Let there be Light???

bigdaddylee82 wrote: I don't want to hack up my lights for HID projector conversion, I absolutely don't want to stick HID bulbs in my stock housing. I want brighter lights but refuse to be the Shiny Happy Jack Hole blinding other motorists.

Thank you and +1 for not being one of those degenerates......I was laughing at a local guy in a brodozer being lectured by a INDOT trooper the other day, had the owner out pointing at the still blazing HID's in the stock wash housings/fog housings. I saw the truck on a rollback when I went back past too.

mad_machine wrote: fogs come on with the lows.. you could get the factory switch and fogs from the Junkyard (good or broken) for plugging into the factory pigtails.. and wire them to the driving lights of your choice. Then all you need to do is install, align, and drive. They will come on with the lows (if enabled) and shut off with the highs like the factory fogs

My car technically has a "fog light," there aren't any lamps on the front, but when you flip the the switch on the dash it illuminates a single bulb in the rear left (I think) tail light.

I don't know if that switch is the same one on cars that came equipped with front fog lights or if there's a separate switch?

So if I do like some have suggested, and upgrade the wiring to handle a higher wattage or 9005 bulb, I would imagine I'd just use the factory headlight circuit to trigger a relay to switch the bulbs on/off, is it kosher to use a single relay for both left & right, or should they each have their own relay?

• Lee

You shouldn't need to upgrade anything to run high beam bulbs in the low sockets, 10 watts isn't that much of a difference.

In reply to bigdaddylee82:

a brighter bulb will not really help for what he needs: he needs a farther reaching beam.

that is where driving lights come in.

Fog lights produce a wide short beam, and driving lights produce a long thin beam.

kylini wrote: Since no one else has chimed in on HIRs, they're pretty darn good for the price and worked great on my Intrepid, until I had a disagreement with a No Parking sign. HIR bulbs fit in place of 9005/9006 bulbs. 9005 (high beams) get swapped with 9011 HIRs. 9006 (low beams) get swapped with 9012 HIRs. They have the same reflecting pattern as normal halogens (no lens/scatter issues) and are around 75% brighter. They use the exact same harness/plug but you must cut a plastic tab on the new bulb (http://shnu.us/HIR%20Trimming%20Stock.htm). Philips make the best bulb, but I'm not sure if the ones on Amazon are still HIR or not. I use the 9006/9012 swap on my Intrepid for low beams and they work great. Again: same bulb socket, same wiring, same power draw. On a random note, anyone know the cheapest way to purchase, mount, wire, and switch up some rally lights to my front bumper? I already have duct tape aero, so who cares!

I haven't found any of the HIRs that have an opaque coated tip. My low beams have the coated tips, there's a "halo" around the end of the bulb inside the reflector, but it's open on the end, so with out a coating on the tip or a cap on that "halo" in the reflector I imagine I'd have a lot of oncoming traffic flashing their brights at me.

Here's what the inside of my headlights look like (Google image):

Here's a Philips 9012, the package shows a coated tip but the actual bulb obviously isn't:

So as appealing as the HIRs are, they may not be the answer. I could probably cap that halo ring in my reflector with something though.

• Lee

when I had my 850.. I was considering hacking up a set of JY lights to fit the hella modules. I would have had to grind the lenses smooth on the housings, but even without going to illegal HIDs, the Hella lamps would have been light (sorry) years better than stock.

Also, that stock "fog" light the 850 has is a rear fog for use in really bad weather so the people behind you can see where you are. Wonderful European invention

I never understood the logic behind adding extra lighting while the low beams are on. If you need more light you switch to high beams. That not enough? Add driving lights to throw more light out (way out) in front of the car.

And having the fogs on only hurts your visibility in normal night driving as the lower closer light is reflected up from the road surface causing your pupils to close. There are studies that show this but I'm to lazy to look them up.

As others have said, get some good driving lights and use them to assist the high beams.

that is not always the case. I know here in NJ, you -rarely- if ever use the highbeams.. just too much traffic. But, it is still easy enough to outrun your regular lowbeams even at the speedlimit. Especially in cars from the late 80s to mid 90s. In that case, some driving lights (not pencil spots) do well.

hella used to sell some Auxilary Headlights in their 550 range. I had a set on my old Hyundai Excel (a car that had terrible headlights) they were not fogs and they were not spots, they were headlights to be used to augment the car's existing lights

vwcorvette wrote: I never understood the logic behind adding extra lighting while the low beams are on. If you need more light you switch to high beams. That not enough? Add driving lights to throw more light out (way out) in front of the car. And having the fogs on only hurts your visibility in normal night driving as the lower closer light is reflected up from the road surface causing your pupils to close. There are studies that show this but I'm to lazy to look them up. As others have said, get some good driving lights and use them to assist the high beams.

I've said it at least twice in this thread, but I'll say it again. I do not have issue seeing with my high beams. I don't have fog lights on my car. My problem is very poor viability on suburban/rural paved surface roads. There's still enough traffic that I can't just leave my high beams on constantly. Even at the posted 55 mph I am overdriving my low beams.

I have learned a lot from this thread, am appreciative of most of the advice, but I'm still not 100% on what I'm going to do.

• Lee

yes, some of us are not blessed with miles of uninterrupted roads with no traffic. Even in the most remote parts of NJ, at darkest hour of the night.. if I can use my highbeams for more than a minute or two, I would have to write it on the calender as quite the event

Before you go spending money, go look at the front of your car. How filthy and hazed up is the stick lens? Cleaning and perhaps polishing the lens can make lots of light appear.

So the same thing, looking at the reflector through the lens. Your blessed with an easily removed lens, so you can clean the inside very easily. Inside being both the reflector and the bak side of the lens.

Then admire the bulbs themselves. Are they nose and browned from years of service? A few dollars for some replacement bulbs would likely greatly increase the lumins. No need for expensive wiz-bang bulbs, a set of generic halogens will do fine.

And as long as your there, push the socket on and off a few times to help make sure good electrical connectivity is made.

After all that, look at eurospec headlight covers. The us 850/v70 was cursed with dot spec covers, deliberately designed to prevent adequate illumination, in the name of safety. Eu spec covers are not cheap, but are readily available through folks like fcpeuro and ipd volvo and such.

Joining this thread kind of late, but two things:

First, in my experience, for any automotive lighting question one of your first stops should be Daniel Stern Lighting.

Second, when the 850 was new Car and Driver went out of its way to praise the output and performance of the stock headlights. Did the OE lights really degrade that much from their test car to yours? (I'm not being sarcastic; that's an actual question.) Or have our expectations changed?

I'm no longer a Reader, I'm a "Half Dork!"

As stated earlier, one assembly (D/S) is a Scan Tech complete replacement unit, it's not quite 1 year old yet, bought and installed April '12, it's lens is still new, reflector still new. The other (P/S) is the original headlight with a Pick-N-Pull sourced lens. The P/S lens was removed and thoroughly cleaned when the D/S headlight was replaced, the reflector appeared fine then. No haze or significant chips/scratches to speak of on either lens.

The Scan Tech assembly came with bulbs, still has whatever bulbs they put in it. The other is a generic 9006 bulb that was replaced when it went out approx. 2 years ago and was replaced with whatever the parts department at the dealership I previously worked at carried, most likely a NAPA bulb.

When I first got the 850 eons ago, I always complained about the Cavalier that SWMBO drove at the time, and how bad it's lights sucked compared to my Volvo. That was 5+ years ago. Now her Jetta's head lights make my Volvo's look like a pair those old carbide miner lamps.

I've decided before I go replacing the bulbs I'm going to replace/reconstruct the head light wiring harnesses. As mentioned earlier, I replaced my old cracked insulation falling off headlight pigtails with some Pick-N-Pull sourced ones that were A LOT better than mine but still had some cracks that I "fixed" with liquid electrical tape.

E-Code (Euro) lenses are on sale right now at FCP for $59 + shipping for the pair, usually ~$120 for the pair. That price, and y'all's peer-pressure may have convinced me to go ahead and get them... Edit: Never mind, the right side is "temporarily unavailable."

• Lee

bigdaddylee82 wrote: I haven't found any of the HIRs that have an opaque coated tip. My low beams have the coated tips, there's a "halo" around the end of the bulb inside the reflector, but it's open on the end, so with out a coating on the tip or a cap on that "halo" in the reflector I imagine I'd have a lot of oncoming traffic flashing their brights at me. Here's what the inside of my headlights look like (Google image): Here's a Philips 9012, the package shows a coated tip but the actual bulb obviously isn't: So as appealing as the HIRs are, they may not be the answer. I could probably cap that halo ring in my reflector with something though. - Lee

That's a shame if that's the case for you. My fixtures have caps to cover the direct light from the low beams. I'd bet yours would be fine too, but you're out the cost of bulbs to know for sure.

Here's why it didn't matter for my car:

vwcorvette wrote: I never understood the logic behind adding extra lighting while the low beams are on. If you need more light you switch to high beams. That not enough? Add driving lights to throw more light out (way out) in front of the car. And having the fogs on only hurts your visibility in normal night driving as the lower closer light is reflected up from the road surface causing your pupils to close. There are studies that show this but I'm to lazy to look them up. As others have said, get some good driving lights and use them to assist the high beams.

you can't do that with oncoming traffic … say on an interstate … you will eventually get a ticket and like others have said …. it's not the high beams that need the help … it's the low beams (pointed so they don't blind oncoming drivers)

35 mph is enough to overdrive my low beams .. and on the interstate that will get you a ticket … not even considering how long it would take you to get somewhere …

so I'm guessing that driving lights, aimed sorta like low beams … i.e. down and to the right … just not as much as OEM lows … would get the job done ?