Headlights

[Shark]

gonna take a gamble and see what difference I get from the ones halfords sell as rally bulbs.

They\'re for off road so I\'ll see how bright and high the beam is.  -  If it blinds others I\'ll swap back but I think Smifta is right and it\'s the plastic that diffuses too much light.

we\'ll see.

[Shark]

well, went for halfrauds superbright bulbs - part code 472SB and they are much better - I can actually see more than 10 feet in front of the car now.  Ain\'t been out in the proper darkness yet, but they did seem a helluva lot better through town on the way home last night.

[Mark C]

Interesting read, not really driven mine in the dark yet so can\'t really comment. I\'ve had a trawl though ebay and found these

Crystal cut lights

Anyone tried them?? WILL they even fit?? Are they worth a gamble for less than £50??

[yonner]

you can get an hid conversion for the stock lights

http://www.jt-imports.com/Knightsports_FD_List.htm

8 down bit prcy tho

i think u can get a uneversal convrsion kit however

[Rich Cheung]

What is the wattage of the standard dipped beam bulbs ?
Shark - What wattage were the ones from Halfrauds you used ?

I fancy a nice white light that I can actually see with but don\'t want to up the wattage too much and fry the wiring.

Rich

[Sean]

Your local A1 store can supply you with 100W H4 bulbs like mine:D

As mike said be wary of the strain on the wiring, though to be honest, I fitted mine without thinking, and have had no problems. Plus no-one flashing me as they are still dipped when erm ... dipped!

Only cost about £20 a pair and still going ...... even passed an MOT with them;)

[hmltnangel]

In reply to the question about the diamond cut headlights ......

only thing i can say is they are easily worth the cash!

As i said earlier i had them on my mr2 and the difference was amazing! the light is blue white and even thoigh the bulbs are high wattage no flashes from other road users.

They are a definite buy for anyone with £30 or £40

This is em on my old mr2......brilliant and they even looked nicer too!

[Iwan]

One of my customers got FD from Japan with HID SYSTEM fitted.  This was a H4-KIT which was fitted like the original one without any problems but some changes to wiring was necessary.
The light of the kit was SUPERB! Very nice, warm light with increase in light power. I recommend HID to everyone who has problems with the light or driving at night.

My girl- friend has had an accident coz she has problems driving at night, don\'t risk your life or any others, just improve your light system.

But light is not a problem on FD, but a very big Problem on FC.

FD owners can change the bulbs and will get improvement in light very easy and at reasonable price. Stock H4 bulbs are 55/60W which are standard to "E" requirements. Any other bulbs like 80/100 have no "E" approval, so using them can ending in loosing your insurance.
HID System have no "E" approval as well, using them in Europe on road cars is illegal, but nobody will check your bulbs as long as you have no extreme modification done to it.

FC lights are a big problem in my opinion. Some of them will loose on efficiency after some time of use. I have changed the bulbs on my winter FC to 80/100 units. You get much better light from 80/100 bulbs but in compare to xenon lights on BMW or Mercedes, the light is still not efficient enough. So if somebody will perform a test on the lights them are still to "dark" so I see no problems in using them. Nobody has flashed me up since I changed the bulbs so looks like it is OK to others as well.

Somebody post something about 600EUR for a complete HID set, so where was it from? I would change to HID System on my FC as soon as possible.

REgards
Iwan

[Gerry M]

I looked into HID, for my sleek lights, you can buy a kit from ebay about £300 or u can buy H11\'s (closest you can get to HID) for ££££££, trouble with brighter bulbs, is it can put too much load on the loom so should really be run thru a relay & depending on the material the lamp unit is made from it can tarnish the glass from the inside.

[zevans]

Proper bi-Xenon or what have you are better focussed than convential projector units - so not only are they brighter, but all the light goes in the right place. If you just whack brighter bulbs in you\'re more than likely spilling illegal / unsafe amounts of light onto the opposite  carriageway.

A new car with bi-Xenons in doesn\'t even need masking or adjusting for driving on the continent because none of the light escapes in the wrong direction.

I\'ve seen seen a couple of chavmobiles recently with superduper bulbs from Harrys in the standard crap housings and frankly, I haven\'t been able to see much else for five minutes afterwards. :cool Sounds like you\'ve checked you\'re not guilty though Shark...

I wonder if some of the benefit of just changing the bulb is because you\'re replacing old with new, rather than because of any improvement in bulb spec itself...

[andrewrx7]

Originally posted by hmltnangel
In reply to the question about the diamond cut headlights ......

only thing i can say is they are easily worth the cash!

As i said earlier i had them on my mr2 and the difference was amazing! the light is blue white and even thoigh the bulbs are high wattage no flashes from other road users.

They are a definite buy for anyone with £30 or £40

This is em on my old mr2......brilliant and they even looked nicer too!

If these are the ones you\'re thinking of:

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&category=23009&item=7937329908&rd=1

then they don\'t look like they will fit an FD, but may possibly an FC. Looking at the Mazda EPC, the lamp units for the FC don\'t seem to have any clips attached to the units for mounting, whereas the FD lamps do. The ones advertised above appear not to have the mounting clips specifically for the FD. This is reflected in the price Mazda want for the lamps, something like 50 quid for an FC unit, but upto 250 for the FD ones!! Rediculous, but there you go!

[Shark]

I didn;t go for the rally jobs in the end - Halfords superbright are road legal.

I have hwoever checked with friends driving in front of me and they\'ve said that my lights are no brighter than the average on the road and that they are not disturbing.  Ain;t been flashed at either so figure I\'m not blinding anyone.

[hmltnangel]

dunno andrew - i\'ve not actually got them yet for my fd! I\'m well skint after buying it! More important things to do as well! Just spent £100 bucks on a couple of solenoids and a new acv from jimmys! was doing the vac hose replacement and they were knackered so my spare cash is gone now too! still i did order stainless intake pipes. just to make it nicer!

[andrewrx7]

mmmmmmmmmm..........stainless intakes...........I keep looking at them to...........haven\'t yet got around to buying any yet, though.......there is always next year!!:D

[Sean]

Oooh! How much are the SS intakes compared to the Ali ones?
Saves me polishing them;)