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-   -   Auto Lighting thread : Post all queries about automobile lighting here (https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/modifications-accessories/93908-auto-lighting-thread-post-all-queries-about-automobile-lighting-here-842.html)

Currently my Honda BR-V has AES HID 4300K bulb with GS branded Ballast for the low beam. However I am not fully satisficed with 4300K bulbs as the opposite halogen bulb are easily able drowning my 4300K HID light.

I was thinking of swapping my 4300K bulb with 5400/5500K bulbs. But the question I have is, do I need to change the Ballast as well? Will the existing ballast work with 5400/5500K bulbs as well?

Regards

What exactly are you looking for? 4300K/5400K/5500K - are light colour temperatures. 4300K will give a yellower light shade, nearer to halogen bulbs. 5400/5500K - is a white cool-daylight shade, nearer to LED outputs. It will have absolutely no difference in actual intensity or power as both are driven by 55W ballasts. If you change to 5500K HID bulbs - you don't need to change the ballast, it will work anyway.

But your purpose of more light - will still not be served. And - with 5500K - you'll have a poorer experience in rainy seasons than right now.

I suspect what you are suffering from is the high-beam glare of oncoming traffic straight into the eyes, and changing your own bulbs, is not going to make any difference to it I'm afraid.

I was looking for brighter light to see if it makes a difference. Have always used halogen bulbs with 100/90 setup and this is the 1st time I have a car with projectors and HID.

When I drive my friends car with 100/90 Halogen lights, I am absolutely fine and have no issues. But I used to struggle with BR-V lights and hence decided to install HID lights. Since I drive a lot during rains as well, like you have mentioned I decide to go for 4300K HIDs. But the HID dint help improve the situation.

You are right, I am suffering from high beam glare and its very enhanced in the BR-V. Not sure if its ride height or anything else.

Any suggestion as to how to over come this problem? I am using Honda BR-V exclusively for highway. Because of the headlight issue, I am limiting the night drives

If your BRV has 3 inch round fog lights I would recommend upgrading them with GTR or AES fog projector lights. These will radically improve your night time visibility. These lights cost in the range of 9k-12k and you have variants available in 4300k as well as even tri-color (switchable) options of 2700k/4300k/6000k.
I also have IPH Tri colour fog projectors in my Jeep compass and the difference is immense. (Apart from that I also have 4300k Osram 50w Leds in my main headlight projectors). The fog projectors are significantly better than even the headlight projectors in output and reach.

Something like this from Aes
https://carconceptsshop.com/products...ojector-3-inch

Or this from GTR
https://caraccessoriesstore.net/prod...-FOG-PROJECTOR

Update on my lights.

Went to Konark (famous accessory shop in Jayanagar) and asked them for LED bulbs. Seeing the projector condition, the guy there suggested to remove the projector and then fit LED or Halogen in the standard reflector.

Directed me to a headlight opener fellow nearby, who did a rough job of opening up the headlights to remove the projectors and sealing it back. Buffed the lenses which made them much clearer.

Went back to Konark to fit H7 halogen lamps. It fits well and all the functions are working. But the problem is the it does not have the retaining clip/holder/spring that holds the bulb tight in place. The bulb is sort of hanging now, held by the wiring.

Does anyone know where can I get that bulb retaining clip/spring? Amazon has it but it seems too expensive and has to buy the lot, link

The clips you need are these:

H7 LED HID Car Headlight Bulb Base Holder Adapter Socket For Volkswagen Skoda Mercedes-Benz BMW Audi Auto Headlamp Mount Stand (1Pair) https://amzn.eu/d/ft4pXX6

These are quite decent in price and should work fine for the Octavia. I had a similar setup on my Skoda Laura.

If you did not find good LED bulbs yet, I can recommend the H7 50w Osram Led bulbs in 4300k. You can get them from Boodmo or planetcarcare online

Behemoth, any place you recommend in Gurgaon to get this fog lamp swap done? I want to get it done for a Safari in my family.

Contact AutoBots Gurgaon to acquire Xenonplanet Foglamps, which also feature a high beam laser. They excel in headlight services; I personally had my headlight projector replaced by them in my 2021 Safari, and it has been operating flawlessly for the past 18 months.:D

https://maps.app.goo.gl/Gd7BZEarsqaRvLSc7

Yes Autobots is one of the decent places in Gurgaon to get the projector upgrade done. I got my Hector plus projector headlight upgraded from them. But they did not do it perfectly first time (one projector was vibrating) and I had to take the car back a second time and get it done again from them. I went with Osram CBI pro projectors (bought on my own from Planetcarcare) and installed at Autobots for 7500. (Got it done in June 2022)
In terms of Projector Fog lamps i would not recommend XP . Instead go for GTR, AES, Aozoom as they are much better quality.

Hi, it will be nice if you could share what LED bulbs does Konark stock and how is the pricing? I am planning on replacing the bulbs on my A-Star but dont want to blow as much as I did on my Osram 50W LEDs for the Honda City, as the small car is basically for city drives.

Apologies. Upon checking I found mine are H4 bulbs. So the hunt for that bulb retaining clip is still on.

I never checked out the LED bulbs but saw them dealing in OSRAM.

Check out the new XP Micro V5 projector , quality and output is at par with aozoom, AES.

I am planning a Bangalore - Rajasthan - Bangalore road trip in Feb 2024 and have started preparing my 2012 Innova for the same. One major upgrade I wanted was to improve the headlamp performance.

I usually never do night drives; however, this trip has a tight schedule and will see me stretching up to 11pm on a couple of days. Hence, I only wanted a slight improvement in performance and not some heavy-duty solution. The stock headlamps are more than enough for my regular usage except for this one trip.

After hours of scrolling through team BHP and discussing with few of my friends, I summarized below 4 options for any general headlamp upgrade.
1. Install a set of IPH CAR M617 BI-LED TRI COLOR Laser Fog Lamp
2. Swap existing bulbs with LED bulbs
3. Install additional aux lights (LEDs or halogens)
4. Swap existing 55/60W bulbs with 90/100W bulbs with a new relay wire harness.

I found it too stressful to decide which option to choose and so I took a couple of days off from the internet to relax and process all the data which I had consumed.

When I started to think about what I really wanted, one strong voice I heard from myself was “NO WHITE LIGHT”. With all due respect to modern technology, I just hate white light in all forms (tube lights, laptop screens, torches etc…). It hurts my eye, and I just could not live with another white light in my car. So, option 1 and 2 were out.

Installing a pair of halogen aux lamps were the next best choice. This mod has been around since the ambassador days and has been working well for commercial as well as personal vehicles. But somehow, I was hesitant to get some metal clamps fabricated crudely and stick two protruding lamps on my car grille. I like to keep my cars stock and don’t want to mess with the airflow to the radiator or intercooler. So, option 3 was out.

So, the only option left was to buy a pair of higher wattage bulbs and a relay wire harness (completely plug and play).

Many years ago, I had upgraded my RE thunderbird to Osram all season bulbs and it’s been running fine so far. It emits a slightly green light and makes a significant improvement even with OEM wattage. However, for cars this bulb was not available at 55/60 rating and was only available in 90/100 and I was fine with this. Everything was available on amazon, but for my patience.

So, I dropped by to my neighbourhood spares shop to try my luck. The Osram green bulbs were not available, so I settled with regular 90/100 H4 bulbs. Saw relay wire harness from Phillips and Super. Both looked and felt same so went with Super Auto as it was 250 rupees less.

Bulbs costed 100 bucks each and the wire harness was 750.

Called up my friend and booked him for a Sunday morning DIY session and he happily agreed.

I first laid out the wire in the encopa and planned where to fit the relay box and how to route the wire. I found that running the wire on the radiator shroud was much better that any other location near the engine.


To access the bulbs, our fat hands could not sneak in the gaps between the headlamp and airfilter box on the left nor between the battery on the right and we realised we had to either.

1. Remove the battery and the air filter box and avoid removing the headlamp.
2. Remove the bumper and the headlamp and avoid touching the battery and the air filter.
We chose option 2 in order to avoid messing with functional parts.

All screws, clips and bolts were quickly removed, and the headlamp came out of its housing.

We made sure if we can remove the bulbs easily and if the new ones fit properly and then proceeded to wire the new harness. This was fairly simple, and we started from the headlamp end and ended with connecting the positive terminal to the battery. Steps as below.

1. Unplug the OEM plugs and plug in the new holders to the bulbs.
2. Connect the right OEM holder to the signal plug of the new wire (the RH OEM holder is left dangling uselessly forever)
3. Find two negative ground bolts and tighten LH and RH black wires to them.
4. Find a place to mount the relay box and tighten it.
5. Pray to God and connect the only remaining wire to the positive terminal of the battery.
6. Test and confirm.
7. Replace the bulbs with the new 90/100 bulbs.
8. Put all screws, bolts & clips back hoping that you don’t end up with leftover or shortage of any fasteners 😊
9. Use small cable ties to tie up any loose wires.

There is noticeable improvement in lighting, and it seems enough for my requirement.

I will post before and after images/video of the improvement in lighting shortly.
Below are links to the products which I actually bought offline but are available online.

https://www.amazon.in/Super-1402-Hea...ef_=ast_sto_dp

https://www.amazon.in/Osram-H4-Headl...e%2C268&sr=1-9

Note: I am aware that using higher wattage bulbs might damage the headlamp lens in the long run. But since I rarely drive at night and considering bangalore weather the long run may be very long for me. This is a known risk I am taking. I might even revert to stock after my Rajasthan trip.

Some images

The main components.



RH has only component 4 and 5


Wire routing


After bumper removal. There are two screws on the extreme right and left end of this image (just below the turn lamps) which can be removed only after removing the bumper



Final LH side


RH side. Notice the now dummy OEM holder right next to the new pink bulb holder


Final look of the encopa. The negative ground wires are in front of the left and right edges of the radiator.


The new bulbs


Mandatory lemonade by my wife during any DIY session clap:

Here are the comparison images of the headlamp upgrade.

Misaligned - Move the headlamp lever to 0, bring the left headlamp up with a screw driver so that their horizontal cut off lines match with the right. Now you should be all set.