The headlights my car came with are too dim for me to be comfortable, I usually put them on brights at dusk just to get better vision and I want something brighter.
So I need to replace them. Putting my make, model and year of car into an online car parts website it says the 9007 is the model I need.
But how do I know what the brightness of each bulb is? Is it the wattage? I don’t see any lux references.
Try a top quality bulb like Sylvania Xtravision (not SilverStars which have that blue coating on). On my old Jeep I switched the generic halogens to Xtravisions and saw a noticable improvement.
Overwattage 9007 bulbs (above the stock 55/65 watts) do exist, up to 80/100 watts. I don’t recommned trying them. They might damage your headlight housing, and stock wiring harnesses aren’t to great, and I don’t think they’re street legal).
Another, more involved way is to run a heavy duty wiring harness directly from the battery to the lamps, tied to a relay. That way the heavy current pulled by the headlamps doesn’t have to go through the fine wires and switches of the stock circuit resulting in voltage drop.
Do not to forget to add fuses.
You might just have a poor reflector design.
At one time we had both a Dodge Ram van and a Chevy Venture minivan.
Same bulbs in both, the Dodge had a great pattern and lit up the road like a flood light, the Venture you almost couldn’t tell the lights were on.
Brighter bulbs made no difference.
The headlamp lens probably needs cleaning/smoothing. The plastic outer lens gets tiny dings and layers of dead bugs. Any auto parts store will carry a cheap kit(under $20), that will include polishing compound and little squares of sandpaper.
I did this to my car a while back. Not only are my lights brighter, but my car looks newer, too.
As just above …
I recently replaced my headlight lens covers; they’d become heavily scratched and yellowed. The difference was amazing.