I've had my Panda Trekking now for just over 2-years and still love it but the headlights are so poor . The amount of light they actually shine is just pathetic. It's so bad I'm considering trading-it-in next June when it has it's 3rd-birthday.

Does anyone else think their headlights are poor?

Has anyone had the lights changed for Xeons?

Hopefully not a silly question but.........

Have you got the headlights on the correct "tilt" setting ?

My wife was cleaning her dashboard once and managed to accidentally turn the little wheel into the lowest setting so the headlights were pointing at the ground a few yards in front of the vehicle. She then complained to me that the lights were suddenly very poor :doh:

I thought the headlights on my Cross were rather good but soon realised that was only in comparison to my Fabia VRS which must have had spectacularly bad headlights.

Try Autobulbs direct and these H4 Twenty20 Daylight120 +120% 12V 60/55W 472 Halogen Bulbs (Pair) - £20, and for me job done.

For a change the main bulbs are quite easy to change on a Panda, you don't have to be an ambidextrous triple jointed Monkey. The header tank on the drivers side is only fixed with one bolt and if you do have big paws it may be worth moving it out of the way, gives you an extra couple of inches.

theshootist said:

Hopefully not a silly question but.........

Have you got the headlights on the correct "tilt" setting ?

My wife was cleaning her dashboard once and managed to accidentally turn the little wheel into the lowest setting so the headlights were pointing at the ground a few yards in front of the vehicle. She then complained to me that the lights were suddenly very poor :doh:

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I've got them set on -1

Should be on zero most of the time. I felt mine weren't great but swapped bulbs for some claiming to be 130% brighter and they are rather better now. Also found that although the height was set correctly, the left/right adjustment was off with the beams converging. Fixing this improved them too

theshootist said:

Hopefully not a silly question but.........

Have you got the headlights on the correct "tilt" setting ?

managed to accidentally turn the little wheel into the lowest setting...

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You mustn't have seen inside a Panda? The beam ajustment is by press buttons on the dash... Hard to adjust by mistake. Old model was the same too, so is 500...

Mine are set correctly and they are still pants.

Herts Hillhopper said:

You mustn't have seen inside a Panda? The beam ajustment is by press buttons on the dash... Hard to adjust by mistake. Old model was the same too, so is 500...

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I know - I was referring to my wifes car - a Nissan. I was just wondering if he adjusted them inadvertantly - the buttons could be pressed while cleaning ?

I see the inside of my Panda daily ;-)

Funny, I thought mine were quite good. Mind you, I'm coming from an MG ZR which had dreadful headlights by anyone's standards. If I were you, I'd certainly play with adjustment first, at least then you'll know it IS your lights that are the problem.

theshootist said:

I know - I was referring to my wifes car - a Nissan. I was just wondering if he adjusted them inadvertantly - the buttons could be pressed while cleaning ?

I see the inside of my Panda daily ;-)

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Didn't mean to sound factitious. I know what you mean, in that some cars they can be easily knocked. But the Fiat buttons need a good hard push, and only operate when the key is in the ignition and turned, and when the headlights are on... so rather less easy to do 'by accident'.

Herts Hillhopper said:

But the Fiat buttons need a good hard push, and only operate when the key is in the ignition and turned, and when the headlights are on... so rather less easy to do 'by accident'.

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Unless of course you inadvertently change the headlight settings while trying to use the same buttons to perform whatever other menu function they perform! (I can't remember offhand what else those buttons control - this car requires you to consult the manual to make even the simplest changes to its settings, as trying to change the settings by trial-and-error usually ends up in ... error).

On the other hand, you do get an indication on the instrument panel of what headlight setting you are on - if you can work out what the symbol is for!

Having come from cars with very bright and complex HIDs, I too had to go the +130% Phillips Extreme Vision route for the bulbs. Better than cooking 55/60W versions for sure, but let's not kid ourselves about being over 'twice as bright'....!

So a set of very bright but small LED driving lights seemed the sensible option and I cannot shout loud enough about the massive improvement in high-beam driving performance achieved. Decent lights are worth about 50bhp at night and as I've said before, these little 52mm diameter photon torpedoes are worth their weight in gold and dead easy to mount (as long as you're brave with a 2" hole saw and get the measurements right!).

I'm really curious about this:

http://www.xenovision.it/led-xenon/kit-bixenon-fiat-panda-6000k-35w-p-1320.html

That being said, when better bulbs can be had for around 20 Euros, I'm probably going to try those before jumping in on the deep end for a xenon kit. The fact that I'll have to put in the originals in at every yearly inspection where I live doesn't help either.

Edit: R1NGA do you have a link to the lights you're using?

oyumurtaci said:

I'm really curious about this:

http://www.xenovision.it/led-xenon/kit-bixenon-fiat-panda-6000k-35w-p-1320.html

That being said, when better bulbs can be had for around 20 Euros, I'm probably going to try those before jumping in on the deep end for a xenon kit. The fact that I'll have to put in the originals in at every yearly inspection where I live doesn't help either.

Edit: R1NGA do you have a link to the lights you're using?

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Xenon H4 kits can work, but they must be from a proper high quality source, not cheap Chinese things. 6000k is too blue and don't throw as much light as 5000K, which is what OEM HIDs typically run. Any properly engineered, high quality bi-xenon HID H4 kit will cost £100-150 GBP, so avoid anything that looks too cheap! If not, then you'll get a rubbish cut-off and bad spread of light. Moreover you'll blind everyone else on the roads and you'll be very unpopular. Yes of course they are technically illegal (and so is downloading music for free...), but if you use a proper kit that's well adjusted, you should be OK.

My lights are these;

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/251377485287?_trksid=p2060353.m1438.l2648&ssPageName=STRK:MEBIDX:IT

It's a link to the place I bought mine, but I am told the same lights can be found on eBay cheaper now, so please have a looksee around first perhaps.

Nice looking car you have there R1NGA

A friend of mine had a previous generation Panda (04 plate) and the headlights on that were far superior. Another step backwards?

Well, Having had the benefit of bixenon lights on my most recent two car purchases prior to the Panda, of course the Panda's halogen lights are neither as bright, nor do they provide as even coverage across the lit path. That said, Compared to the late-model Nissan Almera I owned prior to those vehicles (and the last I owned with halogen lights), I find the 'throw'/reach of the lights is actually pretty good and way better than said Almera (which I had into the garage numerous times to have the lamp alignment checked). Night time driving on unlit dual carriageways at 70mph in the Almera felt like an act of faith! (Akin to Bogwoppit's VRS and Aussiepanda's MG, by the sounds of it!)
Having said this, I have found that the lamps have great reach on setting '0' whilst dipped, but switching to main beam leaves a duller patch mid way along the lit area (let's refer to this as the 'rabbit-zone'!). On main beam, I find setting to '-1' gives a better compromise in reach and evenness of coverage. Then one evening, I switched on the front, low-mounted driving lamps and found that, on setting '0', they helped fill the gap in main-beam coverage - result! Not sure if the slightly higher ride height of the 4x4 is responsible for the way the lamps behave on main beam? (Different angle of incidence to the Tarmac at a given distance in front of the car?)

Has anyone else out there found that the high beam indicator light is too bright?
A mate here has had to resort to sticking a small patch of tinted plastic over it!

I'm seriously considering ripping out the bulb from the dash once the warranty is over. That bright blue laser of a light is actually counterproductive as it causes the iris' of my eyes to constrict, thereby negating any benefit of having the high beams on in the first place.

Generally speaking I understand how the H4 bulb system works, but it's beyond silly that it requires the main beam to turn off to engage the high beam. I know it's perfectly capable of keeping the main beam on and just adding to that light with the high beam as that's how it has been in a plethora of my previous vehicles. I really wish there was more of an aftermarket for this generation of Panda so we could at least have the option of converting to HID lights.

I've just switched from a Skoda (Citigo) to a Mk3 Panda and I think the headlights on setting 0 are much better in the Panda so I have no complaints other than they seem to produce more 'glare' in fog. On my old 54 plate 1.2 Dynamic I replaced the factory fitted headlights with night-breakers which were brilliant.

oyumurtaci said:

I'm seriously considering ripping out the bulb from the dash once the warranty is over. That bright blue laser of a light is actually counterproductive as it causes the iris' of my eyes to constrict, thereby negating any benefit of having the high beams on in the first place.

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Simply put a small piece of black tape over the bright indicator light and solve the problem for good. You genuinely can't see the tape even in the daylight and although you don't get much of the 'hue' of the blue light in the background, if you need a tell-tale to know if you're running on full beam, then you need a slap anyway....

oyumurtaci said:

Generally speaking I understand how the H4 bulb system works, but it's beyond silly that it requires the main beam to turn off to engage the high beam. I know it's perfectly capable of keeping the main beam on and just adding to that light with the high beam as that's how it has been in a plethora of my previous vehicles. I really wish there was more of an aftermarket for this generation of Panda so we could at least have the option of converting to HID lights.

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Two VERY hot filaments would overheat the bulb, simple as that I'm afraid. And in terms of aftermarket kits, maybe Italy has some, but the very open design of the current Panda lights might make it hard to design something that both looks good and works better. No, driving lights are the way to go for me.