Headlight Opinions?

I like the way my stock headlights look just fine, and mine are in like-new conditon (because they are...thanks to Bambi back in 2014), but HATE how dim those stock headlights are on my '96.   I have thought about getting these:  

https://www.streettrendsinc.com/lighting/electrical/91-96-caprice/impala-ss-euro-headlamps-amber-corners-4pc/

I guess I need to order a set before you can't get these anymore.   My main hesitation on these is the orange marker light reflectors look like something they pulled off a Schwinn 10-speed from 1982....  

I've also thought of trying Sylvania SilverStar Ultra bulbs in my stock headlight housings.  Anyone done that?   $50 is a lot to spend for headlight bulbs...but my son nags me to buy them every time I go into Autozone.   I really notice how dim the Roady headlights are after driving my TrailBlazer or my wife's Enclave.   The wagon is just terrible in comparison.

-Mike

My friend Ben got these on Amazon for around $20 and says they really help. European version of the Sylvania ones we have, but cheaper.

I got some sylverstar ultras a year ago for the stock housing. I paid 5$ per bulb on clearance at walmart. Doesn't make a big enough difference to justify the full price. Not that it matters to you, but they really aren't good in blowing snow vs a stock bulb due to the whiter colour.

I'll sell you my T84s...

Blowing snow....yikes...and no...never ever again for me! HA!

And I can't afford your T84's, but they are cool!

well the 1st lenses you posted plus a quick HID conversion should do it.

Would have done it myself but it's prohibited in BC, and they do check for it.

I do like my smoked version of the clear ones you linked. I have the high/low HIDs in mine though.

You can also get reproduction stock headlights (OEM style) on eBay for under $100 too.

brokecello wrote:

I do like my smoked version of the clear ones you linked.  I have the high/low HIDs in mine though.  

You can also get reproduction stock headlights (OEM style) on eBay for under $100 too.  

That's what I have on my currently since Bambi modified my front end. I keep a coat of wax on them and they look new still, but are just not very bright at night.

There is a set of LED headlights on ebay.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/H11-80W-9600LM-FC-LED-Headlight-Kit-High-Low-Beam-Bulbs-6000K-White-High-Power-/253169924024?fits=Year%3A1994%7CModel%3ACaprice&hash=item3af21a77b8:g:3TMAAOSwiKlZu0--&vxp=mtr

http://www.ebay.com/itm/2-x-80W-16000LM-Headlight-9004-HB1-Hi-Lo-Beam-LED-Car-Head-Lamp-Light-Bulb-/122726731589?fits=Year%3A1994%7CModel%3ACaprice&hash=item1c93154f45:g:4DMAAOSwCJRZkT~r&vxp=mtr

http://www.ebay.com/itm/2-x-80W-16000LM-Headlight-9004-HB1-Hi-Lo-Beam-LED-Car-Head-Lamp-Light-Bulb-/122726731589?fits=Year%3A1994%7CModel%3ACaprice&hash=item1c93154f45:g:4DMAAOSwCJRZkT~r&vxp=mtr

There are numerous other lights listed for different prices. I have LEDs in my headlights, and it is a world of difference.

These should be about twice as bright as the OEM bulbs.

Fred Kiehl wrote:

There is a set of LED headlights on ebay.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/H11-80W-9600LM-FC-LED-Headlight-Kit-High-Low-Beam-Bulbs-6000K-White-High-Power-/253169924024?fits=Year%3A1994%7CModel%3ACaprice&hash=item3af21a77b8:g:3TMAAOSwiKlZu0--&vxp=mtr

http://www.ebay.com/itm/2-x-80W-16000LM-Headlight-9004-HB1-Hi-Lo-Beam-LED-Car-Head-Lamp-Light-Bulb-/122726731589?fits=Year%3A1994%7CModel%3ACaprice&hash=item1c93154f45:g:4DMAAOSwCJRZkT~r&vxp=mtr

http://www.ebay.com/itm/2-x-80W-16000LM-Headlight-9004-HB1-Hi-Lo-Beam-LED-Car-Head-Lamp-Light-Bulb-/122726731589?fits=Year%3A1994%7CModel%3ACaprice&hash=item1c93154f45:g:4DMAAOSwCJRZkT~r&vxp=mtr

There are numerous other lights listed for different prices. I have LEDs in my headlights, and it is a world of difference.

These should be about twice as bright as the OEM bulbs.

Ok Fred., for $16 it's worth a shot, so I ordered a set of these. Will post how they work once I get them in. Thanks!

-Mike

From the time I changed headlamps to smoked aftermarket units, night driving has been a challenge. Fred, given the entries above, how difficult is the swap over to the bulbs you have listed above. Is it plug and play into the old harness or is there some wire swaps to be done?

Dave

lakeffect wrote:

From the time I changed headlamps to smoked aftermarket units, night driving has been a challenge. Fred, given the entries above, how difficult is the swap over to the bulbs you have listed above. Is it plug and play into the old harness or is there some wire swaps to be done?

Dave

I looked at the pics in the listing and Googled for some other opinions and it seems to be plug/n/play. The wire that comes off the bulb's back goes to a plug that plugs into the stock headlight wiring plugs.

We shall see when the bulbs get here!

-Mike

I'll be looking forward to the post. Try to take some before and after night photos.  In the city where there are street lights is not an issue. Unlit country roads at night are a whole different matter.

lakeffect wrote:

I'll be looking forward to the post. Try to take some before and after night photos.  In the city where there are street lights is not an issue. Unlit country roads at night are a whole different matter.

Exactly right!   Lots of back-country roads here in Texas, and it would be nice to see Bambi in time....

In for results. A Texas Mike headlight review is as good a testimony as I'd need. lol

Keep in mind there is no trophy.

I already feel like I won my own. It's okay

Its a participation trophy...

This thread already motivated me to get some new headlights....so can I get a trophy too? Mine won't be in for a couple of weeks though.

So this is what I bought. We'll see how easy these install and how well they work. I hope they light up white and not yellow...






-Mike

You will be surprised at how bright white they are. I can see at least twice as far with them. 6500K is a very bright very white bulb.

Oh nice!

The LED bulbs are 6X the brightness of the same wattage incandescent bulb. Since the low beam is 20 watts per side of LED, it is the equivalent of 120 watts of incandescent bulb. The High beam is also 20 watts per side of LED, so the total is the equivalent of 240 watts per side of incandescent. I believe the OEM bulbs are 98 watts total per side. The load on your headlight harness is the wattage of the LEDs instead of the OEM load, so it is less than half of the OEM load for over twice the light output.

Fred Kiehl wrote:

The LED bulbs are 6X the brightness of the same wattage incandescent bulb. Since the low beam is 20 watts per side of LED, it is the equivalent of 120 watts of incandescent bulb. The High beam is also 20 watts per side of LED, so the total is the equivalent of 240 watts per side of incandescent. I believe the OEM bulbs are 98 watts total per side. The load on your headlight harness is the wattage of the LEDs instead of the OEM load, so it is less than half of the OEM load for over twice the light output.

Looking forward to seeing this.

Nice pics so far. Really looking forward to the before and after pics looking down the road. Wondering about a group purchase from the person.

At just over $16 they are less than the OEM replacement bulbs.

Ebay LED lights came in yesterday.






Lights are in a triangle shape, with two sides lighting up for low beam, and the 3rd side coming on for high beam.




These have a wire with a plug that plugs into the factory headlight wiring plug, see here.


See the holes in the back here? There is actually a FAN in there that comes on with the lights. I'm told it's to keep the circuit board in there housing cool. You CAN hear the fans running as a hum when the lights are on...weird.


Here is a BEFORE pic with the traditional lights on. Traditional lights...yellow, but sharp beam. These are just SO dim at night.


Comparing the traditional light to the new light.



New LED headlight vrs traditional halogen bulb.


Both LED bulbs installed. It's a very WHITE light, and does put out a lot more light than the stock bulbs, but it's not a "sharp" light, more like a big cloud of light. Hope it does not blind other drivers.


High beams on here...and I think I need to rotate the bulbs. I mounted the bulb so the high beam LED was facing outward, and I think that's wrong. With the concave shape of the inner headlight, I think mounting them this way is reflecting the light to the middle of the car when the high beam is turned out. I think I need to rotate the bulb so the high beam LED faces inward, to reflect out and away from the car when turned on. Will be experimenting with this later. As of now there is not a big difference between high and low beam, so something I did is not right.


I do think it LOOKS cool.


Will rotate the bulbs for "hopefully" a better high-beam and then take the car on a good drive and see how I feel about these. For now, it 's a $16 mod that really looks pretty wild. We'll see if it was worth the time here soon.

-Mike

Interesting about the orientation of the lights. Maybe the high beam LED should be facing up top? Curious to see if it makes a difference.

RedandBlack wrote:

Interesting about the orientation of the lights. Maybe the high beam LED should be facing up top? Curious to see if it makes a difference.

I tried it up top, and I think that made it reflect downwards. Am going to try it on the inside and see if that reflects OUT. Got tired last night and put the car back in the garage.

Will keep watching this.

So I started Googling around and found this: "LED headlight bulb designs with 3 sides should have the high beam side facing downward and the other two will face diagonally upward to where one chip sits at around 2 o’clock and the other 10 o’clock."

OK then. I will go home and re-position my lights tonight and see how they look. Will share what I find!

-Mike

I have LED bulbs in my '95 wagon and standard bulbs in my '91 sedan. Nigh and day difference. I'll be replacing the bulbs in the sedan soon. Money well spent.

Is there an indication on the units as to which element is the hi beam?

lakeffect wrote:

Is there an indication on the units as to which element is the hi beam?

Yes, it sits further back than the other two.

-Mike

81X11 wrote:

So I started Googling around and found this:  "LED headlight bulb designs with 3 sides should have the high beam side facing downward and the other two will face diagonally upward to where one chip sits at around 2 o’clock and the other 10 o’clock."

OK then.   I will go home and re-position my lights tonight and see how they look.   Will share what I find!

-Mike

This is common sense to me.

The lights look great ! It seems like a pretty good investment to me . To have brighter lights for under 20 bucks I'm in lol .

Re-clocked the headlight bulbs so the high beam LED points down. It's an improvement, but still need to aim them just a bit better.





The view from the driver's seat is odd. The light is so....white. Ghost light, ha!

-Mike

Nice.

Added to shopping list.

The headlight mods for B bodys are numerous,. THE first mod should be an upgraded harness to provide full voltage and ground to any upgrade.
The real problem is the headlight housing itself, it shotguns light, adding bigger bulbs is like adding more powder to a shotgun shell,
Ebay used to sell clear headlights, with the 80/100 bulbs and a 4 relay harness the headlights were a 100% improvement, keeping low beam on with high beam gave it a lot of light but again due to its shape mimicking stock housing it was still a burst of light rather than a beam.
An led light bar mounted to the bumper just behind the grille a la tim blackbeasst style would work the best
I mounted a 24" to the lincoln behind the grille and it was amazing the difference
We have a full range of critters on the roads around here.
I added a relay to the regals headlights to keep all 4 lights on on high beam and i have 4 80w 9005 bulbs in there but it is still not as bright as the flood/spot led bar on the front of the pickup.

phantom 309 wrote:

The headlight mods for B bodys are numerous,. THE first mod should be an upgraded harness to provide full voltage and ground to any upgrade.
The real problem is the headlight housing itself, it shotguns light, adding bigger bulbs is like adding more powder to a shotgun shell,
Ebay used to sell clear headlights, with the 80/100 bulbs and a 4 relay harness the headlights were a 100% improvement, keeping low beam on with high beam gave it a lot of light but again due to its shape mimicking stock housing it was still a burst of light rather than a beam.
An led light bar mounted to the bumper just behind the grille a la tim blackbeasst style would work the best
I mounted a 24" to the lincoln behind the grille and it was amazing the difference
We have a full range of critters on the roads around here.
I added a relay to the regals headlights to keep all 4 lights on on high beam and i have 4 80w 9005 bulbs in there but it is still not as bright as the flood/spot led bar on the front of the pickup.

Is there a pic or a video of this type of set up ?

Nick you are right on track. The stock housing is not the best design out there. For 1990's technology they are adequate.

I also agree that the first upgrade I would do is a harness. Two of my cars have a relay set and you can tell the difference. I have had great luck with the Innovative Wiring harness on the Yacht.

LINK: innovative wiring headlight harness for Roadmaster / Caprice.

Easy install and honestly it is a bit of overkill. Yes it's pricey but I have found it worth it after 8+ years of use without any issues.

The SS Wagon has a custom built harness to run the European T-84 headlights. They are an improvement over the stock headlights but are almost impossible to find and if you can they are very pricey.

I found that 80/100 watt bulbs are an ok upgrade with the stock housing. Make sure you have them aimed correctly. I also found that they burn out much faster than stock bulbs.
DO NOT run 80/100 watt bulbs without upgrading the harness. Stock harness can barely handle the 30/60 watt stock bulbs.

I currently run a set of Champion bulbs in the Yacht. I also carry a spare set of bulbs as the brighter bulbs tend to burn out faster.
Amazon Link http://a.co/jjH06CR

Having driven a couple of wagons with upgraded headlights the best so far are projector based headlights. But there is a lot of work in getting them correct. SS Streetlights were the only pre-made ones out there. They were really pricey and used a Hella DOT Certified projector setup.

The best setup for back road driving I have experienced was Tom Dutton's setup. Back in the day he had a set of Hella Xenon rally style lights behind his grille. Made night into day. But they were over $1000 just for the lights. Plus he had SS Streetlights replacing the stock headlights.

Last thought is that you need to be careful not to blind oncoming cars. The LED headlights in this thread concern me as I cannot see any DOT or SAE certification on them. Nothing is more annoying than driving at night and having to deal with someone who has 6000K+ lights that are aimed poorly. I do know that in some states (ALASKA for sure)  if you run non DOT / approved lighting you can be pulled over and fined.

Does anyone know what the mention on the Innovative Wiring Site is regarding the BMW headlights? Is there a specific headlight assembly that is essentially a bold in for our wagons?

BMW E36 headlights have been modified to fit.
Mike 200OZ did it in his wagon. Unfortunately the pictures are gone in Photobucket land.
https://gmlongroof.4umer.com/t5235-bmw-e36-headlights

Here is a write up for Mitsubishi Diamante headlights.
https://gmlongroof.4umer.com/t4-93-6-diamante-headlight-swap
Again not a direct fit but it can be done with some modifications.

I believe Mike ordered his harness from Gary at Innovative and he then added it as an order option.

^ If you use Google Chrome, the photos from photobucket land are able to come back with a browser extension.

Wanted to update this. Around town I wasn't sure about these LED bulbs. It does kind of create a "white fog of light" in town. Not very focused, and there is not a sharp cutoff or even a distinct "beam" from the driver's seat.

BUT

Driving home from the Texas Hill Country to Austin this past Saturday night, on dark, winding, blind turns on Hwy 1431 (the roller-coaster-road), these headlights worked amazingly well. I could see much further, and the woods on both sides of the road were lit up as well. I was really impressed!

I was also happy that not one driver coming toward me, flashed me, so I guess these don't blind oncoming traffic like I was worried about.

I am not in love with these, but after this weekend, they are staying.

-Mike

I just have  installed a set of these also. Interesting. Very bright white light. Much better illumination of signs, a wider field of light also. Not much difference between dim/ bright. Its not going to be an issue. It is strange to turn on the headlights and hear the little cooling fans on them come on. Not noisy. Just different. 

Thanks for the info guys !
  Ed

Eds rmw wrote:

I just have  installed a set of these also. Interesting. Very bright white light. Much better illumination of signs, a wider field of light also. Not much difference between dim/ bright. Its not going to be an issue. It is strange to turn on the headlights and hear the little cooling fans on them come on. Not noisy. Just different. 

Thanks for the info guys !
  Ed

I agree on the signs. The reflectors on the railroad crossing a mile from my house light up when I aim toward it!

Oh and for the high beam, make sure the headlight bulbs are clocked so the high beam LED points down. It makes some difference for sure.

This is my story... i've bi-xenon (2 complete HID kits) on my previous car... also notice that FIAT Marea headlight are very low on light efficiency, so HID conversion is a must... but the headlight has 2 separate lenses for high and low beam, and with high beam all the 4 lights are on... so, now my poor little (LOL) RMW has VERY poor headlights. As one bulb has gone, i decided to buy a LED kit (more simple to install to HID and don't require a warm up time to make light) and i've bought a kit similar to this:
http://www.ebay.it/itm/H7-9005-9006-H11-H4-9004-9007-H13-6000K-White-Light-Bulbs-CREE-LED-Headlight-Kit-/162098672568?hash=item25bdd573b8:g:QOAAAOSwLnBXWXiE
i's a fanless kit and the aluminium belts work as heatsinks.
But i think they are out of focus. I mean, the LED position in the headlight lense is wrong.
With low beam, i have a straight, narrow and long bright zone, while with high beam i have an awful "ring" of light, that will go on the floor and on the sky, but with a "black hole" in the middle.
I've also tried to turn the bulbs but they're in the correct position, with low beam on the high side and high beam on the low side.
Now i don't know if it's better to buy the clean aftermarket Caprice/Impala headlights, or try to customise BMW E36 ones.

Some have better beam patterns, so check a couple more LED units.

Fred Kiehl wrote:

Some have better beam patterns, so check a couple more LED units.

Of course... but i also want a clean headlight, like the aftermarket ones... and I live in Italy, where it's difficult to find HB1/HB2 bulbs... so i've thought to try the BMW E36 customisation that I suppose uses the H4.
The question is... i MUST buy a clean aftermarket "Caprice/Impala" set AND the E36 headlights if I want a good beam pattern, H4 AND the clean headlight cover? Or the E36 will fit decently without the need of a Caprice clean transparent?

I was inspired by this thread




before



After