LED hedlamp install

[Mr.Yuck]

Wisconsin Sunday Drive October 21nd. The forecast was 45 and sunny.IMAG1513.jpegIMG_1203_2.jpg

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[Mr.Yuck]

Originally Posted by Mr.Yuck

Wisconsin Sunday Drive October 21nd. The forecast was 45 and sunny.Attachment 8621Attachment 8622

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Even with halogen my lights were useless

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[Paul Workman]

Originally Posted by Mr.Yuck

Even with halogen my lights were useless

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"Useless"?? How's that? If you don't mind, I'm truly curious:

Did the lenses remain clean, or did they get covered with ice?
OR, was there so much glare from the snow that an (effective) "white-out" occurred?
Can you provide a bit more detail on what made the lights useless in you opinion?
Do you have a make/model information on your particular lights that one might investigate further?

Many of us have or are contemplating headlight upgraded using various schemes. And, I know from experience that color can make a big difference in how some upgrades do or don't work in adverse weather conditions...is my reason for asking!

.

[Mr.Yuck]

Paul, I'm running the OE halogen headlights and they were covered with ice providing no visual benefit for driving. It was a early morning pre-sunrise drive directly into a headwind of sleet and snow. It was white out conditions I don't think it would have mattered what I had for headlights. It was a very unusual and unintentional position to be in..I will be upgrading to LEDs while in hibernation regardless. I can attest from my first and only experience that our cars handle quite well in the snow...lol.

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[XfireZ51]

Originally Posted by secondchance

least intrusive method I found is to remove fog lamp relay under the passenger side dash, bend the grounding leg sideway and up (so that ground circuit is defeated), solder a wire on the ground leg and finally ground this new wire by hooping it under a 10 mm nut close to bottom of passenger side A pillar/front edge of passenger side door.
Soldering on to relay leg is pretty easy because most, if not all, relay legs have a hole where you can thread a wire before soldering.

Yun,

Would u have a pic of the relay u are talking about? Where exactly is the relay?

[XfireZ51]

So here’s an update on my installation of the OSRAM SYLVANIA projector LEDs.
They installed easily like any other headlamp. I decided to go the route of enabling the foglamps operation via wiring modification rather than introduce a resistive load defeating part of the value of LEDs, ie less current draw, brighter light.
Couple of items for the install. My ZR is a late 92 #454.

1. The 92 FSM INDICATES that the foglamp relay is the one closest to the radio and center console. At least on mine, it is the one closest to the door. You need to identify the relay by looking for the light green wire going to the correct relay.

2. In addition, the relay terminal to be modified is terminal 86. Unfortunately, using Yun’s method is not possible, ie bending the relay leg back. That’s because that leg would interfere w the relay next to it. My modification involved drilling a hole at the bottom of relay leg 86. Then soldering a wire to the bottom of that leg. I used a Dremel cutting tool to cutoff the leg leaving about 1/8” stub along w the soldered wire. Put a ground ring on the other end and ground that wire. I used a firewall stud closest to the door opening and which retains the instrument pad. Plug modified relay back into its socket after taping over remainder of stub for Terminal 86.

It worked.

[secondchance]

Originally Posted by XfireZ51

Unfortunately, using Yun’s method is not possible, ie bending the relay leg back. That’s because that leg would interfere w the relay next to it.

Sorry. I missed your earlier post asking for a relay pic and location.
Perhaps I did not make it clear - relay leg can be bent sideways first followed by another bend "up" to clear the adjacent relay - double bend.

[XfireZ51]

Originally Posted by secondchance

Sorry. I missed your earlier post asking for a relay pic and location.
Perhaps I did not make it clear - relay leg can be bent sideways first followed by another bend "up" to clear the adjacent relay - double bend.

Yun,

Thanks for chiming in. I don’t recall u mentioning a “double bend” but I am glad u took the time to clarify it here. I mentioned my “solution” to Marc H at lunch last week, and he was suggesting the same approach. I also took down some of the outer perimeter to the relay so the now soldered wire would not be pinched when the relay is positioned back in the harness connector. The error in the FSM cost me $15 for a new relay.

Turning the headlamps on in the garage showed a crisp cutoff. Need to look at high beams also. I’ll try taking pics either in a dark garage or outside in the night.

[Subfixer]

Looks like I'm going in this direction also....
Drove to work this morning at 5:30am and I couldn't see jack. Even the high beams were lame.
Current headlights are the 1992 original halogens. (19K miles).

[-=Jeff=-]

Yeah OEM are weak. I am using glass conversions with H4 halogen bulbs. Some day I might switch to LED