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Model specific boards => Golf mk2 => Topic started by: leeroy20vt on 02 February 2010, 17:21
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i have searched on this and most people are sayin there gettin around 10.5 volts thru there loom i have just checked mine and with engine running im gettin 12.5 volts
so my question is it worth doin the uprated loom for an extra volt
cheers
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The difference between 10.5 and 12.5 is nearly 20%, so considering how poor the standard lights are, I would say every bit helps.
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i guess ur rite but would another volt and a half make much dfference
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I had problems with my lights, and after a bit of research realised that all the switching was done via the stalk (and not vis a relay). I used the plug a the back of the head lights to trigger a new relay (which took power from the battery via a new fuse), and the difference was amazing...BIG BRIGHT LIGHTS, well worth doing, and costs very little.
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I used to get around 12.7V at the lights before i did my loom, and i thought the same thing as you, is it worth it. I did it, and i know for a fact that it IS definately worth it! Basically, the thicker, shorter wires have lower resistance, and since the voltage from the battery is the same, the current will increase. This means more power to the bulbs, hence brighter.
In short, its worth doing...
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cheers for that well i got all the bits today then checked it and thought wat a waste of money shall get on it tommorow and get some pics
did u 2 do dipped and main beam or just dipped
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Sorry to be scientific, but I believe the percentage increase is not proportional to the voltage, but to the voltage squared. So 12 volts increased to 14 volts; the power increase is 144 to 196 which is 36 percent increase!!!!!!
Anyway, try conecting a thick wire direct from the battery to the headlight main (or dipped) beam directly and check out the difference. :smiley:
Suck it and see.
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Sorry to be scientific, but I believe the percentage increase is not proportional to the voltage, but to the voltage squared. So 12 volts increased to 14 volts; the power increase is 144 to 196 which is 36 percent increase!!!!!!
Anyway, try conecting a thick wire direct from the battery to the headlight main (or dipped) beam directly and check out the difference. :smiley:
Suck it and see.
This gets my post of the night award, for geekiness :nerd: :nerd: :nerd: :nerd:
:grin:
Thom
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Sorry to be scientific, but I believe the percentage increase is not proportional to the voltage, but to the voltage squared. So 12 volts increased to 14 volts; the power increase is 144 to 196 which is 36 percent increase!!!!!!
Anyway, try conecting a thick wire direct from the battery to the headlight main (or dipped) beam directly and check out the difference. :smiley:
Suck it and see.
This gets my post of the night award, for geekiness :nerd: :nerd: :nerd: :nerd:
:grin:
Thom
good maths skills :afro:
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cheers for that well i got all the bits today then checked it and thought wat a waste of money shall get on it tommorow and get some pics
did u 2 do dipped and main beam or just dipped
Lee Stick up some pics and a list of parts!! :smug:
Ta Mate!! :cool:
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cheers for that well i got all the bits today then checked it and thought wat a waste of money shall get on it tommorow and get some pics
did u 2 do dipped and main beam or just dipped
Lee Stick up some pics and a list of parts!! :smug:
Ta Mate!! :cool:
I did my dipped only and it makes main beam look crap and really yellow, you might aswell do both to get it good.
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If you do dip and main, you'll have to your spots as well.
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If you do dip and main, you'll have to your spots as well.
If you do dip and main, you'll have to your spots as well.
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i havent go spots on mine but im guessing if i do main it will automaticly do spots for if/when i put them in
will get some pics up of parts ect all i got so far is is 2 relays some connectors and a few bits of wire lol
if i do main as well will just need to double what i got
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original spots are spliced into the H4 connectors, so you dont HAVE to relay them they'll still work even if main headlight plugs are completly disconnected. thing is the spots are still pretty damn bright even if not relayed, obv be brighter if you do. comes down to how often you use your main beams, relaying the dipped beams is prob gonna see the most benefid day to day, unless you live out in the countryside and do a lot of night driving.
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cheers rj
i still havent got round to doin this weather has been pants blah blah lol but have also been getting a few bits ready for rolling road on monday cant wait to get her set up properly been a long 500 miles i can tell ya
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Any thoughts on where the best place to buy all of the relevant compontents is? I popped into Halfrauds the other day and saw that fused relays were about £7.50 each! :shocked:
A quick calculation, and I reckon that you are looking at £25 all in for compontents! There must be somewhere cheaper...
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i got mine from a local motorfactors if there still called that the relays were just under 3.50 each i spent 10.30 or somethink like that which didnt think was do bad
all u need is 30amp relays might be worth lookin on the bay
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Maplins.
Maplin relays £1.98 each
Fuse holder bout £5 i think
Connecters bout £3 for a bag.
Dunno bout wire because i was tight and used some i had allready.
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go scrappy and aquire pocketfull of relays, IMO your best off soldering to the relay tags and dipping in resin aftermarket rellays holders are crap and crimps can fall off.
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go scrappy and aquire pocketfull of relays, IMO your best off soldering to the relay tags and dipping in resin aftermarket rellays holders are crap and crimps can fall off.
cheers danny i think it may have been one of ur how tos i see with resin round them
im not sure were to mount the relays either im sure somethink will come up
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drill holes in the block of resin round the relays worked for me.
would put link to website but i was pissing around with it and sort of accidenly killed it this afternoon
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http://www.dannyp.info/how-2/uprated-lighting-loom
my overkill version, usefull comments welcome as currently motivated to poke site with sticks
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be interesting to see how your H4s last with both filaments on, heard reports they dont like this and die quickly. also took me a while to figure out your diagram till I realised that was just for 1 side! Proper overkill :cool:
With mine I use 3 realys, 1 per side for dipped and 1 for main. never bothered with fogs as they dont do much anyway, but I might experiment with this and see what kind of difference it makes.
Oh, and are those green relays from french? look familiar from my citroen ax fixing days (my girlfriends car)
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the relays came from the big bucket "o" relays seen those coloured ones in french cars but i think these ones would be Rover ( shock horror )
i was in a modular desing mood when doing this loom hence 1 module per side, think the only reason i included the fogs was because i chould and they may help light the hedges.
the intrestig thing is the H4 bulb life, i think it massivly depends on the bulbs you have fitted. i've had nightbrakers wired up to double fillament in the past and there life expectancy was proably reduced but still accseptable, some cheep bulbs may object quite strongly tho i've had them fail very rapidly but they dont seem to last very long when used normaly, the beating there getting from the roads round here and my suspention proably din't help tho
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its just one of those things that 'they' say, not something I've ever looked at myself. not really felt the need to as quad lamp grille does damn fine job at full beam at any rate :)
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quad light is much better than singel for night driveing. do get a fair bit more light with loom upgrade tho, nightbraker bulbs make a massive differance as well tho even with std loom
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I used Maplin relays also. I have five relays, one per side for dipped and full beam (again one box for each side), and then one for the fog lights, which make a very big difference to me. I used to have the quad lamp grille, but now have single and big bumper fogs, and this is much better i find.
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well done the dipped beam tonight could see a noticable differnce even in the day light so another cheap worthwhile mod me thinks
i started of with 12.50 volts and now have 13.79 volts didnt think that 1 volt would make much difference sopose tonight il be able to tell better :smiley:
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the light output of a halogen buld dosent have a linear relationship to voltage
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the light output of a halogen buld dosent have a linear relationship to voltage
wat is it them m8 amps ?? or somethink else
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nether, output isn't linear to power consumption nor is buld life belive it or not !
halogen bulbs have some intresting properties
power consumption is relative to voltage, but
less than rated voltage means filament runs cooler so light output is signifactly reduced and the halogen effect dosent work properly light output is reduced by about 20% for 1 volt reduction, life reduced a bit, go over 1 volt and light output goes up but bulb life roughly halved, exact valuse depend on bulb constuction, but they all have quite a narrow optimal operating sweet spot.
and 12v car bulbs arnt ether 12v just to make it more intresting
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nether, output isn't linear to power consumption nor is buld life belive it or not !
halogen bulbs have some intresting properties
power consumption is relative to voltage, but
less than rated voltage means filament runs cooler so light output is signifactly reduced and the halogen effect dosent work properly light output is reduced by about 20% for 1 volt reduction, life reduced a bit, go over 1 volt and light output goes up but bulb life roughly halved, exact valuse depend on bulb constuction, but they all have quite a narrow optimal operating sweet spot.
and 12v car bulbs arnt ether 12v just to make it more intresting
hmmm might have to have a read up on this just to understand :nerd:
will the loom handle 100/80 watt bulbs ?? from what i read they will but didnt want to go to ott
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"Will the loom handle 100/80 watt bulbs?"
Well, if each side is relayed seperately, then dipped beam is only 80 watts, so that's about 6 amps each side. Each main beam side would be 100w main bulb + 55w inner spot bulb, total 155 watts, about 13 amps.
If you've relayed each side with decent sized cable, and given that there's not much of a length of cable for each side, then things ought to be fine.
If you have only one relay for dipped, that will still be OK at about 16 amps, but if you've only one relay for all four main beam bulbs, that would be about 26 amps.. pushing things a bit, unless you use a 40amp relay. Relaying each side seperately would be better.
But as I said way back on page one or two of this thread, why not give it a try. Pop in a 100/80 bulb on one side, switch them on at night and see what it looks like. You can check the voltage at the bulb to get an idea of whether the cable is being overloaded (the closer the bulb voltage is to the battery voltage the better)
Bulbs from discountcarbulbs.com, £24.99 for ten. Then bulb life won't matter much!!
Enjoy your night driving.
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Re: above post.
Sorry, line four should read 12 amps, not 16 amps. Timesing bt two is not my strong point!!
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i ran 55/130 w H4 bulbs on my uprated loom and 130w spots not problem, use 2.5mm cabel for carrying the power to relays and it's no problem.
std loom 80/100 is a bit much if spots are involved as well, if not it'll cope as in not burn but voltage drop will be a littel more
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i have 2 relays 1 for each side of the dipped beam with about 2.5mm live wire and about 1.5 earth if that makes any difference i dont have the middle spots either single light grille
so if i got somethink like this as a example http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=270527893298
i sopose i should upgrade main beam aswell
just with the standard bulbs i have the difference is quite impressive
cheers for the help