Citreon Xantia headlights - CRAP, how to improve ?

Mine seem to be ok but the XM I had recently had a diffuser in front of the dip beam bulbs. This yellows with age and can get dangerously opaque. I removed this from my headlights which gave a much brighter (as you'd expect) but much more concentrated or directional beam. It passed the MOT like that too. This involved removing the headlight, taking off the clips holding the lens to the reflector and the rest is obvious. I expect you may be able to buy the diffusers unless they want to sell you a new headlamp. All the ones in scrappies will be in the same opaque state.

-- Malc

The headlights on early Xantias and XMs were never very good on dipped beam. The problem is usually not so much the brightness but the very sharp cut-off of the beam. Firstly make sure they are adjusted as high as they possibly can be without dazzling people - an MOT testing station will be able to do this and it can make a big improvement. The headlamps on my Xantia were reasonably bright, but for some reason were set so low that they only illuminated a couple of yards in front of the car.

Another solution is to fit much brighter bulbs, but this is illegal, and can cause the wiring to melt if you don't uprate it and use relays to control the switching.

Nick

As I recall, this is an early Xantia "trait" and later models had different headlights.

You could try these claimed-30% brighter bulbs. I'm suspicious of these types of replacement item . . . but having bitten the bullet and tried it with the Ka, it's made a respectable improvement.

The 50% brighter Philips Vision Plus bulbs certainly did the business in my

94 Nissan Primera, much better than the 30% brighter ones that Halfords sell. Normal wattage so no wiring problems and a lovely white light. sell them (that's where I got them), as do some motorcycle shops.

In the end I went for Ford's "Blue Vision" bulbs, which are Philips branded (in the case of dipped beam, H7s). Claimed up to 50% more light, and more like natural - and they rock! :)

Bonathan declared:

I had the high power halogen bulbs in a couple of xantia's for years, no probs at all and they both covered over 300K, a lot at night as they were used as minicabs... They also passed the notoriously strict 6 monthly Wigan Borough Council Taxi licencing test ( as opposed to the MOT, which we didn't need ).

There a discussion about fitting brighter bulbs to the Xantia here;

Also, if you do have the beam alignment checked make sure they do it with the engine running and the suspension on normal height. The rear suspension on hydropneumatic Citroens does tend to sink slightly after the engine is turned off (even on 'anti-sink' models), which can lead to the headlight beam being set to low if its adjusted with the car in this position. I think this is what happened with my car, the clueless garage set the beam after the car had been stood and allowed to sink for a couple of hours.