New headlight suggestions

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theholycow
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Re: New headlight suggestions

Post by theholycow »

bk7794 wrote:Wait they have used bulbs?
They have whole cars...you strip whatever you want from the cars.
Also I was wondering about modifying the housing and putting these lenses on. http://www.hidretrofits.com/ it'd be pretty good...but I think its worth it.

http://hondaswap.com/auto-multi-media/d ... ost1642447
That stuff looks quite expensive. Also, at night nothing screams "pull this ricer kid over" like HIDs in a 20 year old beater Civic. At least it promises not to glare and seems to have enough equipment/cost to deliver on that promise...not sure it truly would but it could.
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Re: New headlight suggestions

Post by bk7794 »

Alright, I will try it tomorrow. I have two sets of low-beam lights. One set of Phillips X-treme or something, and another set of just regular low beams.

I will still have high beams right? No change in the direction of light, right?

Thanks for everything.
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Re: New headlight suggestions

Post by Shadow »

BTW, I should mention the fact that I'm very picky when it comes to the light output of my headlights, especially after getting my Audi, which has by far the most incredible performance of any car I've ever driven. The lights are so good on that car that I never even bother with the hi-beams. The thing I like best is that they REALLY illuminate both sides of the road incredibly, which is fantastic for spotting deer. In the past, I relied on driving lights for that "wider" illumination. I honestly don't know what Audi did to make their headlights so good. Our MDX has HID Xenons with projector lenses just like the Audi, but they don't even compare....not sure why though. Maybe its in the aiming.

My 4Runner with the modded bulbs is pretty decent, but I run with the factory driving lights on all the time. In fact, I wired the driving lights to stay on when I use the hi-beams. And considering that my driving lights use the same bulbs as my headlights, I effectively have 6 hi-beam bulbs blasting away when my hi-beams are switched on.
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Re: New headlight suggestions

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bk7794 wrote:Alright, I will try it tomorrow. I have two sets of low-beam lights. One set of Phillips X-treme or something, and another set of just regular low beams.

I will still have high beams right? No change in the direction of light, right?

Thanks for everything.
Yeah, your hi-beams will not be affected. And the bulbs are the same size, so the reflector should still put the light in the same exact place as the original bulbs.
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Re: New headlight suggestions

Post by bk7794 »

theholycow wrote:
bk7794 wrote:Wait they have used bulbs?
They have whole cars...you strip whatever you want from the cars.
Also I was wondering about modifying the housing and putting these lenses on. http://www.hidretrofits.com/ it'd be pretty good...but I think its worth it.

http://hondaswap.com/auto-multi-media/d ... ost1642447
That stuff looks quite expensive. Also, at night nothing screams "pull this ricer kid over" like HIDs in a 20 year old beater Civic. At least it promises not to glare and seems to have enough equipment/cost to deliver on that promise...not sure it truly would but it could.
Yeah That is true. I am going to take a look at the junkyard for future. Thanks!
Also on the HIDs, yeah that is true. The high beams are great. It's just the low beams that could use some work.
Shadow wrote:BTW, I should mention the fact that I'm very picky when it comes to the light output of my headlights, especially after getting my Audi, which has by far the most incredible performance of any car I've ever driven. The lights are so good on that car that I never even bother with the hi-beams. The thing I like best is that they REALLY illuminate both sides of the road incredibly, which is fantastic for spotting deer. In the past, I relied on driving lights for that "wider" illumination. I honestly don't know what Audi did to make their headlights so good. Our MDX has HID Xenons with projector lenses just like the Audi, but they don't even compare....not sure why though. Maybe its in the aiming.

My 4Runner with the modded bulbs is pretty decent, but I run with the factory driving lights on all the time. In fact, I wired the driving lights to stay on when I use the hi-beams. And considering that my driving lights use the same bulbs as my headlights, I effectively have 6 hi-beam bulbs blasting away when my hi-beams are switched on.
I must say that I have driven my parents 02 focus and those have the best headlights I have seen. The low beams on the car are perfect and the high beams have great aim and are perfect for length. The thing that sucks is that the low beams turn off and the highs cast a shadow on the road sometimes which catch me off guard.

So you have something similar where you have wired up the lows, highs and driving lights? How is it for dimming?
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Re: New headlight suggestions

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bk7794 wrote:So you have something similar where you have wired up the lows, highs and driving lights? How is it for dimming?
The lows always stayed on with the highs. I just rewired the driving lights to stay on with the highs too.

What do you mean when you say "dimming"?
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Re: New headlight suggestions

Post by bk7794 »

Shadow wrote:
bk7794 wrote:So you have something similar where you have wired up the lows, highs and driving lights? How is it for dimming?
The lows always stayed on with the highs. I just rewired the driving lights to stay on with the highs too.

What do you mean when you say "dimming"?
Well on one of those forums someone mentioned something about if you run modded lights the power output is so great that they dim and the mod is basically erased...but I doubt it would happen in your case, or in my case thinking about it harder.

Thanks for the tips I am going to give it a try tomorrow. I will have to buy a file haha
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Re: New headlight suggestions

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Oh, okay. Nope, no dimming. I guess that could happen in a car with an overtaxed electrical system.
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Re: New headlight suggestions

Post by theholycow »

bk7794 wrote:I must say that I have driven my parents 02 focus and those have the best headlights I have seen. The low beams on the car are perfect and the high beams have great aim and are perfect for length. The thing that sucks is that the low beams turn off and the highs cast a shadow on the road sometimes which catch me off guard.

So you have something similar where you have wired up the lows, highs and driving lights? How is it for dimming?
That Focus sounds like my truck, although the shadow it cast was minor enough not to bother me...I was just looking for more light. The mod to allow low beams to stay on with high beams in a vehicle that doesn't come that way is called "4hi". Search Civic forums for it. It's usually easy to DIY with basic tools and supplies, but there may also be a plug-and-play kit (probably sold on eBay). In my truck I just had to tap and ground a single wire. There has been no dimming.

Vehicles probably come like that because of laws limiting how many forward facing lights can be in use. In RI you can only legally have four, so if you want driving lights or fog lights with your high beams then you can't have low beams with them.
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Re: New headlight suggestions

Post by bk7794 »

theholycow wrote:
bk7794 wrote:I must say that I have driven my parents 02 focus and those have the best headlights I have seen. The low beams on the car are perfect and the high beams have great aim and are perfect for length. The thing that sucks is that the low beams turn off and the highs cast a shadow on the road sometimes which catch me off guard.

So you have something similar where you have wired up the lows, highs and driving lights? How is it for dimming?
That Focus sounds like my truck, although the shadow it cast was minor enough not to bother me...I was just looking for more light. The mod to allow low beams to stay on with high beams in a vehicle that doesn't come that way is called "4hi". Search Civic forums for it. It's usually easy to DIY with basic tools and supplies, but there may also be a plug-and-play kit (probably sold on eBay). In my truck I just had to tap and ground a single wire. There has been no dimming.

Vehicles probably come like that because of laws limiting how many forward facing lights can be in use. In RI you can only legally have four, so if you want driving lights or fog lights with your high beams then you can't have low beams with them.
Actually on my civic my lows stay on. But my civic has a dual lamp design, I wonder with these single lamp with dual filaments if they would get too hot.
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Re: New headlight suggestions

Post by theholycow »

bk7794 wrote:Actually on my civic my lows stay on. But my civic has a dual lamp design, I wonder with these single lamp with dual filaments if they would get too hot.
Yeah, I imagine they'd get too hot inside the bulb itself and burn out very quickly. I'm not sure the benefit would be very large with single-lamp designs, since the pattern is the same and you're merely adding a few candlepower with the low-beam filament.
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Re: New headlight suggestions

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So I bought a bulb...just have to mod it and try it out. I just bought one to try. If I smell anything melting or such I am going to take it out. Atleast these lamps can be saved for my high beams if they don't work well. I also did a little bit of calculations. Volts times Amps and I believe its a 20 amp circuit and I think it will be at its peak. I might be able to make it work.
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Re: New headlight suggestions

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bk7794 wrote:So I bought a bulb...just have to mod it and try it out. I just bought one to try. If I smell anything melting or such I am going to take it out. Atleast these lamps can be saved for my high beams if they don't work well. I also did a little bit of calculations. Volts times Amps and I believe its a 20 amp circuit and I think it will be at its peak. I might be able to make it work.
There's only a 10-watt increase between the lows & highs. I believe it's 55 watts and 65 watts or something like that. Trust me, it will work just fine....people have been doing this mod on all kinds of cars for years now and I've never heard of anyone having a problem or even blowing a fuse.
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Re: New headlight suggestions

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Shadow wrote:
bk7794 wrote:So I bought a bulb...just have to mod it and try it out. I just bought one to try. If I smell anything melting or such I am going to take it out. Atleast these lamps can be saved for my high beams if they don't work well. I also did a little bit of calculations. Volts times Amps and I believe its a 20 amp circuit and I think it will be at its peak. I might be able to make it work.
There's only a 10-watt increase between the lows & highs. I believe it's 55 watts and 65 watts or something like that. Trust me, it will work just fine....people have been doing this mod on all kinds of cars for years now and I've never heard of anyone having a problem or even blowing a fuse.
Exactly what I was thinking. Now its just finding the time to mod it.
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Re: New headlight suggestions

Post by potownrob »

these supposedly dim oem jetta headlights (sans driving lights) are probably the brightest lights I've had, even compared to the sylvania silverstars i've run in my past 2 cars and the converted (to a more powerful bulb than OEM) headlights in the maxima. so bright, i was getting flashed last night.
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