Headlights

[Shark]

Right,

After ending up stopping sideways on a T-junction the other night cos it was wet and I didn;t know the roads, I\'ve come to the conclusion I need to be able to see a little bit further ahead of the car in the dark than I can at the moment.

Can anyone give me details of the headlight bulbs and point me at suitably brighter upgrades?
My headlights are standard (and crap) at the moment

[rx7aberdeen]

you can get a hid headlight conversion for 599 all in which makes the lights cool like a  bmw and give you streams of lights!

[Shark]

Cheers bud, but I don\'t want to lose the pop-ups!
From what I hear the Knightsports pop-ups aren\'t any brighter so I figure the bulbs will do for the moment, though I would like to put in the KS ones at a later date.

Can anyone help with this?

[Ric]

You can get a fairly resonable upgrade bulb from Halfords. I\'ll dig out the part number if you can\'t find it by searching the forum. It\'s a HB472 something I think.

Has anyone had a HID upgrade fitted? I\'ve thought about doing this myself but wondered how good they actually were? I know some of the cheaper ones don\'t support dipped/full beam but I\'ve seen a couple of H4 compatible ones that do for around 600 Euros.

[Shark]

Cheers Ric,

found it.  In case anyone else stumbles on this...
http://www.mazdarotaryclub.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=9866&highlight=headlight+bulb  

I don;t really get this HID business.  I know how they work but can you fit HID bulbs instead of standard ones?

[Ric]

HID - You can, but you need a full kit that includes "ballasts" bulbs, wiring etc. In theory, you\'re supposed to have a "self levelling" system which is what gets fitted to all OEM HID systems. I don\'t think this is necessary for aftermarket kits to make them legally compliant though,

I have heard that for HID to work properly it actually needs the reflectors within the headlamp unit to be specifically set up for it - hence why I am keen to know if anyone else has tried a conversion kit out on the FD.

[Shark]

Think I\'ll do the bulbs then and keep my ears open on the HID front.

[rx7aberdeen]

thes hid kits are top shagger!!  you wouls still be able to keep the pop ups and just upgrade the bulbs to hid.  as for the self leveling system as far as i am aware these kits are fully legal and include all the wiring etc.  I have seen this kit on and old sierra cosworth it had no reflectors in the back of the headlights and what a difference that made!!  As far as the bulba are concerned its an easy car to get bulbs for the only thing with the bulbs are the run of the mill bulbs are 20 quid the pair and dont make that much a difference, whereas from a company called PIA they make bulbs that retail at around 70-100 quid so that is why i am noy sure about the £20 bulbs as i guess you get what you pay for!

[rx7veilside]

i put some hid on my old impreza but had to go for the h4 dual beam kit..thay do give an improvement but worth 4-500 not sure.plus very tight for space and the hid connector is a bit bulky and not sure it would be watertight if interested check out autolampsonline

[hmltnangel]

try buying a set of the diamond cut replacement units off ebay - I got them on my MR2 and they were top notch! way brighter than the old lights and to top it off the y had nice white bulbs with em and .... they were damn cheap. Keep your oild ones for your mot cos they aren\'t e approved so you might need to pop your old ones back in occasionally.

Just got the 7 and when I have money in the bank again then I\'m gonna get them again!

[scooby_si]

any issues with melting wires etc thou i understand sum brighter bulbs can have down sides too? http://www.smileycentral.com/?partner=ZSzeb008_ZS\' target=\'_blank\'>http://smileys.smileycentral.com/cat/28/28_1_6.gif\' border=0>
Si

[Ric]

I would  be wary of the "brighter" bulbs as often they are much higher wattage rating than is legal which is why they are not "E" approved.

You are risking overloading current draw on wiring etc. and it\'s not very nice for other road users when you are effectively using bulbs which are full beam brightness even when dipped.

Personally I like to have good lighting but I don\'t want to blind someone who is driving towards me. Think about it - not the smartest idea really as they are more likely to end up crashing into you!!!

[hmltnangel]

The ones on ebay are a higher wattage, they were 75/80 wtts if i remember right but the pure white light they gave off didn\'t seem to effect other drivers - remember even though they are brighter they are still "dipped" and aimed at the road not straight ahead which is why I never had any problems with drivers "flashin" me etc.

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&rd=1&item=7930470513&category=33710

these are the rx7 equivalents of what  i had in my mr2. i think including shipping you\'ll be set back around £35. They also look nicer too cause the glass is clear.

this was my mr2 with the lights in - pretty nice eh?

i never had any probs with th wires or too much current draw etc on it in the 8 months i was driving with them.

also if you wire em up right you can get em even more illegal as they do have little "sidelight" bulbs in them too, they can just be run from your existing sidelight wires and they\'re blue!!!

illegal but fun !!!

[Mart160plus]

I\'ve been looking into this too, shipping should be about US$40 according to one response I got. Beware though, there are a couple of traders shipping from America charging £35 carriage !

Mart.

[Smifta]

I just replaced the stock bulbs with some Osram Silverstar\'s (H4 size) This will give you \'some\' more light for around 15 quid.

The problem seems to lie in the the lenses. They seem a little too fogged/diffused as stock, so even sticking in super-bright, white lights doesn\'t help as much as on other cars.

There are endless threads on this in the US forums. From what I understand their lights are even worse !!!!

HTH
Alex.