allrog214

what i want to know is where can i find head light for my 89 iroc-z that are NOT sealed beam? what i mean is that i just want to be able to just replace the LIGHT BULB not the whole freaken thing..

Pukka

Don't think you can do that. These cars were designed for sealed beam headlights.

If you are wanting to get that "cool blue" look, they finally have sealed beams for that particualr setup....at about twice the cost of regular sealed beams

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92 Camaro RS, LO3, 5-spd, T-tops

Performance:
K&N Open Air Filter, Edelbrock performer TBI intake, Fastchip Prom, Timing +4 degrees, Centerforce clutch, Xact 8mm wires, SLP 1 3/4" Headers (coated), Flowmaster Catback Exhaust, Z28 Grille w/aftmkt fog lamps
Electronics:
Alpine 8030 Alarm System, Valentine One Radar Detector (How did I ever drive without one?), Pioneer DEH 7450 Head Unit w/6-pack CD changer, Pioneer DEQ 7600 Sound Processor, 2 Kenwood KAC-846 Amps powering 2 12" Pro Red subs, 2 Pioneer 6x9 and 2 MTX 4x6 speakers.
NEXT UP: TBI mods, 3.42 gears w/Torsen posi

Jaysz28

iTrader: (30)

You can go to http://lighting.mbz.org/ and email Daniel Stern. I have used his products and services before. It will set you back about $200 for the conversion, but it will be well worth it.



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-Jason
"Get this, no man with a good car needs to be justified."

purpleworm

I have the sealed bema conversion and the Xenon ultra whites for low beams and they are great. I have about $100 into it but I bought it when I worked at the local electronics shop. I think the adapter lenses are like $35Can and the bulbs are like $20Can. They look really cool!

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91 Z28 Camaro
305 TPI
Flowmaster 3" exhaust
700R4 with 2000 Stall and shift kit 3.42 rearend
One sweet sounding system

KenGTA88

I bought a pair of Hella 6x8 vision plus light housings part #HLA72207. The H4 bulb conversion kit fit both Camaros and Firebirds. I paid around $70 for a pair and they came with a H4 bulbs inside. For kicks I put in a set of Piaa super plasma bulbs.

Norm Peterson

FWIW, you can get H4's in wattages higher than 55/60, up to at least 85w low beam/100w high. I've used 55/100's.

Norm



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1979 Malibu w/some cornering tweaks and a few other things

FlashGTA

Try these.

http://headlights.webjump.com

Or send email to carlights@excite.com

KRUSS

Here's the story right from the horse’s mouth (otherwise known as the “transportation lighting industry”):

SEALED BEAMS: There's no question that the sealed-beam headlamps installed by the factory on most cars as far back as most of us can remember aren't great. That's because most were designed at-least three decades ago with tools available at that time (and there has been almost zero improvement made since then). Also, these lamps were designed to meet the expectations of the driving population as a whole with little consideration given to the optical objectives of any one particular vehicle line (since they were sold as OEM equipment on almost every car of the day). In other words, a single design was needed to meet the driving conditions of ALL vehicles sold at that time (it’s different today!).

The lamps that came on all third-gen F-cars are called “1A1” (high beam) and “2A1” (low beam) respectively. They were originally approved by NHTSA (governing body) in 1974 were used on most cars built in the USA from that time up-until composite headlamps were approved by NHTSA for use on motor vehicles in 1984. As a result, sealed-beams have changed very little since then (with the almost-sole exception having been the replacement of the 'open' filament coil inside the lamp with a 'encapsulated' filament -which was done to prevent fires during an accident). Regardless, sealed-beams are permanently sealed with no replaceable bulb and are considered “throw-aways” once they’ve gone bad. The 1A1 high beam lamp has a single filament rated at 50watts. The 2A1 low beam lamp has two filaments: the “minor” or low beam filament rated @ 40watts and the “major” or high beam filament rated @ 60watts. The major filament in the low beam lamp is used to augment the light from the 1A1 high beam -which is why both lamps remain on during high beam mode. Neither the 1A1 nor the 2A1 are great lamps by today’s standard and neither has a replacement option that’s legal in the US.

As an alternative (and as already mentioned by another respondee) one option is to replace both your high and low beam lamps with an equivalent aftermarket design that utilizes replaceable bulbs. The most popular one in North America is a HELLA design that is sold as an aftermarket upgrade that can be found in the back of many performance magazines. The bad part is that you’ll need to be careful using these lamps because most are not designed to comply with US Federal Law (FMVSS108: Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Specification section #108 for sealed-beam headlamps in North America). This is because most have a European beam pattern (which is different than that normally seen in the US) and are designed to put light into areas different than those customary to the US market (otherwise known as the SAE market). If you do by-chance find an SAE-approved replaceable-bulb lamp –buy it. Most are otherwise illegal in the US and will likely be labeled as “for off-road use only”. The good part is that this type of lamp performs considerably better at night than do the factory 1A1/2A1 lamps. This is due in large part to the fact that European beam patterns favor a longer/narrower light pattern with a column of light going down the road with little side-road light. This tends to accommodate the European tendency to drive as fast as possible where good down-road lighting performance is crucial.

The reason these lights perform better is largely because the SAE-approved 1A1/2A1 sealed-beam lamps offer only a 40watt-rated minor and a 60watt-rated major filament where the “H4” bulb of a ‘replaceable-bulb’ type lamp offers a 55watt/60watt arrangement (the high beam lamp bulb is a 55watt “H1”). Additionally, the HELLA lamps are somewhat expensive and, as I’ve mentioned above, are technically illegal in the US (if they have a upper or lower case letter “E” with some other numerical digit beside it inside a circle on the lens – it’s illegal for use in the US). What that means is that there’s a potential ticket waiting for you out there if you get caught! Also, the stock wiring harness found on an F-body may require some cobbling because it MAY NOT line-up with the contact lugs of the H4 (it will definitely not line-up with the single contact lug of the H1). Additionally, since the lamps aren’t sealed, you may find condensation inside them occasionally. This is because these lamps are designed with a loose-fitting rubber ‘boot’ that fits over the bulb and socket which serves only as a watershed, not a hermetic seal. Since your car was designed without regard for a potential water-intrusion problem (since none-exists with a properly-manufactured sealed-beam lamp), it’s possible that these lamps could actually fill-up with water depending on your particular climate. It that happens, they can be dried, but will likely never perform the same again.

Finally, it’s important to understand that these cars were designed to see a specific current-draw through their headlamp wiring harness that is based-upon the 1A1 and 2A1 sealed-beam amperage specifications. If you add a lamp that has higher output (wattage), you will certainly be able to see better –for a while. But if you may find that you’ll probably either continuously blow fuses –or- burn-out your HL wiring/relay system altogether. When you increase a bulbs output, you also increase it’s power consumption (amperage draw) which can overload the wiring and short-out or even start a fire. The only real way around this problem is to re-wire the current feed to these new lamps with properly-rated wire and a relay driven by the light switch. Be carefull.

One word on aftermarket ‘novelty’ bulbs: Although the “superblue” bulbs that have recently appeared on the market are marketed as a direct replacement for halogen bulbs, be careful! Many of these bulbs are marketed strictly for the aftermarket because they don’t comply with SAE color spectrum requirements or have spectral properties that would cause them to fail legal photometry. They look fancy, but cost too much and have a fairly short life. If you must have them, at-least buy some from OSRAM, SYLVANIA, PHILIPS, or KOITO. These companies manufacture the most reliable bulbs in the world and you can bet that they’ll last a lot longer than some Korean or Taiwanese knock-off. FYI… These bulbs are patterned after HID (high intensity discharge) lamps that appear on a variety of luxury cars (also know as “XEXON” lighting). HID lamps are tightly regulated because of their substantial light output. The reason they look blue, violet, or ultra white is because they give-off light that more closely resembles sunlight and better illuminates down-road features such as lane markers and stop signs than do normal halogen lamps. However, at approximately $100 per lamp, they’re far-too expensive for the aftermarket buyer. As-such, the introduction of “superblue” bulbs.

This concludes the "War & Peace" version of "automotive lighting 101".

For information on the HELLA replacement lamps, please see the following link:

http://www.hellana.com/maineng/lev1b...onv_light.html

For a photo of an H4 replacement LOW BEAM, please see the following link (bulbs shown are not true XENON HID bulbs as have been suggested).

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/aw-cg...item=571054113


[This message has been edited by KRUSS (edited May 22, 2001).]

Anth's Iroc

I had the conversion kit(the one with the h4 bulb)and it was a waste couldnt use hi beams and such.I got a set of cool blues and im really happy with them you can also get the hi beams in the cool blue also.Dont waste your money on the conversion

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1987 BLUE IROC
IT'S A DOG
BUT IT'S MY DOG
AND IT HAS A NASTY BITE......
CNYFBA MEMBER
http://cnyfba.cz28.com/

Norm Peterson

Kruss - Your expert info is appreciated. I just have a couple of notes to make.

Although European H4's (off-road or motorcycle use) may be technically illegal, in practice they go pretty much unnoticed provided that you maintain decent aim and have the common courtesy to avoid jack-lighting every motorist in front of you (both oncoming and in the mirrors) with the high beams. You would probably have to swap the sealed beams back in for any periodic inspection so you don't get failed for "unapproved headlights" though.

As you noted, the OE electrical system may not be up to the job of handling significantly higher wattage bulbs. When the 55/100's (in the Malibu) died I just dropped back to the 55/60's and got longer bulb life in the process.

I recall that at one time there was a USA-legal H4 conversion. Cibie Z-beams, if I remember correctly. My recollection of those lights was that they used a modified H4 light pattern in that the tail of light that rose up to the right for illuminating road signs was restricted somewhat.

Given that the OE headlight pattern for my '01 Maxima closely resembles the original H4 pattern I wonder if there has been other, more recent, unannounced relaxation of vehicle lighting requirements/regulations. Kruss???

Norm

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1979 Malibu w/some cornering tweaks and a few other interesting things

[This message has been edited by Norm Peterson (edited May 22, 2001).]

KRUSS

Norm,

Indeed there was an SAE-approved [HELLA] replaceable-bulb (low beam only) system which used an HB2 bulb (the SAE-equivalent of a European H4 bulb) sold at one time in the US but it was “mistakenly” manufactured without aiming pads on the lens (the three bumps that stick-up on the face of the lens used to aim a sealed-beam lamp). Since aiming pads were required by law on all sealed-beam headlamps, this “oversight” ultimately served as the reason the lamps were taken off of the US market once NHTSA learned of it.

A little known feature of this lamp was that they had what was then referred-to by HELLA a as “modified SAE beam pattern” which supposedly passed FMVSS108 photometry requirements and was marketed as an SAE-compliant ECE (European) pattern. In actuality, what it really was was a European beam pattern rotated 10° clockwise (as seen from the driver’s seat) and sold as an SAE-compliant lamp. This was done to attempt to take advantage of the hunger in the US market for a better performing sealed-beam lamp. The whole scheme worked –for a while. The problem was that these lamps still didn’t technically meet SAE photometry despite the fact that they performed considerably better than did virtually all 2A1 sealed beams manufactured in the US at that time. Too bad for us!

A note on XENON HID headlamps. If you find a lamp that says it’s an “HID” lamp but has a bulb with a coiled filament inside, you’re being misled! True XENON HID lighting systems have no coiled filament inside them, but instead use an electrical arc that bridges the gap between two electrodes to create their light (sometimes referred-to as an “arc-source” light). What this means to you and me is that we have what technically amounts to a welding arc inside an HID headlamp used to create and emit light onto the road surface in-front of us. Many of today’s aftermarket bulb suppliers are attempting to take advantage of the poor lighting capabilities of many popular cars by riding the wave of interest in HID lighting systems now appearing on a variety of luxury vehicles sold throughout the world today. That’s OK, but “buyer beware”! Know the facts before you spend your hard-earned money on what sometimes ends-up being a novelty item!

Those interested in true XENON HID replacement lamps sold in the aftermarket should make sure to buy only those lamps that specifically state that their products are certified to meet SAE AND FMVSS108 lighting requirements in the US. This because true XENON HID lighting systems produce approximately twice the light of a normal 55watt halogen bulb and can easily blind oncoming traffic if improperly aimed. Also, aftermarket products not certified to meet Federal regulations can lead to some terribly expensive tickets and a local police force that will have their eye out for you from that point forward. Despite the fact that aftermarket HID systems are expensive, they definitely improve night time driving comfort for the driver.

Enjoy!

Ken Russ (KRUSS)

p.s.: Regarding the light pattern in your Maxima: The fact that it resembles a European light pattern is just a coincidence. The headlamps on a Nissan Maxima are in-fact designed specifically to meet SAE photometry. They’re just done in such a way as to resemble an ECE pattern as a way of simplifying optical design practices amongst their lighting suppliers. No relaxation of SAE requirements to allow ECE beam patterns into the US in their European form yet exists (although there has been some talk...)


[This message has been edited by KRUSS (edited May 22, 2001).]

Norm Peterson

I seem to remember that it was mostly the folks that plugged small aircraft landing lights into automobile headlight sockets (30 years or so ago) that found out about illegal lighting the hard way. Having WAY more light than everybody else is using is easy to spot.

Thanks for the ps info, Ken. Perhaps I was being just a little too skeptical of coincidence.

Norm

[This message has been edited by Norm Peterson (edited May 23, 2001).]

88CovertibleTBI

The police don't appreciate it when you install 210watt Daylighters as fod-lights in your third-gen. Believe me, I know. But let me tell you, it sure makes night driving great. I had it hooked up to a relay where they would only come on when I tuend on my high beams. I was coming down a 2 lane road in the middle of the night when a cop on the side of the road pulled me over and gave me a ticket for having my hi-beams too bright. I took it to court and I won. The judge said that considering high-beams should be used only when there isn't oncoming traffic, it shouldn't matter how bright they were. I have heard though that some states have laws concerning brightness of high beams. Sounds dumb too me.

KRUSS

As odd as it sounds, the Fed does regulate the MAXIMUM amount of emitted by lamps fitted on any car built for operation on US soil. The reason is simply this: there are other people on the road. It may sound funny but, most laws are designed to “…keep an honest man honest” and incase you’ve got nicer drivers on the road where you live than I have here in Detroit, people can be pretty inconsiderate when they want to be. It’s not uncommon to find people everywhere driving with improperly aimed or even damaged and broken vehicle lamps, regardless of it’s impact on drivers around them. For this reason, the Fed has long-since regulated vehicle lighting (which includes lamp function, aim, and condition). For example, if a car has a headlamp out, it’s not unreasonable to expect that an oncoming vehicle might interpret the remaining single headlamp to be that of a motorcycle. As-such, that oncoming vehicle may then inaccurately judge the ‘pass-by’ distance it has between itself and the ‘motorcycle’ thus creating a potentially dangerous situation. It is for this type of reason that the police are tasked with issuing repair citations for those vehicles that risk endangering other drivers/vehicles. The same holds true with headlamp brightness. It may seem only natural to allow high beams to emit as-much light as they can, but often, too-much light only blinds other drivers –again creating a potentially dangerous situation.

The same is true with HID headlamps. Despite the fact that they produce about twice the light of normal halogen headlamps, they still must comply with the same brightness regulations that have been in-effect for headlamps since the late sixties. And HID headlamps seem significantly brighter than halogen, people automatically assume that they are, when in-fact, they can have no more light in any one ‘area’ of their beam pattern than can standard halogen lamps. With HID headlamps, it’s simply the way that the light is proportionately distributed that makes them seem brighter. You might be surprised to learn that NHTSA (National Highway Transportation Safety Administration) receives thousands of complaints every year regarding headlamp brightness and intensity, to-which, they advise the SAE (Society of Automotive Engineers) of these complaints, who, in-turn, discusses them at it’s national congress meeting held once a year.

The long and the short of it is that lighting is regulated in order to ensure that everyone is protected. That includes not only you, but drivers in other cars as-well.

[This message has been edited by KRUSS (edited June 08, 2001).]