Replacing sealed beams with conversions

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Dart_Vader

Dart_Vader

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I used to do this with my old Japanese cars that had the square headlights. I would get a Hella or Bosch headlight conversion kit that allows you to replace the bulb with a new H4 like more modern cars. This allows you to customize the color temperature of your headlights (as in take away the dim yellow and replace it with a 'whiter' and brighter light.

This leads me to the dreaded HID debate. Actually its not even a debate. People that install HID's in their non-projector lenses are...well...silly. The wide, retina-burning beam is enough to blind everybody within a 3 block radius and in most instances, is highly illegal. Now we have an alternative!

It is my plan to grab some Hella 7" conversion headlights (because they look pretty stock with proper vertical lines in them), then get a new High Intensity CREE LED kit. My buddy installed them in his 2002 Explorer and wow, they look incredible! Nice and bright, super efficient and their beam is similar to a sealed beam. Has anybody tried these new LED bulbs yet? Any other options for making a safer, whiter headlight system?
 
tedsweet said:
junk
Click to expand...

junk = incandescent 20'th century sealed beam.

Thx added Dart_Vader,

Could I trouble You for an specific link ?
(there are a gazillion 'cree headlamp' hits on google).
 
You could also just go with the Hella conversion and use a higher powered H4 bulb available from Hella. (Agreed on the HID conversion problems, BTW!)
 
With those upgrades I would think you would want to switch everything over to relays, so as not to overload the wiring.

PM Rob (crackedback) on here, he makes a harness complete and ready for install .
 
The thing about CREE units is that they don't need much power to run. They, like HID's are pretty efficient. That said, some kits come with fans to cool the bulb housing which freaks me out a bit.

mech1, I just look on Ebay really. Anything from the $69-99 range are what you would be after. make sure they come with a ballast otherwise they are a much lower 'wattage' unit. Anywhere from 1800-2400 lumens is bright enough for most applications.

When I do pick them up, I will be sure to do an extensive review on here. Tedsweet, We'll see if they're junk! But honestly, does anybody actually like the dim 3000K incandescent bulbs?
 
This subject has been rehashed so many times, just do a quick search for HID and slantsixdan and you will find legitimate info from tests that have been done from someone who knows their ****.
 
Slant6dan would know the digs on these...

Can you get h4s based on the Calvin scale ?
 
The factory wiring itself is garbage. The relays helped more than anything. They are either 16 or 18 ga from the factory, which is way too small.

With the relays, you won't have the voltage drop from the dash harness, which can be large. I have relays, larger wiring, and some halogen bulbs and the lights on this work just as well as the ones on my 2012 Chevy Cruze. They're decent. At least add the relays.
 
I bought the harness kit from crackedback for my car and also a set of bosch headlights. They are not installed yet due to the colder than normal temperatures and snow but I hope it will be soon. Should make a big improvement. Bobby
 
Yup. Contact Dan Stern (slantsixdan). He is a lighting engineer and sells kits. Very high quality kits. He can fix you up.
 
Bobby, it can't be that cold up there...I gather it is snowing tonight :)

I am going the same route soon...I would love to get a set of h4s that were "warm"..
 
QWKSLVR said:
I bought the harness kit from crackedback for my car and also a set of bosch headlights. They are not installed yet due to the colder than normal temperatures and snow but I hope it will be soon. Should make a big improvement. Bobby
Click to expand...

Hey my buddy is from Shediac!

This thread is specifically geared towards the use of Cree LED bulbs. I will message slantsixdan to see if he has played around with them.
 
A couple of words of warning:

Putting this kind of stuff together might just not be the best thing

First, if you throw a bunch of this stuff together, and you start blinding some old bastard like me, you not only will have one really pissed off old guy, you might just have a BLIND old guy driving towards YOU

Second, if you should be unlucky enough to get into ANY sort of nightime accident, and someone is smart enough to figure out that you are NOT using DOT approved lighting, the lawsuit lawyers WILL be lining up......................
 
All reflectors have a focal point. If the point of light emission isn't at the designed location it doesn't matter how many flutes the lens has or how good the light source is, the light will not be where you need it to be.

Have a look at the reflectors specifically made for LEDs. They tend to be very funnel shaped and look nothing at all like a headlight reflector. The HID bulb is closer to putting the light source in the right place in a reflector designed for an incandescent bulb than an LED source will be.

Years ago I converted an old set of ProComp off road lights to HID using HID headlight parts recovered from a crash tested 350Z. I got lucky in that the base from the Z's reflectors put the center of the HID bulb in exactly the same place that the ProComp reflector base put the element in the H1 bulb that it was designed for and the lights worked really well. Had I not gotten lucky the experiment with those lights would have been a failure.
 
ntsqd said:
All reflectors have a focal point. If the point of light emission isn't at the designed location it doesn't matter how many flutes the lens has or how good the light source is, the light will not be where you need it to be.

Have a look at the reflectors specifically made for LEDs. They tend to be very funnel shaped and look nothing at all like a headlight reflector. The HID bulb is closer to putting the light source in the right place in a reflector designed for an incandescent bulb than an LED source will be.

Years ago I converted an old set of ProComp off road lights to HID using HID parts recovered from a crash tested 350Z. I got lucky in that the base from the Z's reflectors put the center of the HID bulb in exactly the same place that the ProComp reflector base put the element in the H1 bulb that it was designed for and the lights worked really well. Had I not gotten lucky the experiment with those lights would have been a failure.
Click to expand...

These are some very good popints. I have also heard that Acura TSX headlight projector assemblies are very popular for retro-fitting HID's into all sorts of different cars. The is something to take a look at.

Before I do anything, I will be looking at my friend's Explorer once again to determine if the LED's will be throwing a beam of light that is unacceptable. From what he tells me it is cut off from midway and shines light down which is pretty much what I am looking for and is considered safe. Of course ANY alterations to the headlights, conversions to H4, HID and LED applications are all going to be illegal - at least here in Canada. Anything I do will be subject to scrutiny from police which I fully understand. I just want to find a balance between having some nice lights and not blinding the world with them!

Also, I do intend on using proper relays for any electrical applications.
 
Re: link above.
I sure would like to know why Mr. Stern favors fuses in headlight circuits. Not that they always get it right, but I haven't ever seen an OE fused HL circuit, at least not in anything domestic. They all have had a thermal breaker built into the HL switch or in the fuseblock.
 
Here is a good source for HID Projectors

http://www.theretrofitsource.com/components/projectors.html

I have already done the relay upgrade. Im planning on doing a HID Projector upgrade doen the road. My brother has an Acura TL and the HID projectors are awesome, so im planning to go with those.

Making a 7" headlight with a projector is gonna be the hard part.
 
ntsqd said:
Re: link above.
I sure would like to know why Mr. Stern favors fuses in headlight circuits. Not that they always get it right, but I haven't ever seen an OE fused HL circuit, at least not in anything domestic. They all have had a thermal breaker built into the HL switch or in the fuseblock.
Click to expand...

The way his kits are, they take the load off the headlight switch by using relays. The headlight switch was never designed to handle high amp loads that come about when doing the H4 conversion. The hot from the headlight switch is then used as a trigger for the relay and the fuse is for the high load side. I have used one of Dan's kits personally in the past so I have first hand experience. The kits are 100% plug and play and he chooses the best possible components so that there's no guesswork.
 
Thanks to those of you for the good reviews and refer my headlight relay kits to others. Nothing better than happy customers! :cheers:

I build these headlight relay kits all the time. I don't use garbage like chinese relays, which is a bigger issue than how the circuit is protected. You need some protection in the circuit, whether it be a fuse or a breaker.

You could easily replace the fuses with a thermal breaker unit.

I use fuses in the kits for two reason. Fuses are easy for people to understand. I can also provide a level of redundancy that is inexpensive compared to placing a pair of circuit breakers in the system. If you don't have a level of redundancy in your system, when the breaker trips, you go DARK! Even flipping to the high beam won't work because the breaker needs to cool. My way, you flip to high beam, at least have some light unless there is a serious short in BOTH circuits.

What type of breaker are you going to use and at what cost? Type 1, type 2, type 3?

Type 1 must cool, still dead unless you run two, one for each circuit.
Type 2, need to kill power to the breaker for it to reset, not an easy task without additional wiring solutions
Type 3, need to get to it and manually reset. Not convenient in most cases.

It's a smart idea to get the load off the horribly inefficient and undersized factory wiring our old mopars came with.

Good luck with whichever solution you choose to follow.
 
Had one of the better HID lights on my chopper. Was one that Dan did not have a problem with....threw great light....but was a pile-crap....3k miles and the bucket inside of it, that made it a dual beam lamp, would break free. Talked to Dan about LED lights, there was one particular one he said was a a safe, legal unit but don't remember the name of it, will look for his emails....

Don't remember which particular model but they were made by

http://www.jwspeaker.com/products/headlights/#product=500249

Can't locate the emails right now but I do remember the 7" one I looked at for the bike was damn near $500.....for 1....if I remember correctly...
 
notenoughcash said:
Already using Dan's stuff so this is more for curiosity, why not these ?

http://www.gelighting.com/LightingW...highlights/nighthawk/led-headlights/overview/

And, are they even worth a damn (Dan, opine please if you see this, I have a friend considering them)
Click to expand...

They better be worth a damn at almost 600 bucks for the pair.
[ame="http://www.amazon.com/GE-69821-Nighthawk-Round-Headlamp/dp/B00BQX2BT8/ref=sr_1_1?s=automotive&ie=UTF8&qid=1393800958&sr=1-1&keywords=043168698214"]Amazon.com: GE 69821 Nighthawk 7" Round LED Headlamp: Automotive[/ame]
 
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