Headlights Upgrade

[Cro]

...why you people seek guidance from someone who has a shopping trolley handle mounted on the front of his car, I will never know.

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I have to be nice to Cro so I can have a decent size avatar.

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At least u got an avatar

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If you sent me one, you'd have one too

[maximum_velocity]

...why you people seek guidance from someone who has a shopping trolley handle mounted on the front of his car, I will never know.

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I have to be nice to Cro so I can have a decent size avatar.

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At least u got an avatar

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If you sent me one, you'd have one too

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I sent it to your email addy ages ago... I think

PM sent

[CountryPhoon]

Thanks for all the advice here.

I went with Cro's suggestion and as a first step fitted Phillips Vision Plus 55w +50%, H2s and H4s, to all 4 main lights. They make a BIG difference; on the country roads around my farm here, I reckon they give a 30% improved on range - with a much brighter mid-range. All for under $100.

Next step is conversion of foggies to driving lights - as also recommended by Cro - with relay & wired back to hi-beam switch.

Cheers,

[Guest FatBAt]

If you hit the brakes hard enough, the foglights seem to fall out.

I have had this happen twice, but both times on the wrong side for the broken globe I have.

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Yes I can verify this....and hitting cats has the same effect...trust me...

Funny thing was, I thought I lost it completely but unknowingly, it was still hanging there for about a kilometre. It wasn't until I stopped at a red light that it fell off completely.....THEN I RAN OVER IT!!!.

[Grass]

I dunno the technicalities, but I thought it was illegal to drive with more than one set of lights on if it was clear ie. not foggy, raining, etc?  Haven't members said in the past that they've been pulled up for driving with their fog/driving lights on before? 

6 CLEAR lights is the NSW RTA limit.

The question is now if the Driving/ high beam combo is classes as 4 or two, as they hide under the same piece of glass.

[Grass]

If you don't want extra lights, or a bar to mount them on the best thing you can do is upgrade all your globes, and replace your fog light reflects with driving light reflectors. Swap the driving light brackets with eachother (passenger side to drivers side, drivers side to passenger side) and install them upside down. Adjust them to go as low as possible which is a lot higher than they would go normally. Wire them up to your high beams via a relay, but don't use them in traffic as they are very blinding.

When I don't have my nudge bar (not often but it does happen) the above method still lights up the road and the sides.

Globes:

Use Phillips Vision Plus 55w +50%. They provide a clean white light that show up any wild life and their eyes very easily.

You will need H4 for the two low/high beams, H7's (I think) for the highbeams, and H3 for the driving lights.

Reflectors:

Hella make a driving light replacment for the fog lights. Repco & Ingram sell these.

The normal headlights will provide that white light straight ahead, and the beam will be a lot further than the standard globes.

The driving lights point outwards a bit and light up the sides of the road very nicely. This helps you see if there is anything waiting to run across right infront of you.

Send me a PM with your mobile number if you want some more info.

I can get the globes and reflectors pretty cheap too.

Cro is obviously 'the man' when the topic turns to making night into day! - Thanks buddy..

Couple of Qs that I think others will also be interested in:

1. Do the so-called "Phillips Vision Plus 55w +50%" produce the equivalent of around 100w globes? (Based on their name)

2. Are you saying put the "Phillips Vision Plus 55w +50%s" in all 4 main lights? (but different models obviously).

3. Is the swap of the body and reflectors of the fog lights a difficult task? (Ive read that they are a bugger to even replace the globes).

Thanks again.

The other thing worth checking is how much "Voltage drop" you are getting across the factory wiring loom. In my XE, I was loosing about 1.8 volts across the standard loom. Doesn't sound much, but when the globes love at least 12Volts, prefer 13.8 volts, that's enough to take the edge of the brilliance.

[Turbo6man]

I dunno the technicalities, but I thought it was illegal to drive with more than one set of lights on if it was clear ie. not foggy, raining, etc?  Haven't members said in the past that they've been pulled up for driving with their fog/driving lights on before? 

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6 CLEAR lights is the NSW RTA limit.

The question is now if the Driving/ high beam combo is classes as 4 or two, as they hide under the same piece of glass.

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Technically they are classed as two lights. So wiring the "fog" lights as driving lights is legal. Adding any extras then becomes illegal. Bad boy Cro ...

[bugster70]

6 CLEAR lights is the NSW RTA limit.

The question is now if the Driving/ high beam combo is classes as 4 or two, as they hide under the same piece of glass.

Well, even if you class that as 4, the fog lights count as 2, so that makes 6 all up. If that's legal, why are the coppers pulling up so many people for driving with their fog lights on? Probably got nothing better to do.

[sixfan]

If you hit the brakes hard enough, the foglights seem to fall out.

I have had this happen twice, but both times on the wrong side for the broken globe I have.

Yes I can verify this....and hitting cats has the same effect...trust me...

Funny thing was, I thought I lost it completely but unknowingly, it was still hanging there for about a kilometre. It wasn't until I stopped at a red light that it fell off completely.....THEN I RAN OVER IT!!!.

That's gotta suck.

[Turbo6man]

6 CLEAR lights is the NSW RTA limit.

The question is now if the Driving/ high beam combo is classes as 4 or two, as they hide under the same piece of glass.

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Well, even if you class that as 4, the fog lights count as 2, so that makes 6 all up. If that's legal, why are the coppers pulling up so many people for driving with their fog lights on? Probably got nothing better to do.

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To clarify things for you:-

In a nutshell - you may have up to four auxilliary lights on in conjunction with your standard (two) main beams. Now as the XR already has two extras (the inners), you may therefore add another two driving lights - wide, spread or spot, whatever you like.

However for fog lights ... may be used in conjunction with, OR independently to, any other main beam headlights BUT are ONLY legally useable when atmospheric conditions limit visibility ie. fog, rain or smoke/smog. THIS is why coppers wil book you for driving with foggies on when it isn't foggy. Simple really eh.

NB. your XR fog lights may be re-wired to act as auxilliary driving lights if you wish, therefore giving you the maximum six lights on high beam. They have to dip with your high beams just as your normal driving lights do.