Hi/lo beams

Hi...

Wonder if anyone happens to know, or if not possibly someone
else with a 94 lhs would at their convenience do a little
experiment for me...

Rarely drive late night anymore; today I did. Low beams were
acceptable, but then I got on virtually deserted highway, and
used the high beams. Not too good at all, in fact I preferred
the lows.

Noticed that if I gently pulled the stalk, as a signal
perhaps. Not all the way to click it, just enough that
I might be asking an approaching car to lower theirs,
that all 4 (2 low, 2 high) came on, and it looked good.

However, pulling further to actually switch to high,
caused (I think) the lows to go out.

Question is when high is selected should all 4 filaments
be on, or only the 2 highs?

Can't find any info on this, so appreciate any advice on
whether or not I have something to fix

Thanks, and take care.

Ken

 

Normal.

 

That makes one of you. The rest of the world thinks these headlamps are
garbage, 'cause they are!

Great way to burn up the woefully undersized headlamp wiring.

Correct. That headlamp uses one 9007 high/low beam bulb on each side of
the car (not counting the useless inboard auxiliary
lights).Two-filament headlight bulbs are pressurized to about 10
atmospheres COLD. Basic chemistry (PV=nRT) tells us what happens when a
gas is heated but not permitted to expand: The pressure rises! They are
not designed to handle the heat (or the current on the common filament
support lead) of running both filaments at the same time for more than
very brief periods during beam changeover or headlight flashing. Doing
so carries the very real risk of the bulb grenading inside the
headlamp, destroying it. Some people who think they're clever wire it
up this way anyhow, and the "Brite Box" people have made a business out
of this "clever" (not) modification. Running the lows with the highs
can only be done safely if the lows are produced by different bulbs
than the highs.

Which version of the headlamps do you have?. The early-production
'93-'95 units have a reflector lamp inboard of the main high/low
headlamp; the late-production '95-'97 units have a projector lamp (with
round "eyeball" appearance) inboard. Neither of them is especially
effective. Are the lenses marked SAE F, SAE Y or SAE Z?

 

Hi Dan,

I know you are no fan of the Honda's but my wife bought herself a 2005
Accord Hybrid. The low headlights are terrible. Probably not as bad as my
old 94 LHS but darn close. Do you have any suggestions (other than trade it
in) to improve them?

Thanks,

Art

 

[/QUOTE]

Not necessarily true. I don't want one, but it would be silly to deny
they are well engineered and built.

American Honda took a decent optic and defocused it for what they
perceive as American preferences in lighting. Don't ask me, it doesn't
make any sense to me, either.

That's one case in which there *is* actually a "magic bulb" solution.
The 9011-9012 HIR bulbs do a good job of bringing those headlamps up to
snuff without causing negative consequences. Go send e-mail to
to get set up.

Also, American Honda did their usual dance with the rear lamp clusters
on the '05, changing the turn signals to red for "model year
identification" and because "Americans prefer red turn signals" (were
you ever asked to vote?). Do your wife and your future insurance costs
a favor: Swap on a set of '03-'04 outer rear lamp clusters (w/amber
turn signals). Neither difficult nor expensive to buy, see
http://tinyurl.com/rvwfz . You'll need the amber 7440A bulbs, which can
be tricky to find locally; Candlepower's got those, too.

Please don't respond on here; I'm almost never in Usenet any longer.

DS

 

If things worked right I sent you a private "thank you" email but just in
case they didn't, and you happen to check the usenet.... Thanks!

Not necessarily true. I don't want one, but it would be silly to deny
they are well engineered and built.

American Honda took a decent optic and defocused it for what they
perceive as American preferences in lighting. Don't ask me, it doesn't
make any sense to me, either.

That's one case in which there *is* actually a "magic bulb" solution.
The 9011-9012 HIR bulbs do a good job of bringing those headlamps up to
snuff without causing negative consequences. Go send e-mail to
to get set up.

Also, American Honda did their usual dance with the rear lamp clusters
on the '05, changing the turn signals to red for "model year
identification" and because "Americans prefer red turn signals" (were
you ever asked to vote?). Do your wife and your future insurance costs
a favor: Swap on a set of '03-'04 outer rear lamp clusters (w/amber
turn signals). Neither difficult nor expensive to buy, see
http://tinyurl.com/rvwfz . You'll need the amber 7440A bulbs, which can
be tricky to find locally; Candlepower's got those, too.

Please don't respond on here; I'm almost never in Usenet any longer.

DS
[/QUOTE]

 

Not necessarily true. I don't want one, but it would be silly to deny
they are well engineered and built.

American Honda took a decent optic and defocused it for what they
perceive as American preferences in lighting. Don't ask me, it doesn't
make any sense to me, either.

That's one case in which there *is* actually a "magic bulb" solution.
The 9011-9012 HIR bulbs do a good job of bringing those headlamps up to
snuff without causing negative consequences. Go send e-mail to
to get set up.

Also, American Honda did their usual dance with the rear lamp clusters
on the '05, changing the turn signals to red for "model year
identification" and because "Americans prefer red turn signals" (were
you ever asked to vote?). Do your wife and your future insurance costs
a favor: Swap on a set of '03-'04 outer rear lamp clusters (w/amber
turn signals). Neither difficult nor expensive to buy, see
http://tinyurl.com/rvwfz . You'll need the amber 7440A bulbs, which can
be tricky to find locally; Candlepower's got those, too.

Please don't respond on here; I'm almost never in Usenet any longer.[/QUOTE]

Hi Daniel...

Tried to write you directly, it bounces. (fyi, it 550's with
your name doesn't exist, but that you may exist at umich.edu;
however that too bounces)

What in the heck was wrong with the good old 4 lamp sealed beam halogens?

Worked great, 10 bucks and 5 minutes to replace them... and even
it they were aerodynamically inferior, makers could have put a
plastic cover over them.

And it doesn't matter much to me, rarely go out much at all,
and even rarer for it to be after dark. However, grandkid
2 doors away is eligible to try for her "go by herself" class
license next month, and if she succeeds will almost certainly
want to use it to go to school. Here in Manitoba, Canada in the
worst of the winter it'll be dark(ish) before she gets home, so...

Sadly can't find any SAE designation on the lenses, I'll send a
url to a pic it it's helpful, perhaps you can recognize it.

And I sure don't understand the optics, never thought of putting
a light source *behind* a reflector When I look in there, it
looks to me like there's nothing but a black hole
Sort of like someone had stolen the bulb, or at a minimum hadn't
seated it in it's socket

Thanks for all your help, and take care.

Ken

 

By the way your LHS probably has fog lights too. They are not very good
either but might help when using brights if they stay on when brights turn
on. My 94 LHS was sold a long time ago so I can't check for you.

 

Hi Art...

Sounded like a great idea so I just went out to the driveway
to check it out...

Unfortunately they go out with the high's, but that might
be not too difficult to modify.


And while I'm here, have to correct my previous thought... looked
into the headlight while it was on, and I see that the reflector
goes much further back than I thought, so the bulb isn't
behind the reflector at all. There's some kind of black shield around
much of the bulb, along with the top of the bulb being black.

Not sure what I typed, seeing a lot of spots

Take care.

Ken

 

LOL!!

Bill Putney
(To reply by e-mail, replace the last letter of the alphabet in my
address with the letter 'x')

 

The MTV-era kids styling cars today don't think they look "kewl" enough.

And the MBAs running the car companies overrule the engineers in favor
of the design kids.

 

AMEN! This trend started with the rectangular sealed beams, and the
"design kids" had the legal beagles at the Big 3 pay off the NTSB and
other government watchdogs to allow inferior headlighting on newer
cars. I did a comparison between a new 300 and my old M-body tank
with quad rectangles using Sylvania "Silver" halogens. You can see a
LOT more with the old system...a LOT more.

 

It's dangerous now headlights are so bad. Chryslers seem to be the worst,
but maybe it's just my Chryslers. I really suppose I should add a few
old-skool headlightz to my LHS so I can see where I'm going.

 

Aren't fog lights required to turn off when high beams are on? (Why would one
turn on high beams in the fog anyway?)

Maybe you need some good driving lights, which only go on when high beams are
on. Fog lights really should be turned off when it's not foggy and especially
for oncoming traffic, since they have a diffused output that causes a lot of
glare for oncoming cars, rather than an aimed beam of a headlight. Then again
all of the car manufacturers seem to be pushing crappy "fog" lights that don't
do much other than cause glare on the road and clueless buyers just leave them
on in clear weather thinking they're special.

 

A smart person wouldn't, that's for sure. In many states, driving
with fogs lights AND high beams is a vehicle code violation.

NOTHING drives my blood pressure up more than some MORON approaching
me with "driving lights" on, and that includes the toads on Harleys
with their always-aimed-too-high driving light bar, too. I let 'em
get good and close...and then give them all four Sylvania Silvers,
illegal in itself.

They're the ones I have a special injury wish for. Here,
asshole...have a million candlepower spotlight in your right eye!

OEM "fog lamps" on cars I've seen from GM are all but useless, and are
there for looks and an ego boost only. The ones I've seen on 300s
seem to be more effective, but idiots leave them on when they're
supposed to be OFF.

There is (or was, if not killed already by the aftermarket industry) a
bill before the California Legislature already this year to make the
use of "driving lights" illegal on two lane highways whenever within a
mile of an approaching motorist, or a half mile of a followed one.
Also, the limits for approaching and following high beams are also
proposed to be lengthened. This is in response to a California
Highway Patrol report that "driving lights" and late-to-dim high beams
on new cars are an increasing cause of night blindness multi-car
accidents. They also reommended making cell phone use by any moving
driver illegal as well, but Cingular and Verizon put the brakes on
that immediately through our less-than-bright kraut governor. It's
back on the table again, despite AHHHnuld saying he'll veto it...if he
survives November. The current round of "Arnold and George W. Bush"
campaign commercials is having an immediate negative effect on
AHHHnuld's poll numbers according to InstaPolls taken by the statewide
Field Poll today. These are reaching the dumber side of the bell
shaped curve; smarter people already know he's a fraud and a shill.

 

dastern (at) torque (dot) net will reach me.

The round sealed beam systems weren't necessarily excellent, but in
their day they were better than many of the replaceable-bulb systems of
the last 2 decades. The 7" round one-per-side sealed beam system gave
better low beam performance than the 5-3/4" round two-per-side, while
the latter gave better high beam performance. Beam focus and formation
worsened when rectangular sealed beams were permitted, and then
worsened considerably when halogen sealed beams replaced regular ones.
Glare became a problem due to the sloppy focus, but light color got
whiter, and that's the only thing the marketeers care about. Shortly
thereafter, in the early '80s, Ford and Sylvania collectively scoffed
at the stupid rest of the world's headlamp system and foisted their own
garbageful made-in-America "innovation" on us all, that was the 9004
bulb and polycarbonate plastic lenses on thermoplastic semi-sealed
reflector housings. We all know how well (not) that worked out, and we
all *knew* how it was going to work out before they did it: England had
tried almost exactly the same course of development before giving up on
it and going to the rest-of-world ECE headlamp standard in the 1970s.
But, y'know, America's right and the stupid rest of the world is wrong,
so we got stuck with another couple decades of weak beams with
piss-poor focus and lots of glare. Happened again with GM's abominable
mini sealed beams in 1986. Happened again with Ford and Sylvania's 9007
bulb in 1992, and again with Ford and Sylvania's DC HID system in 1996.


There are some very good replaceable-bulb headlamps on the North
American market, but good headlamp performance isn't required, so
you're stuck with whatever the automaker chooses to give you, and a
great deal has been lost since we abandoned the requirement for
standard-size headlamps: Headlamp replacement cost has soared, meaning
people drive around with damaged or degraded lamps rather than spend
hundreds of dollars for new lamps that'll just degrade again. Owners
are locked into whatever level of optical engineering and build quality
the automaker selected when the car was new, whereas with standardized
lamps you got the newest innovations whenever you replaced a headlamp,
and economies of scale kept costs down. The sealed-beam construction
itself makes a great deal of sense for the harsh service environment on
the front of a car: it is proof against environmental degradation and
willful tampering (blue bulbs, overwattage bulbs, etc.). But, the
implementation is another question altogether: there are lots of ways
to make a bad, cheap and legal sealed beam, and that's pretty much the
only kind you can get any more. GE's NightHawk sealed beams are the
*only* ones I'd buy now, for sure. Sylvania's entire line is poorly
made and produces poorly-focused, low-performance beams-the worst
being their heavily-hyped, overpriced, underperforming SilverStar
items.

Well, no, because Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standard 108 prohibits
covers or styling elements, even transparent ones, in front of
operating headlamps. That's why the transparent plastic covers on the
Dodge St. Regis of about '79-'81 swung up/down out of the way of the
beam when the headlamps were turned on.

Don't know what we're talking about here, but sure, I'm pretty good at
automotive lighting device ID. Send your photos to the address provided
above.

DS

 

That depends on which new 300 you compared: The one with halogen
headlamps, or with Xenon units.

Also, Sylvania Silverstar sealed beams and headlamp bulbs are garbage.
Your seeing with them is significantly worse than with even just
regular sealed beams-not better.

 

Just to piggyback on this: What replacement bulbs would be
recommended for the PT Cruiser. My wife's 2005 PT Convertible has
terrible headlights. My 6v 1940 Chrysler has better lighting!

 

Daniel J. Stern wrote:

Whhops...sorry, I have a question...but you have a "strange" name: are the
"same" Daniel Stern of the web site "Daniel Stern Lighting" ?

 

Again true. There was a trickle of complaints when rectangles were
permitting and started showing up around '76, but they were well
justified. The LA Times did a story on it back then, saying that
rectangles offered 1/3 the lighted area on low beam as the 6001/6002
quad system in use since 1958. The only improvement offered by the
quad system was on high beams.

Again very true.

The later model Silver Stars with the segmented reflector work a lot
better than previous offerings...which, in a rectangular bulb, ain't
all that hot to begin with. The original Silver Stars had the same
old clipped parabolic reflectors, and were dismal, but still better
than crap marketed by Wagner at the time. I went to the segmented
Silver Stars because I got tired of not seeing anything at night!
However, when I drove a 300 at night, I was immeidately taken
aback...it looked like I was driving in the dark with a couple of
tightly cropped "hot spots" in front of me. The Sylvanias I have
provide a pretty good horizontal fan beam, but as the previous poster
said, doing anything with the rectangulars is sort of putting lipstick
on a pig. The SS's "look" better to most, because the light
temperature on this is fairly high, in the "green" area. Previous
Sylvanias I had went into the garbage...worst focus I'd ever seen, bar
none, and they had a real propensity to leak, making focus even worse

Interesting as well is the fact that I can't find GE headlamps
anywhere in my area, else I'd try them..