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
