high power headlamps.

purchased a

them on

lamp area,

or the

is?

Probably the former; too much power for wiring, or an already bad connection made worse by the higher load of the new bulbs. What I did before was to feed straight from the battery (fused close to the battery) through 2 relays (high and low beam) which were in turn switched on/off from the original wiring.

This is the only safe way. Wiring is often barely adequate even for the standard bulbs (Escort mk6 springs to mind here - over 1v drop through the wiring loom on main beam with standard bulbs.)

They'll also be much brighter with relays as the voltage drop will be much less. Keep the wire length minimal, using 25amp wire direct from the battery terminals for the main bus and earth, and 15 amp wire to individual bulb terminals.

I hope the OP's wiring loom isn't too badly charred!

The Dervboy

What car? some cars have plastic reflectors.

If its coming from the Headlamp itself, 99% of the time it will be the plastic lense cover, like you get on Focus's and most new Clear lense headlamps, if it was wiring your lights would have gone out by now, normally the switch itself will blow before the wiring.

Ron

One, the other, or both.

Er, leave it as it is.

?!?!?

ROFLMAO...serves you right. You do know they're illegal don't you? Also have you FUCK ALL consideration for other road users as you'll blind the shit out of them.

BTW, that burning smell was the insulation on your car wiring loom.

No it isn't. I drive 1500 miles a week on nights, I can tell the difference. As for illegal, oh yes they are.

A few points:

1) No EU approval mark 2) C&U regs.

Illegal maybe, but never enforced, just like misuse of fog lights

I got a bit of a shock the other day; some dumb looking girl was following me in a peugeot with the front fog lights on. I turned on my rear fog lights (which are particulary irritating on the astra). Within 1/2 mile she'd turned them off. Result! I then returned the courtesy by switching off my rear fog lights off.

The Dervboy

I know one person who's been stopped for using them, and have met a copper who says it's his pet hate and stops everyone he sees abusing them

Using M2, Opera's revolutionary e-mail client:

Did you ever find the wobbling of the spot lamps driving you mad?

That's nothing new, see 44 ton lorry's swerving all over the motorway all the time, normally it's because the driver is either a: pissed b: asleep c: just picked up a hitchhiker and in the process of strangleing/murdering her.

Ron

It's option D usually...trying to play GTA3 on the playstation whilst making a brew.

You mean you were too stupid to look through the windscreen and see the loom of approaching lights?

HID lamps have a *far* greater light output than 110 watt tungsten. If a lamp dazzles, it's because it's wrongly set. Of course, when the car hits a bump, the lights may well 'kick' up into your eyes. That's why fog lights are illegal to use in normal conditions - the lower the light the more likely this is to happen.

LOL. All we need now is a way of tying in the steering controls to the PS2 joypad.

*If* the higher power bulb is identical in optics to the correct one it shouldn't make any difference to the aim of the light. But I'd guess this is often not the case.

I was running 100s in my car for a while (until they kept blowing) and the beam pattern was absolutely identical to that of the 50s. So I fail to see how having the brighter bulbs will actually make a difference, never got flashed either. Though I do have projection lenses and the beam height is very low.

And while we are insulting one another, are you to blind to spot the key words, like "bends" (aka "corners"). Perhaps you'd like to try spotting a vehicle around the corner where the view is obstructed by trees. These were typically very twisty lanes barely wide enough for two cars, where one is almost continually changing gears.

Now, suppose you're changing gear when you get sight of the oncoming vehicle, which has just appeared round the corner, some 50 yards from you. Do you leave the gear lever in some undefined position while you grab the switch, or do you finish the gearchange and then dip the headlights, heh?

The Dervboy

Shame there aren't more of them (coppers who will stop people for it) I've seen a couple of plod mobiles driving round with front fogs on locally, luckily I recognised them as cop cars before flashing them.