Headlight Bulbs

[ae86trueno]

Whats the Highest wattage people have sucessfully put in Excel Headlights,
without the whole thing melting and catching on fire,
anyone tried 100/55 or 70/55 ???

Ben.

[HMCA]

We have been running 80/100 bulbs but haven't been able to keep headlights in the car long enough to suffer melting issues.

[Whitey]

I have been running 100/55s since i have had my car with no issues.
cheers

[ernysp76]

I use Phillips Vission Plus part number 12342VPCD these are a 60/55 watt bulb which provide the same light output as the 100 watt combo without the risk of a meltdown. Also put relays and upgraded wires through, STI (subaru) and pirhana make a wiring upgrade kit which includes the relays and plugs. I will be changeing to full HID soon as they only draw 35 watt (remember the lower the Kelvin rating the brighter the light) change all your other globes to LED and you can run a smaller alternator as well and get a bit more power from the motor (woops another Vic secret).

[Crazy Dave]

As most know, I lost headlights before scrutineering at Bega which turned out to be the headlight dimmer switch. The way the car is wired, the entire earthing current runs through this switch and small contact. I thought I had 100 watt high beams but when removing to check to see if they were blown it was found we had 130 watters. Obviuosly too much power and seriuosly the difference in lighting was so minimal that it doesn't seem to be worth it. I now have a heavy duty switch mounted between the seats but are still going to revert back to the standard wattage in a decent bulb as John has suggested.

Remember if you are fitting relays to the power, you need to do it to the earth in these things as well (or only) as they are earth switched.

As a good safety back up, wire in an ermegency switch to activate the spotties directly to at least get you through a stage if you loose fuses, switches etc.

[David Marriner]

and you can run a smaller alternator as well and get a bit more power from the motor (woops another Vic secret).

Slightly off topic question here, my understanding of the current rules is that apart from the explicitly stated parts which are free to be modified i.e. suspension, don't all the other parts on the car need to remain as standard excel parts? please let me know if I'm wrong.

cheers,

Dave

[Crazy Dave]

We are also to follow the PRC rules where other rules have not already defined something and they come back to they have to be in accordance with the road rules. And I don't believe the light bulb is a Hyundai manufactured item that is not a common service item.

Being such I can't see where it would be against the rules and is not against the spirit of the series (IMO). Being a safety item, lighting, I would not fail a car against such a thing at scrutineering and I believe there to be no reason to buy the rules. You cannot replace the lense with something really fancy as that is the Hyundai item that I think you are referring to.

The performance enhancement are in your spot lights and you can run anything you want there, so for now I think I would actually recommend running the lowest wattage bulbs possible to protect contacts.

By Group N rules alternator is free by design but not location or drive etc.

I wouldn't worry about the troubles of the alternator. They are reasonably small and savings won't be big. Less drag on the alternator as John has said will make some small but readible difference.

[ernysp76]

The wireing of a relay for the headlights and the driving lights is the single most important change that should be made to any car rallying as the switches are not designed to take the additional load of even a total of 50watt increase in overall current draw. If people would find it useful I'll attach a drawing or photo of how to do it as the Hyundai's like all modern cars run "live" circuits through the headlight fillaments and are switched through the negative, hence the wireing diagram that comes with all aftermarket relays is wrong. The diagram with both parhana and STI is correct. Getting the extra current up to even the standard globes gives not only a marked improvement in light output but takes the stress out of the switches.

[David Marriner]

Given that we have a our first night stages coming up this weekend we have just got around to fitting our new spotlights so I thought I'd chuck a couple of pics up. Have also fitted Hella 'Arctic Blue' globes into the headlights. I'll try to stick up a review on Sunday of how they go.

Dave

http://i111.photobucket.com/albums/n133/marrinersgarage/excel%20rally%20car/spotlights/excellights014.jpg

http://i111.photobucket.com/albums/n133/marrinersgarage/excel%20rally%20car/spotlights/excellights013.jpg

[ernysp76]

They're serious lights. The great thing with them is that apparantly you can run through several fences and even into a tree and while the rest of the car might be wrecked the lights will still be serviceable, mind you I don't suggest you try it.

[Dazz70]

The wireing of a relay for the headlights and the driving lights is the single most important change that should be made to any car rallying as the switches are not designed to take the additional load of even a total of 50watt increase in overall current draw. If people would find it useful I'll attach a drawing or photo of how to do it as the Hyundai's like all modern cars run "live" circuits through the headlight fillaments and are switched through the negative, hence the wireing diagram that comes with all aftermarket relays is wrong. The diagram with both parhana and STI is correct. Getting the extra current up to even the standard globes gives not only a marked improvement in light output but takes the stress out of the switches.

Could you please

Dazz

[ernysp76]

It's on its way, I just had to remove the HID's new rules in VIC back to the Phillips 80+. Still with relay though. I'll draw it scan it and post it in the next day if that's OK?

[Dazz70]

It's on its way, I just had to remove the HID's new rules in VIC back to the Phillips 80+. Still with relay though. I'll draw it scan it and post it in the next day if that's OK?

Thanks mate :cheers:


Dazz

[ernysp76]

Haven't forgotten just haven't been home to do this job yet.

What you will do with the relay is two things, 1) reverse the polarity negative becomes positive and positive becomes negative 2) get full power direct to the light rather than through a switch to the lights.

Hence we use the switch (hi - low) to trigger the relay, as the Excel has a positive (live switch) the regular wiring diagram that comes with every relay doesn't make sense until you realise this. So the impulse for switching the relay should come from the hi-beam wire in going into any of the headlights to the NEGATIVE terminal of the relay, the positive terminal of the relay now goes to earth on the body of the car. The Positive coming from the battery VIA a in line fuse goes to the same place as it would in the wiring diagram supplied with the relay and then goes from there to the spot lights.

To make things easier I'll just run out to my car and find the right wire at the back of the passanger side headlight you need to piggy back and attach a wire too which will go to the NEGATIVE on the relay. Back in the minute.



OK I'm back I've taken some photo's but I can't up load them as this computer doesn't have a card reader and it is a bit hard with the battery still in the car.

Here is what you have going into the headlight and you need to run a piggy back wire from:

The RED with a BLACK stipe goes to the negative on the relay block
The RED with the White Stripe goes to you spot light on/off switch and back to the inputs of the Relay Block.

If you use the type of Relay I used which has two outputs and two fuses you will be able to independantly fuse each driving light, by simply looping the RED with White Stripe from your in-car spotlight switch and onto one input then to the 2nd input.

What you'll have coming out of the relay block is good clean positive power straight from the battery to the lights.

To run a relay for the standard headlight you'll need to buy some headlight plugs and more heavy duty wire. Use the same principle as above except loop all three wires including the low beam. When you take the screw backing of the headlight you will see the plug into the head light dis-connect it and run your new looms from your relays straight to the headlights. This does away with the Hyundai Loom and should give you 14.5 volts of power to the lights. You will have reversed the polarity of the lights as well. When you do the headlights you don't need to run wires into the car as you are just piggy backing onto the existing switch.

Hope this makes sense.

[Damo666]

If its just for spotties, run the relay switching wire from the factory spotlight switch near the dash light dimmer - no need to mount any additional switches on the dash then, and as it sends a 12v+ signal you can use 'normal' wiring for the relay.

[ernysp76]

Dammo

I am only aware of the following spare live wires these being the Head Lamp Levelling Device (positive) and the Head Lamp Washer (negative). The fog light loom is not looped to the high beam switch. I did try and use it but it still controls the rear light in the bumper. There is no indication in the wireing diagrams that a wire that is actuated by the Hi/Low switch has a live wire going to the front of the car. If you know the colour it would be most helpful.

regards

John Ernst

[Damo666]

Hi John,

Yep, there are no current connections to the front of the car - you need to find the wire that activates when high beams are selcted, in the loom that runs to the back of the instument cluster (the one that turns the high beam indicatior on the dash on). Splice off this and run to one side of the switch, and then run another from the other side of the switch forward to the relay.

Ta
Damo

[Whitey]

I am using 12V from a wire behind the dash which is activated by the high beam switch on the stalk to control my driving light relays.
I will have a look and post the wire colour and location over the weekend.

[ernysp76]

Yep I could have done that as well and infact have in my road/occassional rally Excel and use a spare fog lamp switch to activate it next to the current rear fog switch, I changed the LED to green so I can tell the difference at night. I didn't do this in the rally car because I want to be quickly able to view all conections to the loom if there is a problem without pulling dash board out. Hence I chose to splice into the loom as described, we are talking about exactly the same thing just my method brings two wires (dead negative) into the car less likely to cause a problem if they short from the front and yours brings one (live positive) from the dash to the front needs to be well insulated so as not to short.

[Dazz70]

Hmm I might need a diagram for wiring the driving lights. I have fitted many sets to 4wd's etc... but non with the polarity reversed so I am a little confused. :oops:

Cheers Dazz

[wagonist]

Another way, that may be easier to understand.

On the back of the headlight, there are 3 wires.
The upper one is low beam & the opposing 2 are high beam & common.
When you wire up the trigger relay, hook up these 2 opposing wires to the opposing sides of the relay trigger circuit (normally you would hook up one wire & the other to ground)

This works on any car no matter what the polarity & you simply install a switch on one of the wires between the headlight & the relay.
I have not bothered with the switch in the past though this is not legal.