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

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Originally Posted by Engine_Roars (Post 3659314)

[b]
Mine is 2014 Hyundai Xcent and Fogs are factory installed. Never the less they work without the headlamps on.

Anyways point taken, using Fogs without Fog is not required. Today is a good day, learnt a new thing.

1. I do not recall what was the game on my Accent & Santro, though in the latter they were dealer fitted.

In addition to fag they may be handy is heavy rain. I often prefer the parking + fog combo. You also need the former to have the tail lights on.

Hyundai's factory fitted fog lamps can be switched on only when the parking lamps are on, just like with most other manufacturers. This means the rear tail lamps will also be on.

Dealers can fit fog lamps as accessories - they come as complete kits. I guess these can be wired in any way the customer wants.

Engine_Roars, to increase the visibility of your car to other road users during daytime, you can fit a pair of good quality LED DRLs (Philips, Osram, Hella etc.) on your car. These should preferably be positioned near the extremities of the front bumper, but not too low (similar to the EU requirements on the placement of aftermarket DRLs).

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Originally Posted by sgiitk (Post 3659370)

1. I do not recall what was the game on my Accent & Santro, though in the latter they were dealer fitted.

Thank you for the information, Sir. Yes, Fog lamps do come handy in Rains too and I do tend to use them extensively in heavy rains.

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Originally Posted by RSR (Post 3659461)

Hyundai's factory fitted fog lamps can be switched on only when the parking lamps are on, just like with most other manufacturers. This means the rear tail lamps will also be on.

Not sure if that is the case because I am almost sure that my Fog lamps do work with parking lamps off. I have S(O) Variant which came with factory fitted fogs and I am pretty sure that I did not ask the dealer to tweak it as per my needs. However, I will go back again and will try switching on the Fog Lamps and see what exactly happens.

Using the DRLs is a good idea, a few questions -

1. Would fitting these require to fiddle with too much of wires? Will this have any impact on warranty?
2. I assume these will not overload the battery, correct me if wrong.
3. Are these drilled into the bumper or are just pasted with help of some glue or something like that?

Thank you for your suggestions!!
-Ashish

Hello People,
This is a review for Philips Crystal vision 60/55W and the Halonix Gold 90/100w.

Philips Crystal Vision
The light is whiter. Looks great from outside and lights up the absolute unlit roads very well. You'll feel the difference.
But these bulbs during rain and absolutely no illumination during foggy situation.
Highway drives are also not impresive. One needs lower colour temperature bulbs.

Halonix Gold 90/100
These bulbs cost a lot less than Philips. Just Rs 120/piece.
The light from these bulbs are golden yellow. Very impressive during rain and light to medium fog.
Illumination is god too. I've felt that these golden yellow light is best all season.

Other lights
I've installed a pair of auxiliary lights between the headlights on my swift paired with 100w h3 hella bulbs. These are slightly witish yellow light and has good illumination too.

I use the combination of these auxiliary lights and halonix gold bulbs in the main headlights for city and highway drives.

My experience with the hella 100w h3 bulbs is better than the philips ones. Hella has better illumination and whiter light.

This experience is gained using these bulbs on 2008 swift. I feel that the reflectors on the swift does not light up the road very well.
The reflectors on my Beat lights up the road very well with the Philips Crystal visions as well.

Thanks.
Shashwat (v_safari)

Don't know if this was discussed earlier. But seems headlight upgrade to 100/90 is not recommended for Hyundai cars and some other cars from the VW stable. That is because the headlight casing comes in Plastic and any attempt to change the holder from normal plastic to ceramic would result in a situation wherein dust/grime/water can get into the headlight assembly and cause discoloration. This was told to me during a casual discussion with a car décor guy. Anyone else know about this?

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Originally Posted by racer_ash (Post 3661043)

All manufacturers dont encourage this. Some points as mentioned by you:

1) A lot of heat is produced which can burn the plastic coating.
2) Some less experienced shop dont even change the plastic holder which is required for high wattage bulbs.
3) The major problem - Although many tend to spend a lot on branded bulbs, they fail to realize the importance of branded relays and wiring kit. Half the people who upgrade go for cheap quality relays and wires which cause major damage to the car.
4) Although if followed properly, this is a straight forward upgrade and wont void the warranty since stock wires are not cut. But some shops, might take you for a ride and play with the stock wires and affect the electrical warranty of the vehicle.

For these reasons, manufacturers deny us from upgrading the bulbs.

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Originally Posted by racer_ash (Post 3661043)

Not recommended for any car that comes with a plastic back cover and not casing. For example both my cars have a rubber back cover and the existing wiring isnt enclosed inside the assembly. Hence, it is easy to access the wiring as well as use our own wiring harness, holder etc. Hence, if in case there is a plastic back cover, it has to be cut and resealed to pass the new wiring inside. Some accessory shops cut corners and if the customer is not informed of what is to be done, they leave the cover open which will cause dust and moisture to accumulate inside the assembly. This will inturn spoil the chrome plating and the lens surface causing it to look dull.

Fading or yellowing of the assembly is a different problem altogether and this is caused due to bad quality of plastic used in making the headlamp assembly, and/or UV light emitted by the bulbs when sub standard bulbs are used. My car has headlamps looking brand new after four years of using 100/90 bulbs. No dust/water/yellow/fade.

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Originally Posted by racer_ash (Post 3661043)

Don't knoe about other Hyundai's but my 2006 Santro has 100/90 for years and still almost shiny as new. No water or dust ingress ever. The trick is in doing the job right.

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Originally Posted by Engine_Roars (Post 3659881)

Using the DRLs is a good idea, a few questions -

1. Would fitting these require to fiddle with too much of wires? Will this have any impact on warranty?

The high quality (& relatively expensive) kits like Philips, Osram, Hella etc. require no fiddling with the wires at all. They are connected directly to the battery as a separate protected circuit, and come with a voltage sensor which can detect whether the engine is on or off, and light up the DRLs accordingly. At most, they may need a connection to the parking lamp circuit to turn off or dim the DRLs when the parking lamps are switched on.

Even with the cheaper kits, I don't think much fiddling with the wires is required, as long as it is done by a competent person, and no wires are cut.

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2. I assume these will not overload the battery, correct me if wrong.

The power drawn by the LEDs is very less, maybe in the range of 10 ~ 15 watts. This isn't a big deal at all and wouldn't overload the battery by any means.

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3. Are these drilled into the bumper or are just pasted with help of some glue or something like that?

This varies. The cheaper & lighter ones may just need to be glued on to the bumpers with double-sided 3M tape.

Others need to be installed with the help of screws. The quality ones come with a "snap-fit" mechanism, where the only the holders need to be screwed on to the bumper/air-dam and the DRLs can be snapped on to the holders.

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Thank you for your suggestions!!

You're welcome! :)

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Originally Posted by RSR (Post 3662900)

Thank you for your time :). Now that all my doubts have been cleared, thanks to you, I feel more confident about getting DRLs fitted. I think going with high quality kits like Philips, Osram, Hella etc makes more sense.

I will start with finding a pair of competent hands. Any one knows of a trustworthy place in Pune to get this job done?? Any leads would be much appreciated.

I am planning to upgrade my Fiesta's stock bulbs to 90/100. I have visited couple of accessory shops and returned confused. Both of them said, you can not update Fiesta's bulbs to 90/100 as it has 2 bulbs on either side and one of them is only high beam so there is no way we could upgrade it. I have seen many Fiestas with 90/100. Is there anything that needs to done extra to upgrade the bulbs? Gurus please enlighten me.