greglig

Hi all, just get peoples opinions on how bright the headlights should be.

Driving at night in the rain they seem quite bad, I have driven newer cars (VW & BMW) that seemed quite a bit better.

I have attached a picture of what the headlights look like on my garage wall from about 1/2 meter away.
Now i know it's impossible to judge brightness in photos but if there is a problem with a hazed reflector or projector lens it may show up in the projected image on the wall. Do other people see the same thing or is the image razor sharp? Also what about color diffraction?

I cannot see any color shift but i'm not sure thats a good indicator of worn out bulbs from my experience with Metal Halide projector bulbs.
I know totally stuffed bulbs do shift but light output just gradually decreases from new as this is normal.
My headlight control modules do not have an hours meter so not sure how old they are - probably original from 07. The only odd thing I can see is when the headlight temperature stabilizes the voltage rises to about 95v which may be normal not sure.

I have had a similar problem with hazed projector lens (from the back) and damaged reflector on an older Australian car which had led me to believe that my eyes were going bad at night.

Any info would be much appreciated,
Cheers.

goosesedan

That's a very good question, i would like to know too, is your car the pre or post face lift?

greglig

Hi, pre-facelift Euro spec (from Italy). But I think US and Euro lights are the same now (or at least very similar).

castroadan

I feel that the lights on my w221 are dim also.
I swapped the bulbs with 6000k and didn't make much of a difference.

AZN Optics

6000K actually has less lumens than stock. When you start getting higher than 5000K, you start losing brightness performance in favor of aesthetics.

Back to the OP, hazed housing is always something to be on the lookout for as improper/failing weather seal can attribute to physical light blocking in your setup and be a serious pain to rectify. Aging bulbs is also a potential issue and bulbs that are approaching a decade in age would definitely benefit from an upgrade. We carry high end Morimoto units which would be good replacements units, but if you're going for the best of the best (and have a healthy budget) Osram Xenarc CBI are amazing and a huge upgrade over OEM offerings.