I'm running Hella H4's and H1's for headlights. The Hella H4's came with bulbs 60w/100w for the low beam headlights. I'm a little leary about running these bulbs since the stock bulbs are 55w/60w. Will the original wiring handle the 60w/100w bulb? If not how is a relay wired in.

Thanks!

Paul

I've run 90/100 H4 and 100w H1 on the 87 760T for roughly 200K and 8 years with no problems other than the bulbs do burn out occasionally and the reflectors do corrode.

You can plan on replacing reflectors every 6-7 years and H4 bulbs every

3-4 depending on how long you burn them or if you burn them during the day.

I have Hella Euro replacements (make sure you get the wiring adaptors from the headlight to the stock wiring harness plugs...the config is diffo and high/low won't work right w/o it) at about $50 each or $200 for all four. Well worth it.

<>

That's exactly the problem I'm having! When the low beams are on the high beams are very slightly illuminated. When I hit the high beams the opposite occurs. I figured these Xenon Superwhite bulbs I installed were the problem but I did NOT use the wiring adapters that came with the Hella lights. I'll check the adapters out and see if I can make it work.

Thanks!!

If anyone know the wiring order for the Hella adapters for the H4's let me know. 86 740 female plug has black, green, and blue/white wires. Hella male adapter has yellow, brown, and white wires.

Instead of buying the Hella wiring harness adapters, you can exrect the electrical fittings from the stock sockets and re-insert the electrical fittings to match the Hella configuration. That gives you one less connection (place for voltage drop, or trouble).

This works for early headlights with wide tabs. OTOH, everytime I try to extract the terminals they crack or break or something so I generally try to keep the old sockets there and either tap into the wires ahead of the socket or in this case I liked the plug and play option from Hella.

Paul --

On my '91 740 and '86 240, I used the 80/100 Watt 9004 bulbs. All eventually burned the contacts in the sockets, so I reverted to the stock bulbs and new sockets. Moreover, the "brighter" bulbs were barely noticeable, and tended to fail more often.

To me, it wasn't worth the trouble.

I realize that the H4s use a different (and more robust) socket style, but keep in mind that the extra current must flow through the entire circuit. The weakest link will give you trouble. This includes wires, grounds, various connectors, bulb-out sensor, and fuses.

Using extra-heavy relays is an excellent start.

Don Foster (near Cape Cod, MA)

My experience with factory wirng and high wattage headlights has been negative. You should install headlight relays. See http://www.vclassics.com/archives/relays.htm

Installing headlight relays and 10 gauge wiring alone will make the 55/60 watt stock headlights brighter than you would think.

Thanks for the info! Archives doesn't seem to work for the last 24 hours. It comes up "Page Not Found". problems I guess.

I have used higher wattage bulbs -- 80/100W H4s and 100W H1s on both an 83 242T and an 89 745T for years. They are brighter. Just stock wattage of 55/60W and 60W in European quality lenses is an improvement.

Recently on my 745T, I upgraded the wiring harness to ensure that the bulbs received the proper voltage and that the whole system was well protected and that the wiring was the right gauge for the increased load. I followed the VClassics article. The same information can be found on the Daniel Stern Lighting page. Search for his website using some combination of those words. IPD recently began selling a partial upgrade harness. There is also a fellow who belongs to most of these mailing lists who makes them. I have seen them and they are very well done. They cost about $90 to $120, but they are worth while. I made my own, and spend over a day on it and still spent about that much money in parts. His name is Dan Roth. I could probably find his e-mail address if you need it.

With the new harness and the higher wattage bulbs, the lighting is tremendous. I know because I tested by connecting half the harness first for comparison purposes. Both sides had the higher wattage bulbs, but only one side had the improved wiring.

Philip Bradley