My headlights suck! What can I do?

[David]

> 
> From: "Tyson Varosyan" <tigran at tigran.com>
> Date: 2004/09/08 Wed AM 08:40:49 EDT
> To: "Quattro at Audifans. Com (E-mail)" <quattro at audifans.com>
> Subject: My headlights suck! What can I do?
> 
> I got an 86 4kcsq with US headlights! These lights plain out SUCK! I have
> been looking for euro H1/H4 lights for some time now on eBay but have not
> been able to find them. Any other places I should look? Is there anything
> that can be done to my stock lights to get them to actually brighten the
> road in front of me? My aftermarket fog lights make more useful light output
> than the stock headlights.
> 
> And yes, I have already aligned them. Point them up and you don't see
> anything as the beam doesn't go far. Point em down and you can see maybe 20
> yards in front, beyond that, its and unknown void of space!
> 
> Tyson Varosyan
> Technical Manager, Uptime Technical Solutions LLC.
> tyson at up-times.com
> www.up-times.com
> 206-715-TECH (8324)
> 
> UpTime/OnTime/AnyTime
> 
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> 

The stock DOT light use pathetic 9004 bulbs. No bulb is going to fix the bad lighting of the DOT lights and those ricer PIAA bulbs produce LESS light than a standard $5 clear bulb. It's just the design of the reflector and there's nothing you can do to fix it (other than converting to E-Code or European headlights). The stock DOT lights scatter the beam terribly, throwing a lot of it into the trees rather than onto the road. You can make some improvemnt by modding your stock light to allow you to use a 9007 hulb. You have to reverse the wiring for the high & low + power and modify the headlight housing by breaking or filing down one of the little nubs. Then a 9007 bulb will fit and work properly. It provides a better low beam pattern while the high stays the same. My recomendation? Get some Euros. Or at least mod your lights to accept 9007 bulbs and RELAY them. You know that for every 10% drop in voltage you loose 30% of the light output, right? Well, test the voltage drop at you headlight connectors, you will see that they are only getting around 11.5 volts (the stock Audi headlight wiring is thin and LONG, a bad combo when it comes to maintaining voltage). That means you are loosing almost 45% of the light output. So if your bulbs are "rated" to put out 1,200 lumens of light (which is actually pretty high for a 9004 bulb most are closer to 1000), without relays they will only put out 660 lumens. That's a HUGE differnce! Now for REAL headlights, get youself a set of E-code (European) headlights. There are two kinds, one came on the Audi 80 (low level 4000) and another on the 90 (high end 4000). The 80 lights are H4s and the 90's are H4+H1. The 90's are far more expensive but when you hit the highbeam you get the highbeam filiment from the H4 PLUS an H1 bulb, which really turns night into day. The 80 lights are H4 only and are about 1/2 the price of the 90's. I belive BLAU has them on sale for $160 each (new). They still provide VASTLY better light than the stock DOT lights. Well, what I meant as a short note of encouragement has become a novel, sorry about that. Good luck with you project, I'm sure you'll make the right decision.

Dave

1987 Coupe GT Special Build 2.3 
All in SE VA