Classic Headlight upgrade

The Mad Hat Man said:

Found this on another forum - hope it helps. It might well resolve the molten headlight plug problem and, because the headlight power is straight from the battery, will ensure maximum power goes to the lights.

View attachment 9016

the wiring diagram above is for a generic headlight wiring loom up grade and will work for both positive and negative switched headlight systems.

If the new loom is made to the diagrams set up and connections made to the vehicles existing headlight sockets, then there will be no need to cut into or alter the vehicles wiring in any way.

Once the new loom is installed, the vehicles headlight globes will now be positive switch no matter what polarity the vehicles headlight switch work by.

The reason for using 4 single pole relays instead of 2 double poled headlight relay is to increase safety. If standard double poled headlight relays are used and a fuse blows or a relay fails, you can loose either both low beam or both high beam at the same time.
By using 4 single pole relays, if a fuse blows, you will only loose 1 high beam AND 1 low beam, or if a relay fails you will only loose either 1 high beam OR 1 low beam.
This is a much safer way to operate the headlights.

The 4mm2 Automative wire is way above what is needed but by using the heavier cable, and by running an earth wire from the headlight bulb all the way to the battery, the standard headlights should be brighter and slightly whiter.

With this set up, the relays are protected by the vehicle’s existing headlight fuse but the current that is required to operate the headlights via the vehicle’s headlight switch is now about 1/50th of what was needed before the new loom was installed and this should considerably extend the operating life of the vehicles headlight switch.

Parts required..
4mm wire
2mm wire
Solder
Fuse box (or Fused Relay sockets such as VWP RS3F)

15A fuses
4 relays
4 relay bases. (or a 4way relay socket such as VWP RB4U)

Click to expand...

frog hopper said:

I have a VM turbo D Classic 1988 with twin batteries and wish to improve the lighting system.
I have studied @The Mad Hat Man wiring diagram in the FAQ bit and think I understand most of it,but I do have a couple of questions.
Does it matter which battery I take the power feed from to the fuses/relays?
Would it be better for me to use a 4 fuse system to individually protect each light both dip and main?
And an even more stupid question, why does my classic have two batteries in the first place?
Thanks for any comments.

Click to expand...

biketeacherdave said:

Just fit the crysral clear replacement headlight units job done

Click to expand...

oakey said:

I fitted nightbreakers to my D! and they warped the headlight dip switch and suddenly had no lights

Click to expand...

oakey said:

I assumed the lights had a relay but they didnt and heavy current warped the contacts methinks

Click to expand...

Colthebrummie said:

Here we go another Charlie wanting better lights for no good reason except to blind oncoming drivers. If you can't see with standard headlights maybe you should stick to daytime driving.

Col

Click to expand...

Colthebrummie said:

I have noticed recently that those cars with these very bright white headlights seem to be driven by people who like to drive aggressively, by this I mean driving as close as possible to force you to move over even at high speed and if this doesn't work they try to undertake. I'm not a slow driver by any standard, yesterday, I drove 380 miles mostly in the dark and I was struck by how many aggressive style drivers have cars with super bright lights. And, by the way, many of them were not properly aligned.

Col

Click to expand...

frog hopper said:

Well I fitted some Osram Nightbreaker bulbs yesterday, checking the alignement against marks on a wall made before I started fiddling with the lights, all seemed well.
Drove out last night and it was obvious they were pointing all over the place - well a bit anyway - adjusted them today so should be ok now.
The bulbs have made such a difference already, the old standard H4's were so dim by comparisom I didn't know they had gone out of alignment.
I really don't mind too much drivers that leave their main beam on, as long as they dip when I remind them, what really gets my goat is the number of total bustards that drive around with fogs on continually.

Click to expand...