H4 wattage, 9004->7 upgrade , was: Re: Euro lights Set-Up

[rochow@pixelmagic.com]

>In message <37381546.159CB862@uidaho.edu> Todd Phenneger writes:
>
>>     They burn out faster but I love them.  Just dont go with like 160
>> Watts.  (Phil?)  ...
>
>2 x 100/170 H4, 2 x 100 H1.  Off the alternator.  Life expectancy about
>three months per H4.
>
>200+ miles late evening/early morning yesterday/today.  No oncoming
>traffic complained.

..about 540W of high beams, or 200W of low beam?

Has anybody had a negative (melting) experience with higher-than-stock
wattage in Hella 4"x6" (sealed-beam-shape) H4 lights? The reflector
part of the light is plastic, and they're somewhat old, coming from a Scirocco
in a German junkyard. 
When I got these sent to me by family in Germany, they included sockets for 
the H4s which originally had 1/4"-spade shoes, but were bent open to
accept the H4's apparently-rare-in-Europe 5/16" spades (they have such 
confidence in my ability to get this stuff together myself :). It turns out of
course
that those connectors are the standard sealed beam socket here, available
easily and cheaply, and with better wires than those junkyard-sourced ones,
"from an Audi". And lo and behold, my new old Audi has just exactly those
same connectors with the same oddly thin wires...
 
-gbr