Date:         Thu, 17 Jun 2004 18:59:51 +0100
Reply-To:     Anthony Polson <acpolson@HOTMAIL.COM>
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From:         Anthony Polson <acpolson@HOTMAIL.COM>
Subject:      Re: Yellow euro headlight bulbs?  H4?
Comments: cc: mrpolak@YAHOO.COM
Content-Type: text/plain; format=flowed

Hi Chris,

Yellow headlight bulbs are no longer legal across the European Union.
France has had to fall into line with the rest of us.  All French headlight
bulbs have been white for at least 7-8 years now.

The yellow light never had any benefits.  All it did was reduce the
brightness.  There was an Urban Legend that said the yellow light cut
through fog more effectively, but in reality the reduced brightness simply
meant that less glare was reflected back off the fog, but less got through
too.

However, there was a spin-off benefit from the dim yellow bulbs.  French
headlight manufacturers had to develop reflectors and lenses that were truly
excellent, to make the best of the poor light output from the yellow bulbs.
That is why Cibie made the best headlights in Europe; every single photon of
light was reflected forward to illuminate the view and the Cibie lens's beam
battern made sure that every single photon did its job.

So I wouldn't recommend the old yellow French headlight bulbs, but I would
not hesitate to recommend Cibie E-code headlights for your Vanagon.

By pure coincidence, someone posted on here in the last 24 hrs how happy he
was with his Cibies.  He isn't wrong.  Hella and Bosch H4 units are good,
but no-one can beat Cibie.  They are fantastic!

Best regards,

Tony

'85 and '95 Vanagons in the UK

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

>Date:    Thu, 17 Jun 2004 06:40:14 -0700
>From:    "Chris S." <mrpolak@YAHOO.COM>
>Subject: Yellow euro headlight bulbs?  H4?
>
>I remember that in France cars use the cool yellow light bulbs
>to minimize glare in rain, fog, etc.  Does any one know where I
>can get some?  Ebay searches come up empty.
>
>=====
>Chris S.'85 Westy Camel -> http://www.knology.net/~vw/dadada.jpg'84 Westy
>Hershey -> http://www.knology.net/~vwghost/hershey/'01 NB TDI ->
>http://www.knology.net/~vw/Beetle.jpg