I'm not sure if this is the right place for this question, but i was wondering if there's a headlight unit out there that has a seperate housing and bulb. The ones on my car now are just the one piece were the housing and bulb are together and you have to replace the whole thing. Do they make any that you just replace the bulb in for camaros? Or is this something that one would have to modify a different headlight to work? Thanks for the help!

 

There is an option for you that lets you use composite bulbs instead of sealed beam. You have to get a conversion kit. Its basically a empty 6054 style bulb, with the hardware in the back for using an H7? or 9003 bulb. It uses your stock light plugs as well...if yours are as brittle as mine were, now is a good time to wire in some new ones. Both the conversions and the light sockets can be found at autozone of pepboys im sure. They produce a really nice beam pattern. It allows you to use any style bulb you are into. Standard sylvania, cool blue (yuck), silverstars (most popular), or you can opt to go for the APC bulbs that are 85 watt low 105 watt high for the most light. Here's a pic of mine. The lens is glass so that was nice. Excuse the spots...



If you have any questions on the install, even tho it is fairly straightforward, please feel free to ask.

Justin

 

Unfortunately the ones that I have seen were rather expensive for all that they are... I found it was better just to replace with OEM style sealed beams.
But for my question along these same lines, I have a TA and have misplaced my repair manual... how do you keep the lens up to change the lights without having the lights on?

 

Thanks for the help. I'll check Autozone and see what they have. If i have a prob i'll let you know.

 

I think the ones I got were $39 at autozon... But I work there so its discounted I dont know how much I paid. There are expensive ones out there, but they usually have a light up trim ring or something stupid. Which is pointless for a firebird cuz if your lights work correctly you cant put them up without them being on. Well you could but you'd have to rig. For $39 bux tho I feel the best advantage is the beam pattern is better. Low beams are like spot lights and the high beams light up the road asfar down as you have them aimed. You can upgrade the brightness as you wish or as your pocket will allow.

To put your headlights up without turning them on, there is a shaft coming out of the back of the motor that should be sticking straight up next to the headlight. Mine were missing the ***** so all I can see is a little knurled shaft end. Most the time there is a **** you can turn. Just start spinning that and they will come up. After that is the bezel, and light retainer.

Justin

 

You can also get your headlights to stay up, sometimes, if you turn on your headlights, then turn them off and then switch on your parking ligths really fast. That seems to trick the headlights into staying up. You can then turn off the parking lights and the headlights will stay up until you turn on your headligths agian. It works in my 1990 Firebird and 91 GTA.

 

You know...ive done that by accident a few times but didnt really know how I did it. I might try that just for s**ts and giggles. I always flicked the lights back on real fast when I did that because I was afraid to mess something up. That and back then my headlights were lazy so they didnt come up at the same time everytime. Quick order to Lon at TDS and they are great now. Im going out to try that trick right now!

Justin

 

u can also just have the car off and open them manualy by turning the **** but i also think if u have the lights up and just shut off the car the light will go out but lamp will stay up.

i am interested in converting to these lights also, but i am out in canada we dont have pepboyz or autozone anyone know a site on the net i can get them from? how much do they cost??

 

I am almost 100% that the lights will stay on if you turn the car off.

You can find them on E-bay sometimes

 

PUT THE LIGHTS UP... DISCONNECT THE BATTERY... MYSTERY SOLVED!

 

 

I would just as soon not mess with the battery unless I really have to... that way I dont have to mess with the alarm or the radio or half a dozen other things.
Besides, I need to realign the headlight covers with the hood and nose piece anyway.
thanks for the help
james

 

on my 1990:

Easiest way is to turn the lights on, then flick'em off and flick the parking lights on real quick.... this is actually somewhere in my chilton manual I was amused when I saw they did this the same way... I do this sometimes when I stop my car at night, and don't want to risk my headlights not coming back up when I'm ready to go again...

you can actually turn off the headlights and they will stay up, until you turn the lights back on, and off that is....

although, I always manually rotate the **** as to avoid possible electrical problems... just in case...

 

If you turn your parking lights on, then lightly touch the headlamp part of the switch, the lights will come up. As soon as you release the headlamp part of the switch, the lamps will turn off, but the lamp doors will stay open. The key is to do it in two stages.
1) Turn on park lamps only.
2) Lightly press the larger headlamp switch (only enough to get the headlamps to come up, but not to the point that the switch "clicks")
3) Don't turn off the park lamps! As soon as the headlamp switch is moved to the off position, the headlamp doors will close.
This way, you don't have to worry about moving really quickly or anything like that. Don't dawdle though, you don't want to kill your battery by running parklamps without having the car running.

 

that almost seems more involving than flipping the switch off and to parking... and you can leave all the lights off and take as long as you want...

but man... how many days would it take your battery to die running the parking lights only?

 

I purchased some Hella conversions from these guys:

http://www.rallylights.com/

And some Phillips Vison Plus H4's and H1's from these guys (Osram (NOT Sylvania) Silverstars would have worked too):

http://www.suvlights.com/

Haven't installed them yet, though.

 

You can also just turn the lights on and then disconnect the motor cable. Its really easy to do and once you detach it you turn the lights off and the lamps stay up. If you get under the nose of the car the motor plug/cable is right under the headlights.

~Matt

 

I usually find myself at least working with my foglights on anyways to see the screws (dunno why I'm always working on my lights at night )... so I just flip the switch---imo the easiest way

 

That implies that the fog lights are working LOL I just havent taken the time to figure out what is wrong with mine... probably just the relay. But I dont use them that often, so it isnt that big of a deal to me. I would want to rewire them anyway, as I dont really care for the way GM did it.