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Headlight Upgrades.

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xj1999sport

NAXJA Forum User
Location
Palmdale CA
I have come to the conclusion that my headlights are the worst headlights i have ever seen in my life and i want to upgrade them. I dont want to spend too much money but i want to see a big difference. I searched for threads and they say i will see little to no difference without an upgraded wiring harness as well, is this completely true? A lot of the headlamps i looked at said i would only need a better wiring harness for bulbs that are more powerful then the 55/60 watt bulbs. Will i see a difference with H4 bulbs and new headlamps? If so whats the best/cheapest route to go?
 
You get what you pay for. I bought IPF housings with fat boy bulbs and upgraded the wire harness and the results were amazing. A stock xj's lights can not hardly be seen when shining down the street next to mine. But to answer your question anything would be better then the factor lights.
 
YES. Right now I am running the IPF housings and some cheapo xenon bulbs I picked up with them from qudratec. I do not have a new harness yet and there is a HUGE difference. Will be even more difference when I do get a new harness.

Honestly, depending on the harness you get, its only an extra 20-40$ and is basically plug n pray.

So, definitely IPF housings + whatver bulbs you want + harness. There is a putco h4 harness good for 100w bulbs on amazon for like 32$
 
I did not upgrade the harness, but I did the IPF housings and IPF MagicBlue bulbs. You will see an immediate improvement over stock. I've not ridden in an XJ with the Hella H4 housings, but the beam pattern on the IPF's is wider than the sealed beam units. I think the FatBoy's are a little on the pricey side, but the IPF housings with a quality H4 bulb make a world of difference. The housings ( IPF 820H ) are around $30-$40 each, depending where u look, and a quality pair of bulbs, anywhere from $30-$60. I think it's your best option, considering the price and complexity of HID upgrades (harness upgrades and ballast location) along with the fact that everyone's seems to be trying to outlaw them.
 
hella housings here with sylvania silverstar ultra bulbs (kid before me put em in) with the stock harness, light was awesome. upgraded the harness and hot DAMN its much better. light output increased and color got way whiter.

my old jeep was silverstar sealed beams with the upgraded harness and even that was a good upgrade.
 
I ran Sylvania bulbs in my autopal housings with no harness uprade and the difference was amazing - for one night. The next night, I had no lights because the headlight switch burned out due the extra current flowing through it. I now have HIDs and they're awesome. Probably gonna replace the housing though with an IPF instead of the Autopal.
 
Do the harness. It's not much more expense, and it sucks when you think you can get away without it and burn up your headlight switch. Then it's more cost.
 
I would do the harness first. .Major upgrade.. Made mine with wire, relays and time. Junkyard Silverstars at $2 a piece and im happy.. Did not like the Hella beam pattern.
 
I didnt know they were that cheap i thought they were pretty expensive then again i was just guessing haha. If they are that cheap ill just do it all.
 
xj1999sport said:
I didnt know they were that cheap i thought they were pretty expensive then again i was just guessing haha. If they are that cheap ill just do it all.
Click to expand...


The major benefit is brighter headlamps, even stock. It also provides an upgrade path to brighter lights. One cool benefit is now your headlight switch won't overheat and/or melt it's harness connector. You know that's only gonna happen when you need your headlights the most.........
 
xj1999sport said:
I didnt know they were that cheap i thought they were pretty expensive then again i was just guessing haha. If they are that cheap ill just do it all.
Click to expand...
Some of them are spendy, but there is not much difference. The ARB is stupid expensive, because of the name.
I will be going either with the lmctruck one or the putco one. Both are rated for 100w, vs the eautoworks which is rated for 55w.
 
Johnnie Walker said:
Some of them are spendy, but there is not much difference. The ARB is stupid expensive, because of the name.
I will be going either with the lmctruck one or the putco one. Both are rated for 100w, vs the eautoworks which is rated for 55w.
Click to expand...


Interesting. Where did you find the ratings for the eautoworks harness? On their website, they recommend it for high wattage headlamps.
 
I would do a harness upgrade before anything else. Stock lights on a Cherokee are decent so if yours are poor then you definitely are getting voltage drop across the stock wiring. Choose your route. If you are decent with wiring a harness is easy to build (search the site gojeep did a very nice diagram a while back on his own site). If you choose to buy one be weary you get what you pay for with ebay junk. Make sure with either route you choose that it has good waterproof fuse holders. I built mine with 10AWG wire, but if you never plan to run high wattage bulbs then 16AWG would do you just fine.
 
Johnnie Walker said:
Some of them are spendy, but there is not much difference. The ARB is stupid expensive, because of the name.
I will be going either with the lmctruck one or the putco one. Both are rated for 100w, vs the eautoworks which is rated for 55w.
Click to expand...


I was concerned after reading this so I contacted Jason at eautoworks today

He said the harnesses are rated for 100 watts and if anyone has any questions to contact him. His email is [email protected].

I also questioned him about the shipping rates and he said he would discount the rate for forum members and to contact him directly to take advantage of the offer..
 
Stock wiring harness, 5-90's upgraded 5 main, made a notable difference on my sealed beams when I did the switch,

one Cibie w/ 55/60 Osram one Sealed beam

013.jpg
 
Agreed that 5-90's cable upgrades help with a multitude of electrical shortcomings on XJs. I highly recommend them.

OTOH, having the headlight harness further increases the brightness of your headlamps and takes the amperage load out of your headlight switch as an added bonus. These Jeeps melted headlight switch harness connectors with stock wiring. Adding only higher amp draw beams is only gonna make it worse.

I suggest upgrading both your main cables/grounds and installing the headlight harness.
 
cruiser54 said:
Harness is $19 or so from www.eautoworks.com. I've installed 3 of them so far. Big difference, even with off the shelf halogens. Search their site for SJ81004 to get the right one. It's the one shown for H4 BTW.
Click to expand...

I installed that tonight along with IPF housings, and Hella 100/80 bulbs...worked great, but now all of a sudden, the pass side is VERY dull....any ideas??? Ground maybe?? It doesn't want to switch to high beams either.
 
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