Headlight Upgrade Info For Older Cars

[styler]

Thought I'd write a quick *cough* article on headlight upgrades for most older cars, seeing since the stock

lights are pretty poor and are definately worthy of an upgrade by now. There are some things to understand

and take note of. Will add pics at some point as I find them...

 

Most older cars will have what is known as a sealed beam headlight which is basically a huge one piece bulb with a

dual filament inside for high and low beam and its a throw away item. Most of them are cheap as such and have

poor performance and deteriorate over time. All you do is replace the whole unit when it gets old or stops working.

 

There are limited performance versions of sealed beam lights but they aren't very good and get expensive to replace.

 

Some bright spark many years ago decided this was very wasteful and so designed a replaceable bulb in a housing

known as semi sealed where just the bulb could be replaced and the housing was reused. The housing was more expensive

as it had properly designed reflector optics to give a much better beam. The upside was that you only had to buy it once

and just change the bulb when needed.

 

These semi sealed headlights are the way to go, with a far superior beam pattern and cheap replaceable bulbs.

There are a few brands that have proven themselves with quality designed optics such as Hella and Cibie but also lesser

known brands are out there which some people have had luck with.

 

The different types of housings and bulbs are known as a code ie H1, H2, H3, H4

Older car headlights use H4 housings and H4 bulbs which go together.

 

They often come in a kit and are avalaible in different sizes and shapes, you just need the ones to suit your needs.

The bulb will be replaceable and there is a huge range of bulbs out there for you to take your pick.

 

Take note of the 2 types of housings - DOT and ECE. These housings have different beam patterns and are only

suitable and legal for the country intended, DOT being USA and ECE being most other countries as far as I know.

ECE light beam pattern is superior to DOT.

 

Also note there are 2 housing options with regards to the parker bulb also known as the city lamp bulb which can

be included in the headlight or not included to suit your needs.

 

The bulbs come in different power levels ie wattage but be aware 55/60W versions are the road legal ones and anything higher

is for off road use only like 100/80W and 130/90W. Also higher wattage bulbs have a reduced life.

 

Theres also +plus bulbs which contain xenon gas up to a total of about 25% of the whole gas content of the bulb. Any more

than 25% xenon gas has no extra performance gains. So +30, +50, +80 and +100 are a percent of that 25% level. Remember power is

still restricted to 55/60W for road cars so it's a way of adding performance to this type of headlight by using light whiter which makes the

road easier to see.

 

The whiteness level of the bulbs measured in kelvin (k) which is the colour temperature and you will see 3000k to 30000k which is

the colour of the bulb. Std bulbs are around 3500k, White is around 5000k, Blue is around 8000k and Purple is around 12000k.

Levels around white provide more visability the driver while high levels of blue and purple are less visable to the driver.

The current legal limit of replacement bulbs is 4200k which I think is for older style housings not HID (will check this out shortly).

Use Google Images and look up "HID colour chart" for an idea of the different colours.

 

Filament bulbs have a slightly yellow light due to the filament colour when heated. To produce a whiter light the xenon is added up to 25%.

To produce an even whiter light, a thin blue coating is painted on the outside of the bulb, this reduces the output though as it blocks the light

but ends up as a whiter light when emitted. Sometimes only the tip of the bulb is painted blue.To produce a more blue light, a very thick layer of blue

coating is added which reduces light output way below a standard bulb and is for off road use only. You can add any colour as a thick coating

for style but it will reduce the bulbs output and it wouldn't be legal in full colour either. I think you can have yellow fog lights (will have to check).

 

Bulb output is measured in lumens and often you can find a spec sheet with the lumens, kelvin and life of the bulb so you can compare.

 

So far the current leaders of the replacement bulb are Osram and Philips with many different versions to pick from.

 

HID lights are much more powerful and have a higher level kelvin and can do so because they have a special housing that has a

different beam pattern. The beam pattern for HID lights is a lot more focused and on the road, out of oncoming traffic so they don't get blinded.

This is why HID conversion bulbs in older headlights don't work, people try to convert an old housing into a HID headlight by using a kit which

has a HID conversion bulb but they don't realise by using the old housing they are using the old beam pattern and they end up with a super

powerful crazy purple light all over the road, straight up into oncoming traffic and not on the road where it would be of some use to them.

They then go and upgrade the power and colour because theres not enough light on the road for them and completely blind oncoming traffic.

 

There are companies that will install a new HID housing into an old housing, this is getting more popular but it is very expensive at the moment.

 

Now onto the power supply, headlights need the full 12v power supply of the car. Voltage drop causes a massive loss of performance and using

old an wiring harness and the old light switch in your car doesn't help. Use a new wiring harness and a relay to power the headlights with the old

switch to turn the relay on and off.

 

Headlights are no good to anyone if they aren't pointing straight so make sure you adjust them correctly or get some one to do it for you.

Theres usually 3 adjustment screws to adjust and some procedure to follow in the vehicle manual.

 

So you can upgrade your lights easily and with good results just remember that HID conversions and Blue light Bulbs don't really work.

 

That's it for now, feel free to suggest any changes...

 

Cheers.

 

Styler

Edited July 15, 2012 by styler

[towe001]

Good write-up. You have my mark of approval

 

:2thumbs:

[rian]

+1 reps.

I learned something from this, I like learning 8/

[LongJohnSilver]

Nice write up! Upgrading my lights has definitely been on my agenda lately, even the high beam on my ke70 is pathetic :sob:

[philbey]

Mate what's s

The story with the legality of 100/80s etc I wasnt aware of that and was gonna upgrade my ther car.

[altezzaclub]

A giant gain is made if you cut the stock headlight switch out of the circuit and run relays. The switch then just activates the relays and the power goes battery->bulb->relay->earth. It doubled our light output.

 

How I did it is here, but you might want to buy the $60 headlight relay rather than the little $10 pair I used and make it neater.

 

http://www.rollaclub.com/board/topic/42407-the-girls-ke70/

 

PS- Fitting a 100W bulb to the left-hand headlight only is a brilliant idea too!

[It's_AUDM_Yo]

So are 55/60W bulbs with 25% xenon still road legal? Or does the added light output change that?

[Raven]

Just to rectify some of your information there Mr. Altezza, the legal Kelvin rating for any globe in Australia is 4200K, 4300K is white light but also not ADR-approved.

 

The reason for this is the higher the kelvin rating, the bluer the light and the spectrum of light that is produced is not visible to the human eye and this is interpreted as less light on the road, it has nothing to do with blinding oncoming traffic.

 

I've dealt with selling headlight globes to the general public for the past 4 years.

 

Cheers

Mick

[altezzaclub]

Yeah, I've never got into HIDs Raven, I'm too much of a cheapass. I grabbed an ordinary Navra 100/90 for the left-hand headlight when we first got the car because the lights were so bad, but it didn't help. That's when I realised the switching was the problem, so now the left-hand edge is very clear at night.

 

What are the LEDs that they are playing with like? I assume they emit a very clean & narrow range of wavelengths, so they just need to get the power up.

[Raven]

From memory the new LED light housing is made by Philips but the globe is made by someone in the US of A.

[styler]

Thanks Raven, will ammend.

 

Yeah I think it must be only the HID blue/purple lights then that blind oncoming traffic, not std headlights with blue/purple globes.

 

Philbey

 

55/60W is the legal rated power of replacement globes, I know it would be so easy just to upgrade the power to 100/80W globes

but its just not allowed becuase its too bright or maybe its the extra power draw on the car or the heat generated in the housing.

 

Its _Audm_yo

 

55/60W bulbs have that power rating as stated and the gas just changes them to be whiter so they are all legal: +30 +50 +80 +100.

Edited July 15, 2012 by styler