Headlight bulbs..max wattage?
 

Winter is upon us again and once again I'll be cursing the crap headlights, seems like every other car on the road has better dipped headlights than my P1.
Does anyone know what the maximum wattage bulbs I can put in would be without frying the wiring?

seem to think i read of people using 100/80's with no problem.

using ge magalight +60% in my99. improvement on standard but still not as good as most other cars! they are only 15.99 a pair from autobulbs direct. i have ordered from these guys 3 or 4 times and you always get rapid delivery and emails telling you when things are dispatched etc.

Thought about some HID's from these guys:
http://www.hid-online.com/hidonline/home.htm ??

Alcazar

$680!!....very nice idea by the manufacturer, but a fair wack nonetheless!...still a bit dubious about retrofitting a Xenon bulb/kit into OE lens units; surely true Xenon headlamps have redesigned reflectors, etc to maximise the throw and spread of light?....

Bought some Halfords "50% Brighter" bulbs the other day, the ones in the Gold packet, £12.99 each although they were doing a 2-for-1 deal....they're c**p....nowhere near as good as the Philips ones I had in before (although these seemed to be prone to blowing). However, I can now see the immediate 3 feet in front of the car instead of the road, which is erm, "interesting"...don't waste your money. :Whatever_

Spen

think the halfords 50% brighter are ge megalights +50%s (it will be written on the metal part).

you could of got them from autobulbs for £15 the pair :p

If it's illuminating the area right in front of the car that much it sounds like your headlight alignment might not be right.

Classic lights are absolutely shockingly pathetic if you ask me. Tried several of those '30%'/'50%' brighter things, agree with Spenny B, 5h1te IMHO.

I put 80/100s in my '98 and they made the lights somewhere approaching normal cars -from the 80's, which is a LOT better than it was.
I couldn't detect any hot wiring and ran them through the summer. I figured the risk I posed to other users and myself from driving 'blind' was much, much greater than the risk of burning out wiring. I'd check all the connections tho.
As for other users being dazzled with the 80/100s - the lights are still below many modern cars even with these in.

I'd be interested to know if anyone does happen to know the standard wiring current limit?

Fuses are there to protect the wiring, relays (and battery etc) from overload by forming the weakest link and should have a rating lower than the wiring so that they burn out first.
The load/device drawing current should draw less than the fuse. If you have standard fuses and wiring and put higher rated bulbs in, then they should blow the fuse before burning the wiring. At least that's the theory. So having run higher wattage bulbs without blowing fuses I PRESUME that the load is still within the limit of the wiring.

100/80W works out at 8.3A/6.6A against 5.4A for 65W......(that's at 12v, whereas it's probably more like 13.8v giving an amp or so less).....anyone know?

Other than melting the wiring, what about the additional heat and the risk of burning the headlight reflectors ??

I would check the voltage between battery and headlamp, then battery and alternator. The last time I checked, the alternator was 14.1v and the headlamp bulbs were seeing 10.something.

I've never got round to replacing the OE headlamp wiring, but it could be a small project for me this winter given I can't see sh!t.

Stefan

I've been running 100/80w's in my classic for 5 years with no problems and I'm now running 400w on main beam in my Legacy GTB :eek:
I thought the classic lights were poor but the GTB is even worse, I went to change the main beam to 100w bulbs to improve things only to find they already had 100's fitted. I used to run 400w on main beam in my MK2 RS2000 - the alternator light on the dash used to have a healthy glow when everything was switched on....

100w with relays & heavy duty wiring
 

I'm using 100/90w Phillips bulbs in my MY96. I have fused relays for main & dip with nice thick cables with soldered connections, new connectors for the bulbs and power direct from the battery. The relays are mounted on a plate fixed to the battery clamp (there is another thread with pictures of this somewhere). They are very much better that the previous +50% Osrams - good reach with a hard centre on main beam.

Watch out though as the Japs do things a**e about face and switch the earth rather than the power. Took me a few minutes to work that out!

Hope this helps

Francis K

I reckon Francis K has got the idea, and soldering those crimped connectors is probably a very good practice at the least, especially on older cars.

I have an '03 now, which has 'modern' headlights. They work quite well with standard bulbs!

I've used 90/130watt bulbs on my MY97 for many years (about 3 years IIRC) now with no faults, on standard wiring and relays.

The wiring does get slightly warm after a long night time journey, relays get a bit warm (although they did that anyway). It's hard to tell if it's not just heat soak from the engine though.

I understand that there is a voltage drop at the lights due to the resistence of the wire (ohm's law ;) ). I'll measure it when I get the chance and post it if you want :)

Reflectors are fine too. Even after many hours of country lane driving on full beam (130).

Well.... after much consideration I went for 100/80s, fitted them Friday, fist one blew Saturday night.

24hrs from a new bulb, actually only about 3 hours of use.

Off back to Halfrauds.

3 hours :eek:

Just checking but, did you touch the glass on the bulb? They don't take kindly to greasy fingerprints.

Didn't touch the glass, knew that was a no-no.

me and 2 of my mates all run the same ring sports blue 100watt bulbs

the 2 MY97 cars have been fine
the MY99 melted a wire

if you fit larger wattage bulbs, check them now and again
a mate has just had a HID kit sent over from OZ for £250 from a relitive thats out there, supposed to be pretty good

which make are they?

the cheaper stuff tends to blow to easy IMO

the ones we fit tend to last about 8 months or so before 1 blows, then the other normally blows within a month, the funny thing is all 3 of us tend to blow them around the same time (we all fitted them at the same time) so if one of my mates blows, i know mine is on its way as well, and vice versa

i replaced mine about a month ago, i told my mate and he said "ohh shecks have just went as well)

worth it for the extra light tho IMO

I use Lucas bulbs, first one gave up after 4 years and the second was about a month later - now on 2nd set..

Ive been running 80/100 in my 95 and it melted on of the connectors.
I managed to source some bosch =30% 55/60 and they are not as good.
However I dont fancy melted connectors again.
I now need to re-adjust the bulbs as one of them is pointing skywards...

Lucas................whatever happened to them? They made probably the best rally light I've ever had , before HID, called the "Flarepath", and before that, there was one called the LR700"Flamethrower".

You can't seem to get Lucas branded stuff now.

Alcazar