[GS300]

gurus, posting this since my search did not find me any other thread that deals with my problem - mods, if you find any, please point me to them and kindly close this one.

Baleno headlights are, to put it mildly, pathetic!..i had a difficult time driving Bangalore-Calicut route in the night. Is this a common problem ?

I asked the service guys at Bimal Auto, they tell me that with stock bulbs, its a known issue. Also, RTO has banned bulbs that are better (or some story like that).

We have many Baleno owners in this group - please tell me if you also faced this problem, can we change the bulbs without breaking any law (well...i guess even at the risk of breaking the law, i might go for better light before i take my car out for a long drive next time!)

[satan_crazy]

baleno's headlights (actually stock headlights of most cars are bad), like you said, are pathetic ... but the rto reccoomends them ... i changed mine to 90/95 at the dealer ... the dealer cribs about the the rto banning them etc, but u can still ask them to do it ... and when u do have them replaced, take care of the wiring ... u wouldn't want to void the warranty. i had my headlights fixed by the dealer. there are quite a few threads on the same topic ... i think there was a mention of philips - provides 50% more light.

s

[carthick99]

Hi Baleno's have fantastic reflector units and with the right bulbs can really make night driving way better.

1) Get your bulbs switched to H4 - 100 / 130 Philips Rallye. These are normal halongen bulbs. Please do NOT buy Phiips Blue or any other blue junk. Their light output is totally crap on tar roads since the balck absords the blue frequency. Remeber these are only look alike HID's not real Xenon units which have the best light output spectrum.

2) Wire these to Bosch relays - You will need two but i recommend four - two relays for each light - One dedicated relay for low and one for high. Use high capacity cabling for a more steady current output.

3) You will need better bulb sockets (plastic) you can get one from a store that sells truck parts - they have sockets that can take in a little more power and heat and not melt. In the regular car sockets with such high power you will melt the sockets in a year or less with regular use.

4) The Baleno like every car in this country uses E-code (Euro) lighting which means that your lights will be focussed with a sharp cutoff to the left of the road and a little more straight on on high beam. You can slightly refocus the units a little to give you a little more light on the road.

5) If you want to get HID lighting on your car - there are now plenty of good kits around - bulbs and ballast and all. But will cost you anywhere from 20 - 28 for the kit. But these are simply unbeatable.

6) I also suggest a pair of Hella Micro FF's in your Baleno fog lamp bumper slots. these are really kick-ass lights that are small, extremely powerful and are great for driving and will complement the Baleno light pattern and output well.

All the best!

[observer]

carthick99, interesting ideas, but who does all this in Mumbai? I don't think any dealer does it, so there would be warranty issues with a new car with all the mods.

Any easy way out?

Originally Posted by carthick99

5) If you want to get HID lighting on your car - there are now plenty of good kits around - bulbs and ballast and all. But will cost you anywhere from 20 - 28 for the kit. But these are simply unbeatable.

Sorry, but what is HID lighting? And the cost is 20-28 hundred?

[revtech]

Originally Posted by observer

carthick99, interesting ideas, but who does all this in Mumbai? I don't think any dealer does it, so there would be warranty issues with a new car with all the mods.

Any easy way out?

Sorry, but what is HID lighting? And the cost is 20-28 hundred?

Hey obeserver firstly not 20 -28 hundred he meant thousand.if it were only about 2000 bucks it would be the best but since its about 20 thousand thats a lot of cash and hence not very common.


HID stands for High Intensity Discharge. Its a kind of technology that passes an electrical current which ignites xenon gas contained in a sealed bulb. This type of lighting doesn't have a filament but instead light is obtained by a current between two electrodes. xenon lamps, are the perfect example and are called so because Xenon gas is filled inside the bulb.

hope that answers your question.


rev

[Boom Shiva]

I second the Philips Rally 100//130w lights. I was having the same problem with my Lancer lights, so I upgraded and now no problems at all. Get some damn good lighting on the highway.

The whole deal cost 800 bucks with bulbs, wiring, relay, installation etc. Got it done at this Sardar's place next to In Orbit Mall at Malad. I guess it should cost approx the same wherever you go.

Cheers

[revtech]

Originally Posted by carthick99

6) I also suggest a pair of Hella Micro FF's in your Baleno fog lamp bumper slots. these are really kick-ass lights that are small, extremely powerful and are great for driving and will complement the Baleno light pattern and output well.

hey carthick can you provide more details on the same.and are they really good.


REv

[observer]

@revtech, thanks for the clarification.

Originally Posted by Boom Shiva

I second the Philips Rally 100//130w lights. I was having the same problem with my Lancer lights, so I upgraded and now no problems at all. Get some damn good lighting on the highway.

The whole deal cost 800 bucks with bulbs, wiring, relay, installation etc. Got it done at this Sardar's place next to In Orbit Mall at Malad. I guess it should cost approx the same wherever you go.

Cheers

I have read many ppl suggesting to get the light upgrade done at the dealer's to avoid warranty issues. So doing the phillips rally upgrade elsewhere, would it not be a problem?


Thanks

[Buffetfan]

IMHO the Baleno lights are bad in case you are driving in a downpour or just after a downpour (road becomed dark black and absorbs light)....on a normal dry night they do the job pretty well....
I recently drove hyd-mumbai in my Baleno and I had trouble only in areas where there was downpour...otherwise I was easily able to manage 100kmph++ speeds in the night.
Also remember....a high wattage bulb means that your reflector will also dullpretty soon..they are simply not designed to take that heat...have already faced this prob in my Uno that has 90/100 bulbs and had to discard the entire assembly and buy towo new headlights...they had become so bad...
So as of now, I continue with my 55/60 watt bulbs in the Baleno...also since have already gone for a music system (470 watts RMS with two amps and sub) so just dont want to flog the poor alternator anymore by putting in current thirsty lights/fog lamps

[satan_crazy]

Originally Posted by Buffetfan

So as of now, I continue with my 55/60 watt bulbs in the Baleno

forget the highways, how do u manage to drive in the city? i was unable to see anything beyond 10 feet with the stock headlights; or does hyd have great street lights?

s

[zaphod]

I wanted to change the headlights too as the low beam is completely useless and I don't want to be a prick and blind oncoming drivers by using high beam when not required but on asking one of the Supervisors at Motorcraft, I was advised not to.

Are there any better 55/60w bulbs which can be used in place of the existing ones but will not require any change in wiring ?

Also how much would decent fogs for the bumper slots cost ?


cheers

zaphod

[carthick99]

Okay - First off I didnt expect these many posts since

last evening on this lights bit! ;-)

Let me try and clear out any misconceptions or doubts

any of you may have.

1) FOR 'OBSERVER' - To avoid warranty issues, you dont

cut up the OE wiring loom and sockets. You rewire. TAKE

the incoming wires OE wires with new cabling to relays

with seperate 30AMp fuses (next to the Bosch relays) and

run new cabling from there on to the bulbs. (which in

any car are high power handling wires). this way you are

not messing with the OE wiring and the stock fuses. If

by chance there is a surge your first fuse will blow.

And not the stock fuse. Ive always had these upgrades

done at a friends place in mumbai on all my cars and

have never had a warranty issue. I do 100 - 120 km a day

and i need as much light as i can get. We probably have

some of the worst road conditions in this country! Not

enough light ahead of you focussed correctly and you may

not see that non-reflectored dirty and dark truck parked

bang in the center of the road - when you're doing 120+

in rain.

2)Thanks REVTECH for clearing that HID bit...

3) BOOM SHIVA - 800 bucks is a good price but i dont

think you would have got high capacity wire with Bosch

relays - two of those itself is close to 600 bucks and

the bulbs are about 170 - 220 each - depending on where

you buy from. Also there are interesting fakes in the

market - the cheaper bulbs come in the old style green /

white philips bulb packaging and the new original ones

in the ornage and black packaging. They fakes are good

too but put out close to 100/110. But way better than

the terrible 55/60 our manufacturers give us.

4) For BULETFAN - The Uno reflectors tarnish easily -

and its not entirely due to the high wattage bulbs. The

acrylic lens on the Uno is not treated for high watt

bulbs at all and the reflector is a normal-coated

variety. The Baleno's on the other hand is a vaccum

coated - highly polished unit built to take in stock 80

/ 100 bulbs for most other countries where it is sold.

The Acrylic lens will not yellow - it goes through a

better treatment process and there has been no issue

till date of heat affecting the unit. My cousin has been

running the same 100/130 setup in his car for three

years - clocked 1.6lakh km and has had no problem. Wont

affect the Baleno unit one bit. Also on the Uno's the

silicon glue seal between the lens and the ref-unit

wasnt great. Some new Palio's now run the same

problem!!! wate vapour and all post a good heavy

downpour. Esteem lenses will yellow in about a lakh km

in anycase and so will the old indica unit. The new

indica will modded lights is great though.

5) ZAPHOD - you havent mentioned what car you have. If

it's the Baleno i would recommend Hella Micro FF's for

the bumper slots. More on these below. If it's a

different car, shoot back a post.

6) REVTECH - some stuff on the Hella Mirco FF's

Fairly competent driving / fog lights with fantastic performance for a unit its size. Might be a touch too big for the baleno slots but with good fitting it makes the car look good. Complements low quite well and keeps a good bit of light around the edges - useful when cornering.

If the Micro FF's are not available check out these other lights from the Hella FF series > The FF50 & 75.
Of course you would need a relay and all with good wiring. But these lamps rock.

http://www.hella.com/produktion/Hell...ne/FF_Line.jsp

I used to do a lot of highway - and i was running 100/130s + 2 Hella 10" Luminator metal series pencil beams in the center + and two Rallye 3000 yellows (fog) on my esteem ;-) A little too much yes... but the better you can see the faster and safer you can drive. Needless to say, i never took the lamp covers off the car in the city.

Hope this clears some doubts...Cheers.

[Boom Shiva]

how much do they cost?

[Buffetfan]

Originally Posted by satan_crazy

forget the highways, how do u manage to drive in the city? i was unable to see anything beyond 10 feet with the stock headlights; or does hyd have great street lights?

s

Maybe I have good vision....

but I guess the difference is that this time in Bangalore is generally wet weather and hence the visibility problem....if the weather is all right....there would be no problem,...

you are correct BTW...I lived in Blore and now live in hyd....hyd infra / st light / roads are very good comparatively

[revtech]

that reminds me i had some really good fog lamps which i used to use on my esteem and before we sold it i took them off.il look for them.but my dad doesnt want to put them on the baleno because they are litlle bigger than the provided slot and will have to cut the bumper a little.but they are really good and bright and in city you dont need ur headlights as they provide sufficient light and also look good.


Rev