Changed my headlight bulbs

[pacarcher]

I changed my headlight bulbs this afternoon.
In the dipped beam I put Osram Silver Star bulbs and I changed the sidelights to Philips Blue Vision ones.

I expected them to be a real pain to fit as lots of people have said in earlier posts, so was prepared for the worst. I found them quite easy really. Only problem was putting the sidelight cover (drivers side) back on. Until then It'd taken about 5 minutes. The cover took about 10 mins by itself.

Verdict - Not sure yet. Dipped beam seems slightly brighter, but then it is sunny outside so hard to tell. Sidelights don't really seem blue at all, less yellow maybe but definately not blue.

I think I'll reserve judgement 'till it goes dark

[pacarcher]

Now I've seen them in the dark, the dipped beam is definately brighter and whiter, and the sidelights are not blue at all. They are however much whiter and so do look a fair bit better than the standard ones.
Worth doing????..... Probably, but not as different as I'd hoped!!!

[denzo]

What is the knack ... remove the rubber unclip thje H7 bulb and replace? what about the washer fluid spout thing? is it easy to do?

I wanted some of the bright bluish bulbs

[pacarcher]

Remove the rubber cap thing, twist the bulb holder and you can then pull the bulb out of the headlamp unit. Then pull the bulb off the connector, replace with a new bulb, push bulb through hole into headlight and then twist the other way to lock into place. If you've done headlamp bulbs before then it's very little difference except it's a bit more restricted for space in the vectra. (the difficult bit is the plastic cap over the sidelights).

The fluid washer spout pulls directly upwards and out. Gives you more room.

I just went soley for brightness with the dipped beam and got the Osram Silver Star bulbs(various different test winners). Philips Blue Vision or similar may give a slightly bluer tinge if that's what you want. I'd hoped that the sidelights would have been bluer than they are but reading up on it now, it seems the ones that actually look blue are illegal.

[denzo]

I didn't know that the ones that look blue are illegal - I assumed they were EU approved for road use and as long as they were 55W

Could someone please confirm as I don't want to be illegal

[pacarcher]

It depends how blue.
The slightly blue tinged headlight bulbs are ok(as long as they're eu approved/stamped whatever). It's the blue sidelights that are illegal and not for road use.

[SignumPhil]

Easy job?
Not on my V6, with my huge paws. I managed to change the dip bulbs, but my hands looked like I'd been playing "catch" with a live chainsaw......

Phil

[Vectra SPK]

I have just changed my dip beam bulbs to xenon bulbs and found that to gain access to the drivers side I had to remove the air filter housing the other side was easy, just remove the filler neck from washer bottle.