Re: Real (You're-a-pee'in) Lights for Type 89 (80/90/CQ)?

[Tom Nas <tnas@euronet.nl>]

"Duff, Ian" <IDuff@CHARTER.com> wrote:

>I just *know* there will be some opinions held strongly and loudly by at
>least a few list members on this:

You're right. I'm letting my full-blown obsession out tonight. ;-)

>The headlights on my 1990 USA CQ, um, suck, yeah, that's it.

BTST (Been there, seen that).

>Plus the fogs havefinally succumbed to rocks. Should I augment the stock
>>lighting with new driving lights in the fog location, or get real
>headlights >and put fogs there, or get real headlights that have fogs
>built in and duct the >holes for brake cooling?

The stock fog positions are too low for effective driving lights. Fogs
(unless you live in very foggy parts) are nothing but annoying. Brake ducts
sounds like a cool (no pun intended. Really.) idea to me.

>Exposing my general lighting ignorance, what are the pros and cons of B3
>body 1 >bulb (H3 or is it H4?)

H4.

 vs B4 body 2 bulb (H1/H3, or is it H1/H4?)

The latter, according to my Hella catalogue.

 vs S2 >projector bulb Type 89 headlights? I believe the 2 bulb and
projector need a >separate turn signal, OEM is in bumper cover, different
than the 1 bulb setup. >Is that right?

You're right. On US market cars, this would entail some modifications to
the bumper, as the Euro bumper cover (with turn signals and fog lights)
doesn't fit the 5mph stuff. This, BTW, goes for all cars that are sold with
twin-bulb lights in Europe.
The differences between twin-bulb and single-bulb lights are mostly in the
efficiency of the high beams, and the single-purpose reflectors- the
twin-bulb items score higher than the (still OK) single-bulb lights on high
beam.
The projector (DE: Dynamic Ellipsoid) lights are in a class of their own-
just mildly less effective than xenon (which also has a projector setup).
Fitting B4 lights to B3 cars requires some surgery- they're shaped
differently at the grill end.

>I also believe the projector setup (as in the S2) is designed to be
>mounted in >a cockpit-controllable-for-retinal-burn socket. Can the
>projector lights be >mounted in a non-adjustable socket, or is the
>adju$table $ocket nece$$ary?

There's a version available (at least from Hella) w/out the remote
adjustment stuff, that's Hella # 1AL 007 140-071 (left) and 1AL 007 140-081
(right). Buying projector lights requires very deep pockets, but it would
be the ultimate 'money-no-object' solution.

>Can the projector lights be fitted with Phil "I can SEE!" bulbs, or is
>that >redundant?

I don't think they can be, as there would be overheating problems. The
lenses keep the heat from escaping. Projector lights use H1 bulbs, BTW.

>Count on relays as appropriate <g>.

And some heavy-gauge wiring.

HTH,

Tom

 _______________________________________________________________________
 Tom Nas                                          Zeist, The Netherlands
 tnas@euronet.nl
1988 Audi 80 1.8S, Tizianrot metallic, 213,000km

                             "" -- Marcel Marceau