ZX H/lights

Village · Post by **Village** » 20 Dec 2005, 09:22

Does the ZX have relays in the head light circuit? I'm asking because I've got hold of some Ring uprated (80W) bulbs form a guy at work who was (suprise suprise) given the wrong advice by his Citroen main stealer regarding uprating the lights on his C5 Executive V6.

I had 80/100 H4 bulbs in the Cavalier and the fella in the shop said that 100w was as high as I should go without h/light relays (didn't at the time know that the cav does have relays, so could have gone for the 100/130 jobbies)

whilst I'm here, can I uprate the fog light bulbs too, if so what is a safe maximum. Although, if the headlights improve with these new bulbs, I can stop driving around with the fogs on!

Laters
Pete

sooty · Post by **sooty** » 20 Dec 2005, 19:44

These bulbs are not Road Legal and should only be used for off road purpose's like rallying etc.

rossnunn · Post by **rossnunn** » 21 Dec 2005, 00:45

I've upgraded the blubs in the ZX for 4x Phillips Vision Plus's & a get of H4's for the front foggies giving a 50% & 30% more light on the road & the result is much better, much whiter light the light is also further down the road.

Village · Post by **Village** » 21 Dec 2005, 09:12

thanks for the tips.

Sooty: I know that the bulbs are illegal and for off road use only; however, so is driving with my fog lights on. If I turn the foggies off, I can't see where I'm going, so at some point I'm going to not see a corner and end up off road anyway!!

Now whilst I'm not encouraging you folks out there to break the law, You know that you all do it sometimes.

I do it every day wher i drive without a license, insurance, MOT, road tax, and off my head on class A drugs, oh and drunk too!!

I would like to point out that the previous paragragh was in fact A JOKE. Done for comedy effect.

I'm going to fit the bulbs anyway, because I value my safety over the miniscule chance that I might be stopped and the copper hoiks out the bulb to read the rating.

jeremy · Post by **jeremy** » 21 Dec 2005, 09:32

You have a TD ZX which I would expect to have the 4 headlamp system which should give a good performance (Reflex has a single system). If it does not then there are 2 possible reasons - the most likely of which is the simplest - namely alignment.

Just about every car I have bought has had its headlamps set far too low. I know they are tested on an alignment machine for4 the MOT but most testers are only concerned to see that the lamps don't dazzle and so leave the lamps set low.

To check you need some tape of chalk and a coat. Find a wall or something at the edge of a flat area, drive the car up to the wall and mark the centres of the main beam units on the wall with the tape. Drive the car 20 or 25 feet back in a straight line, put the main beam on and put your coat over one light. The high spot of the beam should be pointing slightly below the mark and straight. Do the same the other side and get the alignment corrected if necessary (or do it yourself)

The other possibility is poor electrics - the lights should be very bright and certainly on my ZX 1.9D they seem very bright. If you think they are not at full briliance try jumping the power to a main beam filament and see if when you connect straight to the battery if the thing gets brighter. Do the same for the earth. Obviously if it gets much brighter then you have an electrical problem.

I'm sure you windscreen is very clean inside and out and has no additional tint on it.

wilkobob · Post by **wilkobob** » 21 Dec 2005, 18:11

Off topic, but thanks jeremy, ive been after some instructions like that for ages!

sooty · Post by **sooty** » 21 Dec 2005, 23:33

If your Headlamps are as old as the car and has high mileage, no doubt the glass front has millions of pitting from stone chips etc over the years use.
This will cause the light to be impared and no matter how much voltage you get at your Bulb connection by running heavier wiring etc, it will never be as good as a new lamp assembly with the standard wiring.

So with the cost of these super bulbs and additional wiring, relays etc, would it be better to replace the headlamp units. As someone did on the old 'Andyspares forum' and made the comment as being brilliant with the standard bulbs.

Village · Post by **Village** » 22 Dec 2005, 13:44

just off to GSF to see how much headlamp lenses are......

Village · Post by **Village** » 22 Dec 2005, 13:50

.... 30 odd squid each

rossnunn · Post by **rossnunn** » 22 Dec 2005, 18:35

two posts? thats a price for each side?

sooty · Post by **sooty** » 27 Dec 2005, 21:58

Following on with the topic of better Headlights.

Has the ZX, the facility to insert relays in place of wired links in the fuse box under the dash or in the relay box under the bonnet, as some other makes of cars do.