Headlights

Is it my car or does anyone else have poor performance from the (non-xenon) dipped beam headlights. I even uprated the bulbs last year in a desperate attempt to solve the problem with (predictably) little success. They just seem to be swamped by the light from oncoming traffic and it is down right scarey on an unlit A road.

I suspect it's to do with the lenses, but if anyone has any comments, suggestions/solutions I'd be pleased to hear them (without resorting to true xenons - worth about a third of the value of the car )

I was thinking of upgrading mine to Philips VisionPlus (50% brighter). Are these any good?

I have a bigger problem with the sidelights - when I only have the sidelights on, my other half (who was driving ahead of me at the time) said she couldn't even see that they were lit.

(Plus one of them has a loose connection now, and keeps flickering )

Dreadful aren't they! I have also tried the bulb route, firstly with a UK (Ring?) bulb from my local factor and then with a Canadian bulb ordered via Ebay. The former were no better than standard, the latter had a much whiter light but didn't really make enough difference. I feel sure that adjusting the lights to shine higher would help, thet cast a reasonable light that has a very sharp cutoff which is too close to the car (in my opinion). My garage tells me that the adjustment is correct.

Do the Xenon lights work better? Are they just brighter or do they also light up the road further ahead?

Has anyone tried any non-Alfa Xenon conversions, there are some on the market.

The bulbs I got (can't remember the name) are supposed to be 50% more powerful with a bluer light. Depsite the increase in output the improvement is marginal. These bulbs were not cheep and the difference wasn't worth the cost.

I have tried this on one other car before (Toyota Corolla GT Coupe) with similarly disappointing results. Maybe there is no other option but to go for full xenons. IN which case, I'll just put up with it

I needed a new dipped bulb for my 164 TSpark, so thought I'd replace with the extra bright ones from Halfrauds (Xenon, I think). You have to replace in pairs if you're going to do that, so I did. Then realised I'd changed the main beams and not the dipped and had broken them taking them out, so had to buy another pair. Suffice it to say it cost me a small fortune, but I'm well happy with the result. Better than the standard ones on the QV.

Oh yeah, never sit in the back so hadn't realised that there was a little cubby hole in the rear parcel shelf. Looked inside to find loads of family photos of the previous owner, plus replacement bulbs for just about every light in the car!

Originally Posted by mikealdren

Dreadful aren't they! I have also tried the bulb route, firstly with a UK (Ring?) bulb from my local factor and then with a Canadian bulb ordered via Ebay. The former were no better than standard, the latter had a much whiter light but didn't really make enough difference. I feel sure that adjusting the lights to shine higher would help, thet cast a reasonable light that has a very sharp cutoff which is too close to the car (in my opinion). My garage tells me that the adjustment is correct.

If it's a dealer telling you that -

Do the Xenon lights work better? Are they just brighter or do they also light up the road further ahead?

Has anyone tried any non-Alfa Xenon conversions, there are some on the market.

I used Halfords extra bright bulbs on my 155 - worked really well.

The full Xenon's on my 166 are sh!te until you add in full beams. The dealers don't even know how the self-levelling stuff works, so forget ever being able to adjust them.

I would think that non-xenon's can be adjusted by hand, so you may end up with better results than xenon's anyway.

My belief is that the beams are directed downwards by about 3 degs more than other cars.
I always found in every other car I have driven, putting dipped beams on illuminates the back of the car in front (at 20 yards ish) from the bumper downwards.

The 166 with xenon's gives a brightly lit patch of approx 20 yds tarmac. Not ideal when using any of the 166's power & handling on Derbyshire's (mostly) unlit roads when there is oncoming traffic Doesn't stop people flashing me as if I was driving on full beams. I think it shocks them when I put the full beam's on

The very first time I was overtaken by a 166 (when I had an explorer), I thought the car had a couple of small candles behind a lens rather than headlights. The sound of it going by convinced me that I needed one tho'

Howard,
I think you're right about the beam setting. I'll adjust mine up. I've learned the Alfa dealer lesson but my local (trusted) garage agrees with them, perhaps it's something to do with the relationship between the 166 lights and beam setters they use.
Mike

Good call Howard, think I'll give that a try too.

I had my 60k service yesterday, and asked the garage to check & set the headlights.

Not had time for full assessment yet, but they seem to have been able to move the beam up, and this has had a definite effect.

I will report back properly when I have driven empty roads without street lighting.

I trust the garage implicitly but they covered 10 miles at 14.4 mpg - my worst ever was 19 mpg - so god knows what they were doing on the road test

OK, had time to assess the benefits.

Answer - much better general vision on the roads. Don't know how they managed to aim the beams higher, but they have, and they don't seem ( ) to dazzle other drivers, so maybe the factory settings on the 166 are just too low

£270 for the service - platinum plugs and pollen filter included, so quite good value, even if they hadn't managed to sort the lights as well

i have the xenon option and they are not all that good! although i did have a problem with the self leveling bit, i could only see about 6ft in front, although i solved it by accident so is anyone has any problems with them send me and e-mail on a17esh@yahoo.com be glad to help!

well since I adjusted my Xenons (see other thread) by locating the servo rod in the headlamp assembly properly they have been fantastic (and could go higher if required.) I've had no flashes off other drivers so I don't think they are aimed too high.