Classic Alfa headlamp bulb upgrade

Has anyone on this forum upgraded the headlamp bulbs on their classic Alfa? If so what improvement if any and which bulbs did you go for? I am thinking about it for my S4....so do I bother spending the £15-£20 on bulbs or should I buy a good bottle of wine instead?

What do you have as standard on the S4 - if you have halogen H4s then what are you considering upgrading to? The cheap xenon "conversions" are little more than blue bulbs and come from the same parts catalog as snake oil. The full upgrade to a proper HID system will cost you a lot more than a bottle of plonk!

My 1968 Spider had rubbish, non-halogen bulbs and ran the power circuit through the column switch. For me it was very worthwhile upgrading to H4 units and running relays for the power circuit. I doubt the S4 is crippled as standard like this though.

I just replaced one of my front headlights and ended up putting in the H4's again. I was looking at $100.cdn for new halogen lights that I would just have to replace the bulb in. These bulbs however turned out to be very expensive (60$) so I went with the regular headlight again.

What sort of H4 units? When I lived in the US in the early 90's I was shocked to find the rubbish that passed for headlamps. A halogen bulb stuck inside the lamp as a sealed unit and you have to change the whole thing? And they were dreadful lights as well, no definition to the beam at all. In the UK an H4 bulb is about 6 quid and the beam is focused and bright.

Originally Posted by Cosmo

What do you have as standard on the S4 - if you have halogen H4s then what are you considering upgrading to? The cheap xenon "conversions" are little more than blue bulbs and come from the same parts catalog as snake oil. The full upgrade to a proper HID system will cost you a lot more than a bottle of plonk!

My 1968 Spider had rubbish, non-halogen bulbs and ran the power circuit through the column switch. For me it was very worthwhile upgrading to H4 units and running relays for the power circuit. I doubt the S4 is crippled as standard like this though.

No I am still running standard old style bulbs as I very rarely drive the S4 at night. Not keen on the blue light style as I think it would not look right on the S4. Don’t see the point for me of a HID system rather buy a bottle of Chateau Petrus 1990 if I had the money! I was looking at something along the lines of Osram Silverstar???????
Is this money down the drain?

Originally Posted by renone

I was looking at something along the lines of Osram Silverstar??????? Is this money down the drain?

Do a search and you'll find a load of opinions out there. From what I understand the xenon (non HID) bulbs are better because they give off a whiter light than standard halogen. The blue tinted variety are worthless as the light output is reduced. Make sure you get the real Osram type though, there are cheap varieties that don't work as well. A good summary is here: http://www.talkaboutautos.com/group/...es/525825.html

Originally Posted by Cosmo

Do a search and you'll find a load of opinions out there. From what I understand the xenon (non HID) bulbs are better because they give off a whiter light than standard halogen. The blue tinted variety are worthless as the light output is reduced. Make sure you get the real Osram type though, there are cheap varieties that don't work as well. A good summary is here: http://www.talkaboutautos.com/group/...es/525825.html

thanks for that, I will have a look at it tonight. Just got back from a blast down to Arundel and bacK (A29)with a neighbour very little traffic so you could open it up a bit for once!