Higher wattage bulbs, Problem?

Voodoo2

Hi All,

I was wondering outside of legality etc want to change the bulbs in the car, well simply because they are crap, would putting higher wattage bulbs do damage to the car?

for example my front fogs are H1's 55W would these cause any damage?

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/7500K-GP-Thunder-H1-Xenon-Plasma-Quartz-Bulb-100W-Bulbs_W0QQcmdZViewItemQQcategoryZ36476QQitemZ8028317836QQrdZ1

or has anyone done this and had problems?

Thanks

C_Breeze

ok , Firstly stay away from those cheap ass Korean/Chinese bulbs.
(i bought a pair previously from ebay and blew after one week)
55w/60w

-Try get the Philips Blue Vision if you want decent bulbs.


I was in Germany last summer and got 2 sets of 360w xenons , 1 set for me and 1 set for my friend (50 quid a pop) - they make Huge difference , especially on back roads , and the light they emit looks really cool too.
But the thing is -they were(and still are) completley fine on my car:D
but on my friends car , he found that when he switched them on , the revs would drop significantly and sometimes car would cut out at traffic lights , and it melted the back plastic cover and plug ,so he had to take them off (now i have a spare set)

on the legality issue, i dont really know or care! but it does say they are for off road use only and to check with local law.
-with that being said i have sailed through all checkpoints , and met many oncoming Garda cars and i dint even get flashed si i have no no probs with legality issue.

hope that clears things up somewhat

AMurphy

I think you may be onto something there;
Could you post a link or link to simething similar or a pix.

Q; are talking about HID implants or simple replacement Xenon H3/H4/H7bulbs

Lets ignore the legalities for the moment and stick to Lumens/LIGHT and not burning out the "very thin" wiring now fitted to most cars.

as for those objects in the link;
Forgettit. You face two problems, The "very thin" wiring fitted to current cars may overheat and melt the insulation and/or switch. And being High wattage, high Lumens are prone to a short life. Color has nothing to do with it. With the apropriate gas fill I'm sure I could make them blush pink... and still fail early.

C_Breeze

Try get something similar to this

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/XENON-HID-KIT-BULB-H1-H4-H7-H8-H11-9004-9005-9006-9007_W0QQitemZ8024933234QQcategoryZ72235QQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

except that these are a bit off a rip off.

Ive got eaglelites 360W xenon/krypton at 8,000k

mike65

At the risk of seting off another argument why would you want 100w fogs as they project light only a few metres?

Mike.

mmenarry

I uprated the wattage on my main beams, from 65W ea to 100W ea.

As far as I know, there is a restriction on dipped beam wattage of 55W max, but no limit on full beam, which makes sense.

As stated before, be careful about overloading the wiring on the light circuit. I know some MX5 drivers in the club have had their wiring melt on them after fitting higher wattage bulbs.

The MX5 has flip up headlights, the lens glass is 100% vertical, and picks up a lot of road dirt. With "normal" wattage bulbs its a bit disconcerting to be following a lorry or similar vehicle, go to overtake and have very little light in front of you becasue of the dirt! :eek:

Good quality lenses may also help (makes better use of the available light) for people looking for an improvement, especially in older cars.

Michael

maidhc

I put 100w bulbs in my dims before as the lens/refractors in the car had gone yellow with age (common mondeo problem). The light was still really crap, but they worked fine for a few weeks until I managed to get hold of replacement lenses (without buying the entire headlamp new!). I put back in the 55w bulbs with the new lenses as the 100w's were blinding the country (never figured out why, but the 100w bulbs really messed up the pattern).

mike65

My Merc 190e is fitted with h4 80/100w as the standard 55/60s were frankly rubbish, I've seen many comments from owners of w201/w124 series cars complain about poor light and uprating thier bulbs.

Some ppl using copy headlight units (ie not bosch/hella) found they ended up with melted bulb holders!

Mike.

69 mustang

mike65 wrote:

My Merc 190e is fitted with h4 80/100w as the standard 55/60s were frankly rubbish, I've seen many comments from owners of w201/w124 series cars complain about poor light and uprating thier bulbs.

Some ppl using copy headlight units (ie not bosch/hella) found they ended up with melted bulb holders!

Mike.

I used those bulbs too and they melted the backing plugs now am on standard watt from Aldi of all places and the have a very sharp light off them so now I'm happy.:)

C_Breeze

trust me , if you want decent bulbs try get a pair of MAGLITE- eaglelites.
mine didnt melt a single wire and theyre 360w.
-before that i was using the BOSCH ones for sale in HAlfrauds (80w/100w) - they dont even compare.
I can try find the box and put up a pic if uz want.

_Kaiser_

Funny this is posted now as I was JUST about to ask for recommendations for new bulbs for my 98 Mitsubishi Mirage

I've tried replacing the stock ones with a set from Halfords about 6 weeks ago and while better, I find they don't seem as bright as a lot of others on the roads. I noticed that the headlights on a friend's new (well 94, but new to her ) Toyota Corona seem very weak. Given that both hers and mine are jap imports, I assume there's different regulations over there about this?

So, if anyone has recommendations on where to buy compatible bulbs for my Mirage that won't melt anything but will give a better output on the dark N3, I'd appreciate it... cheers!

Voodoo2

mike65 wrote:

At the risk of seting off another argument why would you want 100w fogs as they project light only a few metres?
Mike.

But its with in those few meters are the important, Im not looking for distance on my fogs, just a better light with the projections that are there, Ill be upgrading my beams also, I had bulbs before that were xeon filled that worked in a standard fitting they gave off no heat so thats what i want to find, again, those maglite ones sound interesting?!

BrianD3

on the legality issue, i dont really know or care! but it does say they are for off road use only

:rolleyes: You'll care when you have a head on with someone on a country road due to them being blinded by your lights.

greglo23

no matter how bright your headlights are if they are properly focused they will not blind anyone.

C_Breeze

greglo23 wrote:

no matter how bright your headlights are if they are properly focused they will not blind anyone.

exactly!! hence never having anyone at flash me or anytrouble at checkpoints.

BrianD3

greglo23 wrote:

no matter how bright your headlights are if they are properly focused they will not blind anyone.

Yes they will, for instance if you meet a car coming over a crest their dipped beams may blind you slightly even if they are perfectly focused. Now in this instance would you prefer to meet someone with the standard bulbs or some muppet with his gazillion watt lights which are illegal for road use.

Voodoo2

BrianD3 wrote:

Yes they will, for instance if you meet a car coming over a crest their dipped beams may blind you slightly even if they are perfectly focused. Now in this instance would you prefer to meet someone with the standard bulbs or some muppet with his gazillion watt lights which are illegal for road use.

Or Seeing that Pot hole on the margin of the road before its 2 feet from your hard earned Alloys?

AMurphy

C_Breeze wrote:

trust me , if you want decent bulbs try get a pair of MAGLITE- eaglelites.
mine didnt melt a single wire and theyre 360w.
-before that i was using the BOSCH ones for sale in HAlfrauds (80w/100w) - they dont even compare.
I can try find the box and put up a pic if uz want.

yes, please post some link or infor for inspection.

However, 360W/side = 27Amps....54 amps in total, no swtich and very few regular relays are rated over 30A
Bosch 40A relays have 10mm tabs, not 6mm.
So waht are you using for supply wire?or what voltage are you running?.

Voodoo2

Well I was just checking out these?

http://cgi.ebay.com/H7-WHITE-CAR-HEAD-LIGHT-BULBS-LAMP-BRIGHT-JAPAN-NEW-NR_W0QQitemZ8030070351QQcategoryZ72235QQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

And they say

Features:

- Input power is 55W (normal input for every standard car).
- Output power is 110W/100W.
- Color Temperature: 5000K

So the input is 55W would these be ok?

C_Breeze

AMurphy , ill look for the box(if i can find it) and try put up a pic. ( but i got them at a german auto market, in germany so im not sure where they can be sourced , lol.

i dont know about wires or fuses , i just poped them in and off i went merily on my way - not a bother on me (but in my mates car, it would stutter at traffic lights and plastic bit attching to bulbs melted)

It clearly even sates it on the metal part of the actual bulb- E74,H4,340w/360W

I was happy when i got them because i was looking for something like them for ages .


Went into halfrauds and bought the most expensive bulb at 18€ for 1 - on the box it said XENON , 50% better visibilty and clarity with white light , then i bought the ultra blue , and then LAZEr BLue and they were all the same .
i even inisted that manager come to my car too see if he can notice any difference , they all had that same $hite yellow tinge , his excuse was "we must have gotten a bad batch" - so stay away from the halfords bulbs

ds20prefecture

If your lights were fine when the car was new, the chances are that the reflectors are the problem. Fitting higher wattage bulbs will just hasten the degradation of the reflector, as well as putting greater load on the wiring, relays, etc.

Cure the disease, don't treat the symptoms. Replace your headlamp units and the light will be as good as it was when the car was new.

Gary ITR

ds20prefecture wrote:

Cure the disease, don't treat the symptoms. Replace your headlamp units and the light will be as good as it was when the car was new.

I have to echo this. I am relly sick of being blinded going over hump back bridges or by muppets who have fogs/beams on when they're on the unlit parts of the M1 and M4...

Automan

Some good info about headlights and HID upgrades.

http://faqlight.carpassion.info/

http://www.team-integra.net/sections/articles/showArticle.asp?ArticleID=448

Pricing/buying bulbs:

http://www.autobulbsdirect.co.uk/home.php

Cucullan

Auto Express magazine done an artical on auto bulbs a few weeks back and the Osram Silverstar were the best and Philips GT150 bulbs were second.

sharkman

Try the Philips GT150 bulb , I am using them at the moment after trying all sorts of crap off e-bay . they are much better than those blue bulbs and have lasted over a year .

See here : http://www.powerbulbs.co.uk/default.asp?prodtype.asp?PT_ID=77&numRecordPosition=1&strPageHistory=cat&strKeywords=&strSearchCriteria=

Victor

It has been suggested the proliferation of cars with 0.5 / 1 / 1.5 / 23 headlights is down to people buggering around with bulbs. Don't.

AMurphy

Hmmmmm, the only think I can pull up showing 360W Halogen are 82V Projector bulbs and Metal Halide Street lamps.

Any company name on these items?.