Corsa C dipped beam lethal

[hardkore]

Hey all.

Bought myself a cheap little hack for shifting the bikes around on and commuting to work when the weather becomes dreadful.

Its a 2005 Corsa C sxi which is the facelift model with projector headlights. I just took it out for a drive for the first time at night and I can honestly say it was the most scariest thing I've ever driven at night.

You can literally see about 5 feet in front of you and that's it! Headlights are correctly aligned, clean and set to the highest point via the in car adjuster wheel.

I've been doing a bit of reading and it appears i'm not the only one. I'm contemplating buying some nightbreakers for it tomorrow but is it a futile gesture? I'll have to remove both headlights and bumper to do it so I don't want to waste my time if it'll make no difference.

Most common "solution" online is to just fit a HID kit but that opens the door to all sorts of questionable beam patterns and mot failures.

Such a common car I thought this would have an easy answer but I really can't drive this damn thing at night in the current condition.

Thanks

 

[mattyg]

To be honest HID has its issues. With olde worlde bulbs the light seems to fade out... With every HID car I've had the light seems to come to a dead stop....Admittedly that dead stop may be further away than the equivalent bulb

I bet its still better than what we had in the 80's....lol

 

[hardkore]

To be honest having a candle in each headlight would be and improvement.

I'll either have to drive round with my full beam on or be "that guy" who uses his foglights.

 

[Jonners]

Osram Cool Blue Intense might be a good shout?

 

[hardkore]

Will have a good look tomorrow. Its sods law the weather here isnt looking too good but i need to sort it.

 

[kindai]

Such a common car I thought this would have an easy answer but I really can't drive this damn thing at night in the current condition.

Thats the distance most drivers look in front of the cars mate

And people wonder why we have crashes.

 

[Armageus]

I've been doing a bit of reading and it appears i'm not the only one. I'm contemplating buying some nightbreakers for it tomorrow but is it a futile gesture? I'll have to remove both headlights and bumper to do it so I don't want to waste my time if it'll make no difference.

Had the same on a 2001 Audi A4 (B5 facelift) - stupid projector lights, look nice but unusable with halogen bulbs (probably fine on the xenon equipped models). Don't think it was nightbreakers I tried, but I did end up with uprated bulbs, which made things a little better, but still dangerous imo.

 

[hardkore]

Thats the distance most drivers look in front of the cars mate

And people wonder why we have crashes.

Shhh

Had the same on a 2001 Audi A4 (B5 facelift) - stupid projector lights, look nice but unusable with halogen bulbs (probably fine on the xenon equipped models). Don't think it was nightbreakers I tried, but I did end up with uprated bulbs, which made things a little better, but still dangerous imo.

I'll try a new set of bulbs then. Any improvement is better than nothing.

 

[dale1uk]

Nightbreakers or Philips Racing Vision (arguably the 2 best halogen bulbs) make no worthwhile difference. My dad had a Corsa C as a work hack and we tried both of these and they were only slightly better than the stock bulbs, in other words still ****. We then went with an aftermarket HID kit (35w with 5000k bulbs iirc) which were better again, but still not amazing.

 

[Diagro]

Hid kits are not road legal anymore.

Car will fail an MOT if found to be fitted.

Some LED headlights however....

 

[Akagi]

Bet they're better than my dipped beams

 

[lordrobs]

I'd go for some Philips Xtreme Vision bulbs and polish up the headlights if they are plastic. Also check that the last owner clipped the bulbs in correctly. I had one not seated properly in my Passat when I got it back and the dipped beam was a really odd shape with a huge black spot in the middle.

 

[paradigm]

Hid kits are not road legal anymore.

Car will fail an MOT if found to be fitted.

Some LED headlights however....

Whilst I know this to be true, how would your average MOT tester know, given that the car in question has projector housings? Properly and neatly installed, they'd never know in this situation. It's not even like you need to have washers (as pre 2009 cars aren't tested for them, even if fitted!).

I'm not saying to install a HID kit by the way, just curious as to how it would be possible to actually test.

 

[Hyburnate]

Whilst I know this to be true, how would your average MOT tester know, given that the car in question has projector housings? Properly and neatly installed, they'd never know in this situation. It's not even like you need to have washers (as pre 2009 cars aren't tested for them, even if fitted!).

I'm not saying to install a HID kit by the way, just curious as to how it would be possible to actually test.

Because they have to do headlight alignment checks which even if not failed, HIDs take some time to start up unlike Halogens

 

[TheVoice]

Hid kits are not road legal anymore.

Car will fail an MOT if found to be fitted.

Some LED headlights however....

Pretty sure they never were legal, the only thing that's changed is they're now part of the MOT test. Aftermarket LED kits aren't road legal either.

Because they have to do headlight alignment checks which even if not failed, HIDs take some time to start up unlike Halogens

That isn't an indication of whether or not they're an aftermarket install though.

 

[paradigm]

Because they have to do headlight alignment checks which even if not failed, HIDs take some time to start up unlike Halogens

That isn't an indication of whether or not they're an aftermarket install though.

As @TheVoice says, alignment and initial ignition time for the bulbs, especially in projector housings, isn't a giveaway that a HID install is factory fit or not, especially on a car whereby there was a factory-fit option of HIDs. You can't reasonably expect every MOT tester to know the intricacies of each model, manufactured year and optional extras available.

 

[Hyburnate]

Pretty sure they never were legal, the only thing that's changed is they're now part of the MOT test. Aftermarket LED kits aren't road legal either.



That isn't an indication of whether or not they're an aftermarket install though.

As @TheVoice says, alignment and initial ignition time for the bulbs, especially in projector housings, isn't a giveaway that a HID install is factory fit or not, especially on a car whereby there was a factory-fit option of HIDs. You can't reasonably expect every MOT tester to know the intricacies of each model, manufactured year and optional extras available.

They're both fair points, OP. HID it

I was neglecting the age of the car, obviously after 2009 (whichever month it is) it would be an issue but this isn't the case,

 

[Kenai]

As @TheVoice says, alignment and initial ignition time for the bulbs, especially in projector housings, isn't a giveaway that a HID install is factory fit or not, especially on a car whereby there was a factory-fit option of HIDs. You can't reasonably expect every MOT tester to know the intricacies of each model, manufactured year and optional extras available.

I may be wrong but I thought lamp housings were marked if they were hid. Googling suggests they'll be marked DC for hid dipped, DR for hid main, DCR for both. Presumably lack of these markings would be enough to confirm any suspicions and cause someone to poke around a bit more for a HIDS4U logo on the ballast or similar.

Edit - these markings are in fact one of the things referenced in the testing manual regarding how to identify hids. Lack of them could raise suspicion. How bothered your average tester will be in looking for this stuff is a different matter.

You can identify HID headlamps from:

‘DCR’ mark on the headlamp lens or body
an igniter module or inverter behind the headlamp
taking a few seconds to reach full intensity
a bluish tinge to the light
HID headlamps use high voltage. You should take care when inspecting these headlamps.

 

[andy_mk3]

Some Corsa C's came with projector lenses so if yours are reflector units you can swap them out for projector units and fit HIDs or LEDs. They will be tons better.

 

[Kenai]

Some Corsa C's came with projector lenses so if yours are reflector units you can swap them out for projector units and fit HIDs or LEDs. They will be tons better.

Its a 2005 Corsa C sxi which is the facelift model with projector headlights.

One of the first things in the post