How to make bright low beams on a car

How to make headlights brighter? Best ways

Over time, the headlights on any car begin to shine not as brightly as before, this is especially noticeable at night when driving in cramped yards. Let's look at how you can restore old headlights to their original brightness.

Now every driver is required to drive with their headlights on. Those who do not have daytime running lights in their car are required to turn on the low beam. Thus, the head light has become an important safety element not only at night, but also during the day. There may be several reasons why the headlights on your car are starting to shine worse. Let's look at the main ones.

How to make headlights brighter

Even new cars may experience such a problem as power loss during operation. When the car starts, with good wiring, there should be between 14 and 14.8 volts. The error of the problem is minus 1-3 volts. This means that urgent debugging of the wiring is needed so that when the electrical equipment is turned on, the drawdown does not exceed 0.3 - 0.5 volts.

If you bought a used car, you will constantly face the problem of power supply to the headlights. To make the problem less likely to occur, you need to make sure that the wire from the generator housing approaches the battery negative by at least six squares. To prevent oxidation six months after purchasing the car, you need to clean everything on the plus side, and also treat the contacts with a special spray or lubricant.

What you need to know about headlights

The headlights are connected to the battery by two wires with positive and negative contacts, leading directly to the head light. At the break in the positive wire there is a relay powered by the wires going to the lamps. The cost of a two- or four-pin relay is approximately sixty rubles.

When you press the light switch, the relay is energized. The relay closes and the voltage goes directly, bypassing all contacts, from the battery to the lamp. In this case, a regular lamp will shine as brightly as if you had a + 80% lamp.

You can install it yourself; no special knowledge is required. It is enough to know the basics of physics at the 9th grade level of high school. The main rule is to carefully and tightly insulate all contacts and the relay itself. This procedure, which will subsequently save you a lot of time and nerves, will take no more than half an hour.

Source

Installation of high power lamps

This is quite logical - the more powerful the lamps installed on the car, the better the lighting will be. But you shouldn’t change them thoughtlessly. This is not as simple as it might seem at first glance. It is imperative to take into account the optical capabilities of your car; they may be limited for such light.

In this case, there is a risk of rapid burnout of the reflector, melting of some elements and other troubles. In addition, it is worth considering the negative impact of such a stream of light on oncoming drivers.

There is also a way out: instead of devices with increased power, you can install lamps with higher light output. Of course, their cost is higher than average, but believe me, the effect is worth it! And this method is much better than the previous one.

The headlights shine too poorly - we improve the low/high beam on the car

If your car comes from the factory with halogen lamps installed in the headlight optics, this is exactly what you need to proceed from. It is interesting that even in this version there are many ways to improve the light beam, its direction and quality. So you should initially try legal methods and forget about powerful xenon and other not the most successful solutions. It's best to use factory type optics, but today we're going to talk about how to improve the factory light. However, many motorists operate a car with poor low/high beams, without even suspecting that the optics were much better from the factory. So, for many drivers, it will be enough to return the actual factory settings of the headlights in order to receive complete satisfaction in terms of the operation of the car’s optics. Let's look at a few improvement options.

Content

Headlight polishing

If the glass is shabby, then the light will be bad, although, more precisely, not bad, but worse compared to new. The problem can be solved in two ways:

New glass. For some car models, headlight lenses are sold separately. Costs less than a new headlight. Simply break the old glass on the headlight and glue in a new one using a high-quality sealant. On a Volkswagen Golf 3 I changed the glass on the headlights this way.
Polish the headlight glass. It is difficult, time-consuming, and the result may be unsatisfactory due to the impossibility of bringing it to perfection if glass for headlights is not sold separately. But through the polished glass of the headlights the light will be much better.

Problems with the reflector - causes and solutions

Halogen headlights, installed on the vast majority of cars in our country, have a reflector in their design. This is a piece with a fully reflective shiny metallic finish. Very often, the headlights in a car dim due to the burnout of this very reflector. The reasons for such burnout may be the installation of headlights with a higher operating temperature than standard ones. For example, you should not install 100-watt lamps in cars that have 50/55-watt options. This will cause the reflector to burn out.

You can restore it using several methods:

Each case has its own problems. For example, matte paint with a chrome tint will cause the color to be completely absorbed rather than reflected. Pay attention to the quality of disassembly and assembly of the headlight. If certain leaky areas remain, water will get inside and condensation will form. This combination of factors will quickly destroy the headlight and force you to buy a new one. Sometimes the best solution is to purchase a new reflector and have it replaced at a service center.

Many car owners drive with poor lighting and do not even suspect that the culprit is not the lamps or the headlights themselves, but the electrical circuit in the car. The first step is to check the generator, which produces a certain voltage during the trip and is the main source of electricity after the engine has been started. If the generator does not work well and does not produce the required voltage, the following troubles are possible:

If your car has a non-original generator, the most logical solution would be to install a factory version of this device. Often, for various modifications, the plant offers a more powerful version of the generator. This is an excellent solution, but remember that it may somewhat spoil the impression of the machine. In particular, fuel consumption may increase. Otherwise, only native generators can seriously change the situation.

Particularly serious problems occur with the device for providing electricity in the car in winter. This is due to the increased load on the device. Often, only music from electrical devices works in the car. At night, the headlights also turn on. The fan can also work in the rain. But in winter, heated windows, high fan speeds, constant light, heated seats and air conditioning are activated to reduce window fogging. All this heavily loads the generator and shows all its problems.

Often, having suffered fairly with poor-quality light, car owners decide to simply change the headlights to new ones. But don't think that this step will solve all your problems. For example, the problem may be due to incorrect connection of the equipment. First of all, this situation affects the quality of light from the bulbs. The lamps do not receive the required voltage and produce poor light. The following situation is quite possible:

So don’t rush into making serious investments; it’s better to try to correct the situation on your own or replace the light bulbs with more efficient ones. Most likely, you can get more efficiency from your optical equipment without purchasing new headlight sources. However, such a step is not excluded in very advanced cases. We invite you to watch a video describing methods for improving headlights with your own hands for cars older than 10 years:

Installing new headlights is a panacea, but not always

you select new factory-type headlights, pay a lot of money for their purchase, joyfully realize the impending improvement of headlights and solutions to problems;
after this, the purchase is installed, all electrical contacts are connected and joyful anticipation of completely changed lighting characteristics;
but in reality the light may remain the same, and you have not checked all the features and guesses about the operation of your car without looking at the electrical aspects;
This is followed by disappointment and understanding of the unnecessary costs of purchasing new headlights (even for a domestic car, such costs will be quite serious).

Let's sum it up

If you have ever encountered very bad light in a car, then you understand all the disadvantages of this situation. This is a rather difficult moment, which will always be an important point for all drivers. Operating a car on wet asphalt can be a very unpleasant experience when the road is poorly lit. In any case, the driver receives only negative emotions in this situation and does not ensure the safety of himself and the people around him. So such unpleasant effects are unacceptable. The headlight should work at least as well as when the car left the factory. Ideally, it should work better.

Check your car's electrical systems, the voltage supplied by the generator and other important features. This will help you understand the characteristics of poor electrical appliances much better. Also think about possibly replacing the light bulbs with brighter ones. The fact is that in modern traffic with bright light, dim light bulbs cope very poorly with their tasks. It will be much better to use the possibilities of inexpensive headlight modifications than to drive with dim low and high beams. So take advantage of the tips given above, get better road lighting and increase safety. Have you improved the headlights in your car in any way?

Voltage problem

Also, the light may become dim due to any voltage problems. Due to voltage, problems with headlights may occur. The cause of the malfunction lies in the generator.

Advice

How to turn on the lights on a car

Any alternator replacement work should be carried out with extreme caution, so it would be best to consult a professional electrician

Another cause of malfunction is incorrectly adjusted headlight position.

Comparison of luminous flux of different light bulbs

It also happens that a person initially adjusted the headlights properly, but due to some small push the adjustment was disrupted. This situation most often occurs due to a push. How to improve the headlights on a VAZ 2114 in such a case? This does not require any specialized optical devices, but you will have to spend quite a lot of time so that the direction of the light flux again becomes the same as before.

Adjusting the headlights

The first stage is to place the car at a distance of 5 meters from a flat wall. Then you need to put a person in the driver's seat, and then fill the fuel tank. This is necessary in order to adjust the headlights as accurately as possible.
Now you need to make special markings on the wall. It is necessary to ensure that the vertical center line completely coincides with the central part of the car, and the side markings coincide with the center of the headlights.
Horizontal markings must be made at the level of the lamps.
Now you need to remove the glass from the headlight. This is necessary to provide access to the screw that is intended for adjustment. The second headlight must be covered with some cardboard. The direction of the light must be “adjusted” until it hits the point where straight lines intersect as accurately as possible. It should be remembered that adjustment can only be made with the low beam headlights on. In this case, you can adjust both the low beam and high beam.

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“Weapons of light”: how to choose lamps for head optics?

If you ask ten car owners what they would first improve in their vehicle, nine of them will answer: headlights. And it doesn’t matter at all who you ask about this: a “clear” character who cannot imagine a car without zero tint and xenon reflector headlights; a girl who has just received her license; a zealous servant of the cult of Filing Magazines with Back Rubles for the Seventy-Second Year, or simply an adequate motorist, it is unclear how he found his way among the above-described persons.

Also, alas, it is no secret that only large cities can boast of a developed network of artificial lighting, and even then not always. Intercity highways, even federal ones, at night are a black void the size of a small European country.

In this article, the author will try to collect all the recommendations on how to do this as efficiently as possible and while remaining within the framework of current legislation.

What type of lamps should I choose?

What to put where, and how to use it in the future?

Disclaimer:

But enough digressions, let's get back to the topic.

A xenon lamp, due to the absence of a conductive filament in it, practically does not react in any way to constant shaking, and is able to work for two to three years without the need for replacement. The same can be said about LED lamps, but they are still more expensive than xenon lamps.

Therefore, halogen lamps can and should be used in several cases:

2) High beam headlights. Again, the warm light of halogens works better in rain, light snow and drizzle. If, when using xenon, you see in the windshield a picture of hyperdrive switching on from Star Wars, then halogen will show you the real condition of the road surface.

Xenon lamps are much more efficient than halogen lamps, and in any weather conditions and under any lighting conditions. They are many times more durable, and in this parameter they are even ahead of LEDs, and are more economical than halogens.

Regardless of the type, headlights for halogen and xenon lamps differ in the shape of the light beam formed by the surface of the reflector or the lens curtain. And no matter what anyone says, xenon lamps in headlights with a halogen “daw” (the shape of the cut-off line) will always blind oncoming drivers and add to the statistics of traffic police fines.

Thus, xenon lamps, although they have many advantages, are not the most optimal option. Due to its specifics, installing xenon is justified in two cases:

LED lamps can be used:

1) In low beam headlights. In this role they are (yet) not as effective as xenon, but much more effective than halogen. And their installation is much cheaper than xenon.

2) In the main beam of headlights when selecting the appropriate color temperature. Lamps with a tint similar to halogen already exist and are commercially available. This means that you get all the advantages of halogen, plus a lower temperature of the lamp itself (the headlight glass will not crack if you suddenly visit a puddle, for example) and lower energy consumption.

What you need to know when buying lamps

Number of lamps included

ECE marking, also known as base

Therefore, before going to the store, you just need to open the reference book for your car model or type in “types of lamps” in any search engine, and all the necessary information will be found instantly.

Halogen lamps are available in H7 , HB3 , HB5 . They can be used in fog lights, low and high beam sections, or combine two threads at once. P21W and PY21W stand out , since these are not headlight lamps at all, but ordinary light bulbs used in turn indicators, reverse and rear running lights.

In addition, LED lamps can be presented in T20/5 , T4W , W1.2W . In this case, they are intended for interior lighting and button illumination. The advisability of using diodes in this capacity is determined by each car owner for himself, since it is not regulated by anything.

Xenon lamps exist ONLY D1R , D1S , D3R , sockets . These are standards specifically developed for xenon, and headlights and/or modules that allow the installation of xenon must comply with them.

Colorful temperature

Xenon lamps, again, go to extremes. Here you can find both unnatural yellow 3000K (a shade much deeper than that of halogens, similar to Soviet fog lights with yellow glass), and crazy poisonous purple 12-13000K . Not only will the traffic police not pat you on the head for both extremes, but such a light will not be effective either!