Anybody have a link for replacing the low beam?

Thanks...

 

You don't really need a link. The procedure is pretty obvious:

1. Pop the rubber dust cap off the back of the lamp housing. (Low beams are on the outside).
2. Disconnect the wiring harness from the lamp by grabbing the connector and pulling straight back.
3. Un-latch the bulb retainer clip. (use a small mirror to look in the housing to see how it works if you can't figure it out by feel).
4. Remove the bulb.

Reverse the procedure to install the new bulb.

 

All the bulb replacement instructions are given in the manual.

 

Just make sure the new bulb is seated properly in the light when you install it. if it is not seated properly the headlight aiming is way off, you will be able to see beautifully for about 10 feet in front of the car and that is all.

 

thanks for all the posts...

got stuck w/ the clip... guess I'll have to try again and I'll dblcheck the manual first...

thing is pretty hard to pop out...

 

the little clip is a little tricky to remove. the mirror works great to see, you might need a screwdriver to push the clip over, it goes back together a lot easier than it come apart, the right side high beam is a real pain in the a@@. i just replaced both the high and low with HALO xenon plasma blue 12v100w/170w, they are a cheap but cool upgrade that require no wiring mods $6.00 a pair on ebay... good luck.

 

100W?! A lamp with that high a wattage is going to eventually fry your wiring harness if it doesn't pop a fuse first! No to mention the heat from something like that will most likely start to melt the plastic bits in your headlight. I'd be very careful running those. I used to work at a dealer and I have seen what can happen first hand. Personally, I wouldn't go higher than 85W with an incandescent lamp.

If you want REALLY bright light, save your pennies and get the McCulloch HID kit. It's worth every penny you'll spend.

 

hi, i'm a little confused on the bulbs, are they h7? 12v100w>170w, i noticed in other threads, people have gotten the h7, and have had no probs. i sure don't want to fry anything out. any advice on this would be appreciated. the bulbs are actually halogen, is that incandescent? i am lighting spec challenged.

 

don't use higher wattage bulbs ... these headlights are too expensive to replace when damaged by heat ... plus do the math and it makes no sense ... buying 100 watt bulbs that you will replace every 6 months at $20 bucks a pack ... or purchase a cheap HID kit on ebay for $130 that will last 2 - 3 years, draw 35 watts, generate less heat, output more light ...

i've played with 100 watt bulbs from all different brands a few years back on my neon and had to rewire the harness with heavier gauge wire and 40 amp relays to make it safe ... but even then the light output was not as good as a cheap HID kit and the cost of wires/relays/sockets added up ... HID systems cost over $500 back then so it made sense but not anymore ...

 

i noticed a lot of others having warning lights and other problems with the hid systems,im not really looking for cheap,do you have any suggestions for a plug and play brand or setup that would work clean with no probs??? thanks for the replies!!

 

What they're quoting is a lamp that draws 100w that supposedly puts out 170w worth of light. They usually squirt them full of blue gas that filters the light to make the output whiter too. The only problem is, the whiter the filter is the more of the lamp's supposed output is going to be HEAT, rather than light. The filter agent has to do something with that energy when it catches it , so it radiates it out as heat.

Your wiring harness was designed to operate with 55w lamps. There's some safety margin built in to the design so you can go up a little (maybe 85w, max) but a 100w lamp (almost 200% of the design spec!) is definitely outside the margin of safety.

If you're looking for max light output, HID is the way to go. Look for a 4,700k - 5,000k kit. That color temp is closest to natural sunlight and will give you the best illumination. I personally have a 6,000k kit because I like the slightly blue/purple hue at the edges of the of the beam pattern.

As far as HID kits go, a decent one will run you about $300 on Ebay and will not cause the "bulb out" sensors to get mad at you. Installation is relatively easy as well. I posted a detailed "lessons learned" on this forum a couple of months ago. You can read it here if you're interested.

 

McCulloch HID kits are excellent ... good ballasts that last and have a nice metal casing ... good quality connectors ...

 

I think a lot of us have the McCulloch kits. I love my 6,000K. I would personally go with the 5,000K kit. Not to say the 6,000K is that bad but I think the blue/purple hue on the edge of the pattern is a little too blue. It's a great upgrade, not only for looks, but for safety

I got mine for $280 on eBay and the light output is awesome compared to stock and you should never have to worry about blown bulbs, plus once you drive with HIDs you won't go back to normal halogens.

 

thank for all the advice,the 100w's are in the garbage and im definitely getting the hid upgrade!!! i was looking and i think i'm going for the 8,000 for the low beams, i like the blueness of them, so do i need 2 kits for the high and low or can you jump both sets of lights from one hid kit? also maybe going for 6,000 for the highs, will that be a whole new setup?

 

Just be aware that 8000k lights will look wicked cool but their light output will be less. As the color temperature goes up, the light output goes down. Stick to something that's close to natural sunlight: 4,700k - 6,000k for great visibility at night. Buy a set of 8,000k bulbs for the fog lights instead.


Also, I wouldn't recommend getting HID for the high beams. HID lamps take about a minute to "warm up" and come to full brightness so they're not very good for the short, intermittent use that the high beams normally get. Grab a set of PIAA Ultra White or Sylvania SilverStar lamps instead. They will look yellowish compared to the HID low beams, but not as yellow as the stock halogen.

 

5k range will be the best light output and also brightest as mentioned in the posts above ... this has the added bonus of the "color band" created by the projector being much more visible ... projector headlamps create a bright colorful band of light where they cutoff on the area they are lighting ... this is highly desirable in the light guru circles, where as the colorful 8,000/10,000/12,000k bulbs are largely seen as "for show only" ...

but get what you like we all like a little show with our go.

 

hey! that's some great advice. i'm gonna go for the 5k for the low beams, and some really blue 8k in the fogs. point taken about the high beam warm up time. i'll look for a blueish high beam halogen for those.

 

i just got finished installing my 8k hid kit. it took about 2 hrs, you know those little retaining clips are a pain in the ***! but i was very happy with the mounting bolts that were in the engine compartment, that made for a very clean and tight set up. thanks for all the advice on the hid's!!!

 

got any installation pictures?

 

sure!