Headlights arent great. How to improve?

Are you running standard lamps with bulb H7's for dip beam?
Xenon HID Headlight Upgrade Kits from HIDS 4U - H7, H4, H1 do a conversion to HID for abut £100 but if you want bright skip the 35w and pick the 55w option.
If you already have the Xenons D2S dip bulbs then look at a 6000k D2S in those.
4000k is the white/yellow range 6000k white/blue as in new models.
Don't be tempted to fit the off road +100w jobs they are 'blue light' attractors and run at a higher temperature that may create other problems. Some fool popped a 21 w sidelight (5w) in my TT that melted the holder.
Remember that your brightness is someone else's dazzle like the prats that drive round with their fog lights on when its not foggy.

H7 tests here

Headlamp bulbs tested | Auto Express

Halfords supreme brilliance are good. I didn't like the night breaker lamps.

I'm using a cheap H7 HID kit on my aftermarket headlamps, generally with HID's I would only tend to fit them if the headlamp had a projector lens (the round spherical glass ball which the C5 has), this focus's the light better and reduces dazzling compared to reflector only. Also you need a clear lens with no beam bending marks (usually associated with older glass lenses which the C5 doesn't have).

You also need to be careful when upgrading to HID's as there are legal requirements, firstly self leveling, my car is on coilovers and so my pitching is drastically reduced from stock and thus reduces the risk of dazzling other drivers upon front end lift due to acceleration, then there's the headlamp washer requirement, which I have not done (as yet). From what I've read like a lot of modifications providing you don't go overboard I'll run the risk, I've only gone for 6000k, OEM is ~4300k so slighly whiter, verging on a bit of blue. IMO iny more than this and it looks too blue and also looks stupid, not to mention asking to get pulled over for it.

If you are happy with halogen bulbs, stay with them, generally in the wet visibility is reduced anyway due to the light being reflected and refracted off the road and so looks darker, regardless of how bright the lights are to start with.

Just my 2p, I'll let you know how I get on, the chinese HID's aren't known for longevity (ballasts give out usually) but for £17.20 I thought I'd give them a try. Practically disposable at that price, if they last 2 years of so I'll be happy.

Let us know how you get on

Glad you've declined, standard HID's with all the original legal leveling sensors and wash wipe are dazzling enough but these prats running around with HongkongID's get on my tits.
Still not as dazzling as a poorly adjusted hlogen pointing up and towards oncoming traffic because your average motorist only cares if the car passes an mot once a year and doesn't maintain in between!!

rant over

Interesting to read the replies here. I have a 2001 allroad which has a projector lamp for the dipped beam and reflector lamp for the high beam. Going by the colour, both are halogen.

This is the second car I have had with halogen projectors and the second one where the dipped beam seems to be very weak. Having never owned a car with projector lamps that use HID instead, what I am not sure about is whether it is simply that the hard cutoff of projector lamps is the problem, i.e. whether I was previously used to seeing using some light that was "leaking" above the correct beam height or whether it more a case that the projectors are designed for HID and allow for the blue end of the spectrum being refracted so when the light source is more yellow that means the beam is lower than it needs to be.

I also read elsewhere that the angle of dip in the UK is allowed to be anything between 0.5 degrees and 2.5 degrees. At 2.5 degrees one can only see far enough ahead to drive at about 30mph is pretty poor.

I'll see if I can find some flat ground and a suitable wall to work out what is going on but if anyone else has any ideas then please let me know.

Amphitryon said:

I'll see if I can find some flat ground and a suitable wall to work out what is going on but if anyone else has any ideas then please let me know

Click to expand...

That's what I did with my standard H7 halogen lights - which were terrible at night. Upgraded H7 (legal) bulbs and marked & moved the adjusters 180d to raise the beam which originally seemed very low on the road ahead. Things are better but not perfect - the car has been through a MOT with a fussy garage since with no issues.

Its funny, a google search using the term " Audi A6 C6 headlights arent great" led me to this thread!

I recently purchased a 2011 2.0tdi A6 avant and I'm really enjoying it so far, but I noticed the main beams are pretty crappy too. The car has bi-xenon low/high beams and it seems to have halogen high beams also (circled in red below). At least I'm assuming it's halogen due to the warm colour temp of the light emitted.

The light projected from the xenon low beams is pretty good, but when I push the turn signal/high beam lever forward, the xenon shutter activates fine but the light projected from the headlights isn’t all that great.
I’ve noticed the 'halogens' only seem to light up when the high beam lever is pulled back (flash to pass) but they don’t light up with the lever pushed forward in the high beam position?? I would assume the xenon flap AND the 'halogen' lights would illuminate at the same time when high beam lever is engaged, but maybe I'm wrong... I don't know?

Are the halogen high beams for "flash-to-pass" only or do I have a problem?

This is a EU spec car and there are no fault lights on the dash.