Hi All, 

New to this forum, thanks for having me. 

I have some long nighttime drives across stretches of countryside with no street lighting and hardly any traffic. While the Q7 headlights are OK-ish, I’d like to upgrade them, and/or add some roof-mount, or front bumper-mounted Driving Lights.

Have seen various Light Bars and pairs of traditional spot lights.

I’m open to suggestions on what would be best, happy to see what you have found works best to improve the Q7’s night vision 🤓

Thanks, John. 

John.

I think you will find that roof mounted driving lights are illegal. There are limits to how high and low such lights may be placed, though I don't know the detalis off hand.

Was the above comment of use to you John? I know you have seen it.

I had a small lightbar attached to my ford Kuga which attached to the numberplate bracket. Never had a problem with police or anpr cameras. 

47 minutes ago, Steve Q said:

I had a small lightbar attached to my ford Kuga which attached to the numberplate bracket. Never had a problem with police or anpr cameras. 

 

4 hours ago, cliffcoggin said:

Was the above comment of use to you John? I know you have seen it.

 

4 hours ago, cliffcoggin said:

Was the above comment of use to you John? I know you have seen it.

Hi Steve Q,

Apologies for the delay, the notice messages from the Forum went to my Spam folder that I just checked.

Have labelled as NOT SPAM so hope to be more responsive in the future, thanks!

Regards, John.

Just now, Kiwi_John said:

 

 

Hi Steve Q,

Apologies for the delay, the notice messages from the Forum went to my Spam folder that I just checked.

Have labelled as NOT SPAM so hope to be more responsive in the future, thanks!

Regards, John.

Cliff, sorry, that message was to you! (Not Steve - will write separately to him... this is new techology for me!)

55 minutes ago, Kiwi_John said:

Cliff, sorry, that message was to you! (Not Steve - will write separately to him... this is new techology for me!)

No problem John. Every forum is different in the ways reply and quote work. Be aware that all replies go to the forum whether you try and quote or not.

As to your lighting question, I leave it to you to wade through the Construction and Use Regulations to find the heights and seperations of lights which are legal. Steve Q mentioned a light bar over the number plate which I assume complied with the regs.

No probs at all, I find my notifications go to spam too. 

This is like what I had on my Kuga. I googled it for a q7 to give you an idea 

1 hour ago, Steve Q said:

No probs at all, I find my notifications go to spam too. 

This is like what I had on my Kuga. I googled it for a q7 to give you an idea 

AWESOME! Thanks Steve 🙂

I am looking at that type of light bar, as it's quite discreet and I'm keen to keep the original look. 

Alternatively, I've thought of mounting something like this on my Thule roof bars: https://www.amazon.co.uk/SKYWORLD-Offroad-Driving-bracket-Harness/dp/B091T5QFWY/ref=ast_sto_dp_puis?th=1 

 

Front roof bar is 110cm wide and there are plenty of brackets available for flexible mounting. 

Cabling I will secure to the roof and bring in via a door seal, as this won't need to be permanent. 

Cheers, John.

 

PS - I am thinking that if a light bar is switched separately from the High Beam circuit, either manually only when High Beam is activated, or completely independently, then our friends with blue lights law won't be concerned 😉 

Definitely have it on a separate switch. 

Why not do both? 

The ones you can buy for the numberplate are just an aluminium bar and can be supported by the numberplate screws. I then added cable ties to secure the bar to the grill if that makes sense. In a crash the aluminium bar will go flat pack (or it did in my case in a T-bone crash) 

1 hour ago, Steve Q said:

Definitely have it on a separate switch. 

Why not do both? 

The ones you can buy for the numberplate are just an aluminium bar and can be supported by the numberplate screws. I then added cable ties to secure the bar to the grill if that makes sense. In a crash the aluminium bar will go flat pack (or it did in my case in a T-bone crash) 

One LED light bar model I've seen has a remote control fob, saves having to mount a switch somewhere. 

Powerfull UK do a Thule crossbar mount: 
https://www.powerfuluk.com/collections/accessories/products/roof-rack-mount-clamp-kit-for-thule-cross-bars-kit-d-black

21 hours ago, Kiwi_John said:

One LED light bar model I've seen has a remote control fob, saves having to mount a switch somewhere. 

Powerfull UK do a Thule crossbar mount: 
https://www.powerfuluk.com/collections/accessories/products/roof-rack-mount-clamp-kit-for-thule-cross-bars-kit-d-black

A remote switch is a good idea. 

Hi All, 

I did 3 things in the end:

1. had headlight lenses restored by these guys: https://buff-bros.co.uk/headlight-restoration - probably getting >10% more light where I want it. Can't recommend these guys enough, comes with a 3 year warranty. Check out the before/after photos later...

2. replaced existing aged and weakening Xenon bulbs, probably another >10% - not a difficult job to DIY, just need to be careful with the multi-cable connectors on the back of the headlight units, then they slide out will a little encouragement - one photo attached of my "eye surgery" 

3. bought PIAA S-RF 30 Combo Beam LED Light Bar Kit. Not cheap but for twisty, fast off or private roads, they are incredible. Need to check your local laws on usage and therefore wiring. With dipped beam, I'm getting maybe 30m visible range, with high beam maybe 50m range, with the PIAAs getting >500m range!

That's good news John. New bulbs and clear lenses are often the cheapest and certainly the simplest solution to poor light output.