[Sankar]

Hi,

I peeked under the hood of my i10 and realised that there is no direct connection to the back of the headlamp bulb. I saw that headlamp power connector which plugs into a special socket on the headlamp and then another lead running inside the lamp assy connects to the bulb. If you look at the headlamp assy, you can see that there is a cap at the back of the hadlamp bulb. So my guess is that connecting a traditional headlamp socket is not an easy thing to do here.

So has anyone upgraded their i10's headlamp bulbs to higher wattage bulbs with a relay? If so how did you go about it? Did you have to cut the cap or something to make way for the connectors? If you have any pictures of the installation it would help a lot. I want to upgrade to a higher wattage bulb, but don't want to cut anything.



9219C is the cap. 92150E is the lead that comes from the special connector to the bulb.

[Mi10]

The Stock Headlight power is very bad in i10. Esp in not so well-lit roads.
Any suggestions here would be much appreciated.

[sgiitk]

Increasing the wattage to, say, 90/100W is possible and requires a separate power path, relays, etc. It is ILLEGAL. Another popular (though illegal) option is to go for HID. As per the law unless you have projectors, HID is legal for low beam, but the hight beam must be halogen. I have seen ads in the US about dual element lamps, but have not seen them here.

Also, if you go HID/HID then get Bi-xenon rather than a single element. The latter has a contraption for moving the bulb up and down, which tends to be most unreliable.

[knp]

for my i10, i had gone for philps xtreme power of the same wattage and i am pretty much with that.
btw, where did u get this image? do you have the service manual of i10?

[ImmortalZ]

Originally Posted by sgiitk

HID is legal for low beam, but the hight beam must be halogen. I have seen ads in the US about dual element lamps, but have not seen them here.

Modifying the stock headlamps with ANYTHING is illegal. HID in reflector headlamps designed for halogens will blind oncoming traffic and is illegal.

Originally Posted by sgiitk

Also, if you go HID/HID then get Bi-xenon rather than a single element. The latter has a contraption for moving the bulb up and down, which tends to be most unreliable.

Bi-xenon projectors have a single bulb with a solenoid that moves the cut off shield when activated. No bi-xenon projector moves the bulb.

[download2live]

My friend recently got it done. No cutting of wires involved.
He got it through his known person and hence the ridiculous low price of 800. In markets it will cost you around 1200 to 1500.
But people are saying its illegal. So think about it.

[Sankar]

Originally Posted by sgiitk

Increasing the wattage to, say, 90/100W is possible and requires a separate power path, relays, etc.

It is ILLEGAL. Another popular (though illegal) option is to go for HID. As per the law unless you have projectors, HID is

legal for low beam, but the hight beam must be halogen. I have seen ads in the US about dual element lamps, but have not

seen them here.

Also, if you go HID/HID then get Bi-xenon rather than a single element. The latter has a contraption for moving the bulb up

and down, which tends to be most unreliable.

Sir, relay kit with wiring is the obvious answer, that is known. But here i10 is a peculiar case, its headlight design and wiring is not as simple as other H4 headlamps i've seen in Indian vehicles. i10's has one power connector going to its headlamp unit to power the headlight bulb, parklight bulb and the indicator bulb. The power wires splits up inside the headlamp unit and goes to their respective locations. Behind the headlamp there is a cap with no hole, unlike other headlamps where behind the H4 bulb there is a rubber cap with a hole through which the headlamp power connector connects directly to the bulb. So to make the regular holder that comes with kits fit, one has to make a hole in the cap for the holder to pass through. Another hurdle i foresee is to make the relay-kit-plug-in-adaptor mate with the short power cable going to the H4 bulb, this is what is going to trigger the relay.

I know some of the fellow members have done it/got it done, hope they reply.

Its so easy with other cars with H4 lamps; remove both stock power connectors from the both headlamp bulbs, connect the +ve battery lead
from relay kit to battery, insert the relay triggering plug into one of the stock power connectors you removed from headlamp, connect the relay's ceramic/bakelite bulb connectors to the bulbs, ground the ground leads from each bulb connector to the body, and you're good to go :-) Why does Hyundai have to make it so complicated???

H4 HID retrofit kits pose the same problem as above with the i10.

Though both high wattage and HID are illegal in this case, higher wattage is a safer option in stock headlamp as it puts more light on the road where it matters without distracting others. Only issue is the reflectors will tend to fade over the years.

Originally Posted by knp

for my i10, i had gone for philps xtreme power of the same wattage and i am pretty much with that.
btw, where did u get this image? do you have the service manual of i10?

Xtreme Power is very good, but from my past experience i didn't find it very long lasting. And changing headlamp bulbs of the i10 is not very easy unless you're willing to take off the front bumper or part of it. If someone knows a better way tell me!!

I had saved the image on my HDD, google led me to it. No i don't have the service manual.

Originally Posted by download2live

My friend recently got it done. No cutting of wires involved.

Happy to hear that, but did he have to make a hole in the rear cap behind the bulb? Any photos possible?

[knp]

Originally Posted by Sankar

Xtreme Power is very good, but from my past experience i didn't find it very long lasting. And changing headlamp bulbs of the i10 is not very easy unless you're willing to take off the front bumper or part of it. If someone knows a better way tell me!!

I got the Xtreme power bulbs installed from a local mechanic. He had not removed the bumper,instead, he just bent down (above the front wheel) and could able to pull the rear cap of the bulb unit and replaced the bulb. he just did it in 5 minutes for each side.

[Sankar]

I don't bow my head in front of anyone, not even my car, so i can't change the stupid bulb. I rule

I get it, the mech must've parted the fender apron to get to the bulb. But bending down/sitting down is not possible for me at the moment due to a medical condition. So for me i guess i'll have to depend on a mech for the bulb change.

[Sankar]

Decided to have a go at the stupid headlamps once again and finally did it!! The i10 now runs with 3400 lumens (each ) provided by Hella 90/130 bulbs.

Now you might think why i chose 90/130 instead of the more obvious choice, which is Philips 100/130. The reason is 90W low beam is more than enough for my needs, i would be running on low beam for most of the time and 90W is definitely less damaging than a 100W low beam in the long run, plus i save 20W energy. 130W high beam gives me the lumens when i need it!

Hyundai manual is wrong, it says to remove the headlamps you need to undo two bolts, actually there are three bolts to be undone, one the missing bolt in the manual sits just behind the indicator bulb.

So i undid the three bolts and this time armed with more information from couple of posts at Hyundai Forums, i yanked out the headlamp in a side to side rocking motion. It finally came out after a lot of struggle. So what holds the headlamps is three bolts, clip on the bottom of the lamp and couple of legs on the outer side of the lamp unit.

As i said before the power is provided to the whole headlamp unit by a single connector. There is no separate external connection to the headlamp bulb. But what you have is a short stubby wire that runs inside of the lamp unit and connects to the bulb.

There is a cap behind the headlamp bulb, to keep out mud and dust. Believe me the wheels will splash the back of the lamp unit with nud/water through the gap in the fender apron. So you don't want to leave any holes on that cap! But without making a hole, either on the cap or on the lamp unit itself, there is no what that you can use a ceramic/bakelite holder! So hole should be made. One hole on the right side lamp unit, and two on the left lamp unit. Why two on left? One for the ceramick holder wires to pass through, and one for the stock headlamp connector wire to pass through and mate with the plug from relay kit, i didn't want both high draw wires to run together with the low draw wire. Don't make the hole larger than you need to make the wires to pass through.

To make the ceramic headlamp connector pass through the tiny hole, you need to separate the ceramic part from the clips. There is a tiny tab which locks the clip in place inside the ceramic holder. You need to press that clip and pull out the wire. After you have pulled out all three wires, pass it through the hole in the cap and put it back into the ceramic holder. Now that cap stays on the wire, it won't come off.

Now you change the headlamp bulbs, put in your favourite high wattage blinder, and place it in the headlamp's cavity on the car, but don't push it all the way in!

Now is the time to connect the relay plug to stock headlamp bulb connector. (You need to do what you have done on ceramic holder to separate the wire from plug and pass it through the second hole in the cap and connect it to the oem connector, you need not use the plug, just put it in the correct order). After that you connect the ceramic holder onto the bulb, and fix the cap back onto the headlamp unit. Like this you do the other lamp, but you need to do the relay conector thingy only on the left (car's left) lamp unit. (Why only on the left? Because battery is on that side so you place the relay there, and so you connect the relay plug on that side lamp unit. If the battery is on the right (car's right) you do it there).

There is a balck wire than comes out of the ceramic holder, it goes nowhere, you have to ground it! Now earth both wires from each on a bolt that goes into car body metal. Connect the power wire from the relay to the battery's +ve terminal. Connect the negative terminal back on to the battery. Check for smoke No smoke is all fine.

IMPORTANT: BEFORE STARTING TO WORK ON ELECTRICALS DISCONNECT ALL LEADS FROM THE NEGATIVE TERMINAL. ELSE RISK A FIRE, BURN, INJURY!!!

Now you turn on the headlamps, check high beam, low beam, indicators etc. If all works fine you may now install the lamp units properly.

If your headlamp beam is ulta ie., high on low and low on high, you need to swap out wires of the relay connector going into the oem connector. Its easy, when you look at a headlamp connector from the back (that is you can see the wires coming out), left is the ground, and top and right are for high and low beams. If your beams are ulta you need to change the top and right wires. Do this at the relay connector instead of doing it on each headlamps.

Now you turn on the headlamps, check high beam, low beam, indicators etc. If all works fine you may now install the lamp units properly.

Installation is easier than pulling it out! You have to align the headlamp clamps with the screw holes and give it a hard push, the lamp will snap back in place! If the lower part of the lamp won't sit in properly you need to again push the lamp out partially and now make the lower part of the lamp sit level with the body line and push it again. Now all will be well!

Put the bolts back on clean up the wiring and you're good to go.

Btw i didn't say anything about sealing the holes in the cap, did i? No i didn't. I did not seal it since i didn't have the right material. But i'm going to get some RTV silicone sealant and do it up. Why RTV silicone, because it is flexible, it is easy to remove if needed, and it can fill into the gaps well. Or you can even use M-Seal, but i won't want to do that since it gets real hard and removing it if needed would be a pita.

Thats it!!

Yes i do have pictures, but not many, will post it later.

[Sankar]

Undo these three bolts and yank the light side to side to get the front edge out. Once out pull it with all your might to take the lamp out. Remember to disconnect the power connector.


Power connector


On the right side (car's), you need to unbolt the air intake pipe and move the pipe away to access the connector. (Only on 1.2 Kappa)


Behind the lamp unit (lamp is placed upside down).


Passing of wire through the cap


Left side (car's) headlamp. Mate the stock connector to the relay plug here.


Relay is bolted there, might change the position later. Wires are not tucked and tied in this pic. Did it afterwards.


Stock 55/60 bulbs removed from A-Star and i10 inside Hella packs, plus one spare Hella 90/130 and a pair of Philips 100/130.

[svaid]

Thanks Sankar for the detailed information. The stock lamps are really not good and and obvious upgrade option that has been discussed umpteen number of times on the forum is 60/55W Philips X-treme since it would be plug and play.

However, your feedback and detailed explanation on this install would potentially help the prospective owners who are mulling about changing the headlamps.

Do share with us your experience with us on the new headlamps. Also do check and share the amount of heat that is being generated by the new bulbs after a longish drive.

[Sankar]

Heat generated is higher compared to the stock bulbs, I have used the 90/130 on the A-Star extensively and once for upto 5 hours continuously while i & jkdas was travelling from Cochin to Trivandrum, i couldn't see any burn marks or colour change on the refelctor now. And a friend of mine is using Philips Rally 100/130 with ceramic holders in his Accent Viva CRDI for more than a year and a half and he reports no visible damage to the light unit yet.

Has been down with a fever since yesterday (but managed to make the change ) so dint go out for a drive to check the illumination.

[quadra]

I did a similar upgrade on my spark - click here

[Sankar]

Originally Posted by knp

for my i10, i had gone for philps xtreme power of the same wattage and i am pretty much with that.
btw, where did u get this image? do you have the service manual of i10?

Came across that link again. You need to register to access it, it does have service manuals in there but you need to pay. Parts catalogue is accessible for free.

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