Understanding Car Bulb Replacement

Standard Halogen

Car bulb replacement or headlight bulb replacement is standard here at AMS mechanics Kilbarrack. We stock a considerable variety of car bulbs on site.

The most common type of headlamp bulb replacement we typically do is halogen. Standard halogen bulbs are generally still most widely used in vehicle manufacturing.

This specific type of bulb is the cheapest on the market and contains a sealed filament which when heated via an electric current turns it into a white-hot glow. There is, of course, strict legislation regarding filament, light emission and bulb shape, etc.

Retrofitting:

Typically a standard H7 headlight bulb replacement would produce 1500 lumens. Lumens is the specific term used to accurately measure the total amount of visible light from a standard bulb, standard lamp or luminous source.

A vehicle can be retrofitted to brighter HIDs and LED headlamp bulbs but must conform to specific regulations. Often they are not compatible to the vehicles headlight system.

Retrofitting Kits & Headlight Bulb Types

If you want to retrofit from standard halogen headlight bulb replacement to HID or LED, you will need to ensure that your vehicle and the headlight kit are approved to do so. In other words, the entire headlight lamp and bulb must be approved, as does the vehicle make and model itself to have a HID kit retrofitted. This information can be gathered and clarified from the vehicle manufacturer.

If you fit an approved headlight kit to a vehicle that is incompatible, it will fail the NCT instantly. Also, fitting an unapproved kit to a compatible vehicle will cause NCT failure as are HID bulbs retrofitted to regular halogen headlamps. 

If you are concerned about your car failing the NCT on bulbs or anything else you can always avail of our NCT Pre-Check here

H7 HID Xenon Car Replacement Bulbs & Conversion Kits

H7 HID bulbs are not the same as standard halogen bulbs. Unlike the latter they are filled with Xenon gas.

As mentioned above halogen are pretty much still widely used in vehicle manufacturing however some more modern cars are being produced with HID bulbs. Another fundamental difference is that a ballast hardware kit needs to be installed to ignite and light the bulb. Generally speaking they are 2.5 times brighter than halogen bulbs. Again we must point out that the correct conversion kit must be used and be compatible to the vehicle.

LED BULBS

LEDs have been around for quite some time now but and the difference between them and xenon is there is a microchip in the bulb kit.

Their lifespans far outlive those of halogen bulbs and they typically emit much brighter light. They are more to found on higher end makes of cars.

Again they are quite legal to intentionally use in Ireland but fall under the same retrofit category as HID. They must be vehicle compatible and do not cause glare towards oncoming road users.