While contemplating new headlights for my '72 MG Midget, I of course thought of Hella/Cibie/Lucas e-codes. The trouble is, I had two sets of e-codes on my '86 Saab 900 (Hella, then Autopal). Both sets cracked.
I also tried e-codes in my '88 Volvo 740 Turbo--same thing. They cracked using normal-wattage bulbs.
These were the "conversion-type" lights that went in the sealed-beam buckets, then in my garbage buckets.
What gives? Are these lights crap, or am I doing something wrong? I don't want to put decent lights in the MG just to have them look like E36 M3 in no time.
They're not crap, I've been using them for years without ever cracking one. And every car in Europe with 7" round lights uses them - there's no difference between the housings for a car designed for 7" round sealed beams and one designed for 7" round H4 lenses.
Do you have a tendency to drive through deep, ice-cold water after running the lights for a long period of time? Are they cracking due to heat stress, mechanical stress or impacts?
In reply to Keith Tanner:
Not that I'm aware of. It does rain here, as it did in Michigan when I lived there and cracked my first set of Hellas on my Saab 900. It also gets bleepin' cold in both places. At one point, I ascribed the breaking to Michigan's use of salt boulders and their means of flinging them onto the road. Yet, I never broke a sealed beam. Now Minnesota seems to be emulating Michigan and flinging salt rather than plowing for snowfalls under a certain depth.
I suspect it may be mechanical stress, as the e-codes were always a difficult fit, while the sealed beams simply fell into correct position.
Any insights as to why that is--or what I might have done wrong--are welcome.
I put them in my MG Midget. They kick butt! Got them from www.rallylights.com (Susquehanna Motorsports). No problems with cracking.
They've never been a difficult fit for me - they're an easy and direct replacement, as they should be since they're built to the same mounting standards. You can tell what kind of crack it is from the shape. An impact will radiate out from the impact point, mechanical stress will likely radiate out from one of the mounting points.
Of course, they only go one way up, is it possible you might be trying to install them clocked wrong? Unlikely though.
WI've seen several less that stellar and even garbage sets of e-code lights sold at car shows. Beware fakes as well, which are usually garbage. A $20 set of Cibie for example, aren't Cibie, and probably will crack/melt and not put light where you want it.
I have a pair of Hella's that have been in several daily drivers for several hundred thousand miles in Illinois winters and summers
In reply to Keith Tanner:
Nope, not installed wrong, as far as I could tell. That is, the writing and little pictures on the lenses read properly when standing on my feet with my head reasonably level with the ground.
What I found is the little locating tabs on the rear edge of the headlight rim didn't quite line up with, or were deeper than the corresponding depressions in the front rim of the headlight buckets on every car I've tried them on. Actually, I don't remember them breaking in my '88 Dodge Dakota.
But on my Saab and Volvo, multiple sets broke--the first ones being a gen-u-ine made-in-Germany set of Hellas. I went with the made-in-India ones after that because I didn't want to keep replacing Hellas at $60 a pop.
Dunno what to tell you. I've been using both Hella and Bosch e-code lights for about 20 years now, never lost a lens. I've got them in six cars right now - three Miatas, the MG, the Land Rover and the Mini. No, seven. There's a set in the VW too.
