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2nd gen headlight upgrades?


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My 86 BRAT is in need of new headlights. It has the quad light sealed beams. I've rewired them on relays to get more voltage at the lights, but the housings themselves are old and fogged up, so I plan to just replace them. What kind of options do I have? I've been looking at generic 4x6 housings on Amazon that fit replaceable bulbs, like H4s, but it's hard to guess what kind of quality the housings are, or how the beam pattern looks. I've also considered the 4x6 housings that just have a bright LED panel for high beams. And sometimes in photos on here I see people using yellow colored units - what are those? I live in an area with lots of snow and low-glare yellow bulbs might be a good thing.

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Can you wait a few more weeks ? I have recently ordered LED 4x6 to try out on my inners as highbeams only. The lights are three rows of LED that have a yellow square in each LED which is normal - they don't throw yellow light though. Also they are a high and low beam and guessing just the bottom row or maybe even the middle row light up on low, all for high beam.

 

With our quad light set ups need to be careful what you fit especially in the inners - I had replaceable bulb type when  bought it, had a metal insert where bulb sat, and somehow it made contact with bulb and earth of vehicle giving me four lights on high beam when all that was switched on was low beam. Sealed beam lights fixed that drama. The previous driver was a cop, and the owner before him, was a cop, with a used dealer in between them. Car must have had numerous annual inspections, change of owner inspection and none either noticed or cared their car did not light up any better when switch on the high beams - just the low beam was pretty good :)

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I put in the 4x6 H$ generics with the colored LED's on the side. They throw off great light though the pattern is a little wonky. I do plan on getting a higher quality set at some point, but they are a definite improvement. You will have to swap terminals on your plugs though as the H4's are positive switched, not ground switched like ours.

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I already rewired the headlights to be positive switched, so that's no problem. I may try a set of the cheaper generics to see how they look. I'm willing to pay more for nicer units but I'm just not sure if the more expensive ones are actually better.

Edited by musubk
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Are you talking about the glass lens has fogged up? I installed Sylvania SilverStar lights many years ago. Replaced them for the first time about three years ago when one went out. If you have set up relays to bypass some of the old wiring and connectors you should get pretty awesome lighting out of an off the shelf set of Silverstars. They are H4656ST low beam and H4651ST high beam. They will typically not last as long as standard replacement bulbs but I still got maybe 10 years out of them. When the first one went out I figured the rest were not far behind! . I have been thinking about setting up relays to bypass some of the old wiring on mine to increase volts at the bulb too!  Have done this to a Suzuki bike I owned sometime ago and it made a noticeable improvement in lighting.

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Just replacing them with new sealed beams would be a good start.  They used to be $10 each?

 

Quality aftermarket replacements with quartz halogen buibs are the tried and true upgrade.

 

Look for name brands:  Cibie, Hella, Marchal etc.  But I don;t even know if they make this stuff anymore, that is 30 year old technology...

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Last night I ordered some Hella H4 housings to replace the low beams. My high beams are still pretty good so I'll leave them alone for a while. They were pretty pricey at $150 for the pair, but they're aluminum housings and glass lenses, unlike most of the generic H4 conversion lights (all plastic), and they had good reviews. I was REALLY tempted to just get new sealed beams since they're pretty cheap, but I decided 'what the hell, let's try it'. It's about to be dark for a lot of hours every day here in Alaska so good lights are a good thing.

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they are here ... first worry was beaten to by the tag on the box spot s it says. OK, I did not consider whether flood or spot was an option this purchase, though did buy a light bar specific with flood in the mix on the ends, spots in the middle.

I wonder if the seller has the option, just did not mention in their ad that these were specifically spot as the label says.

 

Second worry then is would they even fit in the securing frame ?? YES !

 

do they fit in the housing ? YES

 

hmm, will the securing frame or bezel hold them in ....uh oh. I need to identify the screws and get some in longer than short as when LED light sits on four leveling lugs, the bezel frame sits 6mm proud. The main quad light surround with blinker in it, fits quite loose around these things so looks to be no problem, just the eyes will bulge a little.

Being spot may not be a low beam option ...but, maybe wire them in with my low beams to give me some low beam spot to compliment std low beam outers ...

 

OH...I want these babies as low beams.

 

Continued fiddling sort of explains spots in my eyes :( ...with the cord in at the upper point, the low beam circuit is the bottom row and the middle of five on the next row up. high beam is 3x5 LEDs and tested aganst the shed door in sunset daylight the yellow of low and high beams pales to insignificance of the LED blue light on high :)

 

Once someone (likely me) can ID the thread of the screws that hold the bezel in place and can get 'em 6mm longer, add some vac hose as packers then can get this unit on the headlight pattern tester aimer one day soon.

 

Most likely will have the euro style no left or rightedness so should be safe in left or right hand drive worlds. next test would be to have someone drive towards me in the thing and see how it looks.

 

:( still got spots in my eyes :(

Edited by jono
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