Upgrading lighting

[rmaybach]

I am planning on upgrading my lighting in the next few weeks and have some ideas I want to throw out to the group. I want to have both driving and fog lights, but I don't want to change the front end appearance much (i.e. no bars or guards). I could mount some rectangular fog lights in the factory locations, but how hard is it to use the factory wiring and switch and stuff? Also, could I just put in brighter headlight bulbs instead of driving lights? I know I'll have to make some compromises, but any advive would be great.

Thanks

 

[Nick Schmitt]

i have the piaa super bright replacement head light bulbs on my 94 and i love them, they make all the difference in the world. I originally purchased them because i had headlight blackouts on my truk and they definately helped. Now that i don't have the covers on i can see everything ont the road. I even conviced my roommate to put them in his 4-runner. there are two models that i know of there is a 65 watt(not sure) and a 45 watt i recommed the 45 watt it performs like a 85 watt. I think they may be illeagl in some states so check out where you live. They ran me about $90.

 

[mattadams]

Just FYI Piaa superwhite headlights are legal in all 50 states and are DOT and SAE approved (department of transportation as well as Society of Automotive Engineers). If you have rectangular fog lights alreayd isntalled, you can find some manufacturors make "dual mode" lights, fog as well as driving. I don't know how large your lights are so I can't tell you what you can get, but I recall Performance Products showed the PIAA 960's moutned in the stock fog light location with a mounting bracket purchased from PIAA) Using existing wiring would be tough as they would be different wattages, require different relays, etc. but it could be done... probably owuld be easier just to use the wiring that comes with it though.

 

[ExplorGM]

Superwhites?

Two years ago I purchased some replacement "high performance" bulbs from Performance Products. They were defective, and the new, new, replacements were no better than the stockers. They were supposed to be 65/100 if I recall correctly. I am interested in the Piaa super whites. Matt- Do you recommend the 85s(?) or the 130 watt bulbs. I have the newer bulbs, 9007s I think. Are they available for the new Explorers. What about the blue tint. Are they legal, or is there a white version? E-Mail me directly if you want to.
Thanks!
Rick

 

[mattadams]

The PIAA's are actually 110 watt bulbs, Dead Link Removed theres some more info on em. the 9004's as well as 9007's are now available. I don't know about blue tint lights as to whether they are 50-state legal, the PIAA's are not a blue tint and are 50-state legal. They are called superwhite. They have a VERY MILD blue tint but thats because it brings it so close to white a little blue shows up as well. I don't know all teh details but that might help you out a little bit I hope.

 

[Ray Lobato]

Hey Rob,
Have you looked at the Dead Link Removed?

 

[Tom Wilk]

The biggest problem I had with lighting was the beam pattern; the standard headlights don't seem to throw much light to the sides, and they have a very bright center spot. I prefer the more even lighting that my Ranger had. But, the beam pattern is a function of the lens assembly, so that can't easily be changed.

I have the PIAA 9007 Superwhites, 55/65 watt (even though Performance Products calls them 55/60 watt) which are supposed to be as bright as 100/110 watt bulbs. I don't know if that is the case, but they are definately considerably brighter than the standard halogens, and whiter. I'm still experimenting a bit with the beam adjustment, but so far I really like them.

I also have some Pilot driving lights. They aren't pencil beam, but they still shoot down the road pretty far. They work very well with my high beams, filling in the gaps and providing plenty of light on the side of the road. I have them wired to go on with the high beams only, so that I don't have to turn two switches off when traffic approaches. It was kind of difficult finding a place to put driving lights, since I already have the factory fogs (which are pretty good IMHO) in their respective spots. That's why I chose the pilots.

Here's a picture of the front of my Explorer. You can see how the Pilot lights fit in the lower air intake in the bumper. I don't know how your bumper is shaped exactly, but I had no other choice on mine:

I will add that the Pilots are a bit cheap, but they use industry standard H-3 bulbs and are easy to install. I don't know if PIAA makes a light small enough to put there or not.

 

[rmaybach]

Still Upgading

First thing I did was go out and buy some bulbs. I blew $20 on a set of toucan HID look bulbs. The manufacturers' motto is "look the part", and these bulbs look like they cost about $20. Complete waste of money. They are no brighter than factory lights and disappear in the rain which is somewhat disconcerting (did i spell that right?). So now on to step two. On PIAA's website, they say that Explorer's factory foglights have H3 type bulbs. Now could I replace the factory foglight bulbs with something brighter (conviently PIAA has just the thing)? That would be fantastic. I am planning on getting some PIAA Superwhite headlight bulbs and hopefully those will perform at a higher level. Thanks for all the suggestions.

 

[rmaybach]

something else

Something else I'd like to get some thoughts on if possible: Jacobs headlight brightners. a wiring kit that is suppose to do as the name implies.

 

[Tom Wilk]

You can use the PIAA H-3 replacement bulbs in your fog lights, but I would stick with 55 watts or so, unless you want to modify the factory wiring. Manufacturers tend to use the minimum size wire necessary to do the job, and higher wattage bulbs may fry your foglight wiring or relays.

I'm not familiar with the Jacobs headlight brightener system, but I suspect it does one or more of the following:

Increases voltage to the headlights via electronic circuitry which will probably prematurely wear out the bulbs.

Decreases circuit resistance by using larger wire to connect the bulbs with. This will result in a marginal increase in voltage at the bulb socket.

Either way, its a tradeoff - more light output versus faster bulb failure (the higher voltage produces more heat in the bulb which will cause it to burn out quicker).

I think that PIAA uses a different halogen gas than standard bulbs use to acheive their brighter output and cooler operation.

 

[rmaybach]

Ok, looks like I'm going to go for the stealth look and replace a few bulbs. Now the next question: What is a good source of PIAA products?

Thanks

 

[rmaybach]

Possible Hangup

I was just looking at the bulbs out of my foglamps. They definately do not look like the h3s on PIAAs site. I guess ford changed the bulb or something. If they are not H3s, what kind of bulbs are they? I have a 96 with the rectangular foglamps.

 

[4Wheelin]

Is there any way I can replace my Hella 500 bulbs with some sort of PIAA bulb?

 

[mattadams]

4wheeling-cannot replace hella 500 bulbs with PIAA bulbs as far as I know but I'll find out for you. I cant remember what type of bulb the hella 500's use. rmay-the manuals hould list what type of bulb or if not you can go to pep boys or something and look at their bulb application guide. I don't recall off-hand what your fog lamps have for bulbs.

 

[rmaybach]

According to my manual, the fogs use H3s. I guess the different brands look different. Thanks for all the help.

 

[mattadams]

ok well if the manual says H3, its probably H3. The shape of the bulb is not as important as the shape of connector and the mounting plate for the bulb. What does the connector look like on your bulb? It might look something like this (not the best scanning job but its an H3 bulb i pulled from a set of 910's that I had in my basement - the bulb, not the 910's). This is a set of Standard (not listed on teh website but comes stock in the lights with H3's) PIAA H3 bulbs. It is part number 13120 from PIAA. I would recommend however, getting the superwhite H3 replacements. I had the PIAA 910's in my 98 F-150, and the 910's use the 13120's and it was bright, but then I got the set of superwhite H3 replacements (mine was part number 15485 [85=130 watts] but since your using the stock wiring etc. you'd probably want part number 15455 [55w=85w]). Anyways, the superwhite were WAY brighter, I mean very noticeably different in brightness. It was like a whole different light.

[Edited by mattadams on 08-06-2000 at 10:45 AM]

 

[rock883]

Hey Matt, have any more lights just hangin around in your basement you would want to sell to me, perhaps some 520's??

 

[mattadams]

heh heh sorry, every set of lights I have is installed on my vehicle. The bulbs were the only part I had hanging around in my basement, because I swapped them out of my 910's, stuck them on top of the refrigerator, and forgot about em .

 

[rock883]

Ahhh, too bad...I tink I may go with the superwhite 9004's. I probably won't get the 520's though because I probably woudn't ever use them much. But I hope these things are as good as I hear, because my headlamps are kind of a light yellow color, and I love the whiter look, kinda like the HID's. Do people have kits to switch the stock headlamps to HID lighting?? I have heard of something like that, but never saw anything about it. Anyone know about any kits like this?

 

[mattadams]

rmay - I'll help you out with your experiment so you don't buy some bulbs you don't need. My mom has a 96 Explorer with factory fogs which supposedly use H3 bulbs. Tomorrow (or whenever I get a chance) I'll try to swap out her bulbs with my PIAA H3's and see if they match up. I'll let you know!