Had a wobble ....

[oldskoolgent]

I recently posed how chuffed i was with my purchase of an 06 Vantage. Sure it needs a little love but it makes me smile all the time.
that said, had to use it for the first time at night and we really shocked at just how dim the headlights are. i even stopped to check that they were actually on.

I'll check and see what the bulbs are and i wasn't expecting todays level of blind everyone but really surprised ....

and whilst we're talking headlights, whats the best way to adapt to drive in Europe for a few days ?

[V8 Minotaur]

Not sure what bulb type your model will have, but well worth to get yourself a couple of Osram Nightbreakers and have them set to max permissible range on low beam by a mot station.

The first time you go down a country road at night you’ll appreciate the relative low cost of the improvement.

[Riddochg]

Hi. I also have a 2006 Vantage and no problems with the headlights. I think Halogen were standard with Xenon as an upgrade. Not sure how you can tell which are fitted.

[Nigel_O]

Xenon headlamps should do an ‘auto-adjust’ when they are first turned on. They will also take a couple of seconds to get to full brightness.

Mine were horrific when I got the car, but replacement ‘bulbs’ sorted them.

That said, even with brand new ultra-bright Philips HIDs, the Aston’s headlamps are woeful compared with my ten year younger Skoda Yeti

[DB9S Paul]

The VH era headlamps are awful. A very poor design made out of poor materials.

Th projectors bowls and lenses have a fixed shutter which wastes 50% of the light output from the bulb (Why do that on the main beam...) and when they get older the reflective material inside the projector bowl delaminates from the bowl reducing output even further.

Although HID bulbs give a reduced output as they age, upgrading the bulbs will only help a limited amount because of the poor design and the probable delamination.

I upgraded my light to modern state of the art Bi-LED projectors and the difference is astonishing, I can drive safely at night now.

https://db9s.com/upgraded-aston-martin-headlights/

On early cars there is a lever inside the headlights that converts the beam from RHD to flat, but this just reduces the light output further and the stock headlights are not very likely to dazzle anyone (although they don't have such a good cut-off as the upgrades.)

I've got some photos below, I have got some on a road which is more useful but can't find them at the moment.

Dipped, before and after



Main, before and after

Edited by DB9S Paul on Friday 3rd October 06:55

[BiggaJ]

I'm with the OP on this one. My previous 2009 VH car had woeful headlights but my other daily car has LED projector lights so going from that into the Vantage was two extremes. I didn't bother with looking at different bulbs but it may give a little increase in lighting performance.

[Simpo Two]

The headlights on my 07 DB9 are very good, much better than the XK I had before. Don't know if the previous owner upgraded them but I've got no complaints.