Volvo RWD 444-544 Forum

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My Electronics Update Plan 444-544

It sounds like you're starting to get a pretty good plan put together.

Steve has already made some pretty good suggestions, but I thought I'd add my own 2-cents on a couple issues as well.

3. Add relays to the head-lights. Can I pirate some from a junk yard car? Which makes & models and where located in the car?

I don't know if it's really worth snagging junkyard relays. I bought a batch of relays from eBay when I was wiring up my headlights, foglight, and electric fan. You can get some standard Bosch style 5-pin 40-amp relays relatively cheaply. Click here to see an auction identical to the relays that I purchased. ($9.99 + $7.99 shipping = $17.97 for 10 new relays.) These relays have the mounting tab (like Steve mentioned) and seem to be able to handle the fairly high amperage loads required by my headlights and fans.

4. Add electric fan in front of radiator

You'll want to use a relay here too, and you may consider wiring a small dash-mounted LED light in parallel with the fan circuit that lets you know the fan is actually getting power when it's turned on (and will act to alert you if you blow a fuse or something). It shouldn't be necessary if you are only using the electric fan as an auxilary fan, but it's still an idea to consider.

10. Oh yea, H-4 headlights too.

I did a lot of research on this before upgrading my headlights. A variety of companies make 7" round halogen headlight housings, but they are not all created equal. From most accounts that I have read, many of the "generic" brands tend to have too much gap between low-beam and high-beam placement. When the headlights are aimed properly with the low beams you will find that the high beams are aimed too high, and if you lower the aim so that the high beams are aimed properly you will find that the low beams are aimed too low. I have heard some reports of this being the case for the Hella housings as well, but I think Hella has fixed that problem in recent years.

I personally chose to go with CibiƩ brand housings, despite the price, as they are reknowned for impeccable quality. I was able to get them from Daniel Stern [Daniel Stern Lighting], along with some H4 sockets and 90w/100w H4 bulbs. The beam cutoff is razor sharp, the pattern is nice and wide, and the headlights are very bright. I think the only real improvement I could make at this point would be to switch to HID lighting (which would be a whole lot of effort and money).






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New My Electronics Update Plan [444-544]
posted by  Santaluzer1  on Fri Aug 11 19:06 CST 2006 >


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