Voltage Drop and headlight performance

[4wdchico]

I have been looking at the t4wd's wiring diagram and have come to the conclusion that there is a fair amount of room for improvement. No, I have not checked the voltage drop (raining lots in these parts), but just looking at the skinny wires to the headlights and the long path to ground thru the lighting switches, not to mention age/use, there has got to be plenty. Please read the info on the below link if you are interested. Be sure to read it at least as far as "SPECIAL CONSIDERATIONS FOR GROUND-SWITCHED SYSTEMS" as that is how our cars are wired.

http://www.danielsternlighting.com/tech ... elays.html

Also very interesting is this little bit a about flashing side front marker lamps: http://www.danielsternlighting.com/tech ... flash.html

I'll post my before high and low beam circuit VD's sometime soon.

[splatterdog]

It works. The older the car the more likely it will help. Most newer cars are not fully relay'd either and would also benefit.

For all you frugal T4 owners out there looking to upgrade. I recently found a cheap source for relays and prewired socketshttp://site.mcminone.com/product/MCM-AU ... 2-/26-1942 Just ordered 10 sockets/40a relays.

If you really wanted to go nuts and wage all out war on VD , solder the whole works together and save a buck on a socket!

The little sealed beams on my Burb have little tiny oddball connector pins and the connectors were visibly not good so I went that far at the bulbs. Makes servicing a bit more difficult and you want to make sure you have enough harness for a few relampings if you go that way.

[ARCHINSTL]

Here is a good thread that has all kinds of info about VD and wiring fixes (tech word).
Member waynehoc already did this - and Typrus, of course, has mucho print. There is also a diagram from Stern:
http://www.tercel4wd.com/forums/viewtop ... ght+relays
Lots of info!
Tom M.

[MootsMan]

About a year ago, I went through 2 sets of Silverstars......something was blowing out the high beam. Found out it was a faulty alternator. Installed a new AZ unit, new headlights, and (knock on wood) all seems good so far !

[Typrus]

http://www.4crawler.com/4x4/CheapTricks ... ghts.shtml
Scroll to upgraded headlight harness.

Basically leaves factory wiring in tact and uses the factory plugs to switch the relays in the new, heavier guage harness.

I measured anywhere from 2 to 6 volts drop between all my Tercels (from the 81 Corolla-Tercel to powering the 86 when it was in tact and measuring, the 84, and the 85.) So there is definite room for improvement.

You could always also do an H4 conversion with European-sped reflectors from Hella or Cibie. Dan Sterns site has the housings for about $75 each (about 5 headlight changes on each side, which can be a bit harder to justify unless you really have want or need of brighter bulbs with a better beam pattern)
OR rallylights.com offers them for about $42 a housing. A little easier to justify. They sell either E-Codes (the European ones which have superior lighting, but don't let the State Troopers find out you're running them on the road or you'll get a shiny DOT-violation ticket) or the Vision-Plus housings which are the DOT codes. They run $52 each.

Another cool thing about at least the E-Codes is that they have whats known as a city lamp. Its a 5watt bulb that illuminates the reflector in the headlight without the headlight being on. Basically like a running light. The cool thing here is that if your bulb burns out, you're far less likely to get ticketed, because the headlight is still visible at night. It just doesn't create almost any light outside of the housing.


The ideal pair would be a Cibie or Hella housing, coupled with Silverstar Ultra's and a 10 or 12 gauge wiring conversion with high-temp sockets, fully relayed and switched off the factory system. Aligned properly it'd be ultra-bright with an awesome beam pattern and minimal headlight dimming on idle (provided the alternator is working right and battery is good)

[splatterdog]

The gauge wire on those harnesses don't look any bigger than stock. If you want mondo, it's DIY. Ease of installation is the only thing going for those kits as far as I'm concerned.

Silverstars do have one drawback. Shorter lifespan. I've seen it and they now state that clearly on the package. There are other "enhanced" brands for 6054's that come close that are much less costly.

While I have heard good things about the hella replacements, I am reluctant to use anything with plastic lenses for my lighting. The hella's I've seen are plastic. I prefer older technology that is often more reliable,better designed, and cheap! As I stated, my turd suburban with plain halogens puts to shame most newer cars. Lighting has taken a back seat to appearance and aerodynamics IMHO. Also, look at all the newer cars with clouded lenses these days. I don't mind pattern failures as long it's not my car. I can replace EVERYTHING(bulb,lens,reflector) for less than $15 per side on my car. My neighbors 2000 volvo needs $400 worth of headlight assembly's. That's with cheapo's. OE's are over $700 for the pair. I'd rather buy a rusty tercel, or two or three....

For those looking to improve, I would start with a relay'd harness before jumping on "modern" lights. If you do end up spending big bucks on lights, you'd want to do this anyways.

Or just go for a lightbar with enough lights to stall your engine at idle!

[Typrus]

If I remember right they use 12 guage wires on those harnesses. Stock is not that big. Albeit, 10 would be even better.
I believe the E-codes are glass. I agree, I hate plastic lenses. And I hate having to wet-sand and polish them for hours at a time annually.

[splatterdog]

12 would definitely be OK. Most stock wires are 16. To me it just didn't look like they were much bigger. If they say 12, so be it.

10 would be overkill with a street legal headlight. There is a point at which you only gain mechanical strength when upsizing. If you had a rear battery I could see that though.

[teranfirbt]

The way I see it, any money put into quality lighting is an investment in safety. That being said, Silverstars are junk. Any bulbs coated with any kind of blue or purple are junk.

There's a reason silverstars don't last that long. Only about 10% of the light that a halogen light puts out is in the blue range, yet companies are making bulbs that filter out almost everything BUT the blue. To make up for this, the bulbs are overdriven to the point where they burn out in 6 months. There's also the rain factor. Blue light tends to scatter more easily when it passes through water, so less of the light ends up getting back to your eyes, and instead gets into other drivers eyes and blinds them.

Clear bulbs made by Hella, GE, Philips, or Sylvania (Osram) are the way to go. If you're in a part of the world where it seriously rains a lot, the yellow "all weather" bulbs are a good choice as well, they filter out that 10% of the blue light that can cause glare and blindness in the rain.

The best combo I've had so far for 6054 type stuff is what's in my 86 Terc right now, Hella E-Code housings and Osram 100/80 watt bulbs, running through 14 gauge wire on relays. When I get back to Corvallis I'll have to get a picture comparing new wiring to stock wiring light output.

By far the BEST lighting setup I've seen is the Hella projector setup I put in my Celica, they use H9 bulbs. They put out 2100 lumens, twice the light of a standard, quality H4 bulb on low. It was also a bit spendy to build (~$300 total).
http://www.rallylights.com is a really good source for Hella stuff.
(Sorry if this post seems a bit rantish, I've done a lot of research into head lights, I tend to go off on it easily )

[Petros]

Silverstars are junk.

That is what I found, they do not last at all. One one family vacation in our Mazda MPV we had both low beams burn out, it appears something was wrong with the switch, I even dismantled the switch (I always travel with tools) and could not find anything wrong.

I just turned the high beams down and we finished the trip that way. It was only when I got home and decided to inspect the bulbs that I found BOTH of them burnt out! They were only about 3 months old.

I want good lights, but I am cheap (the good ones are way overpriced), so I search all the composite headlights at the pull-a-part for good quality bulbs, (NOT Siverstarts) every time I go. So now I have quite a supply of high powered lights, real cheap.

Some day I am going to find a new style composite headlight assembly to adapt to my '84 Tercel, so far the '88-90 Tercel head lamps look like they can be made to fit, but something even larger would be better.

[teranfirbt]

If you're crafty, a set of Hella 90mm Projectors will make your life happy for lighting, I did a set in my Celica and they're amazing:



At some point I'm gonna do a better job of making everything match the body lines, but I'm pretty happy with my first try on em.