changing standard dipped been H4's

[s2driveruk]

Hi,

offside dipped beam failed tonight so dropped into Halfords and whilst trying to finda repalcement came across some 'rally' H4's which are 130w/90w. It says you need a 20amp fuse but other than that they work with plastic lenses etc. Am i safe to just drop these in or do i need to be wary of them due to melting the wiring or blowing something....? If so what should I do to protect it?

Look forward to a quick response - i'm a thicko when it comes to electrics and dont want to bbq my lamp wiring

Cheers

David

[quattronutter]

Hi,

offside dipped beam failed tonight so dropped into Halfords and whilst trying to finda repalcement came across some 'rally' H4's which are 130w/90w. It says you need a 20amp fuse but other than that they work with plastic lenses etc. Am i safe to just drop these in or do i need to be wary of them due to melting the wiring or blowing something....? If so what should I do to protect it?

Look forward to a quick response - i'm a thicko when it comes to electrics and dont want to bbq my lamp wiring

Cheers

David

i put some of those in,made no noticeable difference,i ran them with standard fuse with no probs for several months before changing to philips vision plus bulbs which are much better,i also added extra thick wiring to the lights switched through a relay made a massive difference to the lighting output

[s2driveruk]

cheers for the advice

[Jas11n]

i put some of those in,made no noticeable difference,i ran them with standard fuse with no probs for several months before changing to philips vision plus bulbs which are much better,i also added extra thick wiring to the lights switched through a relay made a massive difference to the lighting output

I put some 130w H4 in my old 2.3e coupe (same headlight as the 3B) I cooked a track inside the light stalk,,,,,immediately after turning them on..
Repaired the stalk and fitted the normal wattage bulbs,,,,,was fine for the next 3 years.

[S2central.net]

Yeah - be afraid - wouldn't dare touch big bulbs unless I had a heavy duty wiring and relay conversion to carry the extra amps. The factory wiring and switchgear isn't up for 20A - it would never have been designed for such abuse. Can help you with suggestion for H/D wiring if you like - this will result in much reduced voltage drop... giving more volts across bulb terminals -> meaning more light....



Paul

[s2driveruk]

Paul - definately.....pm me when u get a spare sec, would be much appreciated the dips are cr*p on this can it ifs a case of beefing up the wiring with a bit of guidance i think i could do it

Cheers

[Doug_RS2]

You just need to use the wire that currently powers your bulb to switch on a relay instead. Get a live(+12V) junky wire, fused, and connect that to the switch on the relay, other side of switch connected to the bulb.

You might will probably need an additional resistor across the relay coil so it doesn't upset the autocheck. not sure at what current the autocheck detects a fault?

Easy - I am going to do this on my 80 as those light are terrible at night.

[newsh]

the Philips vision plus will really help IMHO, do the wiring mod too and you should have pretty good lights, I still have to do the relays but the VPs were a great improvement.
DONT fit high wattage bulbs without the relays though, you stand a very good chance of melting the stalk, lots of people BTDT.

[newsh]

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.d...950207417&rd=1

[Baldy]

here is a site with details of upgraded wiring mod for headlamps.This is for a UR quattro so some of the wire colours may vary but the principle is the same
HTH
wiring mod

[s2driveruk]

LOL cheers guys.....i think i have more chance of giving myself a shock that doing that - when i say crap with electronics, i mean really crap. I'll grab some of those vision plus H4's ready for after this mod How long would it take - if its a fairly simple job then might try and do it with another pair of eyes at Gregs...

[S2central.net]

here is a site with details of upgraded wiring mod for headlamps.This is for a UR quattro so some of the wire colours may vary but the principle is the same
HTH
wiring mod

Ignore the dimdip stuff - that's only applicable to mid 80's Audi's AFAIK. If you want I can help you wire up the relayed loom at Greg's. Might be a bit of a guessing game wrt resistor values to keep Autocheck happy, but that shouldn't be so bad. I can probably estimate it close enough.

Paul