I am putting in higher watt bulbs in my head lights. Yeah I know its illegal but it makes them average. ;)

 

Last time I did it, they blow after while driving home from de-wales. The constent changing between highbeam and dips blow them

 

I know it's becuase of the heat but some one mentioned making a better earth as that may help.

 

So what do I earth? And will it be easy?

 

Stuart

Hi Stuart,

 

I have run with 60/55w Xenon bulbs and found the 'high performance brilliance headlight bulb' a very good upgrade - it is much brighter (and safer) on both dip and main.

 

As we know, the performance of the standard bulbs are not adequate, and the Xenon bulb upgrade is a very cheap and worthwhile safety improvement. I got mine from Halfords.

 

(Having an import, I soldered the extra wire on).

 

I've been a bit weary about increasing the wattage, and have seen a few posts about people having the wiring overheat/melt - is this what the extra earthing overcomes (apologies, I cannot remember my physics)?

 

The new technology in bulbs also provides a better bulb for driving through rain - may come in handy when in Wales?

 

Geoff

Quick reminder of physics:

 

Current passing through a conductor generates heat

 

The higher the resistance (eg poor connection, smaller diameter cable) greater the heat

 

If you increase the wattage of the bulb, it pulls more current equals more heat in cable. If the current pulled is outside the current carrying capacity of the cable, it will melt

 

The increasing of the earth path, either a better earth connection or the installation of an earth net, will increase the paths back to the battery, better path = lower resistance= less heat

 

This only affects the cable on the return side of the lamp, if the bulb is pulling too many amps for the cable on the feed side, it will melt no matter how good your earth is

I thought that electricity flowed from negative (Earth) to positive (Live).

 

So if you increase the earth wire the increased electricity will go through it no problem. The current going down the live will be small because the bulb would use most of it up.

 

Isnt that how it will work? The same current cant go down both wires after going through a bulb.

 

Stuart

Now you're just being picky LOL

However, yes, technically electrons flow from -ve to +ve, but people generally talk about current flow as being +ve to -ve. Dunno why, doesn't really matter.

 

 

Just make sure all your wires have good, clean, sound connections, definitely don't go over 100w bulbs (I have 85w in the dips) and try cleaning the lenses within the headlight assembly - it makes a big difference. Also, don't get too hung up on the wattage of the bulb, I can show you a device that soaks up 100w, makes loads of heat and produces no light whatsoever - it's called a resistor !

 

All the links to the stuff people have done are on my site.

Originally posted by SRRAE

I thought that electricity flowed from negative (Earth) to positive (Live).

 

So if you increase the earth wire the increased electricity will go through it no problem. The current going down the live will be small because the bulb would use most of it up.

 

Isnt that how it will work? The same current cant go down both wires after going through a bulb.

 

Stuart

 

current flow is the same in any part of a circuit, is you have say, a 5 amp draw from a consumer, then you will have 5 amps on both the +ive & -ive sides of that consumer.

 

so what jock is saying is both sides of the circuit have to be capable of carrying the same amount of current :)