Best non-HID headlight bulbs?

[Error404]

I'm ditching my HIDs i think - they're ******* me off something chronic.
They have three major issues:

1) they strobe on the sidelights as i believe the CQ / early 3B had a daytime running light type set-up where the headlights glowed dimly with the sidelights which causes the HIDs to strobe, so I can't use sidelights, which AFAIK will fail my upcoming MOT too anyway

2) They flicker when they are on, even with a fat dedicated earth on each side (seems maybe a relay issue from reading a post from Panzerwagon from ages ago)

3) The driver side lamp will just stop working sometimes and won't ignite until it flick the headlights off for a second and back on. (probably a deffective china spacial ballast)

So all in all i've had enough of this 5hlt. Whats the verdict on the brightest and whitest non-HID H4s available?

cheers
Alex

[Skull]

philips blue vision, philips vision plus, philips nightbraker. i was very disappointed by the osram products.

[Error404]

Cheers for the tip mate

[Flat on my back]

.

Ditto...vision plus, the blues are a gimmick.

[johne]

Ditch the dim dip resistor so the headlights no longer come on when the sidelights are on and buy a new set of switchable H4 HIDs off eBay.

There's nothing to beat a set of HIDs and no need for "a dirty great earth" just wire them to the standard H4 earth lead in the headlight unit.

John

[AndyP]

Ditch the dim dip resistor so the headlights no longer come on when the sidelights are on and buy a new set of switchable H4 HIDs off eBay.

There's nothing to beat a set of HIDs and no need for "a dirty great earth" just wire them to the standard H4 earth lead in the headlight unit.

John

Where is the dim dip resistor?
I have the same problem with my HID's but I'm sticking with them. There isn't a conventional bulb out there that will perform anything like an HID, I've tried Osram Nightbreakers which claim 90% more light and I could hardly tell a difference, just a little whiter.

[Error404]

no one knows where the dim-dip resistor is! The wiring schematics for the dim-dip circuits are in the old 88-90 coupe Haynes manual but its all hieroglyphic nonsense to me

If i can solve that issue i'd be a lot happier with the other which are probably due to a poor quality HID kit tbh.

[macspring]

Alex, my tuppence,

Found in my 99 Cab B4 that the factory lights are much better than in either of my my 95 Avants and especially better that my 93 Avant. But when I put into the 99 Cab, the 8K HID from one of the 95 Avants there is no comparison. HIDs are miles ahead.

But what I also did find was that on the later year (99) Cab that the LED sidelights that match the colour of the HIDs from the second 95 Avant do not light up.

I presume the resistance is too low and therefore they won't work, but as i say they worked fine in the 95 Avant ???

Consider buying a new decent HID set, such as were recommended on here in the last few months? They're now much less expensive than they used to be a few years ago.

What are people using in their main beam btw?

HTH a little.

Kind regards.

[johne]

I admit that not having a CQ myself I don't know where the dim dip resistor is - we need Paul's help for that.

If it helps, on many cars the dim dip resistor wasn't an obvious item it was just a length of wire inside the wiring loom that had a higher resistance then normal wire. Somewhere in the sidelight circuit there has to be a link to the headlights. Break that link and you're done.

John

[Error404]

Well from the schematic there is relay J89 which is the dim-dip changeover relay, which has the resistor N74 on a green / yellow wire leading from it.
But where the **** is that relay as its not in either the fuse board or aux relay board under the drivers glove tray
If i can find it i'll cut that green / yellow wire and hopefully problem solved.

[Error404]

right i think we might be getting somewhere. According to the FA the relay for dim-dip / fog lights on the 1990 coupe seems to be 141 951 253 B, which is relay 53 I think.

[Acidburn]

from what I remember it was down in the passenger footwell when I spoke to people on the forum, never could find that wire

[Error404]

i'm determined to cut that mother ****er now!

[Acidburn]

iirc there are some green plugs by the headlights that I got told to unplug as there is a wire down there that can be unplugged to sort this.

[Rusty]

Just remove all the headlights and trim and use the car purely on track days, that'll sort it Will improve the cold air feed to the airbox too, result