High Beam upgrade 2010 MkII OCtavia Scout

[Skooter]

Hi. Been scouring here and Briskoda for info on high beam upgrades for the H1 halogens on my Scout, finding all sorts of rants about Xenons and Bixenons (like 'let's spend $2500' ), but very little on good old halogens.

Recent night drives in Vic and NSW revealed grossly inadequate light penetration on high beam; low beam on the std H7s is great, no issue there. Seriously, my 1074 Volvo with 7 inch Bosch H4s (55/130w) were sensational compared to the Scout - high beam reminds me of riding a 6v 70s trail bike at night. Not helped by bizarre factory settings. Had always wondered why the tree tops seemed illuminated at night on high beam until driving in fog I realised the car came out of the factory with them aimed about 15 or 20 deg to skyward!!! How can they be serious????

Adjusted the high beams down in Sydney but they are still woeful. Also having trouble finding the left-right adjustment screw for high beam (any clues?).

So I'm looking at upgraded H1 bulbs but there seem to be quite a few options: blue, extreme, intense, white, diamond etc etc. Does anyone have any info on the best options? I notice that the SCA H1 100w are ADR approved and also have UV filters to protect polycarbonate lenses; are the poly lenses an issue when choosing bulb options?

[dArK5HaD0w]

that's strange ur high beams are woeful.
mine (assuming its the same headlight units in the RS and Scout) is good.
i regularly drive between canberra and sydney, and frequently use the high beams and they light up the road nicely. far and bright.
i have factory xenons for low beam, but the factory halogen high beam.

[Lucas_R]

High Beam upgrade 2010 MkII OCtavia Scout

Both the low beam and high beam on the Mk6 Golf standard halogen headlights is terrible too. I upgraded the bulbs with only really minimal improvement - the only real solution was to upgrade the entire headlight assembly to a projector setup with good quality xenon/HID bulbs. The low beam and high beam performance with the new headlights is so much better now.

[kiwijohn]

First thing I did in my 2012 octavia is change the bulbs to Philips Extreme Vision.
Original high beam was ok, but low was terrible.
Cheaper than Xenons.

[Skooter]

Thanks for the replies. The car is a 2010 Scout. Low beams are a H7 halogen, has the magnifying lens and they're really good. I'll have to play with the aiming again H1 high beam and try some different bulbs. The fact that the factory had set them pointing at the clouds didn't fill me with confidence!

I have a night drive from Renmark in SA back to Melbourne in two weeks and I want the lights in the best shape possible. I'm also concerned about damage to the polycarb lenses (since reading of UV filter globes that protest them - implying that some light sources may damage/discolour the plastic).

[Gerrycan]

I had a 2008 Octavia Mk2 and I think they had the same headlight lens set up as yours.
Totally agree about the high beam that seemed to illuminate every where except where I wanted it
The problem is the poor optic design rather than the bulb output.

I had experienced even worse on a mk1 Santa Fe which had such poor projection It was safest to wait and follow another vehicle while country driving rather than rely on my own lights.
Some cheap 100 watt replacements did help a bit short term but destroyed the UV coating on the poly lenses and they had to be continually cleaned thereafter.

Standard Halogen lights and bulbs on a Kia Carnival and Falcon were literally brilliant for country driving.

If you are going to upgrade the bulbs, which is the cheapest option, then get good quality items from Osram or Philips. They will use the same wattage as the existing bulbs but claim greater efficiency, probably due to using a thinner filament, so may have a shorter working life. They should have better control of UV output and less heat issues than any cheap own brand items from Supercheap or Repco.
I'd also avoid any that have a blue tint as that is just for that trendy 'blue' Xenon type appearance and sacrifice some light output to achieve it.

I suspect that the lenses in the Xenon fitted mk2 have better optics and it is possible those on the facelift version (2011?) were better too

There are a couple of threads with useful info on upgrading halogen bulbs on Briskoda in the Mk3 section.

I did nothing to my mk2 because of the results of my previous attempts and I had not discovered Forums at that point to know how I could have done it better.

[Skooter]

Thanks GerryC
Mine is a 'post-FL' 2010 (they have the upturned eyelids) but I reckon the innards of the light assembly are the same. I had no idea about the poycarb issue until I was looking through pages of bulbs on the SCA website and found 100w H1s with the UV filter 'to protect polycarbonate lenses'.

I tend to think right about the lens design - it just doesn't seem to concentrate the beam properly. If I could fit old round Bosch H4s wth 55/130 globes I would - they were brilliant in the Volvo. I'm a stickler for good lights, even upgrading my Laverda moto lights with a Cibie 100w driving light. When I drive at night I like to have all the illumination I can get, but no way can I fork out thousands for Xenons. Maybe I could fit driving lights where the fog lights sit in the lower bumper - rarely if ever use those! But they are a little low to the road for high beams. Will do some experimenting and let you know if I have any success ...

[Gerrycan]

You can get better illumination from some (expensive) systems for bicycles these days.
Maybe consider a LED bar?

[Guest001]

A pair of Lightforce Driving lights would be the go.

[Skooter]

You can get better illumination from some (expensive) systems for bicycles these days.
Maybe consider a LED bar?

Could be right there, GerryC. I work in bicycle mechanics and have seen some pretty amazing LED stuff.

[Skooter]

I did a quick adjust against the white tear door of out old Hi Ace campervan and lowered the beams yet again - definitely a marked improvement and that was driving on darkish suburban streets. Right beam is not as intense as left, so new bulbs for sure - have to polycarbonate acompatible though.

Lightforce driving lights, eh? Wonder of I could get some to fit where the fog lights are now???!!!

[Mysticality]

Octavia standard high beams are awful. I upgraded the globes and added an LED Light Bar to my vRS.
The headlight angle adjustment screws are on the rear of the headlight unit; they are a cream or white colour and accept a Hex drive - probably H5 or H6 size.