Headlight utopia?

[Craig 930 RS]

I just read a few bulb sites - they pretty much all said to expect significantly lower bulb life with the ultra-high wattage bulbs.

So that seems to explain why my 100/150 night piercers crapped out after 4 weeks -

[RoninLB]

Originally posted by Craig911

Hella does make bulbs:
-

Hella Sells bulbs.
afaik they are made in China. Chow Mein says you need 150w, noo pobblem. I change marking to 150w.

[RoninLB]

Originally posted by Craig911
they pretty much all said to expect significantly lower bulb life with the ultra-high wattage bulbs.

So that seems to explain why my 100/150 night piercers crapped out after 4 weeks -

logical answer. I bet my 130/100w Narva has over 60hrs on High only.

ps: total bulb life so far is over 10,000mi night driving.

[Tim Walsh]

The set of lights I was looking at at the 180w bulbs, not any of the "Same as 180w " junk but the true blue battery sucking 180w lights.

I figured they had a downfall.. seems it's longevity. I'll stick with my 65/55's for now and upgrade to 100's when I'm driving it most every day.

[Craig 930 RS]

The most important thing:

I noticed little to no difference between the high wattage bulbs and the regular wattage bulbs. Zip, really.

[pwd72s]

Dittos to both Ron & Warren on this one...if higher output is your need, I'd suggest following their advice. However, if you MUST do otherwise, it's your nickle. Me? I don't drive the P-car at night that much these days, and the h-1's with standard 55 watt bulbs are adequate for me. I'll try to hook a pic Jeff took when he was here...

[jester911]

I got lucky in thiis respect. The PO put h1's on my car and I had it for a while before I found out it had them on it.
I found out when a bulb burned out and I had to replace it.

This was before I knew about this site so I didn't know the difference.

[david914]

On the subject of H1's, when I purchased my '86 a few months ago, it came with H1's (!) on it. The first thing I noticed was that they desperately needed aligning. Found a nice flat piece of asphalt in front of a brick wall and went to town. No problems aligning everything. What I did notice is that my H1 low beams don't seem to be quite as bright as the H4's on the SC. High beams are an entirely different story. Hit the high beams on the H1's and reflective road signs will blind you! Awsome! The H1's have good 55w bulbs all the way around. Has anybody else noticed this difference?

[bell]

Originally posted by RoninLB
logical answer. I bet my 130/100w Narva has over 60hrs on High only.

ps: total bulb life so far is over 10,000mi night driving.

the narvas are the best bulb i've EVER used. i'm running the exact setup ron is using except i went overkill on the wiring (10 ga. to each filliment/1 relay per filiment)
i installed them in april of 03' with around 12,000miles........extremely reliable stuff for 130/100's

[Randy Webb]

FWIW, I've been told to use only Osram bulbs.

Ron's open hwy idea is good. I like to find a spot with reflective signs every few hundred feet. Mark a spot to stop or park somehow. Then you can different test bulbs, headlights, whatever.

[RoninLB]

Originally posted by Jim Richards

Still, it's probably not a major change to adapt the kit to a long hood.

Exactly.. he sells a good relay and the rest is wiring bs.

[RoninLB]

Originally posted by Randy Webb
FWIW, I've been told to use only Osram bulbs.

Ron's open hwy idea is good. I like to find a spot with reflective signs every few hundred feet.

I have no info on the new Osram bulbs. Bulbs are 1 part of the equation. Euro optics, not DOT, is the other part.

[Chnaane]

Originally posted by Craig911
Hella does make bulbs:
http://www.hella.com/produktion/HellaPortal/WebSite/Internet_usa/ProductsServices/Performance_Lighting/Performance_Lighting.jsp

I had the Hella 100/150 bulbs -

Hella does NOT make bulbs, they just package and sell them. I had a very interesting chat with Stern about this very issue some months back when I was having fast-burnout problems and weird beam pattern issues with a few different specific "Hella" H4 bulbs.

Seems Hella has never manufactured bulbs. According to Stern, up until about 10 years ago the entire Hella bulb line was just private-labelled Philips bulbs, all made in Germany. Then a few things happened: Philips started making bulbs in places other than Germany (Korea, Taiwan, etc.) and Hella started shopping around for low bids on most of their bulb line (Taiwan, China, etc.). "Those 3rd world bulb companies have no qualms about inking whatever you want on the base of the bulb, if you buy enough of them" or words to that effect.

The 160/100W "Hella" bulb, again per Stern, is or was a product of the mediocre Gerlux firm in (formerly East) Germany.

I love my 130/100w Narvas.

[Chnaane]

Originally posted by Craig911
The most important thing:

I noticed little to no difference between the high wattage bulbs and the regular wattage bulbs. Zip, really.

Too many variables left unsaid.

Which headlights, DOT H5s or Euro H4s? Stock wiring, or heavy wiring with relays? Which exact brand and type of bulbs did you try out?

I resisted the idea of swapping the H5s off my '88 for as long as I possibly could. Tried just about every bulb out there that would fit them, finally had to agree they are junk. Put in the H4s, better beam pattern, but no difference with high-wattage bulbs except my switches got hot and failed. Put in relays and heavy wiring, and NOW there's a difference between low and high wattage bulbs!

[Craig 930 RS]

We've been speaking of H4s since the start of this thread - these are what I have. Heavy wiring, and - like I said - a PIAA relay.

I also wrapped the wires in foil tape - it gets extremely hot in back of the reflector.

The bulbs were the 100/150 plain old Hellas - or whoever makes them for Hella. I now have 55/80 and I notice no difference as noted.

[Chnaane]

Originally posted by Craig911
We've been speaking of H4s since the start of this thread - these are what I have. Heavy wiring, and - like I said - a PIAA relay.

I also wrapped the wires in foil tape - it gets extremely hot in back of the reflector.

The bulbs were the 100/150 plain old Hellas - or whoever makes them for Hella. I now have 55/80 and I notice no difference as noted.

Hope you carry a few spare relays, in my experience PIAA's quality is garbage through and through.

Bulb quality matters large -- more than wattage does. Crappy bulbs of any wattage don't give better performance. I bet you would notice a difference with well-made overwattage bulbs (Osram, Narva, Philips, Candlepower).

And, none of the reputable companies make 55/80w bulbs, so if you actually have that wattage, you're still running 3rd world cheepies.

[Craig 930 RS]

I have the 55/60 Hella bulbs, not the 55/80 as I stated.

Chnaane sez:

in my experience PIAA's quality is garbage through and through

PIAA Japanese manufactured products are "garbage"?
Really. Is this some well-knwon phenomenon that I haven't heard of over the past 6 years of Porsche forums?

Guess I need a Narva bulb.

[Chnaane]

Originally posted by Craig911
I have the 55/60 Hella bulbs, not the 55/80 as I stated.
PIAA Japanese manufactured products are "garbage"?
Guess I need a Narva bulb.

My favorite 60/55 is the Osram ultra high efficiency 60/55; I have been getting them from Candlepower . Info sheet on them is here

As far as PIAA goes, my experience matches Stern's advice (though I don't rant quite the way he does about it ): PIAA is a marketing company. Their quality and performance are poor, because they spend all their $$$ not on actual R&D but instead on fancy packaging, glossy catalogs and getting their name plastered on race cars. They price their stuff high so people will buy into the notion that they're getting "professional grade" equipment.

For what it's worth, the comparative H4 bulb tests AutoExpress recently did in England seem to validate my experience (and my choice of 60/55 H4 bulb...!) Be careful not to trip on the "name game" that Osram/Sylvania plays. They sell a blue bulb in North America and call it the "Sylvania Silver Star". In the rest of the world, that bulb is called the "Osram Cool Blue", and another bulb is available called "Osram Silver Star", which has no officially-imported equivalent in a Sylvania package (I guess Candlepower brings them in unofficially). This "Osram Silver Star" bulb has uncolored clear glass and high-output filaments, unlike the US "Sylvania Silver Star" (rest of world "Osram Cool Blue") which has blue glass.

The URLs for the AutoExpress bulb tests are

Standard and blue bulbs incl. PIAA

High efficiency "plus 30" type bulbs

Super High efficiency "plus 50" type bulbs

The site gets uppity and demands that you register if you want to view more than two pages. I just fed it phony name/address info and it swallowed it happily and let me see the third page.

I don't wanna sound like a stooge for Candlepower, but I've gotten cool stuff from them that I haven't found anywhere else. I got some super nice halogen reverse bulbs (for the back up lights) not like any I've ever seen. They're not the 55-watt cemented-together ones I've seen in parts stores; they are a 35-watt (therefore safe for stock wiring and the plastic housing) 1-piece item made in Germany, and they give an enormous help in backing up at night. Part number on those is P-796. And they have P-3496 and P-3497 high-efficiency/high-output brake/tail/park/turn bulbs that have brightened those lights up nicely. I think Stern might be working there, not sure though.

Yeah, yeah, I know, I'm a geek...

[Craig 930 RS]

Wow, you are into lights :-)

THX for the info -

[bell]

a standard bosch 30 amp relay is golden and bulletproof.
i've been using them in all manors for 15 years and maybe 1 failure out of 2000.