Uprgrading your headlights!

I just finished putting new headlights in my car... and wasnt satisfied with light output.. so, i decided to wire up some relays to power my headlights directly from the battery.... and it made a noticeable difference with my light output... with stock bulbs...

i just ordered some 80/100 watt 9007 bulbs from fleabay... i'll be sure to take pics compared to my stockers.

if anyone wants details, its rather simple.. i can provide a walkthrough and the schematics i used.

this will also work on the 89-93 headlights, its just seperate bulbs for the highs and lows.


EDIT: heres the diagram.

http://www.humanspeakers.com/audi/headlight-simple.htm

i used:
- 2 4-prong 40A relays
- ~ 20 ft of 12 ga red wire
- ~ 12 ft of 14 ga black wire for grounding
- 2 blade-style fuse holders and two 20-30A fuses (i used 30's, just in case)
- assorted butt connectors, heatshrink, spade connectors (get sleeved ones), some round terminals to bolt to your grounding location.

to get its full potential, get some high watt bulbs.

what this setup does is actually allows you to run a higher watt bulb by utilizing better wiring, and bypassing your stock multifunction switch (we all know how those go, it will also prevent it from MELTING!) but still using a small amount of current to trigger the relay.

i DO hope this helps everyone

Sin,

I don't quite understand. What do you mean directly from the battery? There already are separate bulbs for high an low. Do you mean running them at the same time?

The power for our headlights currently runs through the switch. He is powering a relay from the switch which in turn powers the headlights directly with power from the battery.

rbrown said:

The power for our headlights currently runs through the switch. He is powering a relay from the switch which in turn powers the headlights directly with power from the battery.

Click to expand...

Thus, allowing you to run a higher wattage bulb SAFELY.. and keep you from melting your multifunction switch on your column.

i will do an install on an 89-93 and take pictures to help you early style guys out.. as soon as i get my highs wired up, i'll photodocument that too, and post a tutorial.

I've already done the wiring setup for my '90, just need to install it.

One thing for the earlier style cars you can do is install a 1 amp diode from pin 86 (your diagram) on the high beam relay to pin 86 on the low beam relay (make sure you set the diode so current flows from the high beam to the low beam).

That way when your high beams come on, your low beams will stay on as well.... MUCH!!! better lighting at night . I wouldn't recommend this for the newer style as you could easily over heat the housing..... and with that in mind be careful how much higher wattage bulbs you use on any of the cars. I've seen stock head light housings melting with stock wattage light bulbs in them.

i was wondering how that was done on the early style headlamps. i'll bear that in mind later.

i have heard, but never seen a headlight housing fail due to heat... not that i keep my headlights on for extended periods of time very often... but it definitely something to remember.

thats a good idea. I will be watching for your finished product. I remember for my old thunderbird I bought a kit that would make all the lights come on when I used my high beams. I beleive it was a relay box with wiring that basically spliced into my factory headlight wires. Worked pretty well.

i didnt want to mention a specific kit... but yes, this is PRECISELY the same thing...

Another thing to keep in mind is the people that have the DRL option on the car, which is common on the cars up here.. not sure in the US.

It turns the high beams on at half power when you have the headlights switch off and is controlled by a module behind the front bumper on the drivers side. If you do your rewiring, then the cars with this option will have full brightness instead of half. There is an adapter that can be bought from Ford that replaces the module to eliminate the DRL option.

Just thought I'd point that out as well.

whats this drl option?

Daytime Running Lights.

Or maybe Drop your Right Leg?

lol. i'd say daytime running lights sounds about right... funny.. i never knew we had that option... i imagine those would run on a seperate circuit.. and all you are doing here is bypassing the stock headlight/highbeam on/off circuit, and adding your own beefier wiring.. the running lights should remain unaffected.

I don't have time to take a look at the link, but any how-to write up would be great to have for future reference. Maybe you can get Duffy or George to post it into the FAQ forum as well.

PS: I'm definitely going to be doing this to my car if we can verify they added heat from higher wattage bulbs won't melt the housings.

sinhumane said:

lol. i'd say daytime running lights sounds about right... funny.. i never knew we had that option... i imagine those would run on a seperate circuit.. and all you are doing here is bypassing the stock headlight/highbeam on/off circuit, and adding your own beefier wiring.. the running lights should remain unaffected.

Click to expand...

Your right, BUT when the DRL is active, it only sends 50% of the power to the high beams. Changing to your wiring would run the high beams at full power so thats the high beams running all the time until you turn on your headlights. Judging from the response, this would only affect the Canadian cars. I'm not worried with my wiring setup because I have the bypass installed.

If I may be so bold as to suggest using breakers instead of fuses...

Good idea, that multifunction switch is uber complicated.

its nothing close to a new idea.. its just not common for anyone to have done this themselves. there is a complete plug and play harness available, but this is how to do it on your own.

i'll be writing the 94+ style wiring faq first, then i'll be working on doing an 89-93 style car, and will post my progress.

also, thank you for the diode advice, and the suggestion about using breakers... i'm sure fuses will suffice, they are 30amp, and teh suggested kind is 20 amp. suggested relays were 30A, i used 40's.. just in case... i also used some ratehr thick 12gauge wire for all of teh power, and to be able to handle the current...


heres two pictures that show jsut how white and crisp teh light is with stock bulbs. should have my 6000k 80/100w pure white bulbs today or tomorrow.

alriiiight.. got my new bulbs in.. will take some night shots, and start writing up my tut.

still waiting! How did it go?

wow.. lol. i forgot i started this thread ages ago!

still holding up to this day, i've since moved on to other projects.. lol.

the install went perfect, and i actually made two more harnesses to great success. i've since installed them in 96+ lights and two sets of 95 lights.

i will snap some pics of my light output once it warms up and i wake the sc up from hibernation and clean her up real good. i got some clear side marker and turn signal bulbs in there.. was getting tired of the amber lights.. so outdated..

sorry to keep you waiting bud!

if theres any interest i could make another set or two.



and i suppose i'll get my butt in gear and write an faq while i'm bored at work tomorrow.. lol.

i know i want to see the output as well. And have you ever made a diagram for the 89-93 cars?