100/80 watt headlights

[Four0Sport]

one of my silverstars burnt out last week in my 97 so i was running around with one silverstar and one regular halogen. I didnt want to spend another $40 on silverstars so i looked through my hella catalog and priced some of their 100/80 watt 9007s. they were amazingly cheap through our supplier so i ordered 2 of them and installed them in the parking lot at work b4 my trip home. I am very pleased with the output of these lights, the high beam is lacking slightly but i am attributing this to the stock headlamp harness. so when i got home this evening i went on ebay and found a good high watt headlight harness, similar to the one aldive used in his how to thread.

i cant wait to see how much more of a difference the harness makes. if all goes well i will wire up my own harness using relays and an old 9004 socket and add these lights to my 93 as well. then my fiances subaru.. she likes having as much light as possible.

these bulbs were listed as 'off road use only' and i can see why.. they are bright and project a flood of light a good distance. i wasnt high beam flashed on the ride home though, maybe after the harness upgrade. I'll keep this updated. the harness should be here beginning of next week.

 

[mweiss]

In about 3-6 months, you'll be replacing the bulbs AND the sockets. The heat produced by these 100W bulbs melts the sockets, causes arcing and further meltdown, and smokes up your reflectors.

Having spent many hundreds of dollars on several pairs of bulbs, new wiring harness, multiple sets of new sockets, I realize that the only right decision was to convert the system to bi-Xenon HID. My mistake was waiting for so many years and burning so many dollars and being pulled over so many times because a bulb was out due to another socket failure.

Now I have HID kits from Retro-solutions in both my 98 and my wife's 06 Explorer, and the light output is about 4X greater than with the 100W bulbs and no more failing lights. I remember having to drive home from the city one night with just parking lights, because the sockets on my 100W halogens had BOTH failed on the same night, leaving me with NO lights at all. After the 5th pair of sockets replaced, that was the last straw. HID kits went in, and night driving is terrific and no longer a strain.

Better to spend $185 one time, than $70 + $49 five times.

 

[Four0Sport]

the wiring harness got here yesterday and i just came back in from installing it. looks to be a good quality harness. as far as money goes.. im out $12 on bulbs and $30 on the harness. about the same money i would be spending on silverstars or other high end bulbs. I'll be putting them to good use tonight and will post their performance after i get home.

did you use a plug and play HID kit or did you actually retroft a projector lens and an entire HID assembly into your headlight assemblies? the plug and play kits arent the greatest on light output if theres nothing to focus the beam, imo.

 

[Four0Sport]

ok, well.. i told you guys id report after using the light and harness combo this evening and after some re working of the harness things are good. i ordered a 9007 harness, it was labeled 9007, but was actually a 9004 harness. i realized something was wrong when we left dinner and my high beams werent working, and the high beam indicator on the dash was faintly lit.. all bc the ground and high beam wire were in the wrong spot (correct for a 9004) on the socket.

so after a friend and i ripped the harness back out of the truck, switched some pins, and re-installed it everything is working great. the bulbs are visibly brighter than before. this is a good upgrade to even stock lights IMO.

so my only issue is this.. ive heard mixed reviews about running high watt bubls like mine in vehicles. ive heard some people say it will burn up the lens and sockets and others say theyve been running them for years with no problems. so is there a definite answer?

 

[toypaseo]

My ex-Ford mechanic neighbor warned me about using higher wattage bulbs. I can't recall if it was about wiring issues, headlight lens issues, bulb socket issues, or...?

 

[Four0Sport]

the socket/wiring issue i have taken care of. im just worried about burned the the lesnes

 

[Gln]

80/100 w/o a problem

I guess cars are different. I have been running 80/100 in my Exp for over a year w/o a problem. In addition, I rewired my lights so that when my highs are on, my lows are also on. I use that car on dirt roads in very remote areas and so need all the light I can get. I never had any problem with lenses, sockets, wires, etc. Sold that truck recently and got a 4x4 of the same year. For extra light on the "new" truck will add several KC's.

 

[Bill Kemp]

Sometimes the additional heat from the high watt bulbs will discolor the reflective chrome-like coating on the headlights. They dont reflect much then.
I stopped using high watt bulbs because they dont last very long compared to regular bulbs.

 

[parad1mg]

i did use high wattage bulbs in the toyota that i had before but the big difference is that the headlight was constructed with glass lenses and metal reflectors.. although the reflector material was metal, the chrome plating would dull out on it an would not last very long... of course it all depends if you drive for long hours at night.. good thing those headlights were inexpensive..

IMO and based on my own experience, if you want to stick with high wattage bulbs then get or make a heavy duty harness (which you already have) and ceramic headlight sockets.. even if you get those "heavy duty" blue sockets that can be bought at some part stores they will still deform and melt.. ceramic ones are the best that i have used although a little bit expensive but it will never create a short nor melt..

HID retofits (not the pnp hid kits) will always outperform any high wattage halogen setup.. they will last longer too.. the only drawback is the price of building one.. just my $.02..

 

[Four0Sport]

yeah a friend and i were looking at the truck last night. he's retrofitted HIDs in a few of his cars and our friends. i think they are wanting my explorer to be next.

 

[mweiss]

did you use a plug and play HID kit or did you actually retroft a projector lens and an entire HID assembly into your headlight assemblies? the plug and play kits arent the greatest on light output if theres nothing to focus the beam, imo.

Yup. I bought a plug and play kit. The ones from Retro-Solutions have a much better and focused beam pattern than many of the cheaper kits. Bad HID kits give these retro-fits bad publicity and scares. With the right kit, you get a pattern that's sharp and clean because the arc is placed exactly where the filaments would be and tolerances are much tighter. No need for projector assemblies--the stock reflector on the Gen IV Explorers seems fine. Earlier light assemblies should be switched out for better ones. There are now projector kits for the Gen II Explorers, but they run $260 and up, without the HID kits, so you're looking at $450 for a conversion of that nature.
I have the Diamond cut lamps in my '98 and their not so great--too small on the reflectors, but the 55W HID kit makes up for that lack of efficiency somewhat.
On the wife's '06 Explorer, the 35W HID kit is more than bright enough. The reflectors are that much bigger and better optical quality. The pattern is quite good, too.

 

[Four0Sport]

all i would really need is a set of clear headlights.. projectors, ballasts, ignitors, and bulbs are fairly cheap to come by. my friend has some stockpiled. a little work cutting the back of the lenses, little bondo, some paint.. itd be nice.

 

[BigZ97ex]

So, what would be the maximum watts that would not burn out the stock socket, can i use philips crystal vision bulbs with stick sockets there 65/55 watts?

 

[Four0Sport]

that should be good.. I think thats the same if not close to stock wattage

 

[Turdle]

Are these lights legal for road use?

The low (80w) is more powerful than the stock high beams(65w)

That would be of great concern to oncoming traffic.

 

[Anime]

Are these lights legal for road use?

The low (80w) is more powerful than the stock high beams(65w)

That would be of great concern to oncoming traffic.

these bulbs were listed as 'off road use only' and i can see why.. they are bright and project a flood of light a good distance. i wasnt high beam flashed on the ride home though, maybe after the harness upgrade.

80W/100W bulbs are NOT legal for on road use.

The maximum bulb wattage allowed is generally 55W for low beams and 65W for high beams, but of course that standard only means anything for regular halogen bulbs, as you can have 35W HIDs or even 55W HIR halogen bulbs that are incredibly bright compared to the halogen bulbs of 25 years ago.

But one of the reasons not to use 80W/100W bulbs is the Explorer uses plastic housings and the bulbs themselves use plastic bases. The 45W low beams of 9004 bulbs in the first gens is enough to get the lenses warm and the base and housing pretty toasty. The 55W low beams of 9007's in the second and third gens is more than enough to get the bases and housings hot. 80W is roasting them and 100W can melt plastic.

The other reason is the thin 18-20 AWG stock wiring and the headlight switch can't handle much more than the stock bulbs, and nearly doubling that wattage is just asking for an electrical fire. If you're lucky, it'll just fry the switch or burn up some wires, but overloading it can cause a fire that starts and spreads so quick you'll barely have time to open the door and exit the vehicle.

If you have metal/ceramic housings and bulbs with a metal base plus upgraded heavy-gauge wiring and relays, you can usually get away with bulbs that have a 55W low beam and a 80W or 100W high beam, but 80W low beams in DOT lamps is going to glare pretty badly. Just because people don't flash their headlights to let you know you're blinding them doesn't mean you aren't blinding them. Lots of places outlaw the flashing of headlights (or make it a reason a cop can pull you over because you must have been signalling to other motorists that there was a cop in the area) despite court rulings protecting it as free speech, and some people just don't want to risk being the victim of road rage if some crazy person turns around and chases after them for flashing their lights.

Luckily, the thing that saves the day here is most of those 80W/100W bulbs with plastic bases are off-brand junk that don't really draw 80W on low beam or 100W on high beam. They probably still draw more than the 55W/65W of approved, safe bulbs by established manufacturers, but not as much as they claim. The Hellas were probably one of the few name brands that actually made them for awhile, but they were more for the off-road racing crowd to run in classes where stock headlights were required or where auxiliary lighting was limited, or just for off-road only rigs to use with a set of driving lights instead of having to invest in lots of lamps and electrical upgrades.

Of course, these days you can just get halogen bulbs like the GE Nighthawk Platinum or the Philips Xtreme Vision/Xtreme Power, and they can put out more light with 55W/65W than those 80W/100W bulbs can, or get HID or LEDs that are even brighter with even less wattage.

 

[Flash]

Back before HIDs were available I had 130/90 bulbs in my motorbike and a locally made car called a Torana.

I bought spade lugs that were big enough to go on the lugs of the H4 bulbs and used an individual relay for each bulb.

I never had any problems with them.

I never got flashed because low beam was adjusted properly and out of oncoming traffic's eyes.

These days I would just use HID projectors. For a start the colour is brighter.

The Torana was a 1978 model, one of the first cars to come from the factory with 65/55 halogens.
I used to get flashed with that all the time even though the lights were adjusted properly because people were just not used to seeing low beams that bright and thought I must have had high beam on.