Ford Forums banner

Improve night driving for $12

3K views 19 replies 4 participants last post by  Kenaz 
G
#1 ·
I have just replaced the 55W H3 driving lights in my EA with 100W H3 bulbs ($6 each) and holy crap they work better than my mates 4wd who has $200 Hella spotties. I also checked the relay to make sure it could handle the extra current and to my suprise it was 40Amp. So if you what to improve your visibilty at night especially on country roads this would have to be an essential yet cheap mod.!!\
 
#2 ·
make sure you have orignal ford headlamps before you do this...

aftermarket ones cant handle the extra heat and MELT, costly experience..

the previous owner did it to my car and put 55W back in when he sold it... eventually i worked out why there was water in the headlight...
 
G
#3 ·
One other thing that can increase the heat greatly is having plastic headlight covers. They reduce your lighting efficiency and also increase the heat. Today I'm going to be putting some xenon filled bright white 100W globes. Should be sweet.

Alex
 
#4 ·
The Goodz, how much will those globes be costing you? I'm all for improving the headlights of my car, but personally wouldn't want to have external driving lights or similar - suits the DA very nicely though.

I was also very impressed with jbolger's fog lights which can't normally be seen during the day because they are mounted inside the front bumper. He said that cost just $12, so let's just say that $24 can make a real difference :)
 
G
#5 ·
Well unfortunately I wasn't able to find those xenon globes in H1 100W. Only 55W, and that's not good enough for me, so I settled for 100W Halogens instead. It improved it greatly. The 100W globes were $15 each, and so the high beams match the light output they will be copping 130W globes aswell.

Those little spotlights that jbolger had are in my opinion only useful for looks. They don't improve lighting at night. Unless you can prove me wrong Jason? If you want improved night driving you either gotta get lights like mine or you get more powerful globes. I will also be looking at upgrading all the wiring for all the lights including the original equipment lights for better output.

Alex
 
G
#6 ·
Better lights

Upgrade globes can make a big difference- Zenon 100 and 130's are available-I have them in mine.
Another Mod is to dismantle the headlight assembly, and remove the glass, and clean it inside- i did this recently and what a difference! Be very careful cleaning the chrome like reflectors, as the coating will come of very easily. On mine, the glue on the rubber seal had yellowed, and spread to the surrounding area, giving the whole headlight a yellow tinge, so i removed them and cleaned all the surfaces(scraping and sanding the glass where the seal was in contact), and spray painted the seal silver, as well as the rim on the reflector body that was discoloured. With the clean glass and clean silver grey seals, the whole light looks brand new!

I want to replace the "parker" globes in the assembly(they have a yellow tinge) to match the Xenon headlights, but don't want to use the extreme blue ones that i've seen around- any ideas?
PS I can't believe the stupidity of some of the replacement front parker globes I've seen- RED/ORANGE WHAT THE???
 
G
#7 ·
Re: Better lights

I know the Xenon 100s and 130s are available, but they're only in H4 and H3, I haven't seen them in H1, which the LTD uses. Have you seen H1s and if so where do you get them?

Alex
 
#8 ·
Re: Better lights

Well the purpose for small spot lights is in being seen, particularly in bad weather. In foggy conditions, low-mounted lights enable the road ahead to be seen where headlights would reflect back to a degree. But the looks aspect doesn't hurt :)

As for the Xenon globes, I'm just surprised that it is possible to improve headlight performance just for a few bucks - why didn't Ford install these bulbs in the first place?
 
G
#9 ·
Re: Better lights

Like I said before, proper fog lights that are no smaller than the spotties I got on top of the unibars are the only ones that actually improve lighting. They don't really improve other people seeing you nor do they improve lighting. If it's less than 100W and enough to blind you if you stare straight at it then it's rubbish in my opinion.

These xenon globes that we speak of aren't actually xenon gas discharge globes. Proper xenon globes have no filament, just gas, and 1 pair of 35W xenons visually out perform 4 100W halogens. Those 'xenon' globes are really just halogens with a bit of gas inside so it looks white. That's why they're so cheap, if you want a proper xenon system then it'll cost $$$. Why Ford didn't use more powerful globes? I don't know, as far as I'm concerned too much is not enough when it comes to lighting :)

Alex
 
#11 ·
Re: Better lights

while we're on this..

my little wog lights as i like to call them i use mainly for looks. they provide a bit of extra light, but nothing usable. theyre good when the parkers are on though, for a bit of extra light...

as for the globes, i once read a major study into the so-called "ultra white" headlights. there has been a lot of development into producing globes with the higher light output and the same heat output. these globes are the "+30" and "+50" globes. the white light or opti-blue etc. globes are actually WORSE off for light output, because of the way halogen lights work. halogen provides most light output in the yellow area of the spectrum, so in order to provide a "blue" or "ultra white" output from these globes, manufacturers put a blue tinge on the glass of the globe, effectively blocking the yellow light. this reduces overall light output and produces the white-ish blue tinge you see on many rice-cars these days... so those blue globes actually have worse light output than standard!

if you want more info, jump on google and search for "aftermarket HID blue headlamps" or something along those lines... HID is what they use in the bmw's etc. btw, and it stands for High Intensity Discharge.

Just my 2c!

Jase.
 
G
#12 ·
Re: Better lights

The main reason why the white light globes are better than the halogens are because of that reason, they are white. The yellow looks more dull and I have read that dull yellow light actually plays a role in driver fatigue. Whereas white light is less tiring to look at, if you know what I mean. It's a bit hard to explain, but yeah. I have seen the difference between halogens and xenons of the same power, and the xenons are brighter, and clearer. Also better in wet weather driving too, when you can hardly see your light hitting the road in front of you.

Alex
 
#13 ·
Re: Better lights

I heard somewhere, prolly on here somewhere that more powerfull globes actually melt the lense. If this is not true I want to upgrade my lights to somethin a bit better, my mates really old mazda 323 has better lighting than me! also one of my globes is tempermental, the filament in it looks good, and theres always voltage goin to it but it only turns on when it wants too or if I give it a bit of a tap, the connectors and everything are clean so I don't know whats goin on

Ed
 
G
#14 ·
Re: Better lights

I've had globes like that, they're faulty. Nothing else is really wrong. I would trust that original equipment headlights can cope with the heat but some aftermarkets have been known the melt. And if you upgrade your globes get rid of any plastic covers if you have them, they make it hotter and reduce light output, and in my opinion don't do anything to protect. I mean how often do you get stones breaking through your headlights?

Alex
 
#15 ·
Re: Better lights

Yeh I thought it was somethin with bulb. We did have those covers on the headlights along with a bonnet protector thing. I reckon they make the car look like shit, and the bonnet protector actually put scratches on the damn car. I'll look into some new bulbs soon cos of winter it's gettin darker earlier and I've been doin a fair bit of night driving lately

Ed
 
G
#16 ·
Light and bonnet "protectors"

I think the light and bonnet "protectors" are basically a new car dealers rip off. They look like shit and do bugger all. Replacement glass covers for the headlights are cheap anyway- I've never broken one, even in outback driving.
 
G
#17 ·
Re: Light and bonnet "protectors"

That's exactly right, those covers are useless. However if I had expensive driving lights like them Hella Predators I reckon I'd want to have covers on them. At 3 grand a set I'd protect them with my life...

Alex
 
#18 ·
Re: Light and bonnet "protectors"

I guess you guys are right. I have the plastic headlight protectors on the car at the moment. I don't think they look too bad, but I guess the lights could be more efficient without them. I just had a feeling that the glass would be expensive to replace... :) I'll take them off before I go to work tomorrow and see how they go when I am driving home later in the night.

Ash
 
#19 ·
Well I went hunting for some new lights the other day. The only things I could find were 55w H3's, and those Arctic Blue 55w H3's aswell. They were $19.95 for a pair and claim to be 30% brighter than standard halogen bulbs or something. Also are the low/high beam globes H4? I just want to make sure cos the manual I have doesnt say what they are. Also whats the best way to adjust the headlights, I've noticed the drivers side is severly pointed down and the beam wouldnt be more than 5 metres long and the passenger side is alot longer
 
#20 ·
Hey Ed...

I think I heard somewhere that the reason behind the drivers side light being lower is so that it doesn't dazzle oncoming drivers. The passenger side faces slightly outwards from the car so it doesn't matter how much the beam travels. But I'm pretty sure the drivers side lamp is purposely designed that way.

Ash
 
This is an older thread, you may not receive a response, and could be reviving an old thread. Please consider creating a new thread.
Top