Outer Limits 4x4 Board

Hey all
Just wondering what people are doing to upgrade their headlights,
i bought a set of the diamond cut type from e-bay
and to say the least i'd could strap my bike torch to the bullbar to get better lights
Do any round type lights fit a sierra?
Is one better then the next?

Thanx Pep

G'day Pep.

Yes, the easiest effective upgrade is to fit H4 halogen lamp units that replace the entire headlight shell. I put a pair of them into my Sierra about 10 years ago and they are still doing a great job with a standard alternator and the usual itty-bitty battery.

You can run 55/100W globes, which give a pretty good light, but it's a good idea to include separate relays for them as well.

Cheers - Longbaser.

Also, budget to replace the whole headlight loom, as its too small and crap design (no relays etc). Use some good quality larger gauge cables for power, and wire in a decent quality relay and fuse block. This combined with some H4 lamps and good globes will increase your lgiths no end.

Layto....

we did an upgrade on our zook ages aho we just upgraded the loom to start with. there are some pics below toshow the difference, we wil be getting new lights soon and the sealed ones are pretty crap.
loom on the right

the loom


josh

HID's are fairly cheap these days.

apparently 70 series landcruiser sealed beams are the best for those of you who fill up H4 inserts with mud.

This tip came to me from Droopypete- more actual tech!

I have a loom to go in mine - haven't got round to putting it in yet but they do make a big difference.

Steve.

Loom upgrade will definately help as will relays, no matter what sort of lights you have. I fitted HID lights to my wifes HR Holden ute... FANTASTIC. They cost $300 but are about ten times better than H4 Halogens. Took a bit of effort to make them watertight though. 4,500K on low beam and 10,000K on high beam. Nice (blue) light. Turned driving at night from dangerous to a pleasure.

I have a couple of problems both as a road user with superbright oncomming lights and as a driver that had superbright lights.
It is often very difficult to tell with HID's etc when the other driver has dipped their lights and the standard headlight reflector is pretty poor at reducing glare from so much light.
Also when you do dip your lights there is such a massive difference (this is also most noticeable with the ultra "white" lights that your eyes can take a second or two to adjust to the massive change in light.

Upgrade looms for sure, add some good driving lights so you can "stage" your lighting. Use the best quality globes you can get your mits on (Not narva or some blue painted 100000000000k bulbs or whatever) Not all headlight globes are equal.
Decent H4 inserts start with something like Hella or Cibie inserts, their reflectos and lenses are so much better that the cheapo crap ones .. the glass they are made from is also considerably tougher than the cheapies. Koto seem Ok as well (Used by some OEM's like toyota)

I agree Guy,

I do not support the fitment of HID globes into conventional inserts.

HID headlight are required by law to be equipped with automatic self levelling and high pressure washers.

It has also been noted that HID globes place the filament in a different position in relation to the reflector so the light pattern is not the same as with a H4 globe.

My last two road cars have had factory HID lights and I wouldn't be without them in my commuter.

I am keen to run HID driving lights too, but without the correct equipment to ensure I am not dazzling other road users I won't use them in the dipped beams in my suzuki. (or any other car without auto self levelling)

Steve.

Gwagensteve wrote:I agree Guy,

I do not support the fitment of HID globes into conventional inserts.

HID headlight are required by law to be equipped with automatic self levelling and high pressure washers.

It has also been noted that HID globes place the filament in a different position in relation to the reflector so the light pattern is not the same as with a H4 globe.

My last two road cars have had factory HID lights and I wouldn't be without them in my commuter.

I am keen to run HID driving lights too, but without the correct equipment to ensure I am not dazzling other road users I won't use them in the dipped beams in my suzuki. (or any other car without auto self levelling)

Steve.

The factory installled jobbers are not a problem.

Not all suzuki's are factory fitted with sealed beams.

my 92 for example has kotto non sealed headlights.

When i went out to replace the passenger side headlight which had rusted due to broken glass it had a 65w/55w h4 globe in it.

I decided that if the sierra had 10amp fuses for the headlights than the factory wiring would cope with the extra draw. Bought the other globe and put them in

The difference in light is substantial and these are just halogen globes. Eventually if i find a cheap xenon in the right colour range with the same wattage then they will go in.

Cheap easy and not blinding

Now that this thread has turned into a debate about the merits of HID lighting I should add that the kit I fitted to my other's ute consisted of a ballast unit and TWO bulbs siamesed into one housing.(in H4 light)
One of these bulbs is a H4 Halogen (65w) for low beam with normal white light, the other bulb is Xenon and is powered by the ballast unit. This bulb (10000K) produces a blueish light on high beam ONLY. These lights are ADR compliant and don't produce any more glare than normal H4 Halogens. High beam admittedly does produce quite a bit of glare but thats what high beam is for. I would fit them to my Suzi tomorrow but getting them watertight isn't easy and if the bulb gets wet when hot it will die. Sealed beams do have their advantages watertight

want33s wrote:Now that this thread has turned into a debate about the merits of HID lighting I should add that the kit I fitted to my other's ute consisted of a ballast unit and TWO bulbs siamesed into one housing.(in H4 light)
One of these bulbs is a H4 Halogen (65w) for low beam with normal white light, the other bulb is Xenon and is powered by the ballast unit. This bulb (10000K) produces a blueish light on high beam ONLY. These lights are ADR compliant and don't produce any more glare than normal H4 Halogens. High beam admittedly does produce quite a bit of glare but thats what high beam is for. I would fit them to my Suzi tomorrow but getting them watertight isn't easy and if the bulb gets wet when hot it will die. Sealed beams do have their advantages watertight

<rant on>
Where has it turned inot a debate about HID's please feel free to point it out.
I was simply responding as a road user who spends quite a bit of time on counrty roads after dark and sick of inconsiderate dimwits who throw a set of HID's into a reflector/lense that they are not desiged for causing me to not be able to see the road ahead properly.
(when I was working in Bright on the way home form work I would be encounter all the city folk on their way up to the snow that were very slow to dip their super dooper headlights .. You come over a small rise to some pickle who have their lights on high and two sets of driving lights etc etc .. it pisses you off pretty quickly)
<rant off>
The lights you have chosen sound great. but if you think that they are producing alot of glare on high .. get em aimed properly only costs a few $ and makes a big difference to your driving pleasure.

You can produce alot of light without producing glare, if the reflector, lense and bulb are made as a kit and aimed properly glare from oncomming lights is not really an issue.
(I could pick the euro cars with factory installed HIDS a mile off .. they were not nearly as glarey as the aftermarket jobbers)

Back on the headlight upgrade not including HID's... What are us 'immitators in the drovers' using as an upgrade?? thought about swapping the whole front clip with the suzi.. but the horizontal lines of the drover grill just look to mean..

I used the same, headlight inserts and replacement globes in my old drover.

Try some of the older 4x4 kits also, like hilux or some of the vans that use the same globe setup.

Steve - just remember that HID's arn't instant on, there's not a huge delay
but its there. For sustained use thats OK but ON/OFF/ON etc its not great.

The electronics really work the discharge tube hard to get it to re-ignite
before it has cooled down. I am sure that you have had experience with
traditional 240VAC Mercury Vapor lamps.

Its also really important to get the tube to strike quickly - imagine belting
along - then no lights and no restrike.... :(

Factory systems either use a halogen as the high beam lamp, or move the HID lamps focal point ( not so common ) or have a mechanical shutter system to vary the pattern.

Moving the lamp is common for the conversion kits and uses a solenoid
usually activated on high beam. This does not really provide good beam
control

I have a piranha headlight kit in my Sierra, a ARB one on my Patrol and I reckon the Suzi shits all over it for light!

nicbeer wrote:I used the same, headlight inserts and replacement globes in my old drover.

Try some of the older 4x4 kits also, like hilux or some of the vans that use the same globe setup.

I have square cibie H4's in my dudlux and they are pretty good even without driving lights in a vehicle as slow as it is.

Thanks guys for all the repies and sorry i haven't said so until now but i haven't been online

I think i may look at upgrading the loom when i can, until then i may just buy some lights that fit.
Should i just get H4 Hella/Narva off the shelf or are there cheaper/better ones
or as Gwagensteve said
"70 series landcruiser sealed beams"

Thanks Again
Pep

love_mud wrote: <rant on>
The lights you have chosen sound great. but if you think that they are producing alot of glare on high .. get em aimed properly only costs a few $ and makes a big difference to your driving pleasure.

Headlights are aimed correctly thankyou. I don't see the point in spending $300 plus half a days work to fit them and not adjust properly. Show me a car, any car, where you can stand 30 metres in front of it on high beam(at night) and not have any glare in your eyes.

want33s wrote:

love_mud wrote: <rant on>
The lights you have chosen sound great. but if you think that they are producing alot of glare on high .. get em aimed properly only costs a few $ and makes a big difference to your driving pleasure.

Headlights are aimed correctly thankyou. I don't see the point in spending $300 plus half a days work to fit them and not adjust properly. Show me a car, any car, where you can stand 30 metres in front of it on high beam(at night) and not have any glare in your eyes.

C'mon lads, play nice.
Uncle Pete.

Pep wrote:Thanks guys for all the repies and sorry i haven't said so until now but i haven't been online

I think i may look at upgrading the loom when i can, until then i may just buy some lights that fit.
Should i just get H4 Hella/Narva off the shelf or are there cheaper/better ones
or as Gwagensteve said
"70 series landcruiser sealed beams"

Thanks Again
Pep

The lights I used are quartz halogen sealed beams from a 75 series Land cruiser ute, I have also upgraded the the wiring and added relays, My lights are fantastic, I am very happy.
And when I switch on my sealed beam driving lights you can cook toast at 10 metres, and it all works under water (not the toast bit, it gets soggy and falls off the fork )
Peter.

I can vouch for Pete's lights .. One one night drive I had pete behind me, I started having to strip of clothing to keep cool.. His lights were only on low beam
Pete noticed what I was doing and put em on high to see if he could get my wife to get her gear off as well ..

love_mud wrote:I can vouch for Pete's lights .. One one night drive I had pete behind me, I started having to strip of clothing to keep cool.. His lights were only on low beam
Pete noticed what I was doing and put em on high to see if he could get my wife to get her gear off as well ..

Guy your memory is failing, Kylie was in the car with ME, and they were HER high beams

Pep wrote:Thanks guys for all the repies and sorry i haven't said so until now but i haven't been online

I think i may look at upgrading the loom when i can, until then i may just buy some lights that fit.
Should i just get H4 Hella/Narva off the shelf or are there cheaper/better ones
or as Gwagensteve said
"70 series landcruiser sealed beams"

Thanks Again
Pep

I got the narva H4 semi sealed beam conversion and its great, the light output improved a bit over the standard sealed beams (just with standard globes)
I recently did a wiring upgrade and man thats where the improvement lies. It isnt hard to do either, some wire and a few relays. there is a diagram on here somewhere in another thread.

I have a pair of lightforce spotties on the front and if i turn them on there isnt a whole heap of differnce on high beam.

I reckon this mod should be one of the first things done to a zuk if you drive at night.

droopypete wrote:

love_mud wrote:I can vouch for Pete's lights .. One one night drive I had pete behind me, I started having to strip of clothing to keep cool.. His lights were only on low beam
Pete noticed what I was doing and put em on high to see if he could get my wife to get her gear off as well ..

Guy your memory is failing, Kylie was in the car with ME, and they were HER high beams

crispy wrote: I recently did a wiring upgrade and man thats where the improvement lies.

I reckon this mod should be one of the first things done to a zuk if you drive at night.

100% agree.
Peter.

here is the wiring diagram for those who want to upgrade there lights

Nice high beams Potter (not as good as Kylies though)