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Headlight Bulb Upgrade


ravindasenarath

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Hello everyone, I have a 1999 Mazda Familia BJ5P. From the time I bought this I had the feeling that the visibility on night is not good. Current bulbs are not that good it seems. So I wanted to insert a new bulb set. I don't have much knowledge on headlight bulbs. I did some googling and talk to some friends. I'm expecting to go for a halogen bulbs. Friend of mine said Xenon is tend to burn of quickly because of moisture. I also herd that I can add a relay and go for a bulb with higher watt.

So I would like to have some advices on this from you guys as I always had(Which always helped me to get the best decision). Following is basically what I would like to know.

  • What is the best bulb(In term of visibility) for a non HID headlight? - ( Brand name etc would help )
  • What is this go for a higher watt bulb with a relay thing? It is safe for car's electric system? Thank you
Edited by ravindasenarath
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I see that the Autolanka "search" function has gone into utter waste coz of people like you coming here and creating duplicate threads everyday without reading past posts where these things has been discussed over and over immensely....

With all the respect mate. I used search. I really wanted to get answers for my questions without bothering anyone. I found some posts but I didn't find answers for exact questions I have.

I always remember autolanka forum people being friendly and helping out others.

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With all the respect mate. I used search. I really wanted to get answers for my questions without bothering anyone. I found some posts but I didn't find answers for exact questions I have.

I always remember autolanka forum people being friendly and helping out others.

I myself had the same question as you and used the search function to find it and asked few questions in that thread itself, and got the solution and also posted my new set of headlights bulbs with the results as well there :) no offence if you used the advanced searched well you could have find it... :)

Edited by PreseaLover
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I myself had the same question as you and used the search function to find it and asked few questions in that thread itself, and got the solution and also posted my new set of headlights bulbs with the results as well there :) no offence if you used the advanced searched well you could have find it... :)

Can you please post the url to that post here?

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  • 2 months later...

I went to mazna motors and as per their recommendation I installed two narva 90/100w bulb set. They said that particular bulb provide less heat than other bulbs so will be good for my cars plastic headlight casing. I drove same day night and I got better visibility than earlier but no significant improvement. Situation is horrible when it start to rain. Can't see much at all. I have to depend on other peoples low beams. My headlight casing can reflectors seems OK. Can't see the issue. May be I'll ask them to check the power supply for the bulbs. :violent-smiley-011:

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I went to mazna motors and as per their recommendation I installed two narva 90/100w bulb set. They said that particular bulb provide less heat than other bulbs so will be good for my cars plastic headlight casing. I drove same day night and I got better visibility than earlier but no significant improvement. Situation is horrible when it start to rain. Can't see much at all. I have to depend on other peoples low beams. My headlight casing can reflectors seems OK. Can't see the issue. May be I'll ask them to check the power supply for the bulbs. :violent-smiley-011:

Your cars headlights are designed for 55/60w, this whole story of 90/100w bulbs producing less heat is just crap. They probably had a lot of higher wattage bulbs that they wanted to get off their hands (yes mazna has a history of doing this sort of thing). The heat produced from the higher wattage bulb will not melt your headlight plastic, but it will deteriorate the reflector surface which will only make your low visibility problem worse. Also higher wattage will draw more current meaning it will damage your wiring and relays.

As for the visibility problem this is a design flaw in the cars headlights, not just in your case (search online) . The reflector have a tendency to scatter light and is not focused which is the reason why you feel they have less light. The alternative is to use a pair of fog lamps and use something like osram night breakers for the mains.

Edited by The Stig
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Your cars headlights are designed for 55/60w, this whole story of 90/100w bulbs producing less heat is just crap. They probably had a lot of higher wattage bulbs that they wanted to get off their hands (yes mazna has a history of doing this sort of thing). The heat produced from the higher wattage bulb will not melt your headlight plastic, but it will deteriorate the reflector surface which will only make your low visibility problem worse. Also higher wattage will draw more current meaning it will damage your wiring and relays.

As for the visibility problem this is a design flaw in the cars headlights, not just in your case (search online) . The reflector have a tendency to scatter light and is not focused which is the reason why you feel they have less light. The alternative is to use a pair of fog lamps and use something like osram night breakers for the mains.

Thanks for the info Stig. Sadly one of my fog laps is not working. It is damaged. Costs around 8000 to replace :( . I would try cleaning the headlight and install a Philips Xtreme vision 55/60w set.

Edited by ravindasenarath
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  • 3 weeks later...

Hi Everybody,

As you know I have crappy lights on the Nissan.

A potential low cost solution is to swap out the stock H11 bulbs for H9 bulbs by making a slight alteration to the H9 bulbs so they fit into the H11 holders.( Online forums for my car model don't really detail this move but it seems possible based on the google results when I googled H11 to H9 bulb adaptations)

As access to my low beams involves taking off the bumper; I'm going to swap out the H11 fog-lights and replace them with H9 bulbs (with a sight modification) instead. I figure that this would be the least labour intensive as well as the most cost effective way to improve my light output.

What say you folks? Has any one considered this / gone though with this / got any words of wisdom before I buy H9's and have at it?

Edited by Kavvz
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  • 4 months later...
Hi Everybody,

As you know I have crappy lights on the Nissan.

A potential low cost solution is to swap out the stock H11 bulbs for H9 bulbs by making a slight alteration to the H9 bulbs so they fit into the H11 holders.( Online forums for my car model don't really detail this move but it seems possible based on the google results when I googled H11 to H9 bulb adaptations)

As access to my low beams involves taking off the bumper; I'm going to swap out the H11 fog-lights and replace them with H9 bulbs (with a sight modification) instead. I figure that this would be the least labour intensive as well as the most cost effective way to improve my light output.

What say you folks? Has any one considered this / gone though with this / got any words of wisdom before I buy H9's and have at it?

Well six months later I can give feedback that this upgrade went well and having extra lumens on demand light via the foglight switch worked out well for me.

Since I've now decided to keep the car for a another year or two, I'm going to upgrade the fog lights to HID's. Does anyone have any recommendations for a kit that would allow me to do so?

(It would help if anyone could share any particular eBay sellers or brands that they can recommend...any thoughts gentlemen?)

Edited by Kavvz
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Â

Well six months later I can give feedback that this upgrade went well and having extra lumens on demand light via the foglight switch worked out well for me.

Â

Since I've now decided to keep the car for a another year or two, I'm going to upgrade the fog lights to HID's. Does anyone have any recommendations for a kit that would allow me to do so?Â

Â

(It would help if anyone could share any particular eBay sellers or brands that they can recommend...any thoughts gentlemen?)

I used HIDs for the fog lights of my axio when I (we) bought it in 2011.

The main reason was that there was a HID xennon craze going on during that time and also my low beams come with factory fitted xennon HID projectors, so I thought HIDs in fogs would match that( what a newb :D )

I had been using them for 4 years without a problem (fixed from S#n l#nka ) but last year had to replace both bulbs.

Even though I thought it was a good idea to use them for fogs, now I think it was not.

Firstly the reflector housing of the fogs are not designed for HIDs. So the light spreads everywhere not focusing on the road.

Secondly poor visibility during rain (It is so ironic given that one of the purpose of fogs is to be used during rain)

And also a lot of heat developing in the small housing.

Only pro seems to be the looks. :D Since my car didn't come with daytime running lights, I use these during daytime.

I think you'd be better off with Osram fog breakers.

If you still need white light you could try night breakers or LED fog lights.

P.S - as some forum members also pointed out, HIDs are only suitable for projectors. I've heard some cars have specially designed reflector housing for HIDs (premio) but not sure about that.

Edited by sathyajithj99
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I used HIDs for the fog lights of my axio when I (we) bought it in 2011.

The main reason was that there was a HID xennon craze going on during that time and also my low beams come with factory fitted xennon HID projectors, so I thought HIDs in fogs would match that( what a newb :D )

I had been using them for 4 years without a problem (fixed from S#n l#nka ) but last year had to replace both bulbs.

Even though I thought it was a good idea to use them for fogs, now I think it was not.

Firstly the reflector housing of the fogs are not designed for HIDs. So the light spreads everywhere not focusing on the road.

Secondly poor visibility during rain (It is so ironic given that one of the purpose of fogs is to be used during rain)

And also a lot of heat developing in the small housing.

Only pro seems to be the looks. :D Since my car didn't come with daytime running lights, I use these during daytime.

I think you'd be better off with Osram fog breakers.

If you still need white light you could try night breakers or LED fog lights.

P.S - as some forum members also pointed out, HIDs are only suitable for projectors. I've heard some cars have specially designed reflector housing for HIDs (premio) but not sure about that.

Thanks for the input and yes I agree with you: HID's are pointless without projector lenses. I probably will end up buying a whole assembly for the fog lights which incorporate projector lenses and the fog-lights will essentially be utilized as driving lights.

I just don't know what vendor to go with at this point. GTRlighting and DDM Tuning are HID kit vendors that are mentioned as dependable by the forums that cover my car, but I wanted to see if any if the members here have any vendors that I can shortlist before I place my order...

Edited by Kavvz
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