Just a heads up. Amazon is selling the Cibie E-code #082440 headlights for the unbelievable price of $40.69 ea with free shipping. They were on backorder for a long time, over eight months, and I ended up buying elsewhere and paid a whole lot more than this. I just received an email that they were back in stock so I bought an extra one in case I break one. Better jump quickly before the Mazda Car Club scoops them all up again.

 

Already backordered 3 to 5 weeks

 

Trust me, that's not a "backorder." Backorder was the nearly one year time lapse since I put an "Alert Me" request to Amazon to message me when they were back in stock. The lenses are probably being drop shipped from Europe, hence the shipping time. According to a person I chatted with from the Miata forum last year, some people got them in as little as a few weeks with the same 3-5 week shipping delay shown on Amazon.

 

http://www.busdepot.com/0301600118 Bosch e-codes (BOTH) for $45 better deal

 

I guess it's a "better deal" if you want Bosch. No comparison to Cibie in my opinion. With tax and shipping the Bosch were almost $60. Twenty dollars more for the Cibies seems like a no-brainer to me.

 

Ah I see, well crap I just put a fresh set of hellas in this car too

 

Those are not E-Codes, but they are actually better. Note:

"Unlike most H4's, these Bosch's are DOT approved and labeled, but the approval mark applies to motorcycles. Compliance with local laws is the buyer's responsibility."

 

How are they better? I thought it was universally understood that the E-code beam was far superior to the DOT lenses, laws be damned.

 

True. The below is stolen from http://www.headlightservices.com/FAQs.html


"There are four basic differences between Hella Vision Plus DOT and a Cibie / Hella ECE/E-code lamps.

First is in the lighting pattern. For us in the US, the regulations date from the 50's. The US DOT mandates a dispersed pattern that puts a percentage of the light output UP and to both sides of the road so that overhead or roadside signs, which may not have other lighting or reflective characteristics, are lit for you.

The European standard allows all the light to go on the road - they have a law that any overhead or roadside sign has to have it's own, independent lighting or must be highly reflective. So not only is there more light on the road with your low-beams, the high-beams are more precise as well. There is also a triangle of light on the right side to light up roadside signs.

The effect is that the E-code lights actually put more light on the road for you to drive with, and offend oncoming traffic MUCH LESS because of the sharp cutoff in the lighting pattern; and all of this with the same wattage lamps as in the US. That's on low beam. Because of the DOT low-beam requirements, and the resulting lens and reflector design, it's impossible to get a good high beam.

Although the Vision Plus is substantially better than your typical off-the-shelf sealed beam, it's performance falls short of the E-Code/ECE lamp.

The second difference is that the DOT required the lamp to have the three aiming lugs on the face of the lens. This requirement was dropped in the 2000 DOT Standard when visual aiming was approved. The Vision Plus lamps still have the aiming lugs, E-Code lamps do not.

Third, the lamp must have "DOT" molded in the face to confirm that it meets DOT specs. E-Code lamps do not have DOT molded in the lens.

Fourth, the lamp must not have more than 60 watts on high beam and 55 watts on low beam. The Vision Plus comes with a 60/55w H4 bulb in it in order to meet the DOT standard. The E-Code lamps are sold without a bulb because there are many variations in wattage and color available. It is not recommended to put a higher wattage bulb in a Vision Plus because the light pattern could dazzle oncoming traffic."

 

So aside from the different brands are all the E-code sealed beams the same for all in terms of usable light output and visibility?

 

Hmm, I was led to believe they were "E-code". At any rate, they work great on my 944, much improved over the standard DOT lenses the car came with.