Brian S

Which bulbs and I supposed to use and also do the bulbs just plug into the stock harness? Just kind of curious because I was going to install the lights, but I noticed there wasn't a bulb with them =\

mazdaspeed7

The bulbs(H4) do plug right into the stock harness.

As far as brands, PIAA makes great bulbs, but are quite expensive. Toucan bulbs suck *****. I know someone who got APC bulbs on their 240, and they are bright as hell, but other than that, no experience with them. Hella also makes good bulbs. Sylvania Silverstars suck.

Hope that helps. BTW, what brand lense did you get? That matters A LOT more than the bulb.

Mr. Gadget

So, what is the best lens/bulb combo then?

mazdaspeed7

Hella lenses cant be beat. As far as bulbs, I believe PIAA makes the best DOT legal bulbs. But non-DOT legal bulbs of a higher wattage will be brighter, but you will need to rewire the headlights with 2 relays so the wiring harness doesnt melt. Send me a PM if you need instructions for rewiring the headlights with relays.

bcty

i run i believe OSRAM headlight caseings that came from somewhere in japan my bud brought back for me and a PIAA H4 135Watt.. nice and bright.. dont need to rewire for that.. and i have a small city light hole in there made for a 5Watt colored bulb.. but i drilled it out a bit more and put a 150watt H3 in there wired to a switch.. now thats bright.. plus my fogs.. lets say u dont wanna be in front..

Brian S

Yes, my otto lenses have some japenses writing on the box and came with a blue light for them, I don't know what thats for, unless it's just to run around and say I have a blue light in here *shrug*

bcty

anyways... just go find yourself some Hella caseings and a PIAA bulb and im sure youd be happy with that.

Brian S

It's ready to go in the car, I just need bulbs :p

"These headlight housings allow you to get rid of the stock sealed beam light. Allowing you the ability to use any of the H4 bulbs on the market. These also have a blue city like built in. We sell a number of headlights including PIAA, Raybring, Nokya..etc. Call for specific info."

mazdaspeed7

Osram cases are made by Sylvania, who happens to be one of(if not the) largest headlight manufacturer in the world. Sylvania is also who makes the stock sealed beam headlights. Next time youre playing headlight trivia, you will know Osram and Sylvania are the same company, with the Sylvania name beign used mainly in the states, and Osram everywhere else.

Hella e-spec(NOT DOT legal) are supposed to be great. Theyre designed for autobahn driving(good light pattern for high speed driving) Hella vision plus is a DOT legal version of the e-spec, but its effective range isnt as long. Something about the DOT not wanting oncoming traffic to be blind...

Anything over 90W for the bulb, and you run the risk of melting the wiring harness.

IWNTA20B

I say screw DOT. US spec lenses are awful. Newer cars with fixed lenses are much better and give off much better light distribution. Older cars using the H6054 or the likes are *bad*. The only option is buy H4 conversion lenses but you need to buy quality lenses and not cheap Ebay $30.99 a pair craps. These are bright as hell but there is hardly any light on the road but a lot on oncoming trafiic and blinding them. The best are European and Japanese lenses. My wife's cousin's FC has H4 Japanese lenses and they are amazing. The lights cut off just about at the cars rear window as we were following cars. Her Skyline, well, with extra fogs and even factory lenses I was amazed how well it lights up the road.
A friend's VR6 has Hella lenses and they are good as well.

pd_day

iTrader: (6)

I am running PIAA H4 Extreme Whites in PIAA housings.
The lighting is amazing....very close to HIDs

JasonL

I've got the Bosche H4 Conversion kit, was $90 cdn and can be found at alot of auto stores.

Easy swap. They come with 55/65watt bulbs and the improvement is AWESOME over stock. Plus there DOT stamped. The casings are really good quality compared to ebay specials.

Can our wiring safely handle those PIAA 135 watt bulbs?

NZConvertible

Dude, you should not be runnning Japanese RHD headlights in the US. All lo-beam headlights are designed to throw more light to the outside of the road than the inside. It helps you see things on the footpath and stops you blinding oncoming motorists. It's illegal for a very good reason and it's extremely inconsiderate to boot.
I would consider a 145% increase in outout without rewiring a major fire hazard...

NZConvertible

Dude, you should not be runnning Japanese RHD headlights in the US. All low-beam headlights are designed to throw more light to the outside of the road than the inside. It helps you see things on the footpath and stops you blinding oncoming motorists. You lights are aimed towards the inside of the road. It's illegal to use RHD headlights in the US for a very good reason and it's extremely inconsiderate to boot.
I would consider a 145% increase in outout without rewiring a major fire hazard...

Juan

iTrader: (28)

mazdaspeed7, can you post the instructions for rewiring headlights on here or on a seperate post?? That info should be archive material. Seems like theres alot of people with high watt light bulbs on stock wiring. Thanks

Juan

iTrader: (28)

What about European headlight housings? I know cars out there are left hand drive. Besides DOT approved housings, are housings designed for "offroad use" brighter than DOT approved ones? I know theres a quite a few of us here that live in rural areas with dark roads so will using offroad headlight housings be a better solution?

Cwaters

Yu can get H4 spec bulbs at most any good parts store. Try whatever they have. If you don't like them, mail order the Hellas.

Mr. Eccentric

I've got the Hella conversion, no gripes about it.

As far as bulbs, they're big bucks, but 4100k on the light scale, Raybrig Magnum H4's.

jimmyv13

http://lighting.mbz.org/home.html

great site loaded with info...

jetfire76

yes, please do a write-up! thanks!

mazdaspeed7

How did I get dragged into this one??? NZconvertible is the person to talk to.

NZConvertible

OK then.

The headlight wiring is very simple. It goes from the 30A "HEAD" fuse in the main fusebox to the headlight relay in front of the radiator (one wire), then to the dimmer relay right next to it (one wire), then splits into low-beam and high-beam from the relay, which splits into left and right pairs somewhere in the loom. Look on page 50-48 of the 88 FSM wiring diagram for the circuit.

I think the best way to upgrade the headlight wiring is simply to run extra wires in parallel with the stock ones. Extract the pins from the relay's plugs and solder new wires to them. Run the wires as per the curcuit diagram.

This will significantly reduce the voltage drop between the battery and the headlights, and should be considered mandatory if you're going to put higher wattage in bulbs.

jsotelo

What's a good place to the the Hella lenses?

Juan

iTrader: (28)

Good stuff. Thanks!