Team-BHP - Auto Lighting thread : Post all queries about automobile lighting here

Quote:

Originally Posted by tarun83 (Post 2085678)

Hi Guys,

I have got some clarity on lighting after reading this forum, had a specific question though.

I am planning to upgrade to angel eyes on my swift, don't want to go for HID's right now so what are my best options within budget of for lights only 2-3k (excluded of angel eyes kit).

Please suggest.

Congrats for going for angel eyes.! Welcome to the club stupid:.
Since you are using aftermarket headlights, I would recommend you to use bulbs of the same wattage. Using higher rated bulbs may burn/darken the headlight assembly and since you are investing some solid cash on these angel eyes, you wouldnt want to destroy it.
And am sure that after sometime, you will definitely use HID's since these angel eyes are best wen used with HID's.

So for now, use Philips bulbs of stock wattage. Then switch over to HID's.

CHeers.!

Quote:

Originally Posted by tarun83 (Post 2085678)

Quote:

Originally Posted by San Phrangmung (Post 2086153)

@ Naveen.raju could you please post photograph of lighting kits.
I am confused about the ceramic holder part, is it something on the light compatment box that has to be replaced or just the connecting wire joint to push into bulbs backsid.
I am thinking of upgrading for my old Wagon R, saw only Osram & Philips bulb in my place and seperate Hella relay, does Philips have a full bulb, wire, relay, ceremic holder kit.
And would a 90/100 upgrade be all right on a Wagon r?
Thanks in advance.

Sorry dude, I dont have any pics.
Ceramic holders are like, the holder that you can see inside the headlight assembly. In stock HL, they have normal holders. These cant withstand high temp from higher rated bulbs. So ceramic holders are used which can tolerate the immense heat from the 90/100w bulbs.

Philips will provide bulbs and the other materials should be bought from outside.

Yes, 90/100w would be ideal for your ride. But make sure the complete kit is a branded one. Else, it may affect the complete wiring of the car.

Cheers.!

Quote:

Originally Posted by naveen.raju (Post 2086177)

Ceramic holders are known for its quality in withstanding high temps as well as good contact points. There are lot of people selling bakelite holders as ceramic. A good ceramic holder will be approx 300/ and the bakelite will be 100-150/ or even less.

Here's a pic of ceramic holder

Auto Lighting thread : Post all queries about automobile lighting here-h420straight20leads.jpg

This one is the normal ones, hard plastic

Auto Lighting thread : Post all queries about automobile lighting here-h4_heat_resistance_headlight_wiring_harness.jpg

And this one is the bakelite

Auto Lighting thread : Post all queries about automobile lighting here-autolampholderjbeps0023pinsocket.jpg

There are many after market bulb upgrade kits available
Maruti H4 Plug and Play Headlight Wiring Harness(Light Bulb Wire Harness) products, buy Maruti H4 Plug and Play Headlight Wiring Harness(Light Bulb Wire Harness) products from alibaba.com

@naveen: Spoke to Satya, who informed me that he needs to check
further with other guys as he could not find any source.
This does not seem promising though everyone is doing their
best. :(

Got a reply from Noida boy as to how he got it done..
"DIY done with led clusters that are available and a led flash
controller."
the guys who repair televisions and radio sets would be
able to do but the thing is that if it is exposed when placed in
the chassis, its gonna break when it rains.:Frustrati Any inputs like
casing for the same would help..

However, the plan is to keep trying a bit more to get the best
source. If nothing works out, get in touch with Dave from
nightzconcepts and get the stuff done..
I am not going to hurry up as you had requested for some
time to check out and let me know too.

Quote:

Originally Posted by naveen.raju (Post 2081141)

There's been many questions for a better lighting in i10.
There are three options that's open to you.
1) Upgrade to higher wattage bulbs 90/100W
2) HID's
3) Stock wattage, but branded kits.

1) Here, you can achieve very good output but got it's disadvantages too. Since you are virtually increasing the power, it will affect your headlight unit after a long time. It may cause the HL unit to darken or even burn. If you use branded bulbs, wires, relays and ceramic holders you can use it longer.
Cost - 1.5k for the whole kit

2) HID's are always preferred for better lighting. But HID's are only meant to be used with projector setup HL units. HID's in stock HL's are illegal. Although visibility is improved when you use HID's on stock HL, it will definitely blind oncoming traffic. This is because the light has to be projected with the help of a projector. Since projectors are not there in stock HL, the light will get scattered. So most of the usable light is actually wasted. The best color temp in HID is 4300k and provides the max visibility. Philips is a brand to look out for. Else, you can try sourcing projector HL units for i10. It's readily available now.
Cost - Projector HL unit can come between 10-15k
HIDs - starts from 6k to 14k

3) Philips got many options when it comes to bulbs of the stock wattage. Please note that there will be only a slight improvement in visibility.
Cost - 500

I have personally tried all three and am currently using HIDs on Projector HL (Swift). I can definitely feel the difference.

If you have the budget, I would suggest option 2.
Hope this helped you stupid:

Cheers.!

Thanks to the above help from Naveen, I can now see the light lol:

I finally did get the headlamps changed in my i10. Here is a bit on my experience.

What did I change?
- Philips Rally 100/90W headlamps. Am happy with this upgrade. The visibility has certainly improved over the now-seems-stupid 60/55W Halonix. The low beam is very filling, as in the beam is much more denser. The high beam is where a lot of the improvement has happened. The light throw is easily about 25% better. Not only is the throw distance better, but also much more brighter. I try not using the high beam, as in my opinion it does more harm than good in terms of the blinding light. But have to confess that have used it to good effect a couple of times on some Sumo's n stuff on the road.
-Roots relay/harness. I am not an expert (or even a novice, for that matter) when it comes to car electricals. But Roots definitely makes some good quality stuff like horns etc so the impression carries on. I have changed the wiring and the guy who carried out the job did a fab job in terms of concealing/routing the new harness well. At the end of the work I couldn't tell the difference, visually atleast.
Where did I do it?
Carnation, Guindy. This place is pretty close to where I live in Chennai. They did do a pretty neat job. The electrician who worked on this seemed to know his way around and did it in a jiffy (about a hour, as a matter of fact).
How much did I pay?
I read all the multiple posts and this same setup could cost anywhere between Rs. 850 to about Rs. 1200. I got it dont for Rs. 920. Now there are no warranties on the lamp as such, but I dont think I can blame the workmanship for any fault.

Overall, I am happy as my nights are lit better now, and I got it done at a bargain. Carnation is a decent place (not necessarily the best around) to get such small scale work done. I dont think they are currently capable of pulling off any ICE work or performance mods that are worth writing home about.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Honda_Power (Post 2086283)

Ya. I have seen his ride. This is what I had mentioned. Although it looks good, this wont come as good as the nightzconcepts. But as you already know, they are really expensive.
Maybe you can try to source some very good quality LED's and case for this installation.

Quote:

Originally Posted by balajiisworking (Post 2086554)

Congrats buddy. Glad to hear that you are satisfied with the installtion. Now post some pics so that it will definitely help other bhpians who come with similar queries.

As for the price, it's very good. I got mine for around 1.3k for the whole kit. Safe driving buddy.
Cheers!

Quote:

Originally Posted by sonirohit (Post 2086354)

@sajjt - I don't think that a ceramic holder will cost that much - I recently got a kit from Minda for 400 (MRP being 484) which had ceramic holders. Ceramic is coarse to touch where as bakelite and plastic ones are cheaper.

Agree with you on this. I upgraded the headlghts on my car to 90/100 too and the total cost including complete minda wiring kit which included relay, ceramic holders + philips bulbs and fitting was close to Rs-850. yes the stuff is geniune and i know this as got the stuff from a trusted spare parts shop.

Naveen / Sajjt -- Auto lighting gurus --- my question is that if minda relay, wiring and ceramic holders are good enough, though minda is quite good and known name, but just to know from you all.

Quote:

Originally Posted by jinojohnt (Post 2086681)

I am searching for LED headlight bulbs that can be fitted directly to a normal car head light. I am interested in the single LED high power bulbs. I have not been able to find such a bulb till now, so I guess such bulbs are not available.

Any idea about what is the difficulty in manufacturing such bulbs? We have high power single LED torches and flashlights anyway.

Its been a while since I checked LED's for lighting but the single most difficult part about LED's are they are point sources. They don't disperse the light so much to give a beam pattern good enough for automotive use.

Another problem was the heat dissipation...a 50W LED (set of 5x 10W) dissipated too much heat to be handled easily.

Let us know if you have any better results or news.

Quote:

Originally Posted by jinojohnt (Post 2086681)

LED automotive bulbs for the head lights are still in development stage and it cant be used directly to a normal reflector as its designed for halogen bulbs and where as in LEDs the beam is too focused and both are using different optics designs. So to get the optimum results, it should be mounted on a LED specific reflector. Check the LED torch reflectors its totally different from the normal ones.

There are some chinese brands making retrofit types of LED bulbs with SMDs but thats still not a favorite as the output is not that impressive or worse than a stock halogen. Else it would've been plagued here by now just like HIDs. The only usable bulbs are using as turn/console/tail lamps which are too good in visibility and low power consumption than the conventional ones.

Here's it.