Headlamps

[JDMMA70]

I ran Philips Xtreme Power Bulbs (Euro Spec) in my Hellas they are a good buy if youre wondering.

 

[shaeff]

The bulbs I have are standard 35w low beams and 100w high beams. Yes 65w high beam are normal but when I hit the high beams it is like daylight. I hate hitting deer.

I wouldn't recommend running 100w lights off of stock wiring...

 

[supradjza80]

Well after lots of reading and research I am ordering the E-code hella housings from the link that poodles posted earlier (thanks for the link!) and I am ordering the package with the Osram Hyper 70/65W bulbs. According to their site the factory wire harness should be fine for these bulbs. I am going to call them tomorrow tom make sure, plus their website is having a problem ordering the package atm.

Depending on bulb performance and how long they last, I may try the other Osram/Phillips offerings at that time.

thanks everyone for the help

Dave

 

[shaeff]

Good choice. You won't be disappointed.

 

[Poodles]

You'll get better performance out of upgraded wiring, and the Hella kits are plug and play...

Stern has a lot on why upgraded wiring makes such a huge difference, it's worth the read...

 

[suprarx7nut]

You'll get better performance out of upgraded wiring, and the Hella kits are plug and play...

Stern has a lot on why upgraded wiring makes such a huge difference, it's worth the read...

Agreed.

Check my lighting thread (see sig) for updates on wiring upgrades. I have the relays ordered and will be installing them within the month.

 

[ValgeKotkas]

How does rewiring affect the life of stock headlights? As they get more power, they probably die faster?

 

[Poodles]

Not necessarily, and even so, it's a bulb and replaceable. Wiring degrades, upgrades with relays get around that without hacking the entire harness out and replacing, and in the end will give you better power to the bulbs than a factory setup.

I'd rather have to replace the bulbs twice as often and have all the light they're supposed to produce than replace them half as often and hit something I couldn't see...

Another reason housings are better than sealed beams, since sealed beams these days have a normal H4 style bulb in em anyway.

*random tidbit*
The HID's I run were great. Had a bulb burn out and been running a halogen in that lense (Hella E-code). The HID light seems to be doing soemthing to the reflector on the other lense as where the light hits the reflector it's getting cloudy and looks like it might be tarnishing. Halogen lense shows no sign of this. When I replace it all I'll pull the housings apart and inspect cause this may be another reason NOT to run HID's...

 

[Guyana00]

See if you can get a before and after thing going on.

 

[3p141592654]

I prefer Cibie to Hella.

http://www.danielsternlighting.com/products/products.html

 

[suprarx7nut]

I prefer Cibie to Hella.

http://www.danielsternlighting.com/products/products.html

$75 Each. Damn. About double the Hella E-codes.

Any pics or other documentation of the Cibie's? I don't have a problem spending $150, but I'd want some good backing evidence to support such a price increase on an already good product.

*Edit: found some info, looks like its from Dan Stern too!

When talking to a lighting specialist, I told him we may be going with Hella lights instead of Cibies. Here's what he wrote:


take a look at this:
http://www.torque.net/~dastern/Photo...ibie_7_Iso.jpg
http://www.torque.net/~dastern/Photo...ella_7_Iso.jpg

These are isocandela diagrams for Cibie and Hella 7" round H4 headlights.

If you're not familiar with isocandela diagrams, these will look like
random squiggles and lines. Think of it as a topographic or "contour" map
of the correctly-aimed beam pattern. Each differently-colored line
represents the threshold of a particular intensity level, with the color
legend located to the right of the isocandela diagram. The diagram is
plotted on a chart calibrated in degrees. Straight ahead is represented by
(0,0), that is, zero degrees up-down and zero degrees left-right.

To get a mental approximation of the units and amounts under discussion
here:

Parking lamp: About 60 to 100 candela
Front turn signal: About 500 candela
Glaring high-beam daytime running lamps (e.g. Saturn): 8000 candela

The parameters to pay attention to are the luminous flux (total amount of
light within the beam), the maximum intensity and its location within the
beam relative to the axial point (H,V) -- the less downward/rightward
offset, the longer the seeing distance -- stray light outside the beam
pattern and effective beam width (contained within the dark-turquoise 500
candela contour)

Things to notice about these two diagrams:

(1) The Cibie produces a much wider beam pattern than the Hella. The 1000
candela line of the Cibie's beam pattern extends from 25 degrees Left to
25 degrees right, while the 1000 candela line of the Hella extends from 18
degrees Left to 20 degrees Right. At a distance of 50 feet from the car,
this means the 1000 candela-and-brighter portion of the Hella's beam is
10.5 feet narrower than that of the Cibie. The 300 cd contour of the
Cibie's pattern is *far* wider, extending from 43 degrees Left to 50
degrees Right, compared to 26 Left to 25 Right for the Hella. This means
the overall useful width of the beam pattern at 25 feet from the car, as
perceived by the driver, will be 40.7 feet for the Cibie and 22.3 feet for
the Hella.

2) The total luminous flux (overall amount of light) within the beam
pattern is 695 lumens for the Cibie, 463 lumens for the Hella - the Cibie
is 50.1% more efficient. (the TLF data is listed as "Luminous Flux" in the
readings up above the isocandela diagram)

The high beams for these two lamps (isocandela diagrams not yet scanned
in) are very similar in overall performance and amount of light -- the
critical difference is that the Cibie's high beam hot spot is located
closer to (0,0) and closer to its low beam hot spot. The Hella's high beam
and low beam hot spots are separated by a fairly large vertical amount,
such that setting the lows where they belong results in most of the high
beam light going up in the trees, but pulling the high beams down so they
send light straight ahead puts the low beams 10 feet in front of the car.

Compelling evidence, right there. I'd like to see some more info on this...

 

[3p141592654]

Well that pretty much sums it up. The main complaint I have with the Hellas is the low-beam / high-beam compromise that results in the low-beams pointing downward too much. This creates a glaring bright pool of light in front of the car, and then inky blackness beyond. This problem is shared with many factory HIDs (such as my Sienna). This creates a great first impression (wow these are bright) but after you drive for a while you begin to realize that outside the immediate bright zone you can't see anything because your eyes are overwhelmed.

Too bad the new Cibie CSR style aren't available in the rectangular reflectors to fit the MK3. http://www.danielsternlighting.com/products/csr.html

That same site has some nice but pricey H4 bulbs such as the 70/65W Osram Plus 50.

 

[supradjza80]

Well that pretty much sums it up. The main complaint I have with the Hellas is the low-beam / high-beam compromise that results in the low-beams pointing downward too much. This creates a glaring bright pool of light in front of the car, and then inky blackness beyond. This problem is shared with many factory HIDs (such as my Sienna). This creates a great first impression (wow these are bright) but after you drive for a while you begin to realize that outside the immediate bright zone you can't see anything because your eyes are overwhelmed.

Too bad the new Cibie CSR style aren't available in the rectangular reflectors to fit the MK3. http://www.danielsternlighting.com/products/csr.html

That same site has some nice but pricey H4 bulbs such as the 70/65W Osram Plus 50.

I want your avatar as a poster!

hopefully I like the hellas with the sylvania hypers. I dont know if I would have gone with the Cibies but i didn't even consider it since most people say to just go hella.

 

[suprarx7nut]

Well that pretty much sums it up. The main complaint I have with the Hellas is the low-beam / high-beam compromise that results in the low-beams pointing downward too much. This creates a glaring bright pool of light in front of the car, and then inky blackness beyond. This problem is shared with many factory HIDs (such as my Sienna). This creates a great first impression (wow these are bright) but after you drive for a while you begin to realize that outside the immediate bright zone you can't see anything because your eyes are overwhelmed.

Too bad the new Cibie CSR style aren't available in the rectangular reflectors to fit the MK3. http://www.danielsternlighting.com/products/csr.html

That same site has some nice but pricey H4 bulbs such as the 70/65W Osram Plus 50.

Can you buy anything off that site? I can't find the Cibie's anywhere else and that site is very confusing when it comes to purchasing...

 

[jetjock]

As 3P pointed out the CSRs are not available in rectangular. If you want to buy from Dan you need to email him because he prefers a one on one approach to sales. Just don't try and argue with him about anything. I've known him for years and he can be, shall we say, sensitive. It comes from being the expert he is while having to constantly deal with those who wouldn't know lighting science if it bit them in the ass...

 

[Poodles]

So he's like you? :sarcasm:

 

[jetjock]

Touche. Guess I left myself open to that