H4 headlamps

[stevo1980]

Where do i get a pair of these from as i want to upgrade, cant see a thing down dark country lanes. Cheers steve

[R0B]

rare as rocking horse poo.you could try the wanted forum..

[toomanytoys]

Rare??? nah... try any of the breakers on here.. but GSF and JK had new ones that were not that dear (IIRC about £25 each)

[v-lux]

Upgrade your bulbs too, makes a big difference.

Got some from Halfords on a buy one get one free deal (dont know if its still on or not)

[R0B]

sorry i thought you meant the square ones

[Red Westie]

As well as H4 lamps I recommend Osram Night Breakers or Phillips Extreme H4 bulbs plus relay mod to ensure full battery voltage is reaching the bulbs.
Martin

[sjmtlewy]

My round headlamps say "Hella" at the bottom, but they dont have H4 written in middle. Does this mean they're not H4? are they really that different?

[toomanytoys]

Well... if it doesnt say H4 in the middle of tha glass, then it isnt H4.. I havent seen any H4's that are not marked H4..

IIRC (coz I dont have any non H4 lamps as they get binned..) the front of the lens has more of a curve, the H4 ones are very flat..

Certainly the "customers" vans I have driven in the dark with non H4 headlamps the beam patterns are never very good and trying to get a friends non H4 ones anywhere near my H4's proved impossible.. even with costly "upgrade" bulbs that he'd already bought.......

It seems to be earlier vans and low spec comecials that had the non H4's.. the H4 headlamps were a cost option.. think back to 1982 and halogen bulbs were prob only on premium cars much like HID's were only 4 or 5 years ago..

[sjmtlewy]

Irony is that i've also got european ones, which the previous owner gave me and I assume are from before it was imported, and they are H4!

Looking at them, the main irritating difference is that the non-H4 don't take the bayonet bulbs. The fitting is round, but the filament looks identical to an H4 - some sort of H4 conversion bulb perhaps?

[toomanytoys]

yes.. most likely.. IIRC you'll also notice there is a cap/cover in the headlamp that shields the bulb.. If the normal bulb is fitted it has a different filament direction (as I say.. IIRC as its been so long since I had any in my hand) hence the lens is different too..

Pop the H4 ones in and see... although the dip will be wrong, the light spread is a lot better...

[sjmtlewy]

Do you recon if I got LHD-RHD patches to go over the LHD H4 bulbs, they would be brighter than the non-H4 with the halogen conversion bulbs (which incidentally, I just found: http://www.justkampers.com/shop/beetles ... 10654.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;).?

[toomanytoys]

the blanks cut off the "kick".. (which would be going towards the right side of the road on LHD headlamps.. )

Easy enough to try them.. no need to spend money to try them.. use some tape to blank the part of the lens that does the "kick.."