MB-BOB

Here is my comparison of H7 OEM 55W Low beams, versus 55W Philips Vision Plus, versus 80W Philips Rallys. All bulbs were purchased from Powerbulbs.com in England. Their website is intuitive, you can pay with a conventional Credit Card, they deliver quickly (1 week in my case), and they're currently throwing in a pair of Philips Blue Vision W5W Parking ("City") lights free of charge. My objective was to get the most white light possible, NOT to reproduce an HID appearance.

The most visually striking change results from replacing the standard yellow parking ("city") lights with the Blue Visions. Makes quite a bit more light. I will appreciate the "being seen" qualities of these new lights at dawn and dusk. The Blue Visions are in place in each of the shots that follow.

Coincidentally, I also have the Autodynamics.com Clear Corner Lamp assemblies with a 194A Amber bulb behind. You can also see how they light up at night.

Now, to the H7 Low Beams. First is the baseline OEM H7s. Here is a pic of the car with normal OEM bulbs:

MB-BOB

Here is the pattern for the OEM H7s...

MB-BOB

Here is the car with the OEM bulb to the right, and the Philips Vision Plus on the left...

MB-BOB

With the car in the same position on the driveway throughout all these shots, here is the pattern thrown... OEM H7 on Left, Philips Vision Plus on the right. Not a very noticeable change in this view, objectively speaking...

MB-BOB

Here is the car, this time with the Philips Vision Plus on Left, and the Philips 80W Rally bulb on the right... The Rally puts out a good deal more light...

MB-BOB

And finally, here is the pattern thrown... Philips 80W Rally on the left, 55W Vision Plus on the right. There is a great deal more light volume with the Rally bulb(over that of the Vision Plus)... The pattern in the left bulb (Rally) is also slightly higher than stock, but only when you compare with the stock shot, above.

MB-BOB

Conclusion: The Rallys definitely throw more light than the Vision Plus', and the Vision Plus's are somewhat more bright than the OEM bulbs.

I've included the garage door shots to show the changes (if any) in the patterns thrown, and the mouldings in the door provide good reference points for these comparisons. In my view, the increase in light had no noticeable increase in pattern from OEM to Vision Plus. There appeared to be a very slight rise in the pattern thrown by the Rally bulb. However, overall, I believe the structure of the headlight reflector housing effectively limits any dispersal of the pattern as the light increased.

While driving with the Rallys in place, I noticed quite a bit more light on the road in the normal low beam pattern. During a 45-minute drive, I encountered lots of oncoming traffic, but was not flashed once. This indicates to me that my upgrade in lighting has no effect on other drivers.

Finally, here is a picture of the Rally bulbs in both Low Beams, with the standard, OEM 55W bulbs in the High beams turned on. Even though the Rallys are 80W bulbs, the Standard high beams still put out more light. On the road, the difference between low beams and highs is diminished, but the highs are still much brighter overall. Chalk this up to the pattern, of course, but I still think the low beams are electronically set to run with less voltage/watts than 55W.

I will probably put the Vision Plus' in the High Beam fixtures soon, but we seldom have a need for high beams in the Dallas area.

Lynn

You should be up here doing that tonight. It is currently a balmy 39 degrees with a comfy windchill of 18.

I disagree that the low beams operate at less the 55 watts. The apparent difference in brightness is the beam pattern. The high beam pattern is much tighter.

I didn't notice a lot of change with the VisonPlus bulbs either, but the difference is greater on the high beams.

Maybe I should by a couple pairs of Rallye bulbs considering that St. Louis county is still in the dark ages with regards to street lighting.:p

MB-BOB

LOL, Lynn. It was 55 degrees and dead calm when I did these experiments here. I'm on my front porch as I write this, blowing to the Northeast... Feel it yet?

Lynn

There was a typo in the above post. It is 29 not 39.

I don't think I want to feel that, thanks.

Outland

I got both of you beat...twas 20 degrees(according to the car, anyway) when we got home from shopping. Probably considerably colder now.

And we even have a wee bit of snow on the ground... Gotta get some different tires/rims

Blueice

I just got my philips vision plus last night and I took off the bulbs on my car and i know this the original bulbs on the car is also from philips and look at the botten of the light bulb it says the same.. are they the same light bulb?

Lynn

To get this thread almost back on track, if you by powerful enough headlights and foglights, you should be able to melt the snow and ice, and avoid the expense of snow tires and wheels.

Outland

You'll have to drive very slowly thou

I have learned one thing about the car in the snow, the much maligned top vent is good for keeping the windshield warm without having the defroster blasting at high speed. Otherwise the snow would ice up on the wipers going down the freeway.

I can't say I like the color output of either of the bulbs Bob tried out. If youre going to go thru the hassle of swapping them, might as well get some ones with a real white output. I don't cary for the bluish fake HID ricer lights, but the bright white is nice.

Drew_ML

Ah but here is the problem. In order to get the higher colour temperature, the bulb has to be coated with a filter to filter out the yellow from the spectrum. What happens when you put a filter on something? Some of the other wavelengths are filtered out as well and hence this is why all of the bluer/whiter bulbs put out less lumens. You can't have it both ways unless you get HID Xenon lamps.

Matt230K

You can always get a higher wattage bulb to overcome the lower light output. I have 100W low beams that have a blue filter on them, so they are white with only a hint of blue. There are risks to the higher wattage bulbs, but I have had them for several months with no problems so far.

vadim

You should see "VP" printed on the metal housing of the Vision Plus. The stock H7 doesn't have that. Also, The VisionPlus is not DOT certified so it doesn't have "DOT" printed on the housing - the stock H7 does.

vadim

There are some disadvantages to that: by filtering out certain wavelengths, you increase heat generation - the energy of light trapped inside the bulb by the colored film gets converted into heat (energy can't disappear, obviously - can only be converted from one form to another). If you use an overwatted coated bulb, you trap even more heat inside the bulb, and the effect can be devastating - fried lens/reflector, burnt connectors and wires. It is known to have happened to many people (not necessarily on C Class or MB in general - but they are not immune, either).

My advice - if you do decide to use an overwatted bulb, *at least* get a clear one (see above).

Buellwinkle

Who makes 100w bulbs, or are those the cheezy PIAA that say they are like 100w but are really 55w? I thought the most poweful bulbs you can get are the Phillips Rally 80w.

Matt230K

They are made by Eaglite. I got them at midnightmoose.com. I really like the look of them, very white, and they are only 15.50 a pair. I guess they are really 100W, they seem a lot brighter than my stock bulbs. The stocks were terrible on mine. I also aimed them up a little.

vadim

Do you realize that you are going to blind drivers of oncoming cars? Expect high beams in your face in return.

Matt230K

I'm not that inconsiderate of others. They needed to be higher, so I aimed them up. But they are not too high. I have been flashed once in 4 months.

But a buddy of mine put these same bulbs in a C240 at the stock height and they were blinding people. He couldn't see close in front of the car either. So his had to come down pretty far till they worked for him. But the stock height on mine with stock bulbs was horrible. I could hardly see 15 feet.

Lynn

My car came from the factory with the headlights aimed way too low. At the dealer the tech adjusted one properly and then must have gotten distracted and the other was pointed at the stars. I was getting flashed, so I adjusted it to match the other headlight using a convenient wall.

The beams are now much higher but I haven't been flashed at all.

Blueice

ahh i see that now thx vadim !!

Drew_ML

I'm afraid that Eaglite bulbs are not known for their quality, that's why they are so cheap. You really do get what you pay for (of course some of the PIAA bulbs are also WAY overpriced, IMHO). A local large automotive store chain here stopped carrying them because of all of the failures.