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I've had Cibie Oscar + on my wagon for 15 years and getting fed up changing inners due to water ingress and rusting of the reflectors. this tends to happen in about 2 years or so. Gradually the whole steel casing gives up even after painting in Hammerite etc. never had problem with the bulbs (currently 130w) like some. Problem now seems to be getting hold of the inners without spending crazy money. my brackets are made from Stainless and a T shape that is bolted to the back of the rear light housing. Adjustment is done by fiddling with washers between the bracket and bumper fixing
Have looked at the Piaa 80 Xt but lots of threads say they seem to suffer the same problems as the Cibies.
I like the option of the hella lights as they have plastic moulded cases but all the threads i've read are for obsolete lights. Does anyone have recommendations for fitment on current available models ?
I should be able to source the prodrive Piaa brackets as i know a lot of lights will need to bolt to that and not the type of bracket i currently have.
I've also recently renewed the wiring loom with new fuse holder, relay and wiring so that is all good.
Sorry, yes and roughly the same size as the Cibies that are in there i guess as they are fairly tight.
Thanks
No worries, I was asking as I made up a light bar and bracket so now have a set of 9" Luminator spots and some 7" floods on a bar for cornering duties but if you want them to fit in the existing holes then I suspect that even the 7" would be too big as they're pretty deep. Bloody good though. You may be able to pick up the inserts and modify them to fit your current housings. When I'm back at where I store the car over winter (as it now gets so little use) I could pull the cover off and take some dimensions for you if you'd like?
This is my setup. The bar is basic but it was to try out the layout, I've got a newly welded up proper one to go on (I did chop the bolts down before driving it). It's bloody outstanding, you can spot deer at over a mile now:
@Don Clark The smaller Luminator Compacts I have on there may be suitable if he knows the size of the reflector unit held in the Cibies. Ultimately if they're similar outer dimensions the inners are likely to be similar too. I picked the pair of luminators up for about £100 new so it may be a good option. They're certainly decent lights as when I first made up the bar it was only those I had fitted to it and they were pretty impressive at adding breadth and depth to the existing high beam on the Blob which is already significantly better than on the Classic. FWIW I haven't seen the mounting setup on the classic in a long time so don't know if it might even be possible to mount the Laminators in with their housings if you're clever with the brackets or can weld some tabs onto the Luminator housings.
The beam pattern on this page for the above lights looks pretty reasonable. I'm not sure I'm a fan of the black effect on the lens but they seem about the same price as the Luminator Compacts. Frustratingly Hella have many different lamps that are similar size, similar price and similar (on paper) performance. Not entirely helpful when you're trying to decide which option suits you best!
My understanding is that Hella have an Indian factory so they probably are legit. I picked up a pair of Sharptone horns last year which were def genuine and they came from India. That said I would probably be a bit more hesitant for something like a pair of lamps although if they did turn out to be fake then I imagine Paypal would sort things out. Are you planning to bond the hole light unit onto the current bracket, or use the existing housings and then install the reflector and lens from the new ones into them?
Thanks guys..funny thing is I go near that factory with work ! Well, I did and not likely to go there soon me thinks !
ive actually found some 700ff on Amazon and as I’m a prime member It’s free delivery from US...
and at £43 per light seems worth a go.
thinking if I can use my existing T brackets and drill a hole through the housing and bracket together. If not then get some new brackets made up.
won’t know until I can pull it all apart and see how it fits.
these lights are also H3 bulbs.
stage 2 could be HID upgrade. Will order some 100w bulbs from e-bay and see how it goes.
thanks for all your help.
bit weird as I’ve had a Scoob for 23 years (had this one for 15!)and getting the bug again the last couple with lots of work done on the wagon !
Thanks guys..funny thing is I go near that factory with work ! Well, I did and not likely to go there soon me thinks !
ive actually found some 700ff on Amazon and as I’m a prime member It’s free delivery from US... and at £43 per light seems worth a go.
thinking if I can use my existing T brackets and drill a hole through the housing and bracket together. If not then get some new brackets made up.
won’t know until I can pull it all apart and see how it fits.
these lights are also H3 bulbs.
stage 2 could be HID upgrade. Will order some 100w bulbs from e-bay and see how it goes.
thanks for all your help.
bit weird as I’ve had a Scoob for 23 years (had this one for 15!)and getting the bug again the last couple with lots of work done on the wagon !
steve
£43 seems a bargain! They'll also be a lot lighter than the laminators with the resin housings, I think my light bar is about 15kg! Are your current brackets a 4 point mounting system like normal foglight? It might be interesting trying to marry them up but I'm sure it's possible, just one of those things best planned once you've got it all in front of you.
With the bulbs I've been tempted by the idea of HIDs in mine to reduce the alternator load (or even LED's) but I've not seen any evidence to suggest they really do a decent job given they're reflector rather than projector lights, albeit dazzle for oncoming drivers is hardly an issue given I need to dip them from a kilometre away as it is! What I did discover was that in terms of visible light output the 150% 55W Osrams I fitted were on a par with brightness from 100W Ring bulbs. If anything the colour of light from the 150% ones picked things out in the fore-middle ground better while the 100W ones were potentially able to get reflective road signs to stand out a little further away.
Just ordered the lights and came back as £41.88 each with free delivery ! I couldn’t get Cibie inserts for that !
osram night breaker bulbs (£15) and also some 100w bulbs (£6.99) just to compare..
will let you know and thanks so much for your input
steve
Funnily enough that's exactly what I did when I was first setting them up. You might prefer them, I found that the mid ground with the 150% bulbs suited me better but everyone's eyes are different. That price is amazingly good. If I'd found them when I set up what I've got I'd have seriously considered four of them instead. I'm not sure how easily the resin lights can be disassembled, they may be bonded or something but assuming they are it would be reasonably quick to check if you could get away with just swapping the inserts over as that would save a lot of mounting bracket hassle.
Got the lights via Amazon and no surprises with customs charges.
Problem is the plastic housing with the brackets attachment won't fit into the aperture as they foul the bumper. i did think to return and change for the smaller 500ff but decided to push ahead and adjust these.
What I've done is remove the large plastic part with a Dremel that the Hella bracket attaches to and the lights now fit with it removes.. Next stage is the take my brackets off the Cibies and attach to the back of the Hellas and through the back of the housing as there is about 40mm of flat area. Only worry now is that due to them being slightly bigger than the Cibie, i won't be able to tighten the 3 point bracket with lights fitted..Might need to fit bracket to bumper, fit the light housing to that and then fit light insert and secure. will see how that goes.
this took longer than planned as i've removed front bumper and fitted new bumper support beam as original is 20 years old and badly rusted as the bumper had dropped. Also fitted new fog light brackets as again, these were badly rusted. I can now see why as i got genuine ones from Subaru (lowest cost anywhere) and they only come in primer so a few Coates of hammerite should be good for some years.
Very tight fit but happy i persevered with these as the light output is excellent.
Now fitted the 100w bulbs and will see what that it like
i had to cut way the bulky mounting part and covered the gap with 1mm Aluminium and Epoxy resin. All look watertight and it's behind the light and out of sight.
The cavity in the bumper is kinda square so i was able to fix the T bracket to the back of the lights and then there was enough space to fix that to the bumper support bracket.
Nice one, they look superb! I wish the holes on the blob eye were sized the same but sadly they're only 100mm which doesn't let you fit anything decent in.
The front end on the whole looks good there, the last generation of the Classic in either Dark Mica Blue or Mica Red are probably my favourite looking Impreza, 3dr's aside!
The previous weekend I had the bumper off and replaced the support...only had red Hammerite but hidden out of view.
Ant squirted loads Waxoyl into chassis tubes etc.
Aside from needing the replacement bumper bar that looks cleaner than my Blob under there! If you're looking likely to need more stuff repainted under the skin I can recommend Bilt Hamber Epoxy mastic, it's best applied to clean bare metal but once set it's rock hard. Really good stuff but does need brushed on.
Very tight fit but happy i persevered with these as the light output is excellent.
Now fitted the 100w bulbs and will see what that it like
i had to cut way the bulky mounting part and covered the gap with 1mm Aluminium and Epoxy resin. All look watertight and it's behind the light and out of sight.
The cavity in the bumper is kinda square so i was able to fix the T bracket to the back of the lights and then there was enough space to fix that to the bumper support bracket.
I've done this for less than £100
Steve
Hi Stevie,
I'm having to replace my old Scoobysport lamps, on a 98 Turbo. They provided great lighting power, but bulbs lasted no time at all, and neither did the metal case. Could I just check that these are the lamps you modified to fit your car. HELLA 700FF Driving Lamp.
Did you place the PIAA fixing bracket in the middle of the Hella's or did it have to be off centre so the lamps were in the middle of the bumper space?
The wiring for the Scoobysport lights is still in place on my car, do you know if this can used for the Hella's or do I need to replace it? If so, does the replacement wiring come with the lamp kit?
Did you use the 55W bulbs that come with the Hella's and do they have anywhere near the lighting power of the 130W that I had with the PIAA's?
Thanks,
Thomas
Do you constantly need to replace the bulbs, whichever you used?
I'll let Stevie answer on which lights he settled for (pretty sure it was the 700FF's) but they won't come with connectors, just bare wires. What you'll therefore need to do is cut the connectors off your existing lights, assuming they come with Subaru style connectors, and add them to the bare wires on your new lights. I'm also pretty sure that none of the Hellas come with bulbs but I might be wrong (certainly neither set of my laminators did).
05 January 2021, 01:31 PM
Driving lights to replace Cibie Oscar +
