s1fu Posted June 10, 2013 Share Posted June 10, 2013 I've had some Philips Xtreme Power +80% bulbs in the car for 3 years now. Surprisingly they haven't blown but they have gone dimmer and yellower. TBH, I should have replaced them last winter, I've no Idea why I'm doing this now. Did some research on the internets and started reading about relay harnesses that enable you to run the bulbs straight off the battery/alternator with minimal voltage drop. In order to get electricity to the bulb, wires run to the bulb from the fusebox, into the dash through the stalk switch, then back out through the firewall into the bulb. Thats a very long path to take.I've taken measurements with a DMM; voltage at the bulb was 12.2V and the alternator was pumping out 14.3V. Thats a drop of 2.1V. After a week these showed up: Osram Night Breaker Plus +90% H4 Bulbs I thought I'd try Osram bulbs this time since I had Philips bulbs before. Price: £11 Delivered. H4 Relay Harness The harness took about a week to arrive from Thailand. Cost: £18 Delivered. Installing took about 30 minutes. Change the bulbs. Use the new connectors from the relay harness and plug them into the bulbs. Connect the stock H4 connector to the input of the new harness. Hook up your +ve and -ve from the relay harness and you're done. The results: Both bulbs are Osram Night Breakers, however the drivers side bulb was connected to the stock loom. You can clearly see the 2.1V difference. Sharper cut-off, wider beam and generally brighter. The Osram Night Breakers are somewhere on the verge of being pure white. They have a very slight tinge of yellow to them. Thats to be expected as they are not styling bulbs like the Philips BlueVision Ultras or the Osram Cool Blue Intense. Those will probably give you a pure white/blue-y colour. Brighter whiter light without the stupid glare. I've been there and done that with HID kits. Too much glare and IMO they just look stupid without projectors.The Night Breaker Plus Bulbs with the Relay Harness lived up to my expectations. It's too bad I don't have a OEM bulb to compare it to as the differences would be huge.Now, the only problem is bulb life. I'll just have to wait and see to know how long these bulbs last. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Amjad Posted June 10, 2013 Share Posted June 10, 2013 (edited) Nice write up! I went from HIDs to some generic blue bulbs because I couldn't deal with the hassle from 5-0 when they brought in the new rules. Currently they're a bit dim but I'll be using HIDs on my GT Edited June 10, 2013 by Amjad Quote Link to post Share on other sites
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