Halfords Brilliance headlamp bulbs - any good?

[Ken Sington]

Need to pick up an H7 bulb tomorrow for the car, and checking Halfords which is the only place I will be able to do this tomorrow, they have a range of bulbs promising anything from 30 - 120% more light. Are these any good/legal, or is it just cow poo?

[TeaNoSugar]

I tried to replace the headlight bulbs on the insignia last week. Bought two "Extreme Brilliance" bulbs from halfords, but due to the tightness of the space available to change the passenger side headlamp, and me having a broken finger, I could only change the drivers side bulb (which was the one that had broken).

The difference in the brightness between the original vauxhall bulb and the halfords "EB +90%" bulb was...

..absolutely feck all. I couldn't tell the difference at all. Neither bulb lit up the road better than the other, and the "colour" of the light was identical. I guess that means that they're either no different to the standard grade halfords bulbs, or the standard bulbs must be 90% inferior to the vauxhall OEM bulbs?

On the plus side, as it's a company car, I didn't have to pay for them.

[ejenner]

Must really bear in mind that the reflectors in the headlamps (and inside the bulbs themselves) are designed to create a beam shape and bulbs which create a brighter light are only going to illuminate that beam area brigher or whiter or whatever. That just means you'll be able to see the colour of the pebbles on the road slightly better... not so much that you'll see further down the road)

If you want obviously brighter lights then you can buy bulbs for offroad use. They are brighter... but illegal.

So my advice... either break the law or stick with standard bulbs.