Brighter Auto Headlight

[JollyRoger]

If you don't want to spend too much, you can buy the high beam bulbs (9005, I believe) and dremel the base a bit so that they fit in the 9006 headlight sockets in your car. That's what I did. Not so bright as to offend others, but pretty bright, and a lot whiter light. This is a cheap method of making brighter low beams. I didn't do anything to my high beams (don't really use them too often, and they're really bright anyways...how much brighter do you want?)

The whole "conversion" of the 9005 bulbs into 9006 bulbs took me about 10-15 min. Shouldn't take you too long...

BTW, I used the 9005 Sylvania Cool Blue lights. I know, they're the silly "blue" lights, but the output is actually kind of white (slightly yellow), not "blue."

[Brock]

You can buy higher wattage lamps at most car specialty places. Generally they are 45/55w if I remember correctly, but you can get up to 65/100. I got 45/100 so my dims are normal, but my brights are much brighter. I never leave my brights on around other cars, but if someone leaves their brights on they will see mine for a second [img]images/icons/wink.gif[/img] Then they usually turn theirs off. I believe Northern Tool has them and what the heck is the name of that other company that sells automotive parts???

[Flashlightboy]

Did you spend any time at the PIAA website? They have different outputs but I'm not sure about your application. I have their Superwhite 9007 lights in my Explorer and they're great.

[Gandalf]

I put a set of 80 watt *xenon* bulbs in my Honda, and while they have that crappy blue color, ( "looks like a HID lamp!") they are 80 watts, compared to 55 watts, more powerful. And *much more* white than blue. No yellow, mostly.

Since so many other cars have the HID lamps now, I have only been 'flashed' one time in about 8 months. No police problems, either.

Only problem, I can't find the website! Crap
They were about $45/pr. shipped.

But I book marked another website that has a large assortment of lamps, and they are less expensive than what I bought:
http://lightlens.com/bulbs.htm

They have a 80 watt lamp that is equivalent to what I got, for less money, $25/pr +shipping.

Worth a try. I think the lights I got were worth the money, as my middle aged eyes have worse and worse night vision..... I just hope they last! [img]images/icons/shocked.gif[/img] [img]images/icons/grin.gif[/img] [img]images/icons/shocked.gif[/img] [img]images/icons/grin.gif[/img] [img]images/icons/shocked.gif[/img]

[kb0rrg]

Would you consider wiring in a second set? ie driving lights?

[JoeyL]

Is that auto website by any chance
J.C. Whitney?
They have a lot of stuff.

[The_LED_Museum]

I've been using an 85 watt Hella off-road lamp on my wheelchair, and although it's brighter than most car headlights, it doesn't have that pretty blue-white HID color I really want.

You could probably still find these in the J.C. Whitney catalogues. I found mine at a flea market (cover and all) and paid $5 for it. [img]images/icons/grin.gif[/img]

[SurefireM6]

JC Whitney has drop in regular bulbs up to 110/130 (no dorky blue coating, comon who are they fooling...hmm that Honda Civic has HID lights! Yeah right.).
http://www.jcwhitney.com

also Autotoys has do-it-yourself HID kits for around $600. You install the balasts yourself and just insert the HID bulbs in place of your old ones. Takes about 2 hours if electically savy.

[BuddTX]

I want to replace the stock headlights in my GMC Sierra Pickup.

Now All I want are BRIGHTER lights in my truck. I don't want to spend thousands putting a HID system in, and I don't want to put in one of those cheap blue coated bulb. I can't believe that GE, Sylvania and Phillips offer a blub bulb. If one does 20 minutes of research on the internet, you will discover that the BLUE lights ACTUALLY REDUCE the amount of light coming from the bulb. Now I don't mind putting something "not quite legal" (not DOT Approved) higher wattage bulbs in my truck, but I am having trouble finding non BLUE bulbs with a higher wattage.

BTY, I need 9005 and 9006 bulbs.

Anything DOT approved is not going to be very bright, as the DOT specifications have a max and min lumen value. (I think the high side is 1150 lumens, and the low side is 950 lumens, but don't quote me)

Thanks to anyone that has any good web sites to visit !

Bruce

[LEDagent]

<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by Brock:
You can buy higher wattage lamps at most car specialty places. Generally they are 45/55w if I remember correctly, but you can get up to 65/100. I got 45/100 so my dims are normal, but my brights are much brighter. ???<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

[img]images/icons/shocked.gif[/img] [img]images/icons/shocked.gif[/img] NOOOOOooo!!! [img]images/icons/shocked.gif[/img] [img]images/icons/shocked.gif[/img]

Look it may not have happened to you yet, but introducing a higher wattage bulb to your headlight system may spell disaster for your headlight wiring. My dad's F-150 had stock 45/55w bulbs and i replaced them with 80/100w bulbs. A few months later, my drivers side lamp was shorting out and became dimmer, i felt the wires for the headlight and they were HOT! I was pulling way too much power for the wires to handle, so they melted, making the contact weak to the headlights. I was thinking of putting in brighter bulbs for my new Jetta, but the dealer told me NOT to because those "performance" bulbs will ruin the electrical system for the headlights and could cost over 300 bucks to replace.

PLEASE...if you are going to replace your headlight bulbs, go for the same wattage intended for the vehicle. The only bulbs that have the same wattage but seem to output brighter light are PIAA Platinum bulbs. I haven't tried them personally but have seen others use them. They "seem" brighter by outputing whiter light rather than higher watts, tricking the eye to see more visible light. The only disadvantage these bulbs have are their price, they can run you $70+

[lightuser]

some of the car nuts are installing xenon metal halide light kits for about $500. We had a big argument here lasting for several pages about whether they were genuine arc discharge lamps, and the conclusion was they really are. Maybe that's what you need. They are legal as far as I know. As far as I know the car companies equip new vehicles with state of the art halogen lights so what it came with will be hard to beat. Halogen systems are not far behind arc discharge systems and are fairly cheap to produce. The fake hid (blue) bulbs are probably less bright than halogens as you suggested. Good luck.
The topic was "Newbie with an HID question"

[pec50]

Automotive headlight wiring may only be 16 guage thus providing a standard usage of 10 amps or about 130 watts at 13 volts. Additionally, the headlight switch may be thermally protected and will open upon overload. So, you may wish to simply use the headlamp circuit to trigger a relay supporting larger guage wiring to the headlamps. As reference 14 gauge wire provides a standard usage of 15 amps and 12 gauge 20 amps as specified by ASE.

[Brock]

Yes I was thinking of J.C. Whitney. That is where I got mine.

I was thinking about brighter lights last night and LEDagent is correct. I did swap out the wires and connectors on my lights and also refused them. I wouldn't recommend going higher then 80w without rewiring, or if you do you might be blowing fuses or burning out connectors.

[NightShift]

If you are worried about frying your wires, do what I did...relay your headlamps to the battery with heavy guage wiring. Its pretty simple if you know what you're doing. This will also bring full voltage to your headlights better than stock wiring which is usually inadequate. If you do this even without upgrading your lighting system, your lights will be whiter and brighter.

If you are looking for the closest-to-HID halogen bulbs, i highly recommend Eaglite Xenon White bulbs. You can find em at midnightmoose.com and probably other places.

[Brock]

NightShift, you hit the nail on the head [img]images/icons/wink.gif[/img]

That is really the easiest way to do it, and then if you ever sell the car you can just put the old ones back in with the original wiring. I used a 30A relay and 20A fuse with #10 wire for each side on brights and the relay was tripped from the original high-beam wire.

[kb0rrg]

Just get a pair of driving lights for about $50. That way you get an additional 55W
of light, plus is DOT aproved. It is on its own circuit so there is no overload problem. They will also work if there is a failure of your standard headlights.