928fan4life

what is the brightest headlight that I can get for my car? Illegal and legal.

BrianG

H4's can be had in up to 250W...... probably more.

If you are really serious, look for a parts outlet in Saudi Arabia. I'm serious!

DR

Standard DOT approved for a Sealed Beam Headlight in your US 80 is 35 watts low/55 watts high. Some sealed beams are available in 45/55 and 45/65.

Illegal, My favorite would be Par 64 28 volt 250 Watt Aircraft landing light bulbs (used on the older 747s). Those suckers will melt thru 1" thick Plexiglass at 3 feet in less than a minute.. don't ask me how I know!

Seriously upgrading the 7" sealed beams in your 80 to the Euro 8" H4s would be your best bet. This is how the 928 was originally designed and was used in the Euro versions. You could then run the stock size 55/60 H4s with no problems and have much better lighting than you have now. You could also bump to the 80/100 bulbs by increasing the 2 high beam fuses to 10 amps from 7.5 amps without any issues. Heck, you could go higher to the 100/130 H4 bulbs, BUT I would recommend relays and Larger wiring. FYI, none of these setups are DOT "approved" in the US.

A lower cost alternative to the Euro 8" H4s are the Hella 7" H4s (approx $250 vs $55 each), but you still retain the Chrome Ring look found on "DOTized" early 928s. Both H4 options are plug and play in all 77-86 928s.

Hope that helps,

Scott M.

I wouldn't go over 65w. And I'll tell you why...

My 89 GT came with 100w highs, melted the stock connector and wiring at the plugs.

My 87 also came with 100w bulbs, guess what?? Same problem.

Unless you do as Dave suggest and run a smaller gauge wire (larger diameter) with a relay you're asking for trouble.

Scott

DR

Hi Scott,

>My 89 GT came with 100w highs, melted the stock connector and wiring at the plugs.

In all fairness I think that might have happened when I was running 100/130s in there testing them out for a year or so.. Sorry about that :-)

For some reason the "S4" Headlight connectors are a little more finicky with getting good connections, the larger wattage bulbs can then cause arcing and create results like Scott's (my ex) 89 GT. If you look at the connector pins on an "S4" bulb vs an H4 bulb you can problably understand why. The "S4" pins have about 10% of the surface area of the much larger H4 pins. I now recommend a good "electrical connector lube" (sorry, long day and can't think of the correct name) for the S4 style headlights, especially when using higher than stock wattage bulbs.

jpitman2

Yes, you can buy H4s in Saudi up over 200W , twin filament and all. 'You will need a 30A double pole relay with that , Sir'.....BTDT.
..Seriously, 100/80 should be fine on std wiring, as long as its in good condition. If not locally available, check the mail order houses. Go to the 8" Euro lights first and see if you need more watts.
jp 83 Euro S AT 48k

Bill Ball

I put Euro 8" H4s on my 89 two years ago and spliced in an H4 plug bought at the local autoparts store. I run 100/80 offroad only bulbs bought from the local autoparts store and have not had any problems at all with melting plugs or blown fuses. Love those H4s!

I've looked at true HID kits but am not too enthused with them. The Hi/Lo HID kits are not very successful even with the best components.

Chris Lockhart

I think the term DR is looking for is "di-electric grease". I use the stuff made by Dow Corning on virtually everything electrical I own, and it works great.

Doc, I had the left headlight pigtail fry on me with the Hella Super White 80/100's. I replaced the pigtail with one from Advanced Auto, and have had no problems since. (approx 3.5 years) I REALLY liked those bulbs, but when one finally blew, Jeannie had a hard time finding them again for me. She got me the Hella 80/100's in the "regular" look, and they just weren't as good as the Super Whites. I eventually changed to the Zenon Brite Whites, and they are good, but not as good as the Hella Super Whites.

DR

> Love those H4s!

Me to, run em in my 85 Euro and my 90 GT! 100/130s in the Euro and 80/100s in the 90, PLUS 100 watt H3s in both the driving and fog lights :-)

>I've looked at true HID kits but am not too enthused with them. The Hi/Lo HID kits are not very >successful even with the best components.

Yep, unless you fork out the Big money for OEM type systems you are entering the long term "money pit". All of my lighting reps tell me to stay away from the "self-contained" TRUE HID Bulb kits as they are not very shock resistant and require repeated bulb replacement at $XXX each . I am not talking about the "fake" HID bulbs where people take standard bulbs put a fancy dichroic coating on them and call them HID bulbs.. that's a whole nuther can of worms...

dr bob

I went through a few connectors using the 80/100 9004 bulbs in my S4. Finally went in there with a contact burnishing tool and buffed up the pins on the bulb. No problems since. I considered adding a little dielectrc grease to the pins but decided that would only raise the resistance, making more heat and therefore shortening the life of the connector even more. Interesting to note that the common failure point is the ground/neutral connection at the bulb socket.


In my rallying days, I used ceramic sockets/connectors on high-powered H-4 and H-1 bulbs. Biggest bulbs you could safely use are about 120W (maybe...) with the common plastic sockets. For the bigger H-4 bulbs, you can use crimp-and-solder spade connectors and Kynar-insulated wire. In the S4, the factory foglight and auxiliary main beam wiring is through ceramic connectors inside the bucket, with fiberglass sleeves over the plastic insulation. It's the right idea, but the conductors are too small for anything over about 100W bulbs. The alternator and associated power wiring may be too small for anything much bigger than that anyway.


In most places around here, the speed limits don't let us outdrive the parking lights...

DR

Hi Bob,

Happy New Year, good to hear from you.

>In most places around here, the speed limits don't let us outdrive the parking lights...

You REALLY need to move, most places around here you outdrive your stock lights... even under the speed limit :-)

ew928

DR,

You'd need them 'self-steering' Hella lights around where you live.
Your steering rack probably don't see straight-ahead unless you're driving
the 928's to the Frenzy on an interstate.
Do you dial in extra camber on your alignments for them NC mountain roads.
Would probably never wear the inside tire treads.

Ernest(NYC)
Happy with my PIAA 9004's. Those stock DOT lenses probably lose about
50% of the light the PIAA bulbs try to throw out.
Modified 9007 bulbs and used a wiring adapter for my ex-Audi.
9007's had the 55/65 config versus 9004's 45/65 in stock wattage.
The DOT reflector/lens didn't seem to mind the pointed straight forward bulb element.

DR

>You'd need them 'self-steering' Hella lights around where you live.

How true, I keep my Fog lights aimed to the extreme left and right so I can see around the curves better. In the old days of aftermarket driving lights (not on a 928) we would "cross" them so we could see even better around the curves.

>Your steering rack probably don't see straight-ahead unless you're driving
>the 928's to the Frenzy on an interstate.

What does "straight-ahead" mean? :-)

>Do you dial in extra camber on your alignments for them NC mountain roads.
>Would probably never wear the inside tire treads.

Yes, all of mine have extra camber.

dr bob

I just changed a bulb in the S4 foglights (car eats a lot of them when you use 100W H3's for DRLs...) and notice that there is no side-to-side adjustment for the foglight, only up-and-down. Is the side-to-side adjustment an option?

928fan4life

what about those silver star headlights I have heard about. My friend has them in his 86 jetta and says they are great! better then 100 watt halogens