cheap headlight mod

[westy90 Junior Member Find all posts View Profile Close westy90]

Hi all put some elcheapo ebay xenon bulbs into the prado. They have a blue tint to the glass. Jump onto ebay and search 'headlight h4' and heaps will come up. Scroll down until you find one with 55/60w strength. From hong kong the two bulbs will cost the grand total obout $6.90 delivered. Alternatively, hit this link:

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/H4-White ... ccessories

The difference? When you put one in and compare to the normal bulb, the light is white, without the yellow tint. It reaches further too. Not sure how long the bulbs will last (will report back if they fail early) but for the $ and the improvement you get at this point in time I recommend you have a crack at this mod.

Adam

[croozza Avid PP Poster! Find all posts View Profile Close croozza]

Re: cheap headlight mod

These type of bulbs are good till you get a wet road, then you will wonder if you have your lights on at all, as the road seems to soak up that colour light more than std halogens. What you really need to do is upgrade the wiring of the lights to stop the voltage drop at the bulb connection, if you upgrade the wiring you will have better light output than with changing to a different type of bulb.

[Des 3.0RV Lurker Find all posts View Profile Close Des 3.0RV]

Re: cheap headlight mod

Hi
You all so could do HID conversion for about $360.
Thats a H4 35w 6000k or 4200k kit.
have a look at http://www.britaxae.com.au/xrayvision/x ... n-kit.html

[croozza Avid PP Poster! Find all posts View Profile Close croozza]

Re: cheap headlight mod

Hi
You all so could do HID conversion for about $360.
Thats a H4 35w 6000k or 4200k kit.
have a look at http://www.britaxae.com.au/xrayvision/x ... n-kit.html

Unfortunately that is illegal for your headlights that run on halogen H4, unless you buy the aftermarket projector style lights, but then they need to meet ADR approval too.

[vivioman Junior Member Find all posts View Profile Close vivioman]

Re: cheap headlight mod

These type of bulbs are good till you get a wet road, then you will wonder if you have your lights on at all, as the road seems to soak up that colour light more than std halogens.

As croozza said, these bulbs seem the works till you drive on a wet road. Had them in my previous cars, but I've chucked them and switched back to the normal yellow beam light bulbs.

[toddy Member Find all posts View Profile Close toddy]

Re: cheap headlight mod

Hey crooza,

Is the voltage drop that significant that the bulbs "under-perform"? or are you overpowering the light a bit and in turn shortening life?

Never heard to upgrade the headlight wiring, if it does work as you say it's definitely something i will be doing.

cheers

[croozza Avid PP Poster! Find all posts View Profile Close croozza]

Re: cheap headlight mod

Hey crooza,

Is the voltage drop that significant that the bulbs "under-perform"? or are you overpowering the light a bit and in turn shortening life?

Never heard to upgrade the headlight wiring, if it does work as you say it's definitely something i will be doing.

cheers

Yeah mate there is a significant voltage drop at the bulb, this is due to the thickness of the wires in headlight loom, Check out http://www.piranhaoffroad.com.au/ they have the looms that will get the voltage back to 12V at the bulb.

[Schaffer Addicted PP Member Find all posts View Profile Close Schaffer]

Re: cheap headlight mod

Crooza is correct on what he is saying in regards lights being dim due to loss of voltage over factory loom. I believe this is the kit to get from Piranha:
http://piranhaoffroad.com.au/index.p...uper-loom.html
Not sure on the price but I believe it is priced fairly steeply (around $200) but the end result would be worth while. Probably a lot cheaper to manufacture one yourself using 5mm auto cable and two new relays to control the lights

[toddy Member Find all posts View Profile Close toddy]

Re: cheap headlight mod

Out of interest, has anyone ever tested the Prado's voltage at the bulb :?:

I will try and have a look this arvo on my rig.

Schaffer, why would new relays be required when the current ones would be rated for the correct voltage???

Cheers,

[croozza Avid PP Poster! Find all posts View Profile Close croozza]

Re: cheap headlight mod

Out of interest, has anyone ever tested the Prado's voltage at the bulb :?:

I will try and have a look this arvo on my rig.

Schaffer, why would new relays be required when the current ones would be rated for the correct voltage???

Cheers,

Here is a little quote from Piranha Off Road

Most Japanese 4WD vehicles use 2.5mm wire into the standard headlights thus typically only providing 9.5 to 10.5 volts at the bulb. Obviously 12 volt lights cannot perform to their best with this type of voltage loss.

Schaffer is correct in saying if you want to do it cheaper, you can buy all the parts required, however for ease of use, the Piranha system is a plug in and play set up, so is very easy and quick to do, it may take about 30 mins to 60 mins to do, or if you still prefer the DIY method, it may take up to 4 hours to do.

[williade Avid PP Poster! Find all posts View Profile Close williade]

Re: cheap headlight mod

Are the HID conversion kits with the included washers jets legal? Been thinking about a head light upgrade.

[croozza Avid PP Poster! Find all posts View Profile Close croozza]

Re: cheap headlight mod

Are the HID conversion kits with the included washers jets legal? Been thinking about a head light upgrade.

Only if you use them in the projector style aftermarket headlights, the high beam will work seperately (the normal low beam will still stay on on the outer side of the light cluster with high beam on the inner side of the cluster), so basically you will have 2 bulbs, one for low beam the other for high beam, from what I am told you do not need the washer jets. One thing you need to keep in mind is to make sure they are ADR compliant. Cost side of things it will still be much cheaper to upgrade the headlight loom, with about the same gain. Personally, I would only put HID on the spot lights.

[Schaffer Addicted PP Member Find all posts View Profile Close Schaffer]

Re: cheap headlight mod

Schaffer, why would new relays be required when the current ones would be rated for the correct voltage???

The way the loom woold work is that you link into the existing wiring as the new control wiring curcuit and use relays to drive the heavier wiring direct from the battery to the headlight. The alternative is to try and much around with replacing the existing wiring (which is probably only something like 2mm cable instead of the Piranha 5mm cable) all the way through the various looms in the vehcile. You would be a PITA but you are welcome to give it a whirl.

Crooza suggested 4hours as a DIY but that would NOT be replacing the existing looms.

[toddy Member Find all posts View Profile Close toddy]

Re: cheap headlight mod

Nick, I didn't realise that

You would be a PITA

by doing my own cabling but thanks all the same...

If I were to do it, I agree that the piranha solution is best for time and stuffing around especially re-terminating new cables under the relay bases.

I may be a little pedantic here, but the relay receives a signal from the existing control circuit (which is unchanged as this doesn't carry many amps i.e. headlight switch in cab) to "close" the power circuit to the headlights (which is what is upgraded). So the supply cable from the battery to the relay and the cable from the relay to the lights would be upgraded.

Just trying to get a better picture of the upgrade.

Thanks for all your input.

[croozza Avid PP Poster! Find all posts View Profile Close croozza]

Re: cheap headlight mod

Schaffer, why would new relays be required when the current ones would be rated for the correct voltage???

The way the loom woold work is that you link into the existing wiring as the new control wiring curcuit and use relays to drive the heavier wiring direct from the battery to the headlight. The alternative is to try and much around with replacing the existing wiring (which is probably only something like 2mm cable instead of the Piranha 5mm cable) all the way through the various looms in the vehcile. You would be a PITA but you are welcome to give it a whirl.

Crooza suggested 4hours as a DIY but that would NOT be replacing the existing looms.

Sort of right there, you use the existing wires (loom) as your switching wire, after the switch you use new wire. there is no need to go right through the vehicle. This is how the Piranha system works, so basically what you would be doing is, replicating their system. Still much easier to buy the premade loom from them though, and just plug it in.