Hid Lights

[strath44]

Okay seen these on ebay and just wondered if anyone has them fitted to the car and if they are any brighter and what they llok like? Also will the wiring need upgraded - think the bulbs are slightly more powerful- (a friend mentioned I should upgrade my wiring with relays anyway to reduce the strain on the switch etc). Realise its not a proper Hid kit but just interested its seems very cheap so a bit suspect!

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=7930010731&rd=1&sspagename=STRK%3AMEWA%3AIT

[Zero10]

Seems waaay too cheap. The bulbs are a joke. Typical ricer bulbs. 55/60W bulbs with 90/100W output?... Hmm, very suspect.

I have no idea on the lenses, although I am skeptical of them as well.

The wiring always needs to be upgraded, lol. You would probably see more of a gain by upgrading the wiring than you would with that set.

[toolboy62]

get the IceShark wiring harness, it makes a world of difference. The Cibie reflectors that he sells are very nice, too. They don't look like HIDs but you can SEE and that's what matters.

nate

[strath44]

Oh and heres the thing that puzzles me i'm in the Uk and the shipping is reasonable...........the seller says they will work on both left and right hand drive cars? Is that possible would have thought the beams are the wrong way around etc or are they adaptable??? Nate can you post me a link for the wiring harnesses etc that Iceshark has? cheers Davros

[toolboy62]

the claim that they will work on LHD or RHD cars probably comes from the fact that those reflectors are DOT pattern beams. You don't want those! I apologize, I did not notice that you were in Scotland. I have Cibies in my car and they are nice. But if you are in Scotland you should already have H4s in your car with the correct pattern, yes? But I think the wiring harness does make a real difference - here's a link

http://www.gururacing.net

click on "light upgrades"

Since I'm in the US I had sealed beam headlights in my car when I bought it, the combination of the Cibies with the harness made a huge difference. But you probably already have good reflectors, you just need more voltage to really drive the bulbs... right?

good luck

nate

[strath44]

Hi yes I do have H4's the guru site is cool will look into that! ........what are DOT pattern beams are they non-directional?

[DannoXYZ]

There's some pictures of before & after shots of light-beam patterns on my GURU site. Basically the difference between DOT and european e-Code is that DOT is a simple spot-beam, like a flashlight. The pattern is most concentrated in a spot at the middle and it weakens as you go away from the center spot.

E-Code has a much more sophisticated reflector such that the beam evenly light from left to right, no bright-spot in the middle. There's also a sharp horizontal cut-off so that you don't blind oncoming traffic. You can see the cut-off on the concrete barrier in the middle of the freeway, it's about 6" from the top of the barrier. Cool thing is this cut-off is 6" from the top right next to your car, or 1/2 a mile down the road, very precise. Then in the middle, the beam takes a diagonal jump upwards to illuminate road-signs. Combined, both left & right lights look like this on a garage door:


___/___/

That's why there's different lights for right-hand drive vs. left-hand drive cars. No way the ones on ebay are e-Code. I would have to say that aside from a bigger turbo, IceShark's lights are the most dramatic upgrade I've ever made, definitely the best bang-for-buck value out there!


Here's an objective test on aftermarket bulbs with light-meter data: http://www.overboost.com/story.asp?id=102

[AaronM]

Those are NOT HID bulbs. Those are a very cheaply made H4 conversion with cheaply-made bulbs that have a blue tinting which produces fewer lumens than a standard, clear, H4 bulb. The reason they seem to be brighter is because the blue tint, while robbing lumens, increases glare in huge amounts. The increased glare (which impedes vision) makes your eyes react as though the light were brighter, even though you are not actually able to see any better.

Aaron

[toolboy62]

If you already have H4 bulbs I would either buy just the iceshark wiring harness or else make up a similar harness of your own, with at least 10 gauge wire and good relays. Then if you still want more light get some high wattage H4 bulbs. that should be enough to get yoiu good light.

AFAIK you can't use the ones on eBay anyway in your car, my understanding was that the euro 944s used a completely different headlamp assembly that wasn't interchangeable with a 7" sealed beam format, even though they look exactly the same. (why do they do this? VW did the same thing with the late A2 GTI.) So you can't change your reflectors even if you wanted to unless you get some US-spec buckets. If your lights are real sandblasted or dull maybe that would be a good option but even so i would stick with good e-codes like Cibie or Hella.

nate

[rammstein]

Nice article Danno!

[strath44]

thanks for the help, will get an upgraded loom first then some higher wattage bulbs. Does anyone no if my 84 NA will have relays already out of interest? As i mentioned earlier I was told if it doesn't that the switch will be taking all the power and hence why the burn out??

[IceShark]

strath44, as others have said those E-Bay lights are junk as well as being DOT spec. You are in the UK so those DOT lenses probably wouldn't pass MOT inspection. DOT lenses have quite a different beam pattern as the US Federal transportation regulators could nearly care less about headlight glare to other drivers. The principal difference is there is no sharp cutoff like an European-Code lens and more light is directed up towards the sky to light up signs mounted on bridge overpasses rather than on the road. Also, you can't run overwatted bulbs in DOT lenses, like 90/100 watt, as you would be blowing other drivers off the road. But you can go overwatt with an E-Code lens due to the sharp cuttoff.

Of course you have left hand lane driving so if you end up replacing the lenses due to road rash diffusing the beam too much (this can really cause a dramatic reduction in the light beam) you will need to get the left hand lane lenses. You are going to have to look at what type of lenses you have in your car as I know some of the cars, especially ROW E-Codes like you, had this different Hella lens that had all the attachment and aiming screws affixed to the lens reflector. Guess what? Hella discontinued that style of lens. So you are going to have to go to the standard 7" round lens as far as I know. But fortunately Hella sells the parts to retrofit the headlight bucket to accept the current standard 7" rounds.

And no your car doesn't have relays for the headlights. That is a large part of the reason these cars have such crappy headlights. So you really have to rewire to get the best lighting by keeping voltage losses down. On a halogen bulb if you lose 15% in voltage you have lost 50% of light output. You have GOT to do something about that.

And you are right about the headlight switch. Some guys will just pop in 90/100 watt bulbs for more lighting. But all that extra power draw is going through the dash and switch. Some guys get away with it for awhile but eventually that switch is going to burn out and/or the wiring melt and short out.

[DannoXYZ]

IceShark beat me to it...

[dlknight]

Hey guys,

Good site I used for buying H4 bulbs is www.powerbulbs.com. I have used the Philips Bluevision and Osram Siverstars. The Osram supposedly have the largest overall beam distance i think 75m+. The Bluevision's were very white and looked pretty cool but I managed to blow to sets in just over 8 months.... There are some links to reviews in autoexpress (uk publication) which recommends the Osram's as the best overall bulb.

Cheers

Dave K.

[952]

I have been using 90/100 bulbs in my car for nearly 2 years now... no issues yet. The iceshark kit look awesome, but I cant justify the expense for the amount of night driving I do...

[bryanthompson]

I drive probably 120 miles a week at night, so I'm really thinking hard about getting the ice shark kit. It's hard to justify the cost, but it's harder to imagine what I would do if I hit a deer that I wouldn't have seen.

I'm also looking into some fog light upgrades, but I haven't seen a whole lot there, and I'm unsure about laws dealing with this. I think it's illegal here to drive with fog lights on if the conditions don't require them, but... I need to find out more.

[seaboltman]

Ill add this back, so it makes sense?

How does the wiring work for the HID setup?

[IceShark]

seaboltman, well not exactly. The wiring harness is plug and play so it uses the stock headlight system to trigger the relays on and off. The negative for the system is taken off the engine block which of course is attached tto the battery at all times but closer to the alternator when running.

The positive is to the alternator. That is a direct shot over to the battery so is hot when the car is off but when the alternator is running you get the positive current from a much shorter cable run. Given the better wiring and construction, voltage at the headlights under load is HIGHER than the voltage at the battery.

And that is the key, higher voltage = more light.

Positive feed from alternator post goes to fuses, then to relays and finally off to the headlights. Ground off the block is incorporated into the harness to headlights.

So a little bit different than what you were thinking about.


Edit: Ooops, I see you erased your post so the above may not make a lot of sense to future readers. Oh, well.

[ae1969]

Originally posted by DannoXYZ
.........I would have to say that aside from a bigger turbo, IceShark's lights are the most dramatic upgrade I've ever made, definitely the best bang-for-buck value out there!

100% agree!

[seaboltman]

Ah i see, thanks iceshark