[graaja]

Originally Posted by seb11

Hello Everyone. I am new to the forum, however do read up and follow the thread and articles put up since quite some time.

I have a question.. I have a Polo 2016 model and it has been 4 years since the purchase. Primarily the car was used by me for driving in the city. Though I felt the headlights were inadequate even then it was still manageable. Even since a few months I have been doing highway drive of 180 kms in the night to get back home from work during the weekends.

My question is:

What headlights are the best in terms of performance?

HID/LEDs or HID/halogen or HID/LEDs combinations for night driving on the highway.

The car probably will be with me for another two years so wouldn’t want to spend too much on the headlights.

I am guessing you are planning to just replace the bubs in the same headlight assembly. I would suggest you stay away from HIDs as HIDs in a halogen reflector will just scatter light everywhere. You will get no benefit out of this setup, but will end up glaring oncoming traffic.

I have heard LED replacement bulbs have a better light spread in illuminating and less glare. But I have not tried this.

If you are not willing to make any major changes to the headlights, I think the best would be to get better halogen bulbs or even the 100W setup with relay.

[seb11]

What if I install/fit a HID projector for the low beam with a 35W HID ballast and use DS2 HID bulbs? Keep the high beam to the halogen unit, however change the bulb.

Will this work?

[graaja]

Originally Posted by seb11

What if I install/fit a HID projector for the low beam with a 35W HID ballast and use DS2 HID bulbs? Keep the high beam to the halogen unit, however change the bulb.

Will this work?

Yes. A projector will work best for HID. And you could definitely use a projector for low beam and halogen for high beam. Or go with a quality BiXenon setup. But make sure you get a reputed installer.

[seb11]

Thank you..
Could you suggest some good HID projector 35W H7 4300k just for the Low beam. The accessories shop does not have morimoto projectors. I don’t wish to install a Bi-xenon just yet looking at the cost of a good one. I would like to keep using the Halogens for the high beam because J hardly use them while driving other than the pass options on the Highway/roads.
The shop guy also mentioned and suggested about just using Osram H7 35W 4300k HIDs with the reflector settings.. Is that a viable option? Won’t that impede the vision of the oncoming traffic?

[a4anurag]

Originally Posted by seb11

The shop guy also mentioned and suggested about just using Osram H7 35W 4300k HIDs with the reflector settings.. Is that a viable option? Won’t that impede the vision of the oncoming traffic?

Please don't do it. The installer will recommend hundred things because he wants the sale to happen. No HID's with reflectors.

You can buy a Bi-xenon projector and not connect the wires of the high beam so when you flick the switch, the projectors will remain in low beam and the halogen in the reflector barrel will light up.

[graaja]

^^^
I don’t have much knowledge about projector setup for low beam. My knowledge is limited to BiXenons for which Morimoto is the best option. Maybe others may have some info about this.

Please do not go with HID in the halogen reflector. It will not give you any advantage as the light will just scatter all over. And it will glare oncoming traffic.

[Drbhavesh]

Originally Posted by graaja

Can you do another experiment. Swap the high beam and low beam connections that you have made now, and repeat the test. Let me know what you observe.

I did many experiments and swapped pins many times but I could never get both low and high beams working. In H4 socket power output changes among three pins with low and high beams. Also, positive pin can work as negative and vice versa.

Finally, I decided to go with seller's advise and connected diode. I have found that in Bi-LED projectors, direct H4 connection is not possible. One either needs to insert diode or get H4 splitter with relay.

[graaja]

Originally Posted by Drbhavesh

I did many experiments and swapped pins many times but I could never get both low and high beams working. In H4 socket power output changes among three pins with low and high beams. Also, positive pin can work as negative and vice versa.

Finally, I decided to go with seller's advise and connected diode. I have found that in Bi-LED projectors, direct H4 connection is not possible. One either needs to insert diode or get H4 splitter with relay.

Great to know it worked. Can you share pictures of the installed lights and the lighting pattern for low and high beams. That will be helpful to others who want to improve their headlights in the Polo.

[Reinhard]

Originally Posted by Drbhavesh

Finally, I decided to go with seller's advise and connected diode. I have found that in Bi-LED projectors, direct H4 connection is not possible. One either needs to insert diode or get H4 splitter with relay.

Fantastic that it worked. I have a set of LED H4 bulbs with me that I intend to install in my Alto K10 to complement the 5500K HID setup. As expected - these don't work in the stock H4 wiring of the car (car with positive ground!). I have been looking for a simple clean solution without installing another relay harness since the car already has 1 relay harness for the HID fog lights & there will be another one for the twin horns I'm going to install.

Could you share a picture / circuit diagram of how the diode is installed & which diode is used for it?

[Drbhavesh]

Originally Posted by Reinhard

Fantastic that it worked. I have a set of LED H4 bulbs with me that I intend to install in my Alto K10 to complement the 5500K HID setup. As expected - these don't work in the stock H4 wiring of the car (car with positive ground!). I have been looking for a simple clean solution without installing another relay harness since the car already has 1 relay harness for the HID fog lights & there will be another one for the twin horns I'm going to install.

Could you share a picture / circuit diagram of how the diode is installed & which diode is used for it?

I have installed AES Bi-LED projectors in my swift Dzire.

For this H4 pin problem, one of the solutions is to buy H4 splitter with relay from aliexpress as below.



As it takes time for order to arrive from aliexpress and I didn't want to wait and also I really wasn't sure whether this will work in my setup or not, I chose safe way and went with seller's advise. He had experience of installing same projectors in two other cars. (I am planning to order them now. Probably in future I will let you know how it goes)






In above pictures, diodes are covered with orange sleeve. Two diodes twisted around each other in each sleeve. Sorry, I don't have picture of diodes as I had already installed everything in car by the time you asked. Diodes were given by seller only. He used two 8 amp diodes per circuit/projector and soldered wires on the both sides.



H4 pin attached with the LED driver.





Both above picture show how I have connected the wires. To be really honest, I absolutely have no idea how these connections work in H4 pin so I won't be able to explain them to you. I just did what seller told me.

If you going to attach H4 pin like I did, below information could be helpful.



If somehow you can find such H4 male pin with terminals, that would be the best. This way you can crimp wires and won't have to make any wire joints. It was available on Amazon few days back but the price was too much - Rs 1200 for 6 sets. I don't know why but i am not able to find it on Amazon anymore.

In my case, I couldn't find H4 male pin for crimping. So I bought two H4 connectors which were already crimped. I removed terminals from the connectors and somehow managed to uncrimped them (i don't know if there is any such word probably better sentence is unfolded crimped connections). I didn't get clean terminals as you would get in a new pin but it was acceptable. Later I crimped wires as I mentioned and to reinforce them, I soldered all the terminals.


Following two videos might be helpful to you if you are going to make H4 pins the way I did.

https://youtu.be/OK7M4voWYOo

https://youtu.be/hEkqssfg4Fk

[ais]

Has anyone tried simply replacing OEM bulbs with Osram Nightbreaker bulbs?

[s4ch]

Originally Posted by ais

Has anyone tried simply replacing OEM bulbs with Osram Nightbreaker bulbs?

Yes I have done this in my Polo GT TSi. I would say about a 30-40% improvement over stock. Nice and easy to do and if you only do runabouts in the City then should suffice.

[ais]

Originally Posted by s4ch

Yes I have done this in my Polo GT TSi. I would say about a 30-40% improvement over stock. Nice and easy to do and if you only do runabouts in the City then should suffice.

I'll be using the car on highways.

I tried the Nightbreaker on one of the low beam barrel and compared it with the other OEM bulb. There was some improvement, but not impressive compared to the LEDs that I tried. Details here-

https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/modif...ml#post5318685 (Upgrading to the Ultinon Pro 9000 LED Bulbs)

After 2 nights of driving within Mumbai, I can say that the DHC LEDs are extremely bright- road and signage illumination is fantastic. Using the dipper even in the day gets instant attention from vehicles ahead. Only downside (in a good way) is that in slow traffic, the reflection from vehicle ahead is glaring and one prefers to switch the headlights off. Upgrade to the fog lamps in due course will resolve this issue by using fog lamps instead of headlights in slow traffic.

[s4ch]

Originally Posted by ais

Only downside (in a good way) is that in slow traffic, the reflection from vehicle ahead is glaring and one prefers to switch the headlights off. Upgrade to the fog lamps in due course will resolve this issue by using fog lamps instead of headlights in slow traffic.

Please don't. Not only is this bad practice but is also against the law. Fog lights are designed only for use in FOG / conditions with poor visibility, not for using in city conditions where your headlights don't do their job properly. Turning off your headlights while driving in the dark, at anytime, is a seriously dangerous thing to do.

Obviously this is an issue with using DHC LED's, so suggest you look for a better setup.

Please check some of the safe driving, lighting threads on this forum so you can be better educated on safe driving practices. A little change goes a long way.

[ais]

Originally Posted by s4ch

Please don't.
Please check some of the safe driving, lighting threads on this forum so you can be better educated on safe driving practices. A little change goes a long way.

Let me elaborate, and also understand the illegality of using fog lights other than in fog!

When a car is at standstill in slow traffic or at a red light on a signal, its perfectly fine to switch off the headlights. In fact this should be done to reduce electrical load and fuel consumption, and increase battery life. Rest assured, I switch the lights on before the car is in motion.

I agree that driving with lights off in the dark is a bad idea, but I've never said that's what I do. The roads in Mumbai are well lit by streetlights. Yes, I missed saying I do that at standstill in slow traffic.

As for driving only with fog lights on, I'd like to see the rule/law in India (and aborad as prevelant- it well may be the case in some countries). Kindly point me to it. In case there is such a law in India, I'll of course abide by it!

Finally, the fog lights of Polo barely go to 5-6 feet. They need an upgrade even if to be used only in fog.

In the end, the purpose of lights is to ensure safety. Increased road visibility increases safety, and it's obvious this should be without dazzling oncoming vehicle drivers. So if a particular setup achieves that, that's the way to go. Do bear in mind that the standards followed by most manufacturers are not suitable to Indian conditions, and that's exactly why you and I had to go for an upgrade.