Hi, has anyone got a recommendation for improved side light bulbs?

Tempted to go LED but I don't want cheap Chinese Fleabay junk.

I also don't want to join the MaxPenis Saxo crowd, so avoiding the Chav look is high on my priority list.

Anyone got a recommendation?

Some things just don't need 'improving' on.

I went for the laser-white ones from Halfrauds.
TBH next to no change, maybe slightly whiter light, but barely noticible.

As said earlier, just leave em stanny.

Hi Mr Lucky, I'm glad that you raised this as last week I had my offside sidelight bulb fail- and the car's facing it's MOT over the next week so it's vital that I sort it.

The original bulbs are/were 5w but the only equivalent I found in Halfords or local motor factors (with bayonet fittings) are 4w. Today I fitted one to the offside and it didn't light. I know this is not caused by a blown fuse as the nearside one lit when I turned the sidelights on. I've stripped and sprayed the connectors but still no joy.

To make sure that I was doing everything correctly, I took the nearside one apart- and now neither are lighting up!

Can anyone with any experience of this please post some help as to where I'm going wrong?

I thought the side light bulbs were the push fit T10 (501) type, not a bayonet fitting?

If so, some of the T10 (501) bulbs have positive & negative sides.

If the new bulb fails to work, try turning it around.

My mistake, so they are all BA9s then?

Wow - yes - BA9 type bulbs (otherwise known as - IIRC - 233) did mine today, what a complete ball ache!

Could I hell as like get the sidelight bulb holders out and my Chim doesn't have any holes in the front wheelarches so everything was done by feel from the front grille.

Thankfully I had ordered two new sidelight bulb holders from somewhere and had them in "the stash" - not exactly the same size as the originals so they don't fit so tightly but I managed to get the bent metal tang back over them enough to hold the new ones what I hope is firmly enough.

Had to extract the old ones with a pair of needle-nosed mole-grips!

I took the headlight bulbs out and had the lighting loom dangling out of the grille with a headlight bulb and the new sidelight holders and bulbs first just to make sure that everything worked OK - both the main headlight connector and the sidelight connector have earths so there shouldn't be any need to clean up the bulbholders - they don't earth through the fitting or anything.

My only worries now are...

1) That the bant metal tangs will continue to hold the new sidelight bulb holders in place.

2) That in pushing on the headlight connectors (which were pretty stiff) I probably moved the reflectors so I hope they still pass the MOT in October.

Oh well - getting more reasons to do that Lupo light conversion!

Phil

conventional bulbs are not polarity conscious.

OK, just to finish this one off I fitted my new sidelight bulbs yesterday.

In the end I decided against LED & stuck with old school incandescent.

The BA9 bulbs are 12v 4w just as Bassfiend said, so I checked the wiring & figured I would try a set of 12v 24w.

I bought four off EBay for £4.49 so I have 2 spares.

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/MOTORCYCLE-MOTORBIKE-MIN...

Boy what a difference

Apologies for the rubbish phone camera snaps and remember this is in daylight.


First the new 24w side lights.




Now the 24w side lights with the excellent Philips X-Treme headlight bulbs.




Importantly I double checked the wire gauge used on the sidelight circuit and it is exactly the same as that used for the headlight bulbs so I don't see any issues running the higher wattage sidelight bulbs.



NB: Corrosion & general connector fustyness was my original issue, all resolved with a Dremel & a wire brush attachment.

A bit of contact grease to keep the corrosion at bay and a gentle tweak of the earth tang and they should be good for years to come.

Cheers Simon

PS: Have you got some bottles mate?

I need a bit of heat on my diff drain plug.

Bastaaaard thing