I got the new Euro-styles installed today.

For the wiring, I laid a 9004 bulb (half-defunct anyway) in between a fold of carpeting and hit it with a hammer to break the bulb. Makes quite a pop! Then I soldered the wires from a standard headlight plug (sealed-beam type) onto the exposed metal rods. Pretty easy to figure out, since both plugs use the same pattern; ground on one side, high on the other, and low beam in the middle. I did it this way because it will be easy to go back if I have to, and if I do run higher-watt bulbs I can run the relays off the stock feeds and plug the whole mess right in, except for the battery leads. Once the bulb is broken, the ground is easily distinguished by the siamesed wires (one for each filament), and the rest follows. Having read the dire warnings about halogen bulbs, I tend to wear safety glasses when I deal with them, and did so even when I had the bulb in the carpet.

The wiring for the corner lights (Scantech from AllEuro) is pretty poor, and I'm going to redo the plugs somehow. The grey plug fitting they come with is a joke, and one was broken right out of the box. The other one broke when I went to close it on the the two wires, but still would snap together. I never did find the little hatch for the other one, so I undid the old stock one and used it. Much better piece. The grounds aren't as long as the stock grounds, so I grounded them to one of the headlight bolts. After wrestling the old headight nuts off, I used anti-sieze on the new ones.

Got done just as it was getting dark, so I hopped-in and went for a test-drive.

Bright!!! With 55/60's I can actually see down the road, and the high beams are actually very different from the low beams. I need to adjust them a bit, but I stopped on a level parking lot and walked toward them from the left side and they weren't obnoxious at all, even though the pattern seemed high from the driver's seat. I'll find out what other drivers think later this evening when I go out.

The Taiwanese lights (DJAuto) are probably not as good as the real ones from Europe, but they beat the stockers. Some trimming of plastic was required to fit them perfectly (on my car it was on the driver's side, hmmmm), but it's easy to do. Good bang-for-the-buck, and now I won't have to chase my headlight lenses at the end of a drive-through car wash anymore.

Karl,

I had thought about doing the same sort of thing as you did, popping the bulb and soldering. seems better. There is a way to run striaght off the alternator and get a better charge, using relays, but I felt like doing as littleas possible. What I ended up doing to test for a while, is just filing down some male spade and soldering them to the back of some old h-4 plugs from another Volvo. Easy change back.

Yeah, I was very depressed with thte Tiawan makes, and I can tell you with experience, the OEM ones are better. However, I have these now, and I'll use them untill they are mashed, or I need to buy another due to fading.

Definately the lighting is better.

I'm not depressed at all; I'm very happy to be able to a) actually see a goodly chunk of the road in front of me, and b) not offend oncoming drivers while I'm doing it, thus getting flashed.

I wish the lights were of better quality, but hell, they make lots of light and they do it for 1/3 the ridiculous price of the real Euro's. I'm very pleased. I can see more on low beam than I used to be able to see on high beam. I keep thinking of what 85/100w bulbs would do..........hehehe.......probably vaporise schoolchildren and small animals...... &^)

What drives me crazy about this country is how long it takes to do something logical. We ought to start a pool, guessing what year the Congress will finally get around to legistlating approval for the clearly superior European beam pattern. I've got 2110, the rest is up for grabs.

Yeah, the real Euro lights are truely great, though I'd imagine anything would be an improvement of the North American stockers. Our government has done the motoring public an extreme disservice in their lighting regulations, and the performance of american blights show it. Anyway, try the 80/100 watt bulbs. The lights are large enough to handle the extra heat and power as is the stock wiring, though I'll be adding a PIAA 135 watt-capable headlight harness from IPD, just to be on the safe side.