Headlamp upgrade

[Darrell]

Just fitted two relays to the headlamps, one for the dip and the other for the brights.

It was a suggestion of my dad's who went on about a 'Lucas headlamp relay'.

Well I searched and found no lucas headlamp relay but thought two relays will do the job.

My car is an air cooled and all the current is sent through the swith, with a relay it is switched from a feed directly off the battery.

Now the lights are almost as good as normal car lights! [-/

[puck304]

Hi Darrell, how did you go about that, then? I just got my aircooled through the MOT, and they said the headlights were dim, which I knew, but I'd like to improve them. Is it a simple job? 

[Rusty's Uncle]

What you must not do is just fit more powerful bulbs as you will melt the inside of your steering column swich gear. Sadly there is a long history of MOT man not being able to understand the concept & brightness of a 40/45 watt headlamp as it does not show up very well on their test gear which is designed for sealed beams & halogen bulbs etc. Sure Darrell will advise but basicaly you alter the wires so that the switch works the relay and the relay takes the extra current to power up the bulbs  [-/

[Darrell]

What I did was bought some ultra bright bulbs, they helped but then my dad mentioned a 'lucas headlamp relay'

Old guy still lives in the 70's coz halfrauds hadnt heard of it, neither did anyone else I spoke to.

Anyhow got the concept out of him.

Basically the current to run your lamps comes from the battery, to the switch, and then back to the lamps through the fuse box.
The current is lost in the wire and switch and as mentioned it can melt with brighter bulbs in place.

One simply wires it so the switch it controlling two relays (one bright one dip)
Take the power strait off the battery to the relay, then to the headlamps.

I'm not the best at explaining things so mention it to an autoelectrician and he should know what I'm on about.

[Allan]

Try fitting a relay for each beam. Lucas used to make one (LR12-2c part no D42606) which I haved used on rally car lights. It has multiple inlets and outlets and one is enough to do both lights. Put simply it takes current directly from your battery to your headlights and uses the current running through the column switch to activate the relay. It has two main advantages.
1. It allows you to use heavier wire to your lights.
2. It means that the current running through is very low and will not burn out the switch.
Allan

[Dan_535]

In order to keep MOT man happy I have just completed a Halogen headlamp upgrade on my car, following the cany purchase of a set of late run yugo 45 headlights on e-bay with RHD lenses, they are identical to the fiat 126/127/900 lights!  the difference now on the lights is incredible!

only further advice i'd add is to actually install 4 relays, 2 per headlight (1 for dip 1 for main each) as if you have both headlights feeding on 1 relay for dip and 1 for main, worse case happens and you blow a lamp/fuse/earth you'll potentialy loose both lights at once (not good). the simpliest thing is wire up the relay's near the headlights using the existing wiring to trigger the relay. i put in a new feed straight off the battery for the lamps with a new in-line fuse at source and each relay has an additional blade fuse.

Also Maplins do brilliant 12-24volt relay's with integrated fuses for £1.49 each, halfrauds = £4 each!! just the brakes to sort now and hopefully the MOT police will leave me well alone for another year lol.

[Darrell]

Dan you should try Rusty's disc brake upgrade.

It's been a revelation to me, I thought the discs would be so powerful on the front but havnt noticed any negative diferences. There is no brake fade, the brake balance (left/right) seems better, the pedal is way higher and more solid with the braided hoses and it stops unbelievably quick

I think it'll keep the MOT man happy for years [-/

Now I just need to crawl underneath and adjust the handbrake a bit

[phreak97]

I'm running relays on my headlights, I had a bit less than 8v at my headlights with the car running before I put them in:P I also put in 50/55w bulbs (you can get halogens with the standard 126 style base.. theyre basically h4's but you dont need to change or modify anything.) the difference was absolutely incredible.

[fei]

I'm running relays on my headlights, I had a bit less than 8v at my headlights with the car running before I put them in:P I also put in 50/55w bulbs (you can get halogens with the standard 126 style base.. theyre basically h4's but you dont need to change or modify anything.) the difference was absolutely incredible.

I'm having problem with stereo with the halogen headlights (fitted when car bought)

will try to get someone to check if relays are fitted or not...

so what are the 50/55w bulbs u mentioned without mod needed? should I type H1 50/55w on ebay etc?