So my brother recently bought a lovely new Audi TTS which has some very good looking xenon headlights. Problem is it made me feel that mine look incredibly old and outdated and Iād love a white glow from my headlamps!Ā
Iāve found some bulbs but not sure if these would fit or work in my mk3?
http://www.autobulbsdirect.co.uk/H7-Philips-White-Vision-Headlight-Bulbs-Pair.html
Would appreciate some advice ano whether I would need to replace any other bulbs?
Thanks.Ā
I would guess these would work.
I did something similar for my mk2 and it was well worth it - keep the same wattage and no need for other changes such as fuses.
Ā£39.99p !!!
Try e-bay, Ā£5.95p a pair.
Haha, yes expensive, I was just using them as an example!
Thanks for the info zpat.
My ebay ones lasted a week before they went dull. Bulbs are so easy to copy these days by the turds who do that sort of thing.
Halfrauds are doing their range at the moment buy one get one free. The bulbs are very good as are Osram NightBreakers.
Apologies if this is obvious, but does anyone know if the MK3 has a double or single filament bulb?? I know next to nothing about headlights!
H7 for dipped beam, H9 for main beam. I always use Ring Xenon Ultima bulbs. Claimed up to 120% extra light over standard Halogen. Same wattage so no extra heat or load on wiring etc. Just replaced the standard bulbs on my Mazda 6 and the difference is amazing. Used them on my Mk1 MX-5 and great on that too. Donāt think about using unbranded bulbs, they just donāt last.
I put Phillips extreme in my NC because they came out top in the Autocar test. Ā They look nicer and are definitely brighter but itās not night and day (ha!)
no one seems to make bright Ā h9 bulb so I left mine standard.
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the biggest pain is removing the bumper to remove the headlamps, I de tangoed them while they were out, that improves the looks far more than any bulb.
H9?! Thereās an H9?? Iāve found H1s and H4s. I think Iāve read now that H4 are twin filament and H1 is single. So could H1 be used for main beam?
Thanks very much.
And yes Halfbee, Iām not looking forward to the awkwardness of getting to the headlamps, but Iām also wanting to de tango my headlamps in the same swing! Did you find that easy/straightforward?
I went with Osram led sidelights and Osram Nighbreakers-made a real difference, I went through the whole cheaper bulb stage with the previous car-might look good, try driving in the rain at night with cheap bulbs! It happened once, I then changed them to a branded make ;)Ā
Iāve been considering this too, but had thought changing the type of bulb (i.e. from ānormalā to xenon) was against the law. Is that true, and if so does anyone care anyway?
i cant remember where i found the bumper off instructions but its fairly straight forward with the wheels off and the front raised off the deck. Ā Heres the de tango instructions, again, fairly straight forward.
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http://www.mx5nutz.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=108388&hl=
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Searched these bulbs and this thread came up so thought I would add my bit. Bought these for 34.54 from MX5parts - Xenon Max Headlamp Main Beam Bulb Upgrade for the Mk3.5 & 3.75. Was attracted to the write up āincredibly bright white light with enhanced performance for greater light output.ā
The offside one does look a bit brighter.
At 80k miles and 14 years one of the OEM bulbs has failed on my NC3.5.
Iāve bought Osram Night breaker silver when they were Ā£13.
I want something less yellowy and old looking that better matches my led sidelights better, but I want something with a fairly long life due to the faffing involved in changing them on the NC.
Iām not expecting an amazing transformation but Iāll post up a pic when theyāve been changed.
Schoolboy error by me resulted in ordering main beam rather than dipped beam bulbs from MX5 parts. as I had the wheel of and arch liner removed I shot to Halfords to get what I really wanted. Was originally looking for something really white but an autodoc guy said people tend to confuse whiteness with brightness and although the 5000 times white or whatever they are sound good they wont give better night vision., He would recommend the 200% brighter if you actually wanted to improve night vision, which is what I wanted to achieve. So thats what I went for.
I remember years ago visiting a local, family run independent car parts shop when a headlight bulb blew, Iād not long passed my test. The guy asked what bulb and I said the main headlight.
After leaving the shop with new bulbs I rushed back in a panic saying I meant the dipped beam. The guy simply said: āI knew what you meant and I gave you dipped beam bulbsā.
I miss those independent shops.
I also use Osram Nightbreakers and find them an improvement over standard bulbs, although itās a small rather than a major improvement.
Unfortunately, the brighter the bulb (150%, 200%, etc), the shorter the life of the bulb. That wouldnāt normally bother me too much, but changing headlight bulbs on the NC is an utter, utter pain.
And, of course, the use of LED or HID bulbs in a reflector which has been designed for an incandescent bulb would be an MoT failure.
The MX5 NC series does not use reflector headlights for dip beam.
It uses projector units that have a shutter to provide a very clean cut off line.
You could use hid or led in those.
The high beam is unfortunately a reflector type lamp and would have to stick with halogen bulbs.
It will still fail an MoT test, under 4.1.4 which states āExisting halogen headlamp units on vehicles first used on or after 1 April 1986 must not be converted to be used with high intensity discharge (HID) or light emitting diode (LED) bulbs. If such a conversion has been done, you must fail the headlamp for light source and lamp not compatible.ā
