Hi There!

Using my Abarth 500 (ss) as opening car on a road event soon, Night driving vision is poor because of headlamps. Anyone got some ideas for uprating th existing lamps? I've seen PIAA (H7 ?) units mentioned but are they any good?

I have the Xenon lights on mine so I haven't needed to improve the lights but on my previous 500 I used Osram Nightbreakers for both the Dip and Main beams. I have also seen good reports on the Philips bulbs and I see that Ring have just announced replacement bulbs as well.

All the above manufacturers sell them in 55W units so fully road legal.

I've recently changed from Osram NBs to the newer Osram NB+ and they were great for spotting the potholes on the A303 at the weekend

Sounds like the sort of thing I need. Are they H7 bulbs? and some say it's a pig of a job to change them, is this so?

On my previous VAG car I ran rally bulbs, ran them for 80,000 miles without any problems on the wiring but its something that may be a problem in the Fiat loom, having said that I think the headlights are on a seperate fuse so that should let go first

Halfrauds do these which are slightly more powerful

http://www.halfords.com/webapp/wcs/..._productId_192717_langId_-1_categoryId_165538

If you do a Google search for rally bulbs there are quite a few companies doing them. They are illegal for road use but with the number of cars I see every day with obvious lighting fauls I dont think anyone cares. I ran 130 / 100 bulbs & never had any problems

I did experiment with several of the bulbs advertised as better but whist many gave better light close to the car none gave a great increase in penetration & when you are driving at well over 100 (abroad) at night you need as much penetration as you can get

The dipped beams are dead easy to swap, couple of minute job at most as you can get to them under the bonnet. Mains can be a pig if you don't have ready access to a ramp or don't have tiny hands. The access flap is easy to get to but with the wheels filling the space its a pain to get at the bulb holders.

Thanks for that. As its the dipped beam that is the poorest I think I'll try changing those first. Maybe someone knows where I can get hold of a lamp pod to bolt on just for rallies!

A few ideas

This is advertised as fitting a Fiat 500 but its an old add

http://www.rallycarsforsale.net/clas/index.php?ct=fsrp&md=details&id=45527


This car is made so genuine part musrt be avaiable although I would guess expensive

http://www.auto-car-shop.com/14404/abarth-500-r3t-for-rallies/

This may be stating the obvious but ensure the mains are aligned correctly!

I ought to know better and only recently discovered that mine were set low from new. i havnt driven it much at night on dark roads.

Much better now with `improved` bulbs!

More - just been for a test drive on quiet local lanes. Lights have never been better. Good range now they pointing forwards! Spread could be better but you can only achieve that with auxiliary lights.Considering that they are not xenons pretty good.
The OP may want to consider changing shox for a night rally route though!

Thanks all for the comments. Purchased a pair of 'Osram H7 nightburner+ (Dipped beam) from 'Aceparts' (try googling them) cost £15.99 for the pair turned up 2 days later and the results are fantastic.
Take care, when fitting them that you don't drop the off-side rubber cover down the gap, I did ...... and had to remove the sh*t-shield from inside the wheelarch to retrieve it. However this did prove how easy it is to replace the Main-beam bulbs. Which I ordered last night. Should be done before Saturday nights event.
So if you're somewhere on the Southern half of Map 193 (Taunton & Lyme Regis) on Saturday night.... keep a look out for us.