[yanivyam]

Hello,

I have an 2014 i30 GD wagon and in the past few months the low beam lights (H7 halogen) became very dim compared to the lights of other cars I see on the road.
The low beam lights are projector type lights.

The headlights plastic cover is very clear and the high beam lights are bright compared to the low beam.

I have measured the voltage across the low beam lamp (engine running) and got 13.00v.
Battery voltage: 14.20v
Voltage across the high beam lamp: 13.27v
Can the voltage difference between the battery (14.20v) and the low beam (13.00v) cause this issue?

Also looked inside the low beam projector by removing the lamp and the reflector seems to be not very reflective as standard reflectors. Is this normal for projector lights?

Any ideas about the cause for the dim lights will be appreciated.

thanks,
Yaniv

[CraigB]

Lumen and Kelvin can vary between brands, plus a lot of new and retrofitted vehicles are running LED these days which really show how dull and yellow standard bulbs are.

Older bulbs will also dull over time.

[yanivyam]

Lumen and Kelvin can vary between brands, plus a lot of new and retrofitted vehicles are running LED these days which really show how dull and yellow standard bulbs are.

Older bulbs will also dull over time.

Thanks Craig for the quick reply

I compared the light coming from the headlights to other cars equipped with Halogen lamps and still, my i30's lights were about half of the intensity of the other cars.

Went to a mechanic the other day to check if the headlights are misaligned. The mechanic said they are aligned correctly, but according to his equipment the intensity is low.
He also mentioned that the this is a known issue with Hyundai cars projector headlights becoming dim over time. I wonder if anyone else has or had this issue?

Will try to replace the bulbs today to newer ones and will update if it fixed the issue.

[CraigB]

I don't know what bulbs you have available for your location though there are many options with Philips and Narva brands to upgrade to brighter bulbs.

Philips white light bulbs are about 30% brighter than standard and a little bit whiter, Narva do a Sapphire bulb which is also 30% brighter though they have a 5000k spectrum which is about as white as you'll get with a halogen bulb.

You can go all the way up to about 150% increase in the lumens (brightness) with some of their other bulbs though the extreme bright bulbs tend to not last very long.

[yanivyam]

There multiple choices here for bulbs made by Philips and Osram.

Last night I have installed Philips VisionPlus on the right headlight and compared to the left headlight while parking in front of a wall. It seems that the VisionPlus bulb is slightly brighter than the previous bulb, so this is an improvement. Will look for the Philips WhiteVision Ultra bulbs and try them as well.

At the same time that I tested the bulbs I also noticed that sometimes when I rev up the engine the lights become a bit more brighter, but 2-3 seconds after I take my leg off the gas pedal, the lights become less bright. It seems that it is also an electrical problem.

Checked the battery voltage this morning (the car was parking for the night) and it is at 12.45v.

Will continue to check and postt updates here

[sundiz]

Modern cars use quite a lot of electricity when running. Halogen lights also use fair amount of current. With higher rpm the alternator creates more current.

I can see head lights get brighter after start when getting rpm higher. It is more noticeable in my car when the after glow is on in the glow plugs. They drain a lot of current.

12.45V is a bit low, so you might want to charge the battery, if you have external battery charger. There is a small voltage drop when compared the battery voltage and the connector of the head lights as there is some resistance in the head light wiring.

[aranciataoz]

We have the same GD model and I too feel the low beams are not as bright as they should be, even compared to other halogen projector low beams of the era.

What I did was simply this :

1) adjust the low beam half a turn to raise the beam a bit more - you need to be careful not to have them shine too high potentially blinding oncoming traffic (not that it will be an issue given these projectors aren't that bright!).

2) as suggested by many here, to upgrade to a brighter globe from one of the known brands like Philips and Osram - I find Powerbulbs from the UK a great supplier - as has also been advised by others here, most of these brighter globes don't last as long and that's to be expected in exchange for a brighter burning filament ... the one with the least life (9 months) that I experienced was the Osram Nightbreaker (years ago however), the suprisingly longest lasting one (2.5 years) was the Philips Extreme. I've since used the GT brand supplied by Powerbulbs and a year has passed and they're still running OK, but I find these "brighter" globes do lose their brightness over time ie. you get the best use out of them in the first half of their lives.

The two mods I made above make the low beam performance much more acceptable, but only just. I would still prefer HID's anytime (which I have on another car) or especially the modern integrated OEM LED's. Speaking of LED's, my guess is a brand name aftermarket LED H7 globe (like the Narva) will transform the projector, but I have yet to come across one that is approved for road use.

In terms of the non-projector high beam of the GD, I've done the same and installed the brightest H7 globe I can find (in this case, a second set of GT's) and find they're actually quite OK (the high beam performance).

So until you get that replacement car, this might be the best outcome ...

[yanivyam]

Modern cars use quite a lot of electricity when running. Halogen lights also use fair amount of current. With higher rpm the alternator creates more current.

I can see head lights get brighter after start when getting rpm higher. It is more noticeable in my car when the after glow is on in the glow plugs. They drain a lot of current.

12.45V is a bit low, so you might want to charge the battery, if you have external battery charger. There is a small voltage drop when compared the battery voltage and the connector of the head lights as there is some resistance in the head light wiring.

Thanks Sundiz
I have took the car to a car electrician to check they battery and it was nearing its end of life. I have replaced the battery to a fresh one and there is an improvement, the lights are slightly brighter.

Also replaced the bulbs to Philips WhiteVision which are a little bit whiter than the Philips VisionPlus bulbs.