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marty

how best to upgrade the headlights?

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Can some-one stick up a pic of a decent loom?

 

I got one off E-Gay a while ago (and still haven't got off my fat @ss and fitted it) from a guy called IIRC ?red fox? and was wondering if it's a good'un or should I just go and get another off the forum?

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Well....A decent loom should have at least 2 relays, 20 amp in line fuses, well terminated and well insulated.........

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Well if your willing to spend money on you lights then they're an option, there are a couple of quite in depth threads on here somewhere

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well i foned andy the vagingit dude about the loom and hes out of stock!

nightmare. said he will have to wait a few weeks possibly till the new year!

i want to make the car safer for the wife to drive asap really.

 

does anyone have a loom of his that they aint fitted yet? i'll buy you a brand new one when he gets them in stock

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My only bit of advice regarding looms is be careful where you put em. My headlight loom relays / fuses have been installed down near the battery and right near the radiator. I think the thinking there is so that the warmth from the radiator will dry out any moisture that gets in there.

 

Good idea I suppose but it sadly works against it too.. side lights were the only thing that worked the other day and when I popped the bonnet and checked the fuses, I could see that the main headlights one was completely melted and charred! New set of fuses later, all was well but.. I think we have to emphasise that you somehow need find a way to get it out of the way of any external interference - water, heat, etc etc!

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I always search before I ask and couldn't find anything other than people starting new topics

asking if everyone knows about the new angel eyes.

 

[EDIT] Besides after the nightmare of driving my Corrado across Canada with those candles, I am willing to get it done once and for all now.

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well i foned andy the vagingit dude about the loom and hes out of stock!

nightmare. said he will have to wait a few weeks possibly till the new year!

i want to make the car safer for the wife to drive asap really.

 

does anyone have a loom of his that they aint fitted yet? i'll buy you a brand new one when he gets them in stock

 

I noticed a big difference switching from standard bulbs to a complete set of new xenon 'brilliance'(up to 30% brighter IIRC) and 'super brilliance' (up to 50% brighter) from Halfords a little while ago. Lets face it bulb technology has come on a long way since 1984-87ish when they were designing the Corrado.

 

Despite not having an uprated loom (and I don't want one too many horror stories of lights switching off) I have found that I am no longer blinking or straining my eyes when another car goes by.

 

Even if you just try this before an uprated loom you will still get the extra out of the new bulbs with the uprated loom fitted. I have only fitted OE spec wattage as melted reflectors would cost around £200 for a set!

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I made my own uprated headlight loom, but only uprated the wiring for the diiped/mainbeam, not the spots. I used a relay and fuse for each each side too, so that if I do have a problem with a relay or fuse it is unlikely that both sides will fail at the same time and if that does happen I'll still have the spots to fall back on! You only need the dipped uprated anyway!

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...

I have only fitted OE spec wattage as melted reflectors would cost around £200 for a set!

 

no worries there from my experience, even with the extra voltage running to the bulbs through the relays and 80/100W bulbs it's done no damage yet to my reflectors and they've been set up like this for over 6 years now.

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oh excellent so at least we know the reflectors are good for the extra heat, marvellous.

i think i'll get a loom first with original bulbs then if its not much better i'll get the higher wattage.

 

OR

 

i get the super brilliance bulbs (normal wattage) now and then make them a little better when i get a better loom..

 

decision decisions!

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well i just been to halfords to get some bulbs for my mk4 tdi golf and i picked up some of the super brilliance bulbs for the wifes corrado.

 

accordign to the book in halfords they are H4 bulbs

now i was under the impression the headlights had 2 bulbs, one for normal-dipped lights then it flicked onto the other bulb for higher powered full-main beam?

 

after getting home and consulting the manual, it seems the lights havea H4 dual filament bulb and a H3 high beam bulb....

 

so for hig beam does the H4 flick to its higher wattag fillament AND the H3 bulb light up?

 

can someone offer advice?

the rado isnt back yet so i cant check....

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Yes I am fairly sure the H4 changes over when main beam is selected. You can also get 'brilliance' bulbs in H3.

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after getting home and consulting the manual, it seems the lights havea H4 dual filament bulb and a H3 high beam bulb....

 

so for hig beam does the H4 flick to its higher wattag fillament AND the H3 bulb light up?

 

can someone offer advice?

the rado isnt back yet so i cant check....

 

If you look at the back of the headlight unit, the connector has 3 pins, earth, dip, main-beam feeds.

Un-do the cap and the wiring inside the headlight unit splits the main beam feed to both the main unit's second filament and the spot light inner portion of the light unit.

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well i fitted the brilliance bulbs and she reports that there is a marked difference. excellent.

 

so as soon as the man with the harness' gets them in stock i will have one.

 

just as an aside, the fogs dont work on the car....i havent had chance to check the power but hte bulbs were fine.....i may make a harness to run these on the full beam aswell. so when she selects full beam she gets the fogs on aswell...

 

that should keep me busy

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so when she selects full beam she gets the fogs on aswell...

 

Your gonna need a steady supply of lenses then !

 

 

(i think the general concensus is that they cant take the heat for long periods )

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To fit HID you will need projectors, if you want to keep stock lights you have to do alot of modifying in order to get the projectors in stock reflectors.

 

You then switch from H4 to H7 bulbs that most hid kits come in.

 

Im about to switch from stock lights stock loom onto stock HID'd lights as I dont like the angel eyes.

 

Heres a quick photoshop of how theyll look. The internals have been modified so the lights looks dark inside when off, the lights are not potoshoped thats how they look in real life. What you guys think?

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so when she selects full beam she gets the fogs on aswell...

 

Your gonna need a steady supply of lenses then !

 

 

(i think the general concensus is that they cant take the heat for long periods )

 

 

Long periods? how long is long? generally you only get to use full-main beam for short bursts anyway, before an oncoming car appears and you have to switch down....

on these short periods have people found the lenses to get damaged from heat? seems strange a light unit cant stand up to the heat ??

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What you guys think?

 

 

look good, mean in the rear view mirror :twisted: (abit JBOB looking)

Have you modded the stock lights to take a projector light yet then? What are you doing about the headlight glass btw - as standard it's ridged and patterned to create the low beam pattern. Ideally you'd want to remove the patterning completely on that side of the lens so it's clear. It'd be a bastard to grind off, which leaves you the option of fitting a clear lexan / polycarbonate or similar replacement which you'd have to fabricate yourself.

 

Is the stock headlamp housing deep enough to take a projector without modification? Just wondering as it's something I've thought about doing, but the more I look into it, the more complicated and involved it looks. The easy solution would be InPros, but l don't really like the look either and as I understand it, they only fit flush on early spec Cs.

 

Be interested to see how it works :-)

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so when she selects full beam she gets the fogs on aswell...

 

Your gonna need a steady supply of lenses then !

 

 

(i think the general concensus is that they cant take the heat for long periods )

 

 

Long periods? how long is long? generally you only get to use full-main beam for short bursts anyway, before an oncoming car appears and you have to switch down....

on these short periods have people found the lenses to get damaged from heat? seems strange a light unit cant stand up to the heat ??

 

sounds very odd to me, i've not had any problems using my lights on long journeys, i've left my fogs on for ages too.

 

am sure they would test the maximum heat given off when making a car and design lights to cope

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What you guys think?

 

 

look good, mean in the rear view mirror :twisted: (abit JBOB looking)

Have you modded the stock lights to take a projector light yet then? What are you doing about the headlight glass btw - as standard it's ridged and patterned to create the low beam pattern. Ideally you'd want to remove the patterning completely on that side of the lens so it's clear. It'd be a bastard to grind off, which leaves you the option of fitting a clear lexan / polycarbonate or similar replacement which you'd have to fabricate yourself.

 

Is the stock headlamp housing deep enough to take a projector without modification? Just wondering as it's something I've thought about doing, but the more I look into it, the more complicated and involved it looks. The easy solution would be InPros, but l don't really like the look either and as I understand it, they only fit flush on early spec Cs.

 

Be interested to see how it works :-)

 

Depending on the projectors you use the stock housing is pretty large, some prejoctors I have seen are too big to fit in there but some are ok.

The projectors were grafted in by mate of mine and he had HID, its not such a difficult job to do but must be aligned properly.

 

Yes you are right the stock lense is ribbed and will tend to spread the light , it isnt that bad, the stock lense with HID produce a good beam nice and strong but not perfect how it should be and how the projectors were designed to be used. I will shave the stock lense near the projector area, this should improve spread pattern much further.

I dont want to go completley clear glass, it makes the headlight look too naked.

 

Also if you make replacment lenses out of plastic be aware that they do steam up very easily and keep it in.

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