Headlights.....Low Light Output

[Shaddow]

My MB6 definitely seems to be reaching the end of its life. Having recently replaced the distributor (twice), I started the car this morning in the dark and found my headlights were about as powerful as poundland candles.

 

I use to have 35W HID's but after a bulb and balast failure, I decided to just replace the bulbs with standard H4's. Main beam works, high beam works, but the actual light output onto the road looks very poor. At 6:30 this morning it was difficult to see if my lights were actually on. 

 

I checked and the bulbs were on and the lens covers clean. 

 

Can there be a potential power issue that prevent the bulbs from giving "full Power"?

 

I feel its almost dangerous to drive in the dark at the moment because I receive virtually no road illumination. (I live in country side so little to no street lighting).

And yes, I have checked the beam level. It is aimed at the correct level. 

 

Looking at the front of the car with lights on, the lights appear fine and bright. But as mentioned, in car, there appears to be no light on road.

 

Any way to check the power? What should the current delivery be to the bulbs?

 

Any help would be a great!

[Krzys]

How old are the bulbs? If they are pretty old then some new ones may help.

 

H4's are crap anyway, it could just be that you were used to seeing more with the HID kit?

[Shaddow]

Brand new H4's. 

Any im sure original H4's could not be that bad. I could clearly see the car in fronts light beam to the sides of the car. Could see nothing for mine. Very faint difference between lights on and lights off. And it was dark enough for me to slow down due to reduced visibility by my bulbs. Not fun!

[Krzys]

Yeah that's not good!

[Shaddow]

Any suggestions to try and sort the problem. Dont feel too comfortable driving, especially not with the amount of rain we had this morning. Would prefer good lights when raining and dark.

 

Ordered some HID's again in the hope they will fix, but if there is an issue with the car power delivery, then even HID's wont be at full capacity.

[Krzys]

I can't say I've heard of or experienced an issue like you describe.

 

@phill1975, what do you think?

[phill1975]

Should have 12v at bulbs as there 12v bulbs. Check earth's are good and clean if in doubt run a jump lead from battery to earth's

[dr_broon]

Which bulbs are you using? I had some ebay ones from China one which looked really bright from the outside, but were frankly dangerous on roads without streetlights.

[Chandler]

as Phil said!! if not HID kit, I got one in the smx and its brilliant, can pick em up for less than £20

[JK1245]

Agreed with Dr_broon, I'm running Chinese bulbs right now and from the outside they look great but there is no illumination on the road whatsover. 

[Dave]

Did you get this sorted mate? If not, deffo check the earths to the headlights, as poor earth will almost certainly give this problem. And if you can get a test meter, do check what voltage is coming out at the connector for the lights. Could also be the connectors themselves are corroded inside, giving a bad connection. Try a good quality bulb such as Osram Night breakers (but don't buy from ebay, as it's full of cheap fakes!). I had these on Ruby my MB6 (and the current owner has replaced them with the same bubs again when they finally blew) and the light output from them is superb. The MB/MC lights aren't the best in the world tbh, but I noticed a huge improvement with those bulbs.