Lousy headlamps

JohnS · Post by **JohnS** » Wed Feb 07, 2007 6:56 pm

Having just got my 73' 911T back on the road I took her out the other evening for a spin - well you can hardly tell the headlamps are on! Any suggestions on how to improve them. Roger Bray do a replacement bosch unit that fits cars up to '89. Are they the right ones? Did they change after '73 to include a side light in the lens unit? The other suggestion is to replace the bulbs - demon tweeks are meant to do something special but can't find it. Comments appreciated.
Thanks
John

Lightweight_911 · Post by **Lightweight_911** » Wed Feb 07, 2007 7:38 pm

What headlamps have you got fitted at the moment ?

New Bosch H4's are available from many sources - the cheapest is usually GSF (formally German & Swedish).

sladey · Post by **sladey** » Wed Feb 07, 2007 9:01 pm

You can also fit they new fangled xenon thingies - I think the kits are now down to about £300 (used to be £500), and as far as I've read they give you the same sort of light (both in intensity and colour) as the modern cars. As far as I can tell you won't know the difference to look at the car, but they just work really well.

Planning on doing it myself - the other night my daughter refused to believe I'd got the lights on

Just had a quick look around and found http://www.hids4u.co.uk/default.asp

1972_911t · Post by **1972_911t** » Wed Feb 07, 2007 9:28 pm

sladey wrote:You can also fit they new fangled xenon thingies - I think the kits are now down to about £300 (used to be £500), and as far as I've read they give you the same sort of light (both in intensity and colour) as the modern cars. As far as I can tell you won't know the difference to look at the car, but they just work really well.

Planning on doing it myself - the other night my daughter refused to believe I'd got the lights on

Just had a quick look around and found http://www.hids4u.co.uk/default.asp

Do some research before you decide to buy the HID kits although these kits use a HID bulb that matches the intensity and color of the HID lights fitted to new cars they lack the projector unit used to focus the light on the road, they blind on comming traffic and as such are banned from sale in most states in the US.

Steve

dugsud · Post by **dugsud** » Wed Feb 07, 2007 11:50 pm

The problem with pre 89 911's headlights is that the full load is fed through the headlamp switches. This resistance coupled with 30+ year old contacts means the current is much reduced by the time it reaches your lights.
A modification I have made to my lighting system is to install a relay kit into the headlight system. This combined with cleaning the inside of the headlight lenses and fitting some hi-performance bulbs gives an amazing improvement. I find my 83 SC lights have gone from a dim glow to almost as good as my 2005 SAAB!!

I used Rennlister Marcus Sucro's relay kit available HERE and some Osram +50% bulbs (still 55W) A total of around £50.

You can get HID kits for £100 upwards now but I'm not sure if they are legal!

Gary71 · Post by **Gary71** » Thu Feb 08, 2007 8:46 am

John,

I used to run a pair of slightly corroded H1 lamps and it was like having candles on the front of the car

Now I have a nice shiny pair of H4 lamps from German and Swedish and it's like driving a modern car (well almost..)!

Don't do what I did and throw your old H1 lamps and lenses out though as they are worth good money to people who worry about originality

sladey · Post by **sladey** » Thu Feb 08, 2007 10:17 am

Do some research before you decide to buy the HID kits although these kits use a HID bulb that matches the intensity and color of the HID lights fitted to new cars they lack the projector unit used to focus the light on the road, they blind on comming traffic and as such are banned from sale in most states in the US.

That's interesting to know Steve - thanks for that