3200 dipped beam extremely poor.

[Vespasian]

Hello everyone, the headlights on my 3200 on dipped beam are quite frankly hopeless. I have upgraded the H1 bulbs with Philips top of the range bulbs but they are still useless.
What type of bulbs do you all use, have you gone down the HID or LED route to improve vision at night

Thanks

 

[CatmanV2]

I recall the 4200s were similar. How clear are your lens covers?

C

 

[allandwf]

Mine are also quite poor. 25 year old technology perhaps .

 

[spkennyuk]

Hello everyone, the headlights on my 3200 on dipped beam are quite frankly hopeless. I have upgraded the H1 bulbs with Philips top of the range bulbs but they are still useless.
What type of bulbs do you all use, have you gone down the HID or LED route to improve vision at night

Thanks

On the 4200s most had HID lights. The normal non hid bulbs were shocking.

HID is much better but still not great. If your lenses have fogged over then having them polished up to clear again does make a huge difference.

Standard bulbs the philips nightbreakers were fairly good over standard but still far from great on these cars. The downside being they dont last as long as a normal bulb.

I Dont know if the lights being so low down is part of the issue as your not getting the same through out distance of light if they were 6 inches higher off the ground.

 

[Oneball]

Worth getting the alignment checked.

 

[safrane]

No idea how old your own eyes are, but as you age night vision deteriorates and the lights of other cars, especially LED make it seem far worse.

 

[StuartW]

How clear are your lens covers?

C

I polished mine on my 3200 and it made a big difference

 

[Vespasian]

No idea how old your own eyes are, but as you age night vision deteriorates and the lights of other cars, especially LED make it seem far worse.

Im early 50's and do find night driving is not so much fun anymore, but we have a Giulietta tbi as our daily with projector lens lights and even they are so much better, it's disappointing that a 60k car from new still has rubbish lights

 

[spkennyuk]

Im early 50's and do find night driving is not so much fun anymore, but we have a Giulietta tbi as our daily with projector lens lights and even they are so much better, it's disappointing that a 60k car from new still has rubbish lights

TBF it was a 60k car new but the design and tech is 25 years old. The reflective surfaces in the lens are probably not as they once were and the length of the light before it hits the perspex probably doesnt help either.

Led bulbs may be another option just be aware you can get canbus errors if the car doesnt like your chosen brand of LED bulb. These can be solved but can be a pita as well.

 

[davy83]

go here https://www.maserati3200.net and down load the alternative parts list there are a few owners suggestions in there on headlights. I have phillips Xenon bulbs in mine (I think) and it didn't bring them up to modern standards but definitely improved them a fair bit. you need to watch with replacement bulbs as if you go too far off the original spec the bulb module generates an error.

 

[safrane]

I recall Matts brother did a headlight upgrade with LEDs... I did buy a set but never fitted them.

If you want them I can post to you.

 

[Zep]

I did a HID upgrade in my Gransport. Made a big difference.

Technically not allowed as the lights are not self levelling, but as they are projectors the beam pattern passed an MOT without issues.