Wednesday, 31 October 2012

Autolamps Cobalt II Blue Headlight Bulbs

Driving along one evening with my lights on I noticed that one of my headlights wasn't working.  So I had a look and as you'd expect the bulb had blown!

I searched around in the shed and found an old H7 bulb that I could use.  I plugged it in and all was good!  However, I thought that the lights were a little dull and compared to the other cars on the road, a bit yellow.
"Hmmm", I thought, "it's time to search the internet for some new headlight bulbs!".  So I fired up the laptop and started Googling!  Ebay, Amazon, Halfords (or as I like to call them Halfrauds), all had bulbs but the bright ones that weren't supposed to be yellow, but a nice white colour, were pretty expensive - circa £30 for a pair!

After a bit more searching I suddenly remembered the Auto Express website, who tend to test out things for cars, like bulbs.  So I headed over to their website and looked for a review of headlight bulbs.
After a short search I found that they had a top three of bulbs Auto Express:
1st place: Philips X-tremeVision,
2nd place: Philips VisionPlus,
3rd place: Autolamps Cobalt II.

The first two were pretty pricey, but probably would have been worth the money.  But I thought the Autolamp Cobalt II bulbs looked good and they were pretty reasonably priced to at £12.95 (including 2 side light bulbs as well).

I headed over to the web site that sold the Cobalt II bulbs, www.phoenixautobulbs.co.uk.  I was a little weary of the site at the start because I'd never heard of them before.  After some thought I decided that they must be OK if they are mentioned on the Auto Express website.  So I ordered two pairs of them, you know just in case a bulb blows in the future and the price has gone up.  It cost £25.90 and the P&P was free!  It says on their website that their standard delivery is free and will take a few days to arrive.  So I was very surprised when on Saturday morning the post man delivered a package with my light bulbs in!!

Like a child at Christmas opening their presents, I ripped through the jiffy bag and pulled out the two pairs of bulbs.  Then headed straight out the front door on a mission to change my bulbs!  Never mind it was 12pm and bright day light!  I plugged them in and tested them out... but I couldn't see much difference.  "O no", I thought, what a waste of money.  Perhaps I'll wait and see what they are like in the dark.

After an agonising wait of a few hours I tried them in the dark!  Can't say they looked much different while in the car.  However, when I got out of the car and looked at them, they did look a lot whiter than the old bulbs I had before.  Not such a waste of money then after all!  Yay!!

Now, a couple of days later I'm topping up the water on my wife's car, as she mentioned a light had come on in the car!  While topping up the water I decided to compare my headlights to her's...
What a difference, I thought I was back in France during the 80s when French cars had yellow headlights!

So I'd recommend the Autolamp Cobalt II bulbs, not only were they relatively cheap, they had exceptionally fast delivery and they work a treat.

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