Put me down as another happy camper on this upgrade. For those of you who cringe at the idea of any electrical mod beyond battery cables, you should really take a deep breath and reconsider.
1) read the Gojeep tutorial. Print it out and convert everything to inches. Maybe some day metric will make sense to us.
2) reconsider making your own harness. The price of copper, fittings, etc., you have to buy in bulk, makes a finished harness at $75 dirt cheap. Most who offer theirs aren't as quick to jack up prices as the auto parts retailers - and you get it done right - more on that later.
3) it works. Until you see the difference, it's hard to believe, but - it works.
A new harness will put more power direct to the bulb. If you have electric door locks that don't work, your headlights are deteriorating just as badly. And upgrading to a better housing and bulb output (*ahem*) is even better.
I now can see stop signs on Hi from one intersection to another - that's one mile on the country roads I commute. On Low, the extreme cutoff of modern lamps, like the ones marketed for the European market, will not bother oncoming cars as much as regular US lamps, and I can read street signs nearly a block away.
The only little problem I had was being cheap - I used a hi temp H4 bulb connector for 14 ga wire. You can't crimp 10 ga in there, c'mon, it really won't work. I don't like it when the wiring pulls out just installing the harness. Not so good.
Other than that, I recommend using shrink tube on the crimp terminals, and labeling the relays to know which is which. And if you hook things up backwards, by golly, you can swap the female spades around easily until the hi beam indicator matches up, and so do the lights. How's that, a harness you can actually diagnose and fix!
You also will pay attention to how misaligned the lights may be - and can see it easily as the special shape of the low beam cutoff is noticeable. Tweak those beams back on the road where they belong. Oh, want to kill a light while adjusting? - just pull the terminal. No cardboard or tech assistant impatiently tapping their toe waiting for you to take her shopping.
All that, and if some HIDbeamer needs to dim, you can communicate at their level. Nothing like the power of lumens! I used to carry a G3 Surefire, and when my MP LT wanted to know why, I just replied, "It's just another non lethal force option, maam." (I have heard that it's not wise to power up too far if you have a lot of seasonal debris accumulate in roadside ditches. :flame: Just keep it sensible.)
Thanks to Gojeep, 5-90, and you, for just this kind of info on this forum.
1) read the Gojeep tutorial. Print it out and convert everything to inches. Maybe some day metric will make sense to us.
2) reconsider making your own harness. The price of copper, fittings, etc., you have to buy in bulk, makes a finished harness at $75 dirt cheap. Most who offer theirs aren't as quick to jack up prices as the auto parts retailers - and you get it done right - more on that later.
3) it works. Until you see the difference, it's hard to believe, but - it works.
A new harness will put more power direct to the bulb. If you have electric door locks that don't work, your headlights are deteriorating just as badly. And upgrading to a better housing and bulb output (*ahem*) is even better.
I now can see stop signs on Hi from one intersection to another - that's one mile on the country roads I commute. On Low, the extreme cutoff of modern lamps, like the ones marketed for the European market, will not bother oncoming cars as much as regular US lamps, and I can read street signs nearly a block away.
The only little problem I had was being cheap - I used a hi temp H4 bulb connector for 14 ga wire. You can't crimp 10 ga in there, c'mon, it really won't work. I don't like it when the wiring pulls out just installing the harness. Not so good.
Other than that, I recommend using shrink tube on the crimp terminals, and labeling the relays to know which is which. And if you hook things up backwards, by golly, you can swap the female spades around easily until the hi beam indicator matches up, and so do the lights. How's that, a harness you can actually diagnose and fix!
You also will pay attention to how misaligned the lights may be - and can see it easily as the special shape of the low beam cutoff is noticeable. Tweak those beams back on the road where they belong. Oh, want to kill a light while adjusting? - just pull the terminal. No cardboard or tech assistant impatiently tapping their toe waiting for you to take her shopping.
All that, and if some HIDbeamer needs to dim, you can communicate at their level. Nothing like the power of lumens! I used to carry a G3 Surefire, and when my MP LT wanted to know why, I just replied, "It's just another non lethal force option, maam." (I have heard that it's not wise to power up too far if you have a lot of seasonal debris accumulate in roadside ditches. :flame: Just keep it sensible.)
Thanks to Gojeep, 5-90, and you, for just this kind of info on this forum.