I've been reading up a little about headlights. It looks like there're a few grumblings about the power of the 300ZX's headlights, along with various upgrade suggestions.

 

Is this true of UK spec cars as well as Japanese ones? Does anyone agree that an upgrade is a good plan? What's the best thing to do?

 

Cheers,

Russ.

There all shite, if you have the money go for the HID kit.

they case shite light onto the ground, but other cars on the road can see you fine,

 

I have no problems with there being no light cast onto the ground.

If you search though the old posts there is some kind of upgrade you can do, dismantle and coat the insides with some kind of foil etc.

 

The other completely different and also expensive approach is to get a us style front bumper and lights. I have them and now I can see great!

i don't know why you lot all complain. Mine seem pretty good. I think they are angled a bit too high as I get alot of people flash me, but I had them checked when it was in for mot and they said they where fine.

Originally posted by Devil

i don't know why you lot all complain. Mine seem pretty good. I think they are angled a bit too high as I get alot of people flash me, but I had them checked when it was in for mot and they said they where fine.

 

 

You must be one of the lucky ones,mine were total shite until Jeff did his upgrade;)

mine are shite and there even worse now cos the drivers side bulb has gone dooh its a rite pain to get to is that one on mine cos its where the alarm is mounted

Originally posted by Devil

i don't know why you lot all complain. Mine seem pretty good. I think they are angled a bit too high as I get alot of people flash me, but I had them checked when it was in for mot and they said they where fine.

 

Mine are not bad now. They where shining virtually straight down at first, I put it so they shine higher. They are 10 times better than what they where but not as good as a normal cars.

 

Stuart

I have upgraded the bulbs from the stock 55w to 85W. Its acceptable now, though not great.

 

But you can always turn the full works on ;) turning the fog lamps on - gives loads of light. I think a few people have commented they use the fog lamps to drive around as standard (i dont know how badly this effects other drivers though...?)

 

Barry

I tried Jeffs upgrade with the foil, the 100w bulbs and the new earth connection. Looks great on my silver Z. However the 100w bulb in the low beam generated a LOT of heat and eventually melted the positive wire!! The plastic headlamp shell got very hot too!!

 

I have now replaced it with my old 55W xenon 30% brighter bulb. I still have the new earth connection as per jeff's spec which is straight from bulb to chassis. In brightness terms I reckon the 55w bulb is about the same as the 100w bulb.

 

This is cos of 2 poss reasons - Many 100w bulbs are not that efficient and don't give out much more light than a 55w but use more power. and secondly I remember Jeff saying that the std earth back thru the relay was crap, and so the new earth connection may be allowing the 55w to run at its proper rating. Lights are still not great but are not as dim as the std.

 

My recommendation is to avoid the 100w bulb but do the earth connection. The foil is mostly cosmetic IMHO. Oh yeh and if you take the headlamp assy apart clean the inside glass and lens - covered in crap.

Couple of things here. 100w is the power rating of the bulb not the light output. I can give you a 1000w bulb that gives out no light whatsoever - it's called a resistor ! Therefore, the light output and to a lesser extent the colour of the light are important.

 

Secondly, if you are going to use a 100w bulb in the standard headlight shell (IMHO) they get too hot. If you are soldering on flying leads to the bulb then you will need to use higher melting point solder, heat sheathing on the lead and wire that will take the additional current. Also drilling a couple of small holes in the headlight shell above the bulb may help to vent some of the heat.

 

I did some tests comparing 55 and 100w bulbs and with the 100w ones the exterior of the headlight shell reached over double that than with the 55w.