Originally Posted By: fdcg27
Sounds good, but how long do you think such huge glass lenses would last in service?
The Audi 200 I had before had such glass lenses. Someone put some protectant film over them, which did help save them, and it hadn't yellowed. The flaw on that vehicle was the inner reflector paint all flaked off, so I had to replace the assemblies anyhow, despite the glass being perfect. The replacement was a very easy job, albeit pricey.
Sealed beam lighting isn't as poor as we like to think it is. For making you be able to see what you actually need to see at night, a new halogen sealed beam properly aimed is difficult to beat. A number of studies have been done in the collision analyst literature, and they do quite well.
Of course, modern lighting does quite well, too, even better, but as you said, proper manufacture and maintenance are the key. If they aren't built to last or aren't taken care of, there will be problems that can easily become too overwhelming to fix. My G37's headlights aren't ideal; they were a bit of a mess when I got the vehicle. I either have to do a fair bit of work to recondition them, or spend a large amount of money and do a fair bit of work to replace them. On the F-150, you take a hammer to my headlights, I'm up and running $15 and 15 minutes later, better than it rolled off the assembly line, considering I'd use a halogen sealed beam and they didn't come that way from Ford.
The most "visible" improvement I've seen from current headlights is that there are far, far fewer out of aim examples on the road, since so many people changing headlights for some reason could not discern between a mounting screw and an aiming screw.
Sounds good, but how long do you think such huge glass lenses would last in service?
The Audi 200 I had before had such glass lenses. Someone put some protectant film over them, which did help save them, and it hadn't yellowed. The flaw on that vehicle was the inner reflector paint all flaked off, so I had to replace the assemblies anyhow, despite the glass being perfect. The replacement was a very easy job, albeit pricey.
Sealed beam lighting isn't as poor as we like to think it is. For making you be able to see what you actually need to see at night, a new halogen sealed beam properly aimed is difficult to beat. A number of studies have been done in the collision analyst literature, and they do quite well.
Of course, modern lighting does quite well, too, even better, but as you said, proper manufacture and maintenance are the key. If they aren't built to last or aren't taken care of, there will be problems that can easily become too overwhelming to fix. My G37's headlights aren't ideal; they were a bit of a mess when I got the vehicle. I either have to do a fair bit of work to recondition them, or spend a large amount of money and do a fair bit of work to replace them. On the F-150, you take a hammer to my headlights, I'm up and running $15 and 15 minutes later, better than it rolled off the assembly line, considering I'd use a halogen sealed beam and they didn't come that way from Ford.
The most "visible" improvement I've seen from current headlights is that there are far, far fewer out of aim examples on the road, since so many people changing headlights for some reason could not discern between a mounting screw and an aiming screw.
