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New headlights

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eaglefreek:
I have always disliked the performance of the stock headlights. Some have reported success with switching to a relay and larger wiring to the headlights. I decided to use better headlights and do the relay upgrade at the same time. I purchased some AutoPal headlights from an Ebay seller. They are 165mm glass lamps that take a removable H4 bulb. I highly recommend the relay upgrade. You might want to do that first and that may be enough. I live in a rural area that doesn't have many streetlights. I am extremely pleased with the new lights. I used to struggle to see with the low beams and would use my high beams and fog lights but would have to turn them off when approaching oncoming traffic. I drove tonight with the low beams and didn't have a need for the high beams.
First you will need a 5 pin 30 amp relay and preferably a relay socket. However you can use .250 female terminals instead of a socket.

 I prefer the one with two 87 pins and without the 87a pin. This way you can run 2 separate leads to the 2 headlights. You want the relay as close to battery as possible preferably and use 12 gauge wire for input and ground. Run 12v+ to pin 30. A 20 amp resetable circuit breaker inline with the +  would be a good idea. Run a short ground wire to pin 85 and attach it to the body or another suitable ground. You will need another relay for the high beams if you wish.

The H4 conversion bulbs use a plug just like the stock Eagle's plug, however the orientation of the 3 leads is different.

I didn't want to cut or splice into the factory harness, so I just slid a .250 spade terminal into the low beam's female socket and that goes to pin 86 on the relay. That wire doesn't need very large since it is just a switch wire.
I bought some new bulb socket pigtails and ran 12 awg wires from the 87 pins to the appropriate pin on the socket for the low beams.  Run a ground wire to the appropriate pin for the bulb and you are good to go.

darjeeling:
Okay I got a question- I have the regular 4556 lights on my car and I noticed when I turn the high beams on the low beams go dimmer.  Is that supposed to happen?  Or does this mean my socket is H4 style?

Sunny:
I had the same problem with the sealed headlights on my car. They were horrible, and I ended up doing an HID upgrade. It took a little bit more effort to get them to look stock [the lenses they came with were awful looking], but no one ever can tell until I turn them on. The difference was well worth it. I ended up going with 6000K lights, as they are pure white. You can get tinted light, depending on what K you go, but I found 6000K was the purist white, with the best visibility. Some charts list 5000K as pure white, but they aren't as bright. There is a very slight tinge of blue for the first 30 seconds - 1 minute before they warm up.

Overall I was really happy with the upgrade.



I think a headlight upgrade is one of the first thing's people should do on older car's.

vangremlin:
Sunny, I'm doing the same thing to my car today.  I've got the relays installed, now I'm about to put in the HID's.  I can't wait to drive at night and see how much of a difference they make...

Sunny:

--- Quote from: vangremlin on December 26, 2011, 02:49:50 PM ---Sunny, I'm doing the same thing to my car today.  I've got the relays installed, now I'm about to put in the HID's.  I can't wait to drive at night and how much of a difference they make...

--- End quote ---

It's a pretty straightforward install. You should have no problem doing it. I personally noticed a huge difference and was super happy. One word of advice though. AIM THEM!. Even a millimeter too high and they can blind people. HID's have a bad rap for blinding people, but it's always misadjustment.

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