20V CQ Tidy Up

[WabTheKing]

whats the deal with the numbers on the reg on these my first CQ was G50 RRA?

car looks mint

[mcandmar]

IMHO the lights on my CQ20v are way way better than the elipsoids in the S2 or S4. Granted elipsoids with HID's may be better but with stock bulbs they are just plain dangerous.

[andy10v]

love the way you resisted the temptation to fit projector lights, it just looks right

The upgrade is worth it so you can actually see where you are going (with HIDs)

both the reflectors are pretty much new. I am considering relaying the headlights and running 120w competition lamps, but that is pretty illegal. Still, rather get an improvement notice than be belly up in a hedge somewhere

Fit HID ellipsoids, and 100w relay main beam If you relay and run high wattage bulbs in main beam that will not affect anybody, not fair to do it on dip though.

There is a thread on Audifans somewhere with the stock voltage at the lights, and it wasn't great, especially when lumen output is not a straight line equation with voltage but logarithmic or exponential or something

IMHO the lights on my CQ20v are way way better than the elipsoids in the S2 or S4. Granted elipsoids with HID's may be better but with stock bulbs they are just plain dangerous.

With HIDs the ellipsiods win hands down (on dip), I have driven the reflectors and HID projectors back to back and there is no comparison, the stock reflector lights are scary to drive fast at night on dip beam. I have never tried ellipsiods without HIDs though, Mike also said with normal bulbs the reflectors were better, so similar experience to you.

[Error404]

Relaying the lights is on the list to do before the car is back on the road some time after Easter, so we'll see how that improves things. I've also read that proper voltage at the lamp will have a massive effect on the light output... We'll see! I'll try and take some pictures for comparison
Spending on elipsoids is not really high on my priority list right now, plus my OCD would no doubt mean I'd have to get the reflectors rechromed, and before i know it I've spent £400+

[djh]

Spending on elipsoids is not really high on my priority list right now, plus my OCD would no doubt mean I'd have to get the reflectors rechromed, and before i know it I've spent £400+

unless you have a brand new pair in the box

[Error404]

well that would change matters somewhat

[bikerjim]

Car is looking great. I prefer the look of reflector lights over projector jobbies, but I do agree the light output is awful. I'm planning on relaying mine too at some point, decent bulbs help too! Top work!

[newsh]

Have you tried the +50% Vision Plus bulbs?

http://www.ebay.co.uk/sch/i.html?_nk....c0.m270.l1313

[andy10v]

The relays should make a big difference, mine are still sitting on a shelf.

Are you using some old connectors to make this a plug in relayed loom? Or hard wiring it to the loom?

Some voltage drop info;

http://www.danielsternlighting.com/t...ys/relays.html

WHY USE RELAYS?

Power for the headlights is controlled by a switch on the dash. This is *not* a great place to tap into the system, for two reasons: The headlamp switch uses tiny, high-resistance contacts to complete circuits, and the wire lengths required to run from the battery to the dashboard and all the way out to the headlamps creates excessive resistive voltage drop, especially with the thin wires used in most factory installations.

In many cases, the thin factory wires are inadequate even for the stock headlamp equipment. Headlamp bulb light output is severely compromised with decreased voltage. The drop in light output is not linear, it is exponential with the power 3.4. For example, let's consider a 9006 low beam bulb rated 1000 lumens at 12.8 Volts and plug in different voltages:

10.5V : 510 lumens
11.0V : 597 lumens
11.5V : 695 lumens
12.0V : 803 lumens
12.5V : 923 lumens
12.8V : 1000 lumens ←Rated output voltage
13.0V : 1054 lumens
13.5V : 1198 lumens
14.0V : 1356 lumens ←Rated life voltage
14.5V : 1528 lumens


The Europeans take a slightly more realistic with their voltage ratings; they consider output at 13.2v to be "100%". The loss curve is the same, though. When operating voltage drops to 95 percent (12.54v), headlamp bulbs produce only 83 percent of their rated light output. When voltage drops to 90 percent (11.88v), bulb output is only 67 percent of what it should be. And when voltage drops to 85 percent (11.22v), bulb output is a paltry 53 percent of normal! It is much more common than you might think for factory headlamp wiring/switch setups to produce this kind of voltage drop, especially once they're no longer brand new and the connections have accumulated some corrosion and dirt.

http://audifans.net/ftopict-115-headlight.html+voltage

On the 80q with the standard system with main beam on and engine running, we were getting about 12.5v at the battery and about 10.9v at the h/l bulb

There are other threads on Audifans quoting a 1v drop between battery and headlight.

[bikerjim]

I am planning to get some OE connectors and make a plug and play loom.

[Error404]

This is what I'm going to do, inc modding the OE loom to use the factory fuse positions in the fusebox getting extra factory relay pates for the fuse board etc. Sad I know...

From Andy's post its clear to see how much light output is lost because of the voltage drop at the headlight - crazy!

[newsh]

Best way is to run a nice big fat wire to the relays right behind the headlights. Don't forget a new ground wire too!

[newsh]

This is what I'm going to do, inc modding the OE loom to use the factory fuse positions in the fusebox getting extra factory relay pates for the fuse board etc. Sad I know...

Proper job! In the meantime, did you get any Caig De-Oxit yet? Clean all the connections and fuses and enjoy more light!

[Error404]

I have used tons of contact cleaner on everything, it did make a bit of a difference, but 10% of ****-all is still not much of an improvement
So would you recommend fitting the relays as close to the headlight as possible John? I'll admit electrics is not my strong point!

[ChrisG]

I have a B2 80 Sport - with relayed dip & main.
There is a substantial improvement ( nothing like 'seeing' the improvement versus looking at the paper figures !).
No they do not match the factory xenons ..... (have an A4 with xenons) but then relays/cables etc isn't going to cost £1k that the factory charge if xenons are not standard.
Phillips now do even better bulbs , something like + 80% more light iirc.
There should be space behind one of the headlamps to fit the relays, they should be as close to the lamps as possible. I used one for dip one for main - and you can get them with built in fuses. Carefully done it is possible to revert to stock in literally a few minutes ( but doubtful you will ever need to but... )