REPLACEMENT BULBS/GLOBES

[Wheels]

Bought mine at Echo early last year. Did not fit them. They are stil in the garage. I plan to go the HID route. Less stress on the alternator.

[Grootseun]

Just for what its worth as to concerning the amperage draw or less stress on the alternator

2 Normal 55/60w Tungsten filaments consume roughly 8.5A at a good charging rate of 14.5V

Most HID sets gets advertised at a consumption of roughly 3.5A for the set

Normal Tungsten units "burn" at about 3500K while HID depending on qauility "burn" at about 5500K to 6500K so if you get the reflector right its a good converion but trust me i have had more horror stories with wrong reflectors and lenses and sitting with a much brighter light but a lot less focussed than i care to remember

[Peter Connan]

I wonder if it won't be cheaper to upgrade the alternator than to change to "decent" HID's?

Driko, have you seen the article on spotlights in the recent WegRy?

[Grootseun]

Peter , seen it but havent read through it yet been traveling a lot lately , will make work of it for us

[Grootseun]

To get back to your qeustion though Peter - in my opinion yes - decent amperage alternator , good cabling , qaulity bulbs and reflectors and decent realys to your headlights and youll see a big increase anyway

[AndriesS]

Relays- just note that not all relays use the same PIN layout, I've even had Bosch ones rated the same, bought the same day place but the pin layouts were different. the pin number and use is the same but where they are on the relay is different resulting in a blown fuse - specially when you are using a relay connector thing.

HID, in most first world countries the fitment of HID as aftermarket is illegal. Even as standard equipment the HID light must have self leveling function. Is it policed I don't know. I'm not sure on the GRX but on the GL the headlight height cannot be adjusted from inside the car which means that when ever I load it a bit more I need to pop the hood, remember which screw to turn , count the turns etc and its just not worth the effort. I'll stay with my old 55W halogen and with the bumper driving lights they do give me decent enough light. And for the dark night the spots work really well.

I've not checked but is there any standard on the plugs for the HID aftermarket kits? or if one blows and you pop into the spares shop to get a replacement bulb and you are lucky that they have some (and not selling just kits) do you need to rewire if there kits are different?

I forgot to add on the H4 HID's I've seen 2 maybe 3 different types
dim HID, bright - HID -the bulb move to the bright position - sort of magnetic not most precise method.
dim HID, bright - halogen. bulb stationary and extra halogen bulb for bright - advantage - if you flash someone the light is immediately one where HID takes a second or 2 to activate (see note X) - not so cool for the ricers as you're brights are yellow.
only dim, you wire you're spots as brights.


note X: if you think 1 second is not much, on my car I've got LED in the side light for indicators and filament in the bumper. I can see the difference it takes for the filament to light up versus the nearly immediate LED, so I do believe it does make a difference if you flash someone and it takes a while to flash. On my Volvo with HID's and I'm sure the BM was the same - both types of bulbs were employed. Flashing would flash the halogen while if the lights were one brights would switch the halogen on and then move the HID bulb to bright. Note the bulb did not move but the reflector/ lens /unit actually did - unlike the aftermarket kits

[Peter Connan]

Peter , seen it but havent read through it yet been traveling a lot lately , will make work of it for us

Driko in the article they state that contrary to popular opinion there is no legal limit to bulb wattage. There are however limits to how many lights you may have, and also to where you may place them.

[Grootseun]

Peter ill need to see that one , i was at one of my suppliers a few years ago when the SABS gusy walked in and made him remove a few hundred sets of bulbs out of stock as they were domed non compliant and Illegal , they even had the documents there to back them up , maybe they were in the wrong or the law has changed

Andries - yes there are a few relay configurations most common will be either an A or B type configuration

In the end no matter what the config is the following applies

30 - Permanent Power
85 - Earth or Earth signal
86 - Switchable Power or power signal
87 - Load

[AndriesS]

That's why I buy relays with pretty pictures and numbers on them, don't have to memorize the stuff then. lol

[Grootseun]

Andries your lucky , ive had so many relays that we came accros esp for glow timers etc that had no bloody drawings that the old grey matter had to trained