beam rating of 61 and 4 stars.The previous 2 were both 5 stars.

Myself I always go for Phillips X-treme vision with a beam rating of 81 and 4 stars.

Regards Clare

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Clear answer Clare,

Thanks for that. I have taken a look at this test at Autoexpress (could find it with search engine, including full results).

What buggered me in this test is that they didn't take a wide range of bulbs, even though they claimed to have done that. They specifically didn't test very well tested bulbs in other tests.

Why is what bothers me in such tests. What kept them from testing very good tested bulbs from other tests out of other magazines.

And above all: why are they contradicting themselves in consecutive tests...

http://www.autoexpress.co.uk/products/products/203951/bulb_test_h4_standard.html (2006)

http://www.autoexpress.co.uk/products/products/212937/make_light_of_winter.html (2007)

http://www.autoexpress.co.uk/products/products/230061/lightbulb_test.html (2008)

http://www.autoexpress.co.uk/products/products/243109/bulbs_we_test_30.html (2009)

http://www.autoexpress.co.uk/products/products/258424/headlamp_bulbs_tested.html (2010)

There are about 150 different bulbs available today but still they only test 20 to 30.

I don't believe they are very reliable in their testing to be honest. I do have a feeling they are quite relying on the approval of car manufacturers and such.

And yes, i know i am a bit notorious on the part that i don't rely on given information from a self proclaimed expert.

I have looked around and seen tests which are resulting in very different outcomes.

So still, i do hope to find a good test which is testing a very wide range of bulbs and is not dependant on the willingness of the large car manufacturers approval.

Greetz

Pim

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Dipped beam

DSC02224.jpg

Full beam

DSC02225.jpg

30 yds between each telegraph pole.

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Dear David,

Thanks for the pictures, that makes it quite clear i think i would go for other lights then the ones you use for dipped beam.

Having only got about 60 meter vision at the side is not good enough for me. Especially if the vision in front is only 30 meters (but some people on the internet claim those poles are more in the amount of 50 meters apart, but also that isn't very good in my opinion).

At my current setup (where i haven't got a clue which lamps are actually fitted in to be honest) the full beam gives about the same vision as yours (about 500 meters far broad daylight illumination to about 3 meters height).

The dipped version however has me concerned that it doesn't please me in the fact that i have too little front clear view at speed (50 - 70 miles per hour = 80 - 120 km/h) in real dark situations. You drive 30 - 40 meter per second. 1 second reaction time as well as 1 second to brake hard... It's simply too short.

I keep constantly having the feeling to have to slow down in order to see things coming up and be able to react fast enough.

My reaction speed has been tested recently and is about 0,75 seconds, which is fairly good.

So i am happy that it suits you, i still keep looking however. Thanks for sharing this!

Greetz

Pim

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