I bought a pair of H4 Cibie lenses and the Hella H4 55/100watts bulbs. I also bought from Pelican their high power headlamp relay.

The mechanic working on the car indicates that this relay will always return to its set state after releasing the change light lever. That is, if it is set for low beam, it will change to high when pulling on the lever, but returns right back to low when releasing the lever. The inverse will happen if set to high.

How to make the lights remain in low or high as desired?

He also recommended a change in wiring for this upgrade. According to him, the higher current required for the H4´s may be too much for stock 30 year old wiring. Is he correct?

i belive you need a pair of relay's for the 100 watt hi beam draw.....

i have to do this also....


but the stock relay clicks open and stays there till you pull the stalk again.....

Uh yup, 100w bulbs pull too much current through the switch.
What you got to do is use the stock wiring to trigger/ activate the relay.
the power to the lights needs to come directly from the battery via a 10 ga. wire to the relay you have in question. then to the high beam power terminal.

Makes sense to me but I'm nearly finshed with a Pete's Wicked ale.

QUOTE

Makes sense to me but I'm nearly finshed with a Pete's Wicked ale.

Could you send me some of that? All I have here is Bodeweiser

QUOTE (Joe Ricard @ Mar 6 2006, 08:45 PM)

Uh yup, 100w bulbs pull too much current through the switch. What you got to do is use the stock wiring to trigger/ activate the relay. the power to the lights needs to come directly from the battery via a 10 ga. wire to the relay you have in question. then to the high beam power terminal. Makes sense to me but I'm nearly finshed with a Pete's Wicked ale.

yup.

i ran a 10 gauge from battery to bosch relay for hella 500 driving lights....
i re heat shrinked the whole harness so it looks stock. no wiring hack for me...

200w divided by 12v = 16.67 amps

It seems to me #12 awg is plenty (servicable to 20 amps).

John

P.S. Voltage drop- 12v input, 16.67 amps, 14 foot one way wire run distance, #12 awg = 7% voltage loss resulting in 11.24 volts at the end of the run.

brighter with 10 gauge

it isnt hard to get a 10 in there over a 12....

egineer?//?

John

P.S. You'll never get to drive the train that way.

how much does the relay draw, how much does the lighted switch draw?

think about the whole puzzle.....


dad is an EE / SE....

I tried reading thru your post a few times but I honestly am not sure what you want it to do. But I just did some healdight mods so I could probably help if I just knew what it was exactly.

But yeah it's a great idea to run relays to your headlights. Unbeleivable how shops will hand out 100-120 watt bulbs like it's not big deal. Can do some damage to a brand new car.

I'm not entirley sure if you want the buld to shut off or stay on. Probably not a good idea to keep both on in a h4 bulb though.


But I have a few schmatics I can post if I know what it is you need to do.

QUOTE (Aaron Cox @ Mar 6 2006, 10:08 PM)

how much does the relay draw, how much does the lighted switch draw?

The relay should be about .035 amps.

The lit switch, I'm gonna venture a guess here, .005 amps.

Easily offset by the true input voltage 13v (+).

John

QUOTE (Flat VW @ Mar 6 2006, 10:06 PM)

egineer?//? John P.S. You'll never get to drive the train that way.

SLITS was not here to say it for himself, so I did.

John

QUOTE (turboman808 @ Mar 6 2006, 09:16 PM)

I tried reading thru your post a few times but I honestly am not sure what you want it to do. But I just did some healdight mods so I could probably help if I just knew what it was exactly. But yeah it's a great idea to run relays to your headlights. Unbeleivable how shops will hand out 100-120 watt bulbs like it's not big deal. Can do some damage to a brand new car. I'm not entirley sure if you want the buld to shut off or stay on. Probably not a good idea to keep both on in a h4 bulb though. But I have a few schmatics I can post if I know what it is you need to do.

Thanks for your reply....

I would like the new setup to work as the factory setup. That is, when I turn them on, the headlights should be in the last state before previous shutdown. A pull on the change lever, and they should change state and stay at the new state until the lever is pulled again.

Agree with you...should have only either the 55w or the 100w on at any given time. Never both simultaneously.

When the 100w bulb is on...or high beam state...the BLUE (high beam) indicator on the tach should be on.

Sounds like what your mechanic wants to do is completely replace the stock wiring or something.

It should just be a matter of adding the relays into the stock wiring. The headlights normal source of power would now be no more then a on off switch for the relays. I honestly am not sure how your mechanic wanted to wire it.

Here is a schematic you can follow. Just ignore the diode. The diode is for keeping both lights on when in high beams which you don't want. If this doesn't help you can always try the sight http://the12volt.com/ These guys are pretty amazing.

Yeah going back and reading what you said again it looked like your mechanic planed to replace your stock wiring with the relays. Just do like the schematic and you will be fine.

QUOTE (turboman808 @ Mar 7 2006, 07:32 AM)

Sounds like what your mechanic wants to do is completely replace the stock  wiring or something. It should just be a matter of adding the relays into the stock wiring.  The headlights normal source of power would now be no more then a on off switch for the relays.  I honestly am not sure how your mechanic wanted to wire it. Here is a schematic you can follow.  Just ignore the diode.  The diode is for keeping both lights on when in high beams which you don't want.  If this doesn't help you can always try the sight http://the12volt.com/   These guys are pretty amazing.

Two relays for both headlamps? Or two relays for each headlamp?

Actually my mechanic indicated a four relays setup...one low right...one high right...one low left...one high left. Is this what you´ve done?

No need to run 4 relays. Just gonna be alot of extra wiring ya don't need. Run one relay to highs and one to lows on both sides. I think the ones I used are rated at 360watts so with two 120 watt bulbs I am pretty safe.

I ran one 10 gauges to both relays from the battery. Off the relays it's 12 gauge to the bulbs.

Just to make it easy I would mount the relays near the headlights but I am lazy.

QUOTE (Joe Ricard @ Mar 6 2006, 07:45 PM)

Uh yup, 100w bulbs pull too much current through the switch. What you got to do is use the stock wiring to trigger/ activate the relay. the power to the lights needs to come directly from the battery via a 10 ga. wire to the relay you have in question. then to the high beam power terminal. Makes sense to me but I'm nearly finshed with a Pete's Wicked ale.

They can be rigged to pull essentially NO current through the switch. Just install a 40A relay in the power wire (red/black) between the HL switch and the dimmer relay. The Cap'n

Just had one of my incredibly dim Sylvania headlamps burn out so hoping for a bit of assistence in finding the proper "Euro" spec Hella H4 headlamps???

I've searched 914World and come up with this link for the more desireable "flat Euro" headlamp everyone has mentioned in previous threads but can't tell if the face of it is flat or what the actual difference is?
http://classicgarage.com/he-70476b.html

Now unless the 2 numbers at the top of Classic Garages page are just for reference, the same Hella part # appears to be on Amazon but it says it is DOT approved; whereas other threads mention the "Euro" light will be lacking "DOT" stamped in the center face of the lense...
http://www.amazon.com/Hella-002395991-Type...p/dp/B0002M9QJM

Sooo confused, can someone clarify?

Once I figure out the proper Hella headlamp/bulb combo I plan to wire them with relays directly to the battery as it's already readily accessible in the front trunk and is an Optima Red Top with 1000+ amps so I've got plenty of spare juice to go round.

Also my aftermarket fog lights are currently 4x the brightness of the headlamps so I figure it's only fitting that the headlights are bright as well!

I got mine at busdepot.com after reading this thread.

The glass is flat!

Hmm well I was originally bent on going for Hella simply to match all the other lenses (& assure I had quality German lights) but after reading this review on these exact housings:

http://www.ratwell.com/technical/BoschH4.html

and seeing the insanely reasonably price here at www.busdepot.com :

http://busdepot.com/details.jsp?partnumber=0301600118

I think I'm sold!

One more question... did you also purchase the 60/55W bulbs Bus Depot is selling or go with a higher rating?

I just went with the 60/55W to avoid adding a relay. (Also bought a plastic intake fan cover "while I was in there" at busdepot...)

the 55watt bulbs are very bright compared to stock. IMHO you do not need the 100w bulbs.

Zach

+1 on the Bus Depot deal. They are priced right and have great customer service.

Kev

Woot! case closed, I'm buying them. I'm fairly certain I'll end up agreeing that they're more than bright enough once installed, my vintage domestic cars all have sealed beam headlamps and those are even bright enough given the Optima batteries; but of course they have a heavier gauge wiring too.

Now perhaps I'm being overly concerned but is 55/60W on the barrier/limitation of having to add a relay? I don't want to stress the already old wiring...


Looks like www.busdepot.com has a great deal on Bosch fuel pumps and filters too... I'm in the process of figuring out what to do with the current hacked up fuel system so once I sort that I suppose I can order everything from them!

I just ordered a set for myself. Great price. I'm thinking I may go ahead and run a relay to them.... if anything just to make sure I get full possible power to the lights..... and not have drop etc through the switch and old wiring.

Mike

I do not have mine going through a relay. They don't need it.

Between my H4s and the Pilot driving lights, my car really lights up the world at night.

Zach

So - I had one of the sealed beam units burn out a couple of weeks ago on the Snowball rally - so followed this thread and bought 2 Hella H4 headlights from busdepot.com - and they arrived through the week. $70 for the pair.

I decided to take a couple of pictures to show the assembly - it was super easy and everything was plug and play!

I also bought standard bulbs from busdepot - they sent 55/60W german bulbs.

The headlamp glass is noticeably flatter than the standard sealed beam unit - though there are no install issues at all.

Enjoy!

JohnClick to view attachment

Nice presentation. Did you get the hella's H4 or just the std H4's

Thanks

David