Yellow bulbs...

[Philip Chidlow]

Anyone had experience of these?

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/370850367345" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[Paul296]

Yes, I've put yellow bulbs in my headlights. They're just like normal bulbs except they're yellow.

[Philip Chidlow]

The make of bulb you muppet.

[Paul296]

Oh yeah

[mds141]

I bought mine off eBay.de. Decent quality. Lasted two challenges.

[mat_fenwick]

Mark, do you mean they only lasted for the two Challenges before they failed, or are they still working?

I'd be suspicious of the eBay link, for the main reason they are claiming 100 watts output with 55 watts input! Wattage is power consumed, and doesn't necessarily have a direct relationship to output. See if you can get an output figure in lumens for proper comparison purposes.

[Mothman]

Some yellow bulbs are better than others.
I have the original type [non h4] on Sophie and they aint very bright at night. Better H4s on the rest but again, they are not as bright as white light jobbies.

Andy

[Philip Chidlow]

This has been debated ad nauseam, I know, but I personally wouldn't use yellow for main or dipped but I would for fog lights as in my experience they get through fog quite well.
For heads, I'm going for Philips X-treme Vision as they're ones I've used before and with some beefed up wiring - courtesy of Phil B - and a pair of BNIB headlight units should be OK.

[Philip Chidlow]

Oh yeah

Like it. Sorry, I know you're not a Muppet. That's Phil Boxall's claim to fame (AKA Kermit of course).

[mds141]

@Mat. Sorry, slightly ambiguous wording there. The yellow bulbs have been in since May 2011 and have endured both challenges and around 5,000 miles in total. One blew in May of this year so two years ain't bad.

[citsncycles]

Timex had yellow covers over the bulbs when I got it - I removed them as I don't like them, and one had cracked, presumably due to the heat.

I'd guess than any yellow bulbs would be better than covers.

[KevR]

@Mat. Sorry, slightly ambiguous wording there. The yellow bulbs have been in since May 2011 and have endured both challenges and around 5,000 miles in total. One blew in May of this year so two years ain't bad.

I fitted a pair of yellow H4s in the grey one when I got it seven or so years and 80,000 miles ago - they're still fine. I use Osram super-bright bulbs in the motorbike, but the BX doesn't go fast enough to need laser-bright lights anyway.

[MULLEY]

I think my osram nightbreaker plus one's are approx 3 years old now.

[mat_fenwick]

If my bulbs lasted 5000 miles I'd be changing them every 3 months! But that can be a trade off with higher output bulbs of the same wattage. I'd still expect a longer life than that so perhaps you were just unlucky?

[electrokid]

but I would for fog lights as in my experience they get through fog quite well.

Driving in thick fog at night needs some kind of balance between illuminating the road ahead and not illuminating the fog immediately in front which blocks visibility: hence the reason why foglights are mounted as low as possible and (should !) have a very 'flat' beam. Also the amount of light produced by foglights can be too much or too little (particularly if they are 'cheapies' and produce too much light upwards) - there were some experiments in the 1960s with variable brightness control of foglights. I had variable brightness foglights on my 1950 Morris Minor but only found that to be useful on a couple of occasions in pea-soupers on dark nights. Hard to know whether the yellowness of the light or the reduced light output (or both ) makes yellow foglights that little bit better.