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Explain Headlight Wiring Upgrades To Me...

GhostDakota

GhostDakota

NAXJA Forum User
Location
Phoenixville, PA | Bethany, DE
So I just upgraded my headlights with the Hella HL28200 wiring harness. It's worth every penny! I would've paid several hundred dollars for the difference I am seeing right now. It's literally night and day.

I've been having discussions about this at work in regards to why it's brighter now, with the 12 gauge wire, than it was with the factory 18 gauge wire. My main conclusions are:

-Shorter wire from battery to headlights
-Relays
-Thicker (12g versus 18g) wire offers less resistance allowing more voltage to the bulbs

I am not a certified electrician, and I am having this discussion with an ASE certified tech who "knows more than I do" (He does in most regards but I have researched this for a long time) .... He is stating the thicker wires will not change anything in regards to resistance and the voltage making it to my lights (This may be true with factory bulbs, but I am running IPF H4's and Hella E code housings.). He says my lights are brighter due to the fact that these new wires are not from 1991 (aka not corroded) which is ALSO true, but not the main reason IMO.

Any help is appreciated as I think I am correct.
 
Corrosion and resistance are the major players, here.

If you have too much resistance in the line, the amount of usable power will never reach the end. Corrosion, essentially, does the same thing.

If the lowered resistance did not help, why do people upgrade battery cables and such to larger AWG wires? ;)
 
Your conclusions are correct. E=IR, Ohm's Law. basic Algebra. Less resistance equates to more current. E is Voltage, I is current and R is resistance.

The ASE guy obviously did not take or failed the Electrical Test.

Tom
 
I hear of so many ASE techs that do not know common things like this example.

Does ASE certified make them think that they can try to change physics? Are they over complicating everything?

I just do not understand how one can become ASE certified without knowing something that is the basis of electrical power.

How do you trouble-shoot a ground problem?!

Of course, this is not all of those out there that have the certification.
 
hadfield4wd said:
PM fitchva about this. He has just done one.
Click to expand...

I just did mine last night. It took me 2 hours to install the wiring upgrade for both my headlights and fog lights. The most time was spent on the fog light wiring to get it through the firewall... There's no space!! :)

I would've taken photos, but we were somewhat hurried due to time constraints.

Thanks for all the responses! It's just reinforcing that my idea's are in fact correct. I don't even know if I want to show him any of this. You know how people are when they are set in their way. He told me to show him proof though... I told him the same thing.
 
So since we are explaining, help me out. I am a little ignorant about this mod. You replace the factory headlight harness. Just some wires and relays. I can buy them, or some folks make them themselves. The headlight are a separate mod right. You replace the sealed beam bulbs with new housings and use the replaceable halogen H4 bulbs. Is the wireing a good mod on it's own, or is it no big deal if you do not do the bulb change too? How much was your hole setup?
 
Powerman said:
So since we are explaining, help me out. I am a little ignorant about this mod. You replace the factory headlight harness. Just some wires and relays. I can buy them, or some folks make them themselves. The headlight are a separate mod right. You replace the sealed beam bulbs with new housings and use the replaceable halogen H4 bulbs. Is the wireing a good mod on it's own, or is it no big deal if you do not do the bulb change too? How much was your hole setup?
Click to expand...

Factory harness is used to trigger a pair of realys which allows the headlights to pull their power straight from the battery. It would be an improvement whether you replace the sealed beams or not. I bought my harness from Big Offroad because I am too lazy to make it myself but it wouldn't be that big of a deal to make it.

I also replaced my sealed beams with the IPF comversion, using the standard 65/55 bulbs it is amazingly bright. What an improvement!

Glen
 
Buy two of these at $39.99 each:
http://www.quadratec.com/products/97017_600.htm

Buy this at $69.99 (pair) - these are blue, also available in green:
http://www.quadratec.com/products/97018_201.htm

Buy the correct harness here (Mine was $70 shipped, got it next day as they are only 1 hour from me):
http://www.rallylights.com/hella/wiring_harnesses.asp

There are upgraded harnesses for almost any conversion. I am running H4's, so I purchased the HL28200 per conversations with Susquehanna Motorsports. They are a small company, but they KNOW their stuff. Don't be scared to give them a call and ask them which headlight wiring upgrade is best for your application!

The above components are worth absolutely every penny I spent! I did have the IPF housings, but sold those and went with Hella E-codes. I am a lighting whore and want the best of the best if I can obtain it. I purchased the E-codes from Susquehanna Motorsports as well. They are not DOT legal as they are European Spec lights (E-code).
 
Last edited:
I ran my harness with Silverstar head lights for a few years before finely getting CIBIE lenses. Even with the stock type bulb, and a stock wattage the difference was quite noticeable (and this is on a 2000 XJ). If you do much night driving a harness is alone the best mod you can do. I made mine, and IIRC it came to right around $40 with 40A relays, 10awg wire, heavy duty bulb plugs, (I found them at Advance Auto), and sealed fuse holders. After switching to the CIBIE lenses, and a set of 85/90w Orsam bulbs my brights are so bright you can NOT stand to look even toward them with out shielding your eyes. The will literally leave you seeing spots for minuets after looking into them!
 
I built my own. I noticed that there were empty spots in the underhood Power Distribution Center, so I went to the local pick-n-pull and stripped out the parts from a couple of PDCs in the XJs on the lot. I put the relays and fuses in the PDC, and ran the wires to the appropriate places. Works like a charm, and looks like it came that way from the factory!
 
I havent done this on mine yet, but its certianly on the list, painless performance makes a kit for it as well, which is what I was going to buy in until bigoffrad came out with their whole kit. To the point, your xj is a 12v system, which when stock, splits power 50/50 to the headlights i.e. roughly 6v to each light, the conversion gets the whole 12v to each hadlight thats why they get soo much brighter. hope this was some help
 
IPF IPF IPF H4 12V X51 FATBOY 190W/150W Optical output XENON Bulbs anything else just isn't worth it. The factory harness should be ok with these b/c they only draw 80 and 60watts respectively. It blew every other upgrade I have tried out of the water, and with the IPF housings and harness upgrade I don't think there is much more I could ask for...except for the people in the little sedans to stop flashing their high beams at me. After all its not my fault they bought a car that seats them comfortably below my bumper and directly in the path of my piercing low beams.
And best of all they aren't blue, and they don't glow in the dark, I don't know if I could sleep at night knowing my bulbs luminesced fluorescent green.
 
I made the harnesses myself, and here is a breakdown of what I spent:

H4 light plug $5.25
2 30 amp relays $3.99/each
30' of 12 guage $6.xx

I already had the solder and heatshrink tubing, so that didn't cost me a thing. Took me about 30mins to put together the harness, and maybe an hour to get it routed the way I wanted it.
 
Michaelarchangelo said:
H4 light plug $5.25
2 30 amp relays $3.99/each
30' of 12 guage $6.xx
Click to expand...

Nice, that's what I have been searching for, a price! I was trying to decide
if I should make it or buy it from bigoffroad. I think I'll make an attempt at the assembly of them. I have read that some guys use more relays, is gojeeps harness the way to go or should I add more relays to the setup? I am using the hella vision plus and will be upgrading the bulbs to the IPF magic bulbs, maybe.
I'm going to do he harness first than upgrade the bulbs. I work at night and drive 45minutes into the mountains and pass 2 Elk herds 50-150 in size and DO NOT want to hit one. Just want to brighten the roads up without using all my offroad lights...
 
I also forgot to mention about the inline fuses which I think were ~$2.00.

I only used two relays, one for low beams, and one for high. That should be enough for almost anything you want to put in there. I have 90/100w offroad lights that I put in and left turned on for a while to see what would happen. The wires remained cool and everything worked without a problem. If you wanted to save even more, you could probably get a couple relays from a junkyard for free (you don't need a harness, just the relay). I followed gojeeps writeup and it wasn't hard at all. Kinda makes me wish I would have done it sooner!
 
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