I plan on putting strobe lights into my high-beam "casings" in my Camaro. This involves drilling a 1/2" hole in the glass, and putting the strobe light in that has a grommet and requires using sealant. I was told, however, that the high-beams (as well as the low beams) require a vacuum in the lights in order to operate. Drilling a hole would kill the vacuum. So does anyone know if this is true or not? Thanks in advance.

 

That won't work at all. HALOGEN lights need HALOGEN to work. And the pressure inside that light is alot lower than atmospheric pressure.

If you drill into the back of a sealed beam headlight get ready for a surprise.

 

Lol, I can't believe I didn't think of that. Any other ideas for where I can put my strobes? I would put them in the parking lights, but it's an 84 sport coupe, so they're orange and that would look crappy. Thanks.

 

Wait a minute. One of the headlights on my IROC was missing a pretty big chunk of glass out of the lense but it worked fine all the same. It wasn't as bright as the others because of all the dirt that had coated the reflector and the back of the lense but it did work. Upon close inspection I discovered that the halogen bulb inside was a sealed unit on its own. No it isn't a European style headlight either which has a provision for replacing the bulb - the bulb is part of the sealed beam but the filament is sealed inside its own casing. So, if one does drill a hole in the headlight, it shouldn't cause any nasty surprises unless one ends up breaking the bulb itself.

 

Thanks for the replies. Where can I drill into so I can stick the strobe light in without hitting the actual light? The base is about 1/2" wide, and the actual bulb is about 1" long. I also don't want any wires to be seen from the outside with the hood down, obviously. Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance.

 

Just take it out and look through to see where the bulb is. There is no such thing as "halogen," you mean a halogen gas... ie fluorine, chlorine, bromine, iodine. Heard of fluorescent lights? They are filled with fluorine.

 

Nice try, but fluorescent lights are filled with a very low concentration of mercury vapour. Ionizing the vapour gives off ultraviolet light which causes the coating inside the tube to give off visible light.

Halogen lights contain a gas from the halogen group inside a small quartz envelope. As the filiament heats up tungsten atoms evaporate from it and combine with the halogen gas, but are redeposited on the filiament. Because the filiament is being continuously rebuilt, the bulb can be run hotter and brighter without burning out quickly.