chad1980

Hi there, I have a general question about my '98 honda civic ex, what I would like to know is when I turn my high beams it just gets whiter but not brighter what is the problem with this?

does it mean I have to put new lights in the car?

Cause from my understanding, as soon as you put the high beams on, it should light up the whole entire road right..?

Thanks

gearbox

iTrader: (95)

well, depends on the car and the reflector. in most civics, they use an H4 bulb which has two filaments in the same bulb. not the greatest design by any means, because all it does is switch to a different (and slightly brighter) filament. other cars have two separate reflectors for lo and hi beam and usually the lo beam stays on together with hi beam. so you get alot more light. on the civic, the lo beam turns off when hi beam is used so the bulb doesnt burn out from too much heat. all you can do is upgrade to a brighter bulb. the brightest would be the osram hyper H4 which is slightly higher wattage (65/70w instead of 55/60w). best road legal bulb is philips XP at stock wattage. but it wont be a huge difference, better than before tho. also on an older car like that, the headlamp front lens covers may be hazy/yellow/pitted which also affects how much light gets thru.

chad1980

Ahh okay thanks, say I was thinking on buying the best brand new set of head lights, what do you sudjest? I would like a head lights to be soo good where I go to high beams it actually brightens the whole entire road....

How about the neon lights as high beams part of lights?

gearbox

iTrader: (95)

the brightest headlamp will be the honda one, it has the most time put into making it. the other styles are much worse. all you can really do is upgrade the bulbs, i would prolly go with the osram hypers if you need alot more light. and then if thats not enough, add some good driving lights in the bumper, like the micro DE work lamps by hella or their xenon model if you can afford it. www.rallylights.com