One Lap starts the first week of May, so I have some time. That said, the list of things to do is HUGE. So easy button gets the worm on this one...or something like that.
I do have the original glass headlight housings...in good shape, too.
But I'm open to anything. Tom will likely be doing most of the night driving, so this is mostly for him.
Easy button for the original glass housing that is in good shape would be to go with some hella high wattage drop in bulbs that'll give you some brighter headlights than what you currently have. This does not fix the breakdown of reflectivity of your current housings and chroming of reflectors or the pittedness of the factory glass lenses. But it would be the quick cheap and simple solution.
Dusterbd13-michael said:Easy button for the original glass housing that is in good shape would be to go with some hella high wattage drop in bulbs that'll give you some brighter headlights than what you currently have. This does not fix the breakdown of reflectivity of your current housings and chroming of reflectors or the pittedness of the factory glass lenses. But it would be the quick cheap and simple solution.
More better than a drop-in LED conversion? Obviously cheaper.
I would say so. It at least has light that will go further down the road due to the nature of the way the bulb is made interacting with the way the reflectors in the housing are made. And led would appear brighter with wider light and gives more light but it is not as far a reaching light. With the kind of transits you guys are doing late at night I would much rather have a little less light a lot further out than a little more light a lot nearer to me
Off the original topic, but slightly on current topic, for a cheap retrofit I can't recommend these amazon H1 clones enough. Going on 3 years with these on my Yukon with the cheapest 6000k HIDs I could find on Amazon.
Dusterbd13-michael said:I would say so. It at least has light that will go further down the road due to the nature of the way the bulb is made interacting with the way the reflectors in the housing are made. And led would appear brighter with wider light and gives more light but it is not as far a reaching light. With the kind of transits you guys are doing late at night I would much rather have a little less light a lot further out than a little more light a lot nearer to me
Makes sense.
Any thoughts on these? Came up when I started searching on Hella high watt 9005.
Never tried them. I've always gotten the standard hella high wattage stuff in the cardboard and plastic package. Amazon shows me I bought 100 watt 9005 bulbs from hella before in the standard cardboard Packaging. Forget what car those were for
Dusterbd13-michael said:Never tried them. I've always gotten the standard hella high wattage stuff in the cardboard and plastic package. Amazon shows me I bought 100 watt 9005 bulbs from hella before in the standard cardboard Packaging. Forget what car those were for
Hmmm, well Hella is a partner/advertiser, so maybe we compare/contrast both? Oh, Tom...!!
I would not recommend using LED or HID bulbs/ballast in a non-projector housing. Those make me angry. Rio for the last few years has been running LED low beams and fog lights (also projector). High beams are still standard H1 incadescent bulbs. They were fantastic for some of those late night transits last year, even in the rain. The key is to get something with at least 3 sides of leds on them (The wife's seltos is 4 sided) to maximize the projector beam.
In reply to Andy Hollis :
tinted bulbs are still tinted, even with the higher wattage. I can't remember but are the high beam and low beam seperate bulbs or the same? If they're seperate make sure that they both stay on on highs. That helps quite a bit. That was a big thing for GM trucks. 4-high kits (a relay and some wiring) were big. Then you can do the 4 high beam bulbs in the same housing, but you have to be cautious with that (and higher wattage bulbs). I've seen more than a couple melted housings using higher than normal wattage bulbs.
Andy Hollis said:Dusterbd13-michael said:I would say so. It at least has light that will go further down the road due to the nature of the way the bulb is made interacting with the way the reflectors in the housing are made. And led would appear brighter with wider light and gives more light but it is not as far a reaching light. With the kind of transits you guys are doing late at night I would much rather have a little less light a lot further out than a little more light a lot nearer to me
Makes sense.
Any thoughts on these? Came up when I started searching on Hella high watt 9005.
When I was a younger lad in high school, I put high wattage headlight bulbs in my z31.
It didn't take long for the connectors to the lights to melt. Then had to go to a salvage yard, find a car with good ones, cut them off and replace the connectors in my car.
This was about 1999-2000
Ive never had a melting issue with the hellas. Or a projector retrofit.
bobzilla said:In reply to Andy Hollis :
tinted bulbs are still tinted, even with the higher wattage. I can't remember but are the high beam and low beam seperate bulbs or the same? If they're seperate make sure that they both stay on on highs. That helps quite a bit. That was a big thing for GM trucks. 4-high kits (a relay and some wiring) were big. Then you can do the 4 high beam bulbs in the same housing, but you have to be cautious with that (and higher wattage bulbs). I've seen more than a couple melted housings using higher than normal wattage bulbs.
Yes, separate. And it helps that I am rewiring the whole car, so the wiring can be brought up to snuff for the increased loads.
Dusterbd13-michael said:Ive never had a melting issue with the hellas. Or a projector retrofit.
projector retrofits aren't usually a problem, most projector housings are metal. When using two higher than normal wattage bulbs on a vehicle that turns them both on high, it will melt housings if you drive at night more than the daytime. I've seen so many it's silly. LED's don't put out the heat that the incandescents do so you usually don't have an issue there either. In fact, the Rio won't even melt the ice buildup on the lens in snow with the leds even though light output and visibility is almost double that of the factory H11B
I used to do the 100 watt halogen bulbs all the time. Some cars were fine, others I ended up running aheavier circuit and using the OEM circuit to trigger a relay. Back in my youth we regularly did that and then had to go looking for a bigger GM alternator to replace the little Japanese one we burnt up. They didn't like powering up to eight 100 watt bulbs....
Higher wattage halogens are always a viable option in a big reflector housing where the heat isn't an issue.
The Jeep has the glass lens Euro spec headlights with upgraded wiring and 100/80 watt H4 bulbs in them (80w low beam, 100w high beam). That's a drastic improvement in both beam pattern and brightness over the original US spec headlights. Then the highbeams are supplemented by a set of Hella 4000s (euro beam) and a set of IPF 968s (angled slightly outward), all with 100w bulbs in them. With 600w of halogen, the high beams are not only very bright, but they throw a spectacular distance and have a nice, wide spread as well. Basically there's light anywhere you might want it.
Bringing this back up to ask about wiring.
So my CRX did not get fully rewired as planned (yay project car suppliers that suddenly go silent for two months...grrr). So I am now looking to do this with factory wiring, if possible.
The CRX has four separate circuits, one for each bulb...which then come from a common source. Factory halogens are 9006 and 9005, which are 55w and 75w respectively. A common mod is to modify the mounting tabs to fit the 9005 hi-beam bulb into the low-beam hole. I did this mod to mine many years ago. But old-guy-eyes Andy wants more light.
I have in hand two pairs of Hella 100w 9005 replacements...do I just plug 'em in and see what happens?
The circuits are fused with 10a each, and 40a at the combined source. The only question is whether the wiring itself can handle it. Based on the fuse sizes, math says it should be fine (100/12=8.3, 100/14=7.1). But maybe I'm missing something?
I do have a fire extinguisher in the car...but I'd rather not use it. :)
10A is 120 watts, so you're getting close to design maximum with a 100 watts bulb. And running more current through the switch. It probsbly wont catch fire but its not nice to old wires.
More to the point for old eyes is voltage drop across the little wires. Brightness is 100% related to voltage. A new, heavy supply wire and relays will be better all around for not too much work.
At stock wattage 9011 / 9012 HIR bulbs are a common upgrade for 9005/9006.
rslifkin said:At stock wattage 9011 / 9012 HIR bulbs are a common upgrade for 9005/9006.
Oooh...I like that.
I was able to do this (9011 into a 9005 housing) for my Subaru high beams and it made a very noticeable difference.
adam525i said:I was able to do this (9011 into a 9005 housing) for my Subaru high beams and it made a very noticeable difference.
It was noticeable in the E38 high beams as well. Swapping the original low beam projectors for bi-xenon ones (in the stock housings with auto leveling intact) was another big step up. Small upgrade in low beam quality and a huge upgrade in high beams compared to where it started.
A side note that I've LED swapped a handful of vehicles and won't go back. Two were projector style and the adjustable Hikari's off Amazon solved it nicely. Depending on the bulb I've picked up the Hikari fort as cheap as $39/set up to $69/set. Not way off upgraded incandescent bulbs. The reduced heat and power draw is a nice side note for older vehicles with less than stellar oem wiring at this point.
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