Headlight options
 

Well one of my standard sealed beam headlights needs replacement, and I want to get some H4's to replace these crap candles. I want to have lights that are as bright as possible, as I do most of my night driving on canyons with no other sources of light and lots of suicidal deer and coyotes.

I was thinking about the 100/80w Hella Premium Xenon +100% (I know the +100% doesn't really help because it goes past the usable spectrum, but they look cool, and still work well). I have been hearing about bulbs of this wattage burning out very quickly though, and that is not something that I would be happy about.

So would this bulb be a good choice? Would it burn out quickly? Or is there something else that I am missing? Any other suggestions? I have no clue when it comes to lights, and just want to be able to see the road well, but I'm not quite prepared to try and retrofit HIDs into H4's.

I have one of those euroclear 7inch round housing with coolblue H4's. its much brighter than stock. i had the cibie housing but changed it. there is a guy selling a blue miata on the los angeles craigslist that took out the round halogens and put an aftermarket projectors (driving lamps) in. he lowered the opening of the pop ups as well. it looks very interesting might head on to pepboys to see what they have for projectors and may try it. let me know what you think.

Any info on the wattage of bulbs? I would try and do some kind of custom setup, but as it is now I just need working headlights now.

100/80 vs 60/55?

ebay clear replacments, with hid

thats soooooooooooooo much light

Is it simple to fit the HID to a miata? Or is there wiring to be done? Like I said, i just want more light, but I need it as soon as possible, as 1 light is very lame. Plus i have not really done any electronics on the car before.

I think I'm going with the 100/80w Hella lights. Unless they will light my car on fire from amp draw, then they sound fine.

speed50, I have the cool blues and I think they are 60/55. as far as HID's, I have a mazda b2200 truck that has the rectangular halogens. well with the help from the suggestions from hidplanet.com, i bought a pair of audi projectors from ebay, cut the back of the housing, and jbwelded the projectors. a bought a separate ballast and ignitor, and harness relay. My 1991 truck looks like a BMW when approaching. it looks awesome with the blue hue. The illumination is a hundred times better. no need for high beams.
I tried it on the miata with the cibie housing, the only problem with fitting hid bulbs on non hid housing is that the beam pattern is so scattered that it only blinds the oncoming traffic. I have noticed it in so many cars that fitted just the hid bulb. HID bulbs have gasses in them that settles when the bulb is off. They do not recommend it in the miata or on any popup headlights for the gasses will settle at one end of the bulb when the barn doors are closed. thus shortening the life of the bulb. So I took it off.

best scenario for you is ebay housing and maybe a bulb to get better light asap. just my 2 cents.

I think seeing as I'm not paying for these :D I'll just go with the hella's because I have had my bad experiences with flea-bay stuff.

The HID sounds very cool but the blinding other motorists and other miata related hid problems make them a bit less appealing. So are there any opinions on the bulb wattage? I still want to go with the 100/80w, but I don't want them to burn out super quick or light my car on fire.

I'm running Cibie's from danielsternlighting.com they cost about 50% more than the hellas but have a better beam pattern. for bulbs I;m running hella 130/90s with an upgraded wiring harness with heavy duty relays. I'd recomend getting the SUVlights.com harness for twoh4 system.

THe harness had a real noticeable difference in output.

here's a comparison pic with the same bulbs and housing the car on the left has the harness the car on the right dosen't

http://lh4.google.com/m.laverty/RzvT...JPG?imgmax=512

Thanks for the info, but all of this harness and relay business is not something that I really want to/plan to mess with. I just want some plug and play lights with the stock wiring that will be better than stock, but not make my car kerplode, and will last for more than a year.

And I have heard good things about Cibie's, but if the cost goes over $100 it's not a good thing.

But my one question still hasn't been directly answered, will the 100/80w hellas make my car explode, or burn out within a year?

From what I understand if you put in the 100watt bulbs into the miata it will burn down the wiring.

What I am thinking of doing is getting the hella ecodes + a Xentec HID kit from amazon with H4 bulbs.

I ran 100/55 and 130/90 H4 globes in one of my previous MX-5s. We have the european style lights here so we can change the globes without changing the housing. I did not upgrade the wiring to run these high wattage globes, however upgrading the wiring and adding relays will give you a decent improvement, even on 60/55 globes. I did not have any wire burn out on me, but I did not tend to run the high beams that often.

just my 2c (add local tax where applicable).

J