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View Full Version : massively improved lighting


dogstar
10-03-2005, 11:32 PM
to people who "get it", this mod will make its way onto the "to-do" list.
to people who dont get it, just think about spending $100 on headlights and keep the comments to yourselves. :)

short and simple, the stock lights SUCK.
DOT sealed beam headlamps dont have very good focus, and they just plain dont light the road very well.
this is bad for anyone who drives at night, and specifically people who drive with a bit of vigor at night.

when you want better lighting you look at the brand name lights, like silverstars, or nighthawks... these are still sealed beam, and can cost upto $70 a pair.

instead, buy bosch H4 "E code" housings.
they are $80-90 a pair, which seems ridiculous, until you see the difference in pattern.
the beam is well focused and directed down the road.
its bright and lights up both ditches but does not blind oncoming drivers.

if these are still not good enough for you, then there are still more options.
at the moment, ive upgraded my bulbs, and im in the process of upgrading the wiring.

the bulbs were easy, i went to alberta cycle and asked to page through the lightbulb section of the parts catalog.
after looking at the partsgirl's ass for a while i found what i wanted, H4 bulbs rated at 55 watts low beam, and 100 watts high beam.
the low beam is the same as you would normally have for a H4 bulb, but once you flick on those high beams, the night isnt so scary as you have nearly twice the light output. :D

the wiring is slightly more in depth... im currently poking through the job, making sure ive got everything figured out. once i do, ill post wiring diagrams and more information, but its quite simple in concept.
you use two relays which are actuated by your factory headlight wiring to provide full battery voltage to your bulbs, using heavy gauge wire.
the factory stuff is 18 gauge... you should be using 10-12 gauge, about double to triple the size.
this will not cause your voltage to drop, due to short runs of heavy wire, and it wont cause any safety concerns if wired properly, with a fuse and decent relays.

ill post pics and links later this week for the wiring, as for the lights... when i get around to adjusting them again, ill take a picture of the beam pattern, its really quite nice.

CanuckDave
10-04-2005, 12:57 AM
I've seen the result of these mods, very nice and definitely worth while. its high on my list of things to do next spring when I really get into this car.

Speedysupra
10-07-2010, 12:43 PM
You know what you could do...? Now that you have H3 lights you could step up to H3 HID's that would be sweet, HID lightbulbs in the fogs and pop up headlights.

Supra_devil
10-07-2010, 10:51 PM
he used h4's, not h3's, and HID's in non-projector housings suck IMO, the e-code housings may be able to cut them off a bit better but they still blind oncoming traffic. i have hid's in my projectors on my subaru and love them, i've seen many hid kits in h4 housings and i wouldn't put them in my car.

Jeff Lange
10-08-2010, 01:40 AM
The Bosch housings are quite nice, but I prefer the Hella E-Code housings to them. Both are quite good.

Jeff

Speedysupra
10-08-2010, 09:07 AM
he used h4's, not h3's, and HID's in non-projector housings suck IMO, the e-code housings may be able to cut them off a bit better but they still blind oncoming traffic. i have hid's in my projectors on my subaru and love them, i've seen many hid kits in h4 housings and i wouldn't put them in my car.

I wasn't suggesting a simple HID install, the plan that I have for my 1990 is to Hide a projector behind the factory lens, with an HID in there, make it look factory and yet not have the "Washed out" effect. I to have been witness to the catastrophic HID install on the non projector lens. I also have the HID conversion on my Passat and it is ideal. I see that there are Projector conversions available for the headlight lenses as well, but they look dorky. :p

kyle
07-04-2011, 04:42 PM
I bought projector headlights for my mkiii, they were like 100 bucks and 6000k hid's which were 150. Hid's are amazing especially if your fogs are converted too. But DO NOT but the projector lenses, they dim the hid's so much, worst investment ever. I switched over to th eurolight crystal lenses and they work much better and look way cleaner.

Supra_devil
07-04-2011, 09:07 PM
by dim the hid's you mean they cut off the light properly so that you aren't blinding oncoming traffic?.....

kyle
07-04-2011, 09:20 PM
No I have my lenses set properly so they aren't blinding oncoming traffic. Even with the hid fogs I haven't been flashed once. And that was with aprox, 6 months of driving. Obviously just personal preference for me, or perhaps I bought myself a really crappy set, but I did not enjoy them at all.

WeDgE
07-05-2011, 05:46 PM
The "projectors" you bought off eBay are a poor attempt at copying OEMs. They're light output is actually worse than regular halogen due to terrible R&D.

Get yourself some OEM projectors to retro, or better yet, hit up theretrofit source and pick up some Mini-H1's to install...you'll never go back to halogen.

Dan_Gyoba
07-05-2011, 06:29 PM
I still like my Bosch E-Codes. They're not HID, but they're good, and they light up the road, including the ditches really well.

I've read some good research on lighting colour temperature, and higher is not necessarily better. While 6000-6500 kelvin is closest to daylight, that doesn't necessarily let you SEE better. It means that you'll be better able to determine an object's colour as it would be in mid-day sunlight, but not make things more visible.

Night vision works best with lower colour temperature light. The iris has a greater reaction to blue light than red, (Which is why where night vision is important, lights tend to be red.) Therefore the higher colour temperature light (Which contains a greater blue component) actually makes your irises contract, reducing its sensitivity to anything outside of the brightest part of your headlight beams, making things like pedestrians, animals and things at the side of the road more difficult to see.

In addition, that light also reduces the available night vision of other drivers on the road, making the road overall less safe for everyone.

So... I'll stick my my E-code housings with the halogen lights in them, even if they are only 3500 kelvin. In the end, I care more about performance than appearance.