Are H4 Headlights That Much Better? Reply #15 – October 29, 2012, 06:11:30 PM Quote from: 88 Blackbird 5.0;401583Everything is going to be optimized on the car for headlight output. I'm going to install a relay harness that sends 14.4 volts to the headlights, I'm going to use 10 gauge wire to make the harness and I'm going to ground each headlight directly. That way, I'll be able to get the optimum performance from the bulbs. The housings are mint. I thought you said you already installed the relay harness? Anyway, verify that you are actually getting 14.4v at the battery and at the headlights. 10awg wire should be plenty to keep the voltage drop down (I used real 10awg copper). The biggest problem is the 9004 bulb light pattern was terrible, and these housings were designed to try to work with the light pattern that the bulbs produced. All bulbs will be pretty bad in them, giving you two hot spots in front of the vehicle. I remember well what the stock lights looked like as I had opaque ones, then cleaned up lenses, then relays, then aluminum foil was applied to the reflectors, then new headlight housings were purchased. Having the NOS lights with a fresh reflector made the biggest difference (well, beyond make the lenses clear initially). Foglights helped light up the road a bit more. With HID projection though, the foglights cannot be seen from the driver seat in anything BUT fog. Heavy fog turns the HID output into a wall of white about 3 feet in front of the vehicle. With the stock lights and foglights, the viewable distance was a whopping, like, 10 feet road but at least it didn't light up like a wall :pI don't get that heavy of fog often though... Quote Selected
Are H4 Headlights That Much Better? Reply #16 – November 01, 2012, 10:33:16 AM My OEM headlight lenses are still clear and in very good shape. I really don't find the stock lights that bad but I can notice a difference from my newer cars today. If I just wanted to make a difference using my original housing and wiring, what would be the best bulb to buy. Just as a plug in replacement I see Xenon 100/80 bulbs for $36 per pair and Silverstar 45/65 bulbs for $32 each. If anyone has compared these, which of these would be the better bulb for our cars? Would I have to worry about additional heat damaging my factory lenses? Quote Selected
Are H4 Headlights That Much Better? Reply #17 – November 01, 2012, 11:44:14 AM The 100/80 bulbs are not Xenon, just a cheap look alike. They run WAY too hot, and don't last very long. All you get is more heat and a different color (very slightly). Total waste of money. Same deal with Silverstars, just to a lesser degree. If you want better lights, you get what you pay for. I'm going to assume we're talking about an 87-88, and based on that assumption, your best bet is to disassemble and re-plate the housings, then polish the lenses inside and out before you reassemble. On the non-stock side of things, you can ground and polish the lenses (inside) until you've eliminated the diffusions, or get a nice pair of TbirdX3's homemade clear lenses (less work) and then either retrofit with HID projectors from here, or disassemble a sealed-beam H4 conversion housing by removing it's lens, cutting some of the back bowl out of the stockers and CAREFULLY fixing the H4 reflector into the housing (from the inside) and I say carefully because you'll have to make sure the reflector is shining in the precise right direction relative to the housing or you'll have a crazy eyed car. Either of these are a superior solution compared to the stock lights, so how much work do you want to do and how much are you willing to spend? Quote Selected
Are H4 Headlights That Much Better? Reply #18 – November 01, 2012, 01:18:37 PM Quote from: TheFoeYouKnow;401744Either of these are a superior solution compared to the stock lights, so how much work do you want to do and how much are you willing to spend? Spot on. The stock lights, designed for the pretty poorly designed 9004 bulb, will never be as good as what cars come with today. You have to re-work the optics and preferably use a different bulb. Moving to a different bulb in a different housing is the only way to get any REAL improvement over good condition stock headlights (including intact reflectors). In these cars, the only choice imo is projector retrofit. There's no easy way to get the better optics of newer halogen headlight designs into these things. Keeping it simple, a decent halogen projector would require a clear lens (and look odd), cut headerpanel to fit the deeper headlight assembly, and some fabrication. The work put into this makes a true HID retrofit not much more difficult, but there's additional parts to buy and wiring to do.You COULD also try modifying a stock housing and see what the beam looks like when using a 9007 bulb. The bulb has to be turned 90 degrees in the housing, but it's possible that you could get something decent, even if you need to add a small shield some place. Use a spare housing for this though, even if it has a damaged reflector. You don't want to ruin good headlights for a test. Quote Selected
Are H4 Headlights That Much Better? Reply #19 – November 01, 2012, 01:51:01 PM My Halogen projectors fit nicely. I went full custom though, which meant cutting out the back of the housings. Mine are 3" projectors, but the easy kits that drop through the existing holes are all 2 1/4" or 2 1/2" depending. I spent $40 on clear projector lenses and shrouds, other than that, I had everything just sitting around. Quote Selected
Are H4 Headlights That Much Better? Reply #20 – November 01, 2012, 04:07:35 PM Quote from: TheFoeYouKnow;401744The 100/80 bulbs are not Xenon, just a cheap look alike. They run WAY too hot, and don't last very long. All you get is more heat and a different color (very slightly). Total waste of money. Same deal with Silverstars, just to a lesser degree. If you want better lights, you get what you pay for. I'm going to assume we're talking about an 87-88, and based on that assumption, your best bet is to disassemble and re-plate the housings, then polish the lenses inside and out before you reassemble. On the non-stock side of things, you can ground and polish the lenses (inside) until you've eliminated the diffusions, or get a nice pair of TbirdX3's homemade clear lenses (less work) and then either retrofit with HID projectors from here, or disassemble a sealed-beam H4 conversion housing by removing it's lens, cutting some of the back bowl out of the stockers and CAREFULLY fixing the H4 reflector into the housing (from the inside) and I say carefully because you'll have to make sure the reflector is shining in the precise right direction relative to the housing or you'll have a crazy eyed car. Either of these are a superior solution compared to the stock lights, so how much work do you want to do and how much are you willing to spend?Well, I'm willing to spend more money on replacement bulbs but I don't want to go to any more trouble then that. I just don't find the stock lights so bad that I could justify spending the time and money on going any further then that. If there is a replacement bulb that would offer a significant increase in lumens then I'd do that as long as it didn't damage my lenses from too much heat. I guess you're saying that there isn't. Quote Selected
Are H4 Headlights That Much Better? Reply #21 – November 04, 2012, 07:51:34 PM I believe the 87-93 Fox Mustangs also have the 9004 bulb. I installed the SilverStar's in my '93 Mustang and the light output was dramatically different. They did make the headlamp switch warmer than I cared for so I put a Bosch relay in and that took care of the problem and make the lights even brighter. IMO the SilverStars are a huge improvement over a stock bulb.Darren Quote Selected
Are H4 Headlights That Much Better? Reply #22 – November 04, 2012, 09:43:18 PM Quote from: Aerocoupe;401964I believe the 87-93 Fox Mustangs also have the 9004 bulb. I installed the SilverStar's in my '93 Mustang and the light output was dramatically different. They did make the headlamp switch warmer than I cared for so I put a Bosch relay in and that took care of the problem and make the lights even brighter. IMO the SilverStars are a huge improvement over a stock bulb.DarrenHow would relays, which supply MORE voltage to the bulb, and in turn more wattage for an incandescent, make them run cooler? I'd say that part was in your head, or other variables. The Silverstars ARE brighter as they have different ingredients to burn brighter, but they also burn hotter and burn out quicker due to this. Unless using the European silverstars though, the best bet would be to get the brightest bulbs that clear glass, which will provide more unfiltered light, yet use the same hotter burning ingredients.People seem to like the Osram Nightbreakers, even if they do have a small blue band which will remove some light, but make it appear whiter due to the removal of some of the warmer color rays.With any hotter burning bulb, they WILL be brighter, but they still won't look as good as newer car headlight designs, and the lifetime at 14v is somewhere in the realm of 100 hours versus closer to 1000 for a stock, or "+20%" bulb. Quote Selected
Are H4 Headlights That Much Better? Reply #23 – November 05, 2012, 12:29:17 PM There "old" Night breakers are no longer on the market (for two or three years I guess). You should be able to find only the Night breaker PLUS, which have extended life for about 1000 h. They shine with the same intensity as the old ones, but they don't die so quickly. Quote Selected
Are H4 Headlights That Much Better? Reply #24 – November 05, 2012, 03:00:56 PM Come on now, I said nothing about heat in my previous post but in post #5 I think I covered it which would be in total agreement with what you are saying. All I am saying is that with the Silver Stars in my Coupe the light output was higher much higher which is to be expected due to the additional wattage. I ran them briefly and noticed the heat at the head light switch which is why the installation of the relay was done. I did notice an improvement over the stock bulbs prior to the relay installation and especially after the installation of the relay. Are they short life bulbs compared to stock? Yup, no doubt about it. Do I care? Nope, not one bit. The small cost for the additional vision they provide at night is worth it to me. This is all based on my experience and I thought it was a decent information based on all the miles I drive every year.On another note, I ditched the bulbs out of my 07 Fusion (work car) and put the Silver Stars in that car as well about three years ago and the light output is also better. One of the other guys has a 10 Fusion with the HID headlights and they are far superior but until they replace my car next year I have to make due with what I have. The Silver Stars were great and lived about two years until one died, $20 later both were replaced and that was about a year ago. The Fusion has about 176,000 miles on it which are work miles then I drive another car on my personal time so I drive quite a bit.Darren Quote Selected
Are H4 Headlights That Much Better? Reply #25 – November 05, 2012, 04:11:23 PM Quote from: Aerocoupe;402007Come on now, I said nothing about heat in my previous post but in post Whoops, failure on my part. I missed "switch" in your post. I agree that the switch always runs hot, and of course relays remove that load. Sorry My daily driver came with Silverstars on it, which failed like a month later, and I was plenty happy to go back to a stock-type bulb (it uses an H4) since the output wasn't that much lower (the human eye and ear needs much more than twice the intensity to measure twice the brightness/loudness). Getting rid of the blue hue of the glass, it isn't as "white", but the light is still very comparable. Either way, car headlights ALWAYS suck in the rain, unless you have maybe 20,000 lumens (250W metal halide) of warm light flooding the area in front of the vehicle, but then glare becomes an issue to even you as the driver of the vehicle with all that light.On another note, one business day later after ordering, a package from Digikey with my 3500 lumen LED is supposed to be delivered. I may have to wait for my new 50V/5A power supply to fully test it though. I haven't been happy enough with ANY car headlight I've seen to date, even the new ones that are LED-powered. We'll see what I can do. Quote Selected
Are H4 Headlights That Much Better? Reply #26 – November 05, 2012, 08:51:48 PM Quote from: Seek;402011Whoops, failure on my part. I missed "switch" in your post. I agree that the switch always runs hot, and of course relays remove that load. Sorry My daily driver came with Silverstars on it, which failed like a month later, and I was plenty happy to go back to a stock-type bulb (it uses an H4) since the output wasn't that much lower (the human eye and ear needs much more than twice the intensity to measure twice the brightness/loudness). Getting rid of the blue hue of the glass, it isn't as "white", but the light is still very comparable. Either way, car headlights ALWAYS suck in the rain, unless you have maybe 20,000 lumens (250W metal halide) of warm light flooding the area in front of the vehicle, but then glare becomes an issue to even you as the driver of the vehicle with all that light.On another note, one business day later after ordering, a package from Digikey with my 3500 lumen LED is supposed to be delivered. I may have to wait for my new 50V/5A power supply to fully test it though. I haven't been happy enough with ANY car headlight I've seen to date, even the new ones that are LED-powered. We'll see what I can do. 3500 lm? I want the part number of that diode/array. Quote Selected
Are H4 Headlights That Much Better? Reply #27 – November 05, 2012, 09:56:50 PM Anyone ever try the GE Nighthawk Platinum 9004? They seem to have good reviews online Quote Selected
Are H4 Headlights That Much Better? Reply #28 – November 06, 2012, 12:18:17 AM Quote from: TheFoeYouKnow;4020463500 lm? I want the part number of that diode/array. BXRA-40E2200-B-00I have to wait for my larger psu to arrive. 30V isn't enough to do much but make it glow slightly, and I don't have a driver that can handle this thing (I think). I do have a boost/buck I should look at the specs for, but I'm pretty sure it tops out around 20V, and being that's it's a 3A driver. Quote Selected
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