Club 80-90 Forums

Here goes:

Stock bulbs, the light units from Powerfuluk but now with relays and adjusted correctly. Smidgen too high but not by much. No way do I need Nightbreakers. It would be ridiculous if they were any brighter than that.

Two round lights and nothing else.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cEIkGpC72GY" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Spot on they are! You can even see past on coming cars are you going a full wiki on this?

They're just a tiny fraction on the high side as I need to allow a little for any slight bounce in suspension but they're where they need to be. Kick starts at the kerb, beam well below oncoming traffic.

The funny thing is, I used to have nightbreaker bulbs a few years ago and although they were nice and bright, I felt I was just compensating for badly designed headlights. Homage to Hella and all that but no matter how you view it, they're little more than a highly inaccurate 1970s torch reflector with a freznel lens to restore order. Lot of scatter on Hellas - surprising how much but then they were never that focused to begin with. Hellas also tend to have hot-spots. These are even and have a sharp cut-off point at the top as you can see. I honestly don't see how I need brighter bulbs. I may try them but I suspect its overkill.

CJH will agree with me on this but the light output is really even from bumper to near distance on dip. Full sorts itself out and you can add in spots if you want. I disconnected my spots for this experiment. Improvement applies to the E-marked ones too so don't for a minute think that my DRL ones are better. Mostly this is about letting the reflector do all the work rather than the glass and all their 7" units meet that level. Amazing really as these aren't square lights and I'm only using the pair - nothing else.

You can see now why I tend to scoff at bulbs of higher wattage - it misses the point that all the basics are completely wrong to start with. Nightbreakers make a difference if you've got dim lights but nowhere near as much as fitting better designed light units, relays and a better supply cable.

Will test the E-marked ones for you next week.

Source: http://www.powerfuluk.com/itemlist.html ... query=7%22" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Also note this, as it made the biggest difference to brightness of my lights: https://club8090.co.uk/wiki/VW ... ry_to_dash" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false; - do the electrics well and fit relays. Please don't go to the trouble of buying/fitting these units WITHOUT relays and a dedicated cable from battery - you'll be wasting your time if you do. To see the same lights without those mods, see: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m2X5GgKDOos" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false; - vast difference.

Yep, I'll WIKI it all. Had hoped to video the fitting but I have a fair bit to do this weekend including driving to see Jim San tomorrow. I have I think, mostly resolved the fitting now so nothing fouls headlight grill, they fit firmly without having to make DIY clips, and they look far tidier. Will WIKI all that too.

Dipped beam:


Full beam


On full (and more visible on video), you get a clearly defined rectangular shape to the lights (almost like like a panoramic screen) which focuses on the area you most need to look at whilst still giving plenty of light on the tarmac. At first I thought I was imagining this box, but it was consistent and even more noticeable with a lot of trees ahead either side. I've never seen headlights that clearly defined before and I was really impressed by it. Full or dipped, nothing is wasted, or indeed lost - testament to the well designed reflectors. If you watch this other video, you can see this box on full beam yourself at times: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iTPzOcVTefk" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;


Headlight alignment: For reference (and by all means set them up on a wall using the 25 feet model or even let your local garage check them), below photo is where the 'kicks' should be and the cutoff points on an average flat road (along the blue line) to ensure you can see but not blind other drivers. The kick on the left is to help pick out signs etc, and should start at the kerb edge. The right kick should start at centre line of road, on the right the beam needs to be below eye level of oncoming traffic. May help anyone trying to set them up from scratch and get them right. You only have to look at height of the beams then. Headlight aligners simply get you to that point and quite a few set them too high I've found. You should NOT be lighting up the backs of drivers heads. Set them like this and they will pass alignment check.



If you're not sure what I mean by 'headlight kicks' take a look at this next pic as I go round a bend. At that distance you can see both 'kicks' clearly. On a straight road, the very start of the left kick should be at the kerb edge. I worked on bugs for many years and had no problem setting up headlights accurately by hand like this and they always passed. You can set them on a garage door to some extent but you'll only get a 'near enough' adjustment and other than putting them in front of headlight aligners, the above is perfectly true and sets them so you get a good spread of light where you need it, without inconveniencing anyone else and within the rules.

CovKid wrote:
CJH will agree with me on this but the light output is really even from bumper to near distance on dip.

I will. I haven't done a proper before/after comparison, but the fact that I noticed the change after swapping suggests there was an improvement.

Just an aside here, prompted by your video caption "Stock 55/65 watt bulbs". According to Osram's web site (click on 'Product family: important data at a glance'), H4 bulbs have a power input of 75W. Maybe that's common knowledge, but I had always used 55W for my sums. So in my setup, with four of these on full beam, the input current would actually be 21A, rather than 15A (assuming 14.5 volts from a running alternator - if you use 12V the numbers are 25A and 18A respectively). Might be worth bearing in mind when sizing cables etc.

I think it should be 55/60 watt (slight error in caption) but you're right, there is increased power using Nightbreakers. That said, once you supplement the cable to dash, you'll get all the power you need. The original 6mm cable is NO WAY enough and relays alone won't make any real difference. The supply is already maxed out. You definately need to beef this up if you want brighter lights. In fact, I would suggest that fitting nightbreakers on their own might increase brightness but at the worrying expense of overloaded wiring. Put it this, way, I wouldn't be fitting brighter bulbs without mods.


Without relays or better cable, it pulled my dash voltage down from 14.5 to 12.5 at times and the 6mm cable got warm. Probably a little above 10v at headlights. A nice 10mm cable would give you the overhead needed and you can either just supply headlights or re-route rad fan and blower on to this supply as well. No bad thing.

CovKid wrote:I think it should be 55/60 watt (slight error in caption) but you're right, there is increased power using Nightbreakers. That said, once you supplement the cable to dash, you'll get all the power you need. The original 6mm cable is NO WAY enough and relays alone won't make any real difference. The supply is already maxed out. You definately need to beef this up if you want brighter lights. In fact, I would suggest that fitting nightbreakers on their own might increase brightness but at the worrying expense of overloaded wiring. Put it this, way, I wouldn't be fitting brighter bulbs without mods.


Without relays or better cable, it pulled my dash voltage down from 14.5 to 12.5 and the 6mm cable got warm. Probably a little above 10v at headlights.

Nightbreakers and Osram's Original Line BOTH have a power input of 75W.

Just shows you Chris. Most T25s were fitted with tungsten and they were below 50 watt - probably OK on 6mm. These newer bulbs push the boundaries somewhat.

Trouble is, the two spots I have on the front now look incredibly deficient since I fitted these 7" units.....

E D I T: Have added headlight adjustment to the WIKI as its been asked a couple of times to my knowedge and I've never found an easy way online:
https://club8090.co.uk/wiki/VW ... headlights" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Just to make sure I'm not getting this wrong, is this the right one for e-marked normal type with side light?

http://tinyurl.com/7inchlight" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Morning! FWIW, if you want to drive abroad then E-marking should be top of the list. Very bright (i.e. modern intensity) headlamps on an old van may get the attention of the Polizei and they will start looking for E-marks. Penalties if they can't find them.

PS I was also disappointed with the "SA stock" replacement Hellas, the reflectors are far from a mirror finish and £90 would have been better spent, but I was in a corner and had no time for experimenting.

I would want a bolt-in replacement with the correct mounting/location, angel eye or DRL I'm not fussed. Pipe clips and cable ties just don't cut it...

I'm testing those next weekend in exactly the same way. If theres not a maked difference, I'll just use above pics. The e-marked ones also have a marginally larger reflector as DRLs take up some of the bowl. As for fitting, there is one now.

Cool (you were typing as I was editing!)

Early birds Yeah, unfortunately all this fitting, aligning, and videoing takes time. Bit of a juggle being a single parent and working, but I'll get there.

I end up doing other stuff in the process thats WIKI-able like headlight aim, bigger cables and so forth but its interesting to explore.

And yes Keytouch, thats one of two e-marked types - the other has no chrome dome in the middle. Hope that helps. Its the no-dome ones I'll be testing. I coul;dn't find it in their list, but it does exist - as do LHD versions.

Powerfuluk are very helpful by the way and they do follow this thread.

A good improvement over old masked LHD lamps but once back in the UK I had to do something asap... at least the bus has relays and CE 2 wiring, for the most part!

If they're following the thread maybe they'll list the none domed ones as a t25 listing for the hard of thinking amongst us.
Just need to decide which method to use to fit them.

If you can hang in until next week I'll show you a different way to secure them without clips that also improves the look of the light units. You'll probably need to ask Powerfuluk for the e-marked RHD 7" units with sidelight fittings.