2009 Fiat Ducato - need brighter headlights

[UFO]

The headlights on my 2009 Fiat Ducato have never been very bright. Now one bulb has gone so I am looking to see if there any bulbs brighter than the standard.

The H1 Osram Upgrades Night Breaker Lasers, up to 150% more light. £20 for a pair, from

H1 Headlight Bulbs for Cars, Motorcycles and Vans

H1 Headlight Bulbs 55W. A wide range of upgrade or replacement bulbs available from brands such as Philips, OSRAM & Twenty20.

www.autobulbsdirect.co.uk

Any thoughts, ideas, experience of these?

thank you

 

[RSD7a]

I bought some Philips 130% brighter halogen bulbs for my Citroen Picasso several years ago. They were a significant improvement on the rather dim stock bulbs.

 

[trevskoda]

Im on the old type h4 55w, you can get blue white or if wireing and relays will handle it go 90 dip 130 main, if you are on h1 then 100w ultra bright.
Best is fit a bull bar and load up big time.

 

[Scotia]

The headlights on my 2009 Fiat Ducato have never been very bright. Now one bulb has gone so I am looking to see if there any bulbs brighter than the standard.

The H1 Osram Upgrades Night Breaker Lasers, up to 150% more light. £20 for a pair, from

H1 Headlight Bulbs for Cars, Motorcycles and Vans

H1 Headlight Bulbs 55W. A wide range of upgrade or replacement bulbs available from brands such as Philips, OSRAM & Twenty20.

www.autobulbsdirect.co.uk

Any thoughts, ideas, experience of these?

thank you

I fitted these to my pickup a few years ago with a big improvement. Tend to shy away from night time driving nowadays.

 

[ricc]

I had a fiat 131 many years ago, headlights on that were rather dim, there was a massive voltage drop on the wiring due to all the dodgy connections, I put relays by the headlights so the bulbs were fed direct from the battery via the relays, the difference was amazing.
Ive alsop used the 30 percent brighter bulbs...use a reputable brand name....cheap ones from online sellers can be rubbish.

 

[wildebus]

I've tended to use either the Osram Nightbreakers H1, or the Phillips Extreme to upgrade the standard bulbs.

Ref ricc's point on voltage, don't think that is a general problem on the Ducato X250 vans, but certainly has affected other vans - the VW Transporters used to have a big issue for this for quite a few years. I used to make and sell Headlight Wiring upgrade kits to fix this

As an aside, It can sometimes be a bit tricky to get to the rear of the lights to swap the bulbs, especially on the passenger side, and I have found it is quicker and easier to whip out the headlight to do the swap - 3 bolts and 5 minutes to remove the pair.

 

[wildebus]

Im on the old type h4 55w, you can get blue white or if wireing and relays will handle it go 90 dip 130 main, if you are on h1 then 100w ultra bright.
Best is fit a bull bar and load up big time. View attachment 141131

Be aware that ALL the options described above by Trevskoda are both illegal for road use (there is a reason why bulbs - including upgrades - are rated at 55W ) - and at those high wattages can generate a lot of heat and start to melt and distort a polycarbonate lens.
Not a good idea IMO

(edited to clarify post meaning)

 

[Canalsman]

The headlights on my 2009 Fiat Ducato have never been very bright. Now one bulb has gone so I am looking to see if there any bulbs brighter than the standard.

The H1 Osram Upgrades Night Breaker Lasers, up to 150% more light. £20 for a pair, from

H1 Headlight Bulbs for Cars, Motorcycles and Vans

H1 Headlight Bulbs 55W. A wide range of upgrade or replacement bulbs available from brands such as Philips, OSRAM & Twenty20.

www.autobulbsdirect.co.uk

Any thoughts, ideas, experience of these?

thank you

My 2007 X250 has excellent headlights in my opinion. I have seen others complaining about their inadequacy... I wonder if the ever increasing number of LED headlamps makes people feel their halogen equipped lights are worse than they are.

 

[bartman]

Be aware that ALL the options described above are both illegal (there is a reason why bulbs - including upgrades - are rated at 55W ) - and at those high wattages can generate a lot of heat and start to melt and distort a polycarbonate lens.
Not a good idea IMO

I don't think that's right, the Philips Extreme and the original filament version of the Osram Nightbreaker are both 55w and legal.
I think there may be a newer version of the Osram which is LED, and I don't think any LED bulbs are legal in the UK for aftermarket fitting

 

[Fazerloz]

I've always thought my 2009 Ducato lights more than adequate, Maybe it's not the lights.

 

[bartman]

I don't think that's right, the Philips Extreme and the original filament version of the Osram Nightbreaker are both 55w and legal.
I think there may be a newer version of the Osram which is LED, and I don't think any LED bulbs are legal in the UK for aftermarket fitting

EDIT
I've just realised Wildebus you may have just been referring to Trev's exotic examples which are of course illegal. When you said ALL I thought it referred to the entire thread!

 

[trevskoda]

EDIT
I've just realised Wildebus you may have just been referring to Trev's exotic examples which are of course illegal. When you said ALL I thought it referred to the entire thread!

Yes not legal, but i have never seen or heard of police investigating this, rally cars use them on the roads.

 

[colinm]

I've always thought my 2009 Ducato lights more than adequate, Maybe it's not the lights.

As this, first thing to check would be the clarity of the lens, a while back I noticed a X250 with 'bloomed' lens.

 

[davep10000]

I fitted 4 Osram +200% brighter nightbreakers to my 2020 Relay, the difference is really excellent, and, yes, I know they wont last anywhere near as long as standard, but I do quite a bit of night driving on back roads, so long range visibility is my priority.
I have used nightbreakers on all my cars for the last 15 years or so.
As Wildebus says, taking the headlamp out is a 5 min job, easy peasy.
In my view, well worth the expense.

Dont be tempted to fit LED ones into a lamp designed for halogen, they just dont have the reflector pattern to match.

 

[wildebus]

EDIT
I've just realised Wildebus you may have just been referring to Trev's exotic examples which are of course illegal. When you said ALL I thought it referred to the entire thread!

It was just Trevs suggestions indeed I mean.
I can see reading back that when I said "ALL" it could be easily misread Apologies for that

 

[wildebus]

Yes not legal, but i have never seen or heard of police investigating this, rally cars use them on the roads.View attachment 141134

When there are Road Rallys, the roads tend to be closed to the public for the duration do they not? At least they do around me when they run the Jim Clark and I am sure they do everywhere else
(of course, the Wild West that is NI is a law unto itself!)

 

[davep10000]

When there are Road Rallys, the roads tend to be closed to the public for the duration do they not? At least they do around me when they run the Jim Clark and I am sure they do everywhere else
(of course, the Wild West that is NI is a law unto itself!)

Standard road lights on rally cars need to be legal (55W), as non closed roads are used to access service/ stages, but auxiliary lights can be 100W, or more commonly, LED bars.
With Scottish 'road' rallies, like Mull and the Jim Clark, closed roads means legally closed, and enforced by police.

 

[mark61]

Osram Nightbreakers and Phillips Extreme are both good options.
My gut feeling after using a fair number of them is the +150 %'s are pretty much the sweet spot between extra light and life span. The + 200%'s have a noticeable reduced life span.

 

[trevskoda]

When there are Road Rallys, the roads tend to be closed to the public for the duration do they not? At least they do around me when they run the Jim Clark and I am sure they do everywhere else
(of course, the Wild West that is NI is a law unto itself!)

They have to drive from section to section on open roads with the same lights.

 

[Fazerloz]

As this, first thing to check would be the clarity of the lens, a while back I noticed a X250 with 'bloomed' lens.

I was actually meaning people's eyesight. Many as they get older complain about not been able to see at night when driving, when they were perfectly able to when younger. Brighter lights are not the answer. All brighter lights do is make it worse for everybody else on the road as they dazzle even when on dip.

Mine were fogged badly but I sorted that a couple of years back, Take them out, flat them off and clear coat. They are still like new.