Club 80-90 Forums

hi there, i am struggling at night on the dimly lit roads.

could it be that my battery/starter motor isn't very powerful and not giving enough juice for the lights?

i think the alternator is tired, takes a while sometimes to start her up and i have to hold the key a while.

what are my options for making things brighter? do i have to upgrade the whole housings to halogen for xenon headlights?

does anyone have any recommendations for brighter/better bulbs to swap out in the meantime?

Do the relay upgrade as suggested on the page that Rob has linked to, then change the bulbs, otherwise you're still not getting full voltage to them. It makes a huge difference. It would be wise to check the ouptut of your alternator if you think it's a bit low, what's it putting back into the battery when the engine's running? Slow cranking could just be a tired battery..

unless you have round head lamps.then your doooomed.doooomed.i tell yer...

i have the round headlamps :S thank you, i have read up on the wiki link, are the h4 spect headlights it refers to actually the hella xenon headlights that can use the upgraded xenon bulbs instead of the 60/55W 472 bulbs?

The Osram Silver Star bulbs are not xenon, xenon lights need a different lens pattern I believe, but the Osrams are very good bulbs with quite a white light.
If you look at the graph, it shows how if there is a small drop in the voltage at the bulb holder there is a very large drop in the output ftom the bulb, so no matter how bright the bulb is, if it's not getting full voltage it will not perform as well as it could. Hence the recommendation to upgrade the headlamp harness via relays. I was really amazed what a differenc it makes.

With your engine running, measure the voltage at your headlights and see for yourself how much power is lost before it lights up the headlamps.
The relay mod isn't too hard to do and the parts are very cheap, afterwards you should get a much better voltage at the bulb holders, then invest in the Osrams or whatever bulb you chose and it will perform much better