Halogen Headlamp Conversion

[david.g.chapman]

I am in the process of replacing the sealed beam units on my +2, and have just taken delivery of a Lucas LUB 328 kit. Everything is fine, apart from the rubber boot that comes with each light. This was fitted to the reflector on delivery, and can fit over the bulb to seal everything. The problem is, should I fit it or not?

That part of the reflector will get hot eventually and may overheat the bulb with the boot fitted. On the other hand driving rain might get to the back of the reflector and inside without the boot (not a problem with the old sealed beams).

I have asked the suppliers and Googled the part, but no-one knows for sure. There is a drawing in the manual that does not show a boot, but similar conversion kits on the web show the boot as an item with the bulb, suggesting you fit it.

Any thoughts?

Dave Chapman.

[handi_andi]

I believe I fitted the boots on mine without a problem, as far as I remember they are made from heat resistant rubber

Andy

[david.g.chapman]

Thanks handi_andi,

I fitted the boots, and tried a soak test for 30 mins on dip beam, in a hot garage. The back of the reflectors got up to 80-90 degrees C, which is OK in my book. The bulb base may have been hotter, but there is a heat sinking effect through the connector and wires to mitigate that.

The rubber boot was unaffected. I can now wear sunglasses at night.

Dave Chapman.

[handi_andi]

If you fit rectangular driving lights instead of fog lights and interlock them with the main beams then you will be able to see very nicely. Personally I have interlocked both fog lights with the dipped ebams for use in fog and then have two Elise bug driving lights just behind the grill, which once I have sorted out the alternator wiring so they run properly should do rather nicely with the halogen main beams which are much better than the old candles I have to say
Cheers
Andy

[elanmac]

Andy, I think you will find it illegal to have your fog lights on unless it is foggy or snowing. It is ok to have driving lights on with the main beam but unless the fog lights are as high as your headlamps ie. above 18" from the ground they must only be used in poor visibility.
Mac

[handi_andi]

Mac
That's why I have them interlocked with the dipped headlights and on a seperate switch like you would find in a modern car. With a plus 2 though, given one of them was supplied as a driving light and one as a fog light, it could be argued that they could be used with the main beams and still within the law for the age of vehicle as they are original fitment. I know of someone that got stopped in a ford orion and was accussed of having his fog lights on at night when it wasnt foggy, however, when he pointed out to the nice police man that the vehicle manual classes them as auxillary driving lights the poilceman was unable to issue a ticket as no offence had occured. However, to avoid problems I have both the sets interlocked to the correct beams, although I am not sure the bug lights are 18" off the ground.

As for the foggy and snowy bit for fog lights that is a very grey area as the highway code talks about them only being used when visibility is less than 100metres. The highway code is not law though, but can be cited in a legal case. Now consider this, when it is dark what is the visibility? The highway code didnt at my last read deal with that. A little perdentic I know, however, on order cars with less effective headlights, even with halogen conversion personally I feel more light it better than no light, having done many thousands of miles in series landrovers with sealed beam units that can barely light up the road immediately in front of the vehicle let alone ahead of it.

The other area in which the law is a bit of an ass with regard to lights is the fact that it define maximum permissble wattages instead of maximum permissble candela. Thus the law allows us all to be blinded by vehicles running High Intensity Discharge Systems as long as not more than a 55w bulb is used within them. As with so much of motor regulations the law has not keep up with vehicle development. Let's face it. truckers use a rather large loophole in the law to mount driving lights above their cabs which are quite frankly dazzling when they come towards you, as they are classed as driving lights and as long as they are 18" off the ground they are pretty much ok. Quite frankly I find such lights far more dazzling than most fog lights.

Anyway, all that said and off my chest I do use my lights with caution and in the correct way and hopefulyl once I have changed the alternator wiring all lights will be working at the right intensities.

Cheers

Andy

[memnon]

Interesting last post.

I remember a friend in university driving with front Fog Lamps on at night as he said it helped him see better for driving. We were going down a lane, rapidly, but not illegally.

I thought about it for a while and it began to scare me a little. The area of the road being lit can only have been 10meters infront of the car (defintely no more than 20).

A few months later we chatted about it, I said:

"If thats where you are looking when driving at night, I don't want to be in the car with you, you need to be looking much further up the road than those lamps are illuminating"

We are still friends, he doesn't use his front fog lamps at night anymore and I'm happy being driven by him.

[GrUmPyBoDgEr]

If you fit rectangular driving lights instead of fog lights and interlock them with the main beams then you will be able to see very nicely. Personally I have interlocked both fog lights with the dipped ebams for use in fog and then have two Elise bug driving lights just behind the grill, which once I have sorted out the alternator wiring so they run properly should do rather nicely with the halogen main beams which are much better than the old candles I have to say
Cheers
Andy

I've done something similar but I used a couple of cheapy tiny Foglights that you can pick up at the shows.
They're fitted on brackets behind the Grill but a few inches back so as not to restrict the intake area.
The lights are fitted upside down to give an upward instead of downward spread & wired into the H4's "main beam"
Like driving in daylight, but a bit of a shock for the old eyes when you switch down to dipped beam though.
I also fitted the rubber boots but have never checked them. At least they haven't gone up in smoke (yet).

Cheers
John

[Frank Howard]

The area of the road being lit can only have been 10meters infront of the car...

I'll bet the lights were mounted low on the car, probably in or near the grill. Millions of cars come equipped from the factory with driving or fog lights that are mounted near the ground. While I can't argue that this isn't stylish, I can argue that mounting the lights that low deems them virtually useless. I remember driving a Chrysler minivan equipped with factory driving lights mounted down low. While running at night with the headlights on, I kept turning the driving lights on and off to see what a difference they made. No improvement whatsoever. As a matter of fact, while the headlights were on, the only way I could tell that the driving lights were on was to look out the side window at the ground near the front of the car. There, I could make out faint light extending 1 or 2 feet from the side of the car. That's it! The Cibie fog lights that a DPO mounted in the grill of my Europa proved to be useless for the same reason. That's why I removed them.

If you want to mount driving or fog lights in your grill because you think they look cool, I say go for it. My advice is not to bother figuring out how to hook them up because they'll never improve visibility.

If mounting the lights low enhances their effectiveness, why do serious off roaders mount their lights as high as possible on the roll bar? The answer should be obvious.

[saildrive2001]

The key word here is "Fog". In the UK years ago we used the fog lights in fog only & they had yellow bulbs or lenses. We would turn off the headlights as they were too high & just threw a white curtain infront of the car. Todays lights should be called "blind the oncoming car auxilliary lights" because that is about all that they are usefull for.

[JJDraper]

Might be worth checking out the quality of the headlamps. Cheap no-name headlamps can have poorly focussed light and scattering losses that make them pretty poor at night. I once had to get a replacement unit in a hurry to get through an MOT. It appeared much brighter when you stood in front of the car, but the pattern when driving was useless. Also, I know it sounds trite, but keep them clean... out of sight is out of mind, until night time! Even a small amount of muck reduces output dramatically. Make sure charging is up to it - just adding more lamps could have a negative net effect due to volt drop. Halogen lamps have an optimum light output to voltage (halogen cycle etc). Low voltage will cause the bulbs to dramatically reduce output in a non linear fashion. Like performance and handling, the small things add up to good lighting.

Just don't get me started on people using 'fog lamps' as driving lights..... or not signalling.. or tailgating.. grrr.

Jeremy

[GrUmPyBoDgEr]

Hmmm, seems to be a lot of predjudices on this subject, many of which I do agree with, especially about those plonkers who think it's the thing to do to have Fog Lights on all of the time.
My pet hate is those modern discharge thingy's that blind you from behind when the following car moves up & down over road uneveness.
In my defence I used inverted (upside down or t'other way up) Fog Lights wired into the main beam.
That combination gives a big spread of light for driving out in the country where there's no street lighting.
It's very rare that I use full beam, like most other road users, & my Hella Halogen headlights provide very good illumination on dipped beam.
My eyes have never been very good at night so I try to avoid night driving but when necessary I want the the security of good lights.

Cheers
John

[69S4]

Not got much to add about adding driving / fog lights but I do have a few observations on the quality of the standard headlamps.
I've owned my S4 since the early 80's and when I first got it wasn't impressed by the sealed beam headlamps. I eventually replaced them
with a couple of Cibie Z beam (remember them) halogen upgrades. I'd used one of them on a Honda GoldWing that I owned at the time and was really impressed with the improvement.

Sadly, the difference in the Elan was close to zero. The lights were still poor and the one headlamp on the Honda was just about as good as
both of them in the Elan. Worse, after a while I started getting bulb failures in the Elan units. Poking around with a multimeter suggested
that the voltages were about right and I couldn't identify a fault. Eventually I just lived with it. After some years I started getting some corrosion on the Cibie reflectors and to forestall an MOT failure put the sealed beam units back in. Still pretty gloomy.

Earlier this year I had a problem with the wiring and replaced just about all of the connectors, remade all the earths and replaced the dynamo with an alternator. With the lights on the voltmeter now registers about one volt higher than it did with the dynamo. What a difference to how bright the lights are. Much brighter than they've ever been and on a par with our modern cars. I even had to adjust them properly for the first time to stop dazzling other drivers. It may be now that the car could finally use halogen bulbs properly but at the moment I'm happy with how much of an improvement upgrading the electrical supply has made to the std units.


Stuart

[Frank Howard]

When you switch to an alternator, indicators flash at a steady rate, headlights work better, windows work better, wipers work better, food tastes better...

[mikealdren]

Just a point on light heights, the view on fog lights is mount them low. The theory is that fog often doesn't reach the ground and light can shine under it and the lights can also illuminate the road markings. Fog lights have a broad, flat beam but don't penetrate very far.
If you have lights mounted higher, the light is reflected back at you from the fog. Spot lights (60s practice was one fog, one spot) have a complementary, penetrating beam.

Driving lights are different, you want as much light our there and as far forwards as possible - mount them high.

regards
Mike