improving the headlights on the xantia ?

4 possibilities:

1 - Fit spotlights - this has never failed to impress me, no matter how cheap they are - just make sure you wire them correctly using thick copper cored wire/relays, etc..

2 - Re-wire the headlights with copper cored wire TWICE the thickness of the oe wire. That should help, but will be a pain to do. I emphasise the word copper as it is the affordable best. (Can't afford solid gold, eh?)

3 - Does anyone do any 'headlight conversions' for your Xantia? (The type of things that boy-racers buy) Buy some if they are an improvement.

4 - Sell the car and buy one with good headlights.

Which super bright bulbs did you try? I got some Philips Vision Plus from my Ford dealer for less than halfords etc. sell them, and they're noticably brighter than standard lamps. They're not cheap even there though (I think was around £15 for a pair).

osram silver star that are supposed to be brighter than the philips vision plus.

looks like looking through a candle at 100 yds.

even the glow moths give off more light.

how far back should it be rewired too ?

Rewire the lighting circuit - taking a fused feed direct from the battery, with relays switched by the existing feed from the fuse box, IYSWIM.

Fair enough, thought you might have picked up a set of Max Power Mega Hyper Bright Blue Bulbs :P. I'd try the wiring next.

measure the volt drop with a multimeter. You're aiming for less than 0.5V from the battery to the headlamp terminal.

Xantias have poor dipped headlights, the main beams are as good as anything else on the road though. Earlier Xantias had very poor dipped beams, in 94 they got a bit better.

Check the reflectors in the headlights, if they've got no silver on them it might be time for new headlights, or they could be full of muck (both of these problems are caused by having no covers on the back of the lights). The original Valeo headlights are poor but Lucas do some replacements which are better but cost £40 a lamp plus VAT. The connector (where the loom plugs into the back of the headlight) give trouble and end up with copper corrosion on them which makes your lights poor, if that happens it's new lamp time because they can't really be satisfactorily cleaned up and aren't really removeable.

Xenon HID kits cost lots of money but should give big improvements, I'm considering going that way myself.

I'd be interested to hear how you get on, in getting any improvements.

-- James