how best to upgrade the headlights?

[marty 0]

hi all, as you will notice i am very new here. my wife got a lovely 89 plate red 16v corrado. she loves it, apart from its poor lights...i normally live on the integra type r forum and im not particulary familiar with the german motors but i know a lot about jap cars so i am technically minded.

 

my mate paul horrocks (some of you may know from the r32 synchro corrado) said they are always terrible on corrados

 

so how best do i improve this.??????????

 

i have searched and found i can get a harness with relays to run better voltage through the bulbs, but there seem to be lots of various looms available. is there a tried and tested/prefferd loom? maybe someone on the forum makes the best ones?

 

is it best to get a certain set of bulbs to go with this uprated loom? if so what?

 

i also noticed the HID option appearing but people fitting HID bulbs to std light units surely wont giv the right effect?

 

can you get HID systems with new light units?

 

thanks for the help and sorry for asking a question that is probably covered a lot. i just dont want to keep searching endlessly. hopefully someone can say "get this harness from theis supplier, fit ithese bulbs and voila!".....thats what i want really

 

i drove it back from whitby the other nite on unlit coastal road and it strains your eyes big time they are that dim...please offer advice

[MurphG60 0]

Check the suppliers forum theres a link for a guy who sells looms...

 

Welcome to the forum matey...

[marty 0]

thanks i'll have a look then..

 

just wanna keep the missus 'rado going well. its a lovely car...

[nocrap 0]

Get some, H4 Osram Silverstars... Improved my lights well enough, get the loom as well if you can.

[davidwort 0]

check the reflectors too, if the car has only had headlight glasses replaced the original reflectors may well be quite yellow and corroded.

[marty 0]

ok i'll look for bulbs...

 

i contacted the guy in the suppliers section, lets see what he come back with.

 

as for the lamp unit, i didnt realise the lense could be changed seperate to the reflector...

when you say check it i guess you mean have a real close look and see if it looks yellow or shiney silver?...

[marty 0]

those that have these looms fitted...does the loom allow the driving (dipped) beam AND the full (main) beam to be improved or is it a choice of which bulb you fit it to?

 

if you want to feed both the bulbs in each lamp unit withthe full 12v do you need 2 looms?

[Guest]

The new loom is such an improvement over standard, do one side, and take a look, it's scary how bad the OE loom is!

 

the loom works on both side and main bulbs, it uses higher gauge wire for the power feed, and uses the standard loom to trip the relay. Its plug and play, and can be removed if you have any problems (simply plug the original loom back in).

 

I can really recommend this, and should be the first thing on anyones shopping list when they get a C, that and lupo wipers (another mod that increases your chances of survival in bad (UK) driving conditions).

 

good luck mate, and welcome :)

 

ps: oh, and yes, new bulbs can't hurt, I did both (bulbs and loom) at the same time, and you lose that p!ss yellow colour ;)

[marty 0]

excellent, so this is the loom by the guy in the suppliers section yes?

i'll await his email response and get one bought.

 

will keep my wife happy...and me on my occasional blast when i can prize myself out of the integra.. :D

[Guest]

the guy who supplies them now took over from the guy I got mine from about 4 years ago, as far as I know? (someone will confirm).

 

its the same principle, and I assume same components, but I haven't used/seen the 'new' one so can't confirm that.

 

you'll how it works when you get it, but basically you use the new kit for the power, and the OE loom as the remote for the relay.

 

good luck! :)

[TomD 0]

Hi Guys!

 

I've put in Osram Silverstars in mine and bought an uprated loom off a guy from ebay....

 

like this...

 

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/VW-Corrado-golf-m ... dZViewItem

 

Not with proper OE plugs, I had to chop into the loom.

 

...But I've almost gone through a few 5 bar gates on the country roads in the dark on my way home...and thats fogs, and full beam headlights on. Dip the headlights and I might as well be using the force.

 

 

All the bulbs are fine and the loom's wired in correctly. The reflectors a bit fecked one side, and the back cap got left off the other side so it got some water into it. I'm going to replace them soon with later spec ones!

 

there's got to be a cheaper option than night vision...

 

Could it be that my battery's not got enough charge...99% of the time I've got my headlights on when I'm driving this time of year.

 

Does the supplier on the forum do proper 'plug and play' looms??

[craziscot 0]

This was the first mod I did to mine, got my loom off the Bay, Osram Silverstars, quick easy chop in job, massive improvement on standard!!!

 

Also as Therapor said second mod and definate must is the Lupo Wipers, million times beter that standard!

[Guest]

its not plug and play as such, you can supply the plugs to him though, so either your old ones or ones from the stealer

 

ps TomD:

 

[url=www.domain.com]desc[/url]

[joebloggsVR69 0]

My uprated loom hasnt really made much difference.. :?

 

I left one side connected to the std loom and checked it against the newly loomed side, and couldnt see much of a change. This is on standard bulbs mind you, not tried Osrams yet

 

Was thinking of just getting a HID kit. There's some Bosch ones on egay for about £75 at the moment

[marty 0]

but the HID kit surely wont work right in a non projector style lamp unit.

its not just the HID bulb thats needed its a projector lamp unit too.

 

can you get full HID headlamp units that look reasonably original? non of this chavvy angel eyes crap..

[marty 0]

how about running the new uprated loom and bunging in say 90/100 bulbs instead of the usual 55/60 bulbs?......

 

i did this on my old mk2 16v gte astra years back and the lights were greatly improved...

[TomD 0]

its not plug and play as such, you can supply the plugs to him though, so either your old ones or ones from the stealer

 

ps TomD:

 

[url=www.domain.com]desc[/url]

 

Does it not work for you? It works for me. I must be doing somehting wrong!

 

...damn computers! :roll:

[fla 9]

how about running the new uprated loom and bunging in say 90/100 bulbs instead of the usual 55/60 bulbs?......

 

i did this on my old mk2 16v gte astra years back and the lights were greatly improved...

 

The loom may not be up to the increased power and heat and may just burn out leading to loads of potentially dangersous issues.

[davidwort 0]

My uprated loom hasnt really made much difference.. :?

 

I left one side connected to the std loom and checked it against the newly loomed side, and couldnt see much of a change. This is on standard bulbs mind you, not tried Osrams yet

 

Was thinking of just getting a HID kit. There's some Bosch ones on egay for about £75 at the moment

 

voltage at the lights should be way higher if you have a relay setup, you've basically got a straight feed from the battery to the bulb, make sure you have a decent earth though.

Relaying up the lights also allows you to use 80/100w bulbs instead of standard 55/60's, there is a massive difference if it's done right. It's worth wiring it up yourself and using separate relays for left and right, don't forget to waterproof all of the connectors and the relays and fuses as best you can, every loom I've seen recently is corroded to bu99ery.

[joebloggsVR69 0]

but the HID kit surely wont work right in a non projector style lamp unit.

its not just the HID bulb thats needed its a projector lamp unit too.

 

can you get full HID headlamp units that look reasonably original? non of this chavvy angel eyes crap..

 

The decent HID kits seem to cost a fair bit

This one seems to have caps on the end of the blubs, so should work, but it's £300!

 

The Bosch kit on egay doesnt seem to have caps on the bulbs..

 

You must be able to just buy the correct blubs seperately :?

[joebloggsVR69 0]

voltage at the lights should be way higher if you have a relay setup, you've basically got a straight feed from the battery to the bulb, make sure you have a decent earth though.

Relaying up the lights also allows you to use 80/100w bulbs instead of standard 55/60's, there is a massive difference if it's done right. It's worth wiring it up yourself and using separate relays for left and right, don't forget to waterproof all of the connectors and the relays and fuses as best you can, every loom I've seen recently is corroded to bu99ery.

 

Hmm.. maybe I'll get some Osrams this weekend to play about with

I'm using a loom with 2 relays (it's one of those old skool looms made by Gav - H100VW IIRC)

I soldered on some proper OEM VW headlight connectors instead of those spades

 

I've wrapped up the exposed bits (fuses, relays) in a small plastic bag and sealed 'em up with electrical tape. Seems pretty water proof :lol:

[cata 0]

Is anyone on here runing HID's through angel eyes? I prefer the standard light over them but HID and normal lights are supposed to have a very negative effect on oncoming drivers, but angel eyes can take it.

Trying to make up my mind which route I should go because I desperately need a loom but there's no point to get it if I'm going HID from what I understand.

[marty 0]

how about running the new uprated loom and bunging in say 90/100 bulbs instead of the usual 55/60 bulbs?......

 

i did this on my old mk2 16v gte astra years back and the lights were greatly improved...

 

The loom may not be up to the increased power and heat and may just burn out leading to loads of potentially dangersous issues.

 

 

i agree that potentially that could be a problem however if i upgrade the loom that should be fine, i chanced my astra running higher wattage bulbs through original loom and it never overheated or anything.

 

i think thats the way to go initially, new loom and new higher wattage bulbs.

[corradophil 3]

I made up a loom as I had all the bits in the garage, that alone made a huge difference.

 

I then fitted Philips Vision plus bulbs which improved things a bit more. The headlights on my Corrado are now superb when dipped or on main beam.

[Louie Lungbubble 0]

i think thats the way to go initially, new loom and new higher wattage bulbs.

Marty, you'll be gobsmacked at the difference just the loom makes, even with standard old bulbs.

May not be worth the work upgrading it to take 80/100 bulbs. Just dropping a set of 55/60 silverstars in feels like you've got WWII searchlights on the front!