The AUSubaru.com.au Forums

In short - mine suck. The park lights on Mum's Kia are brighter than my low beams.

Is there any quick way of making them better. ie new bulbs or something?

if they r sealed beams you can get a conversion kit to make them semi sealed and then put some farily bright globes in them
any good auto shop should have or be able to get them

ive but those u/beut so called phillips bulbs in mine & the lights are marginally better... waste of money i reckon.....i think the only way is put driving lights on em hey......but ive also heard the imported models had better lights in em.....

but ive also heard the imported models had better lights in em.....

That is right, sort of. They definately shine a lot better but I don't know that it is because of a better light. I think it is usually because the lens/reflector is in much better condition. They are unusually bright, crisp clear looking when you compare the two.

Also L series wiring is ****. Re-wire the headlights right through the car and you will see a marked improvement. New wire and better relays (I recommend the NLR-132 New era head light relay - fused) make the difference especially when fitted with new or better lights.

on mine there was over 1volt drop measuring at the light bulb connector - rather ridiculous really.
I think indeed it would be a great idea removing all that heavy conductor wiring from under the dash, and rewire with relays closer to the lights.
However 20yr old reflectors weren't much good either, also one had leaked water in, damaging the reflector as you can imagine.......

*cough* HID's rice for some but will make l series lights 100% better and brighter!

The Jap lights had a better reflector plus they didnt have the globe cover the Oz ones had

Hi all , yep my RX has a few problems in this area mainly becaust the nearside light has I think a buggered internal nylon pivot and the reflector section floats around like a jock in a sock . A replacement from Pick an Payless will fix that but whats the story with the Japanese lights ? Mine has the H4's with that tin cage in front of them so what L's got the Jap lighs so I can locate a pair ?

Also headlight wiring . My offside H4 plug looks partly fried most likely because it had a 100/90A globe in it and it runs quite hot . Thats now temporarily in the stuffed light and the normal 60/55A in the good one . I HATE maggoty headlight wiring so this car will have to be improved . Can anyone with a wiring diagram tell me if a 9/86 RX-T sedan has relayed lights and basically how the system works . I'd say its earth switched but some manufactures go to extravagent lengths to make weird latching relay systems to save the cost of ONE relay . In my perfect world there would be two relays , one switching power up to the lights and another to switch the earths for high or low beam filiments . Not sure how Sube does it .

Cheers and thanks , Adrian .

Pirhana products do a wiring loom which is simple to install. I had one on a WB p.Van. Most excellent

PeeJay wrote:Is there any quick way of making them better. ie new bulbs or something?

Yes. A good set of diriving lights. Many Subaru models have under-inspiring lights - all roads in Japan have street lighting.

When i finish the turbo conversion, i plan to rewire the headlights with heavy gauge wire directly from the alternator, with a relay behind eack light, that should give me over 13v at the lights when the car is running

i just bought some decent driving lights..problem solved! as u can see in my sig pic

alex

discopotato03 wrote:I'd say its earth switched but some manufactures go to extravagent lengths to make weird latching relay systems to save the cost of ONE relay . In my perfect world there would be two relays , one switching power up to the lights and another to switch the earths for high or low beam filiments . Not sure how Sube does it .

You got it in one adrian, subi's are earth switched. This is how i've wired up my spotties (if you do the "conventional" positive wire switch the spotties come on after the lights are turned off...).

How all of this works with the relays for the standard lights i'm not entirly sure, is there a wiring diagram in that subaru pdf manual that has a link from this forum?

Hope this helps. I dunno if i can be bothered re-wiring my headlights just yet - the driving lights do a really good job - til you dim to low beam...

Cheers

From what I've seen most people have a manual "arming" switch and have the relay for auxilary lights triggered by the earthing of the high beam circuit . That way they only work on high beam and the arming or master switch gives you the option not to use them .

Cheers A .

discopotato03 wrote:From what I've seen most people have a manual "arming" switch and have the relay for auxilary lights triggered by the earthing of the high beam circuit . That way they only work on high beam and the arming or master switch gives you the option not to use them .

Cheers A .

Yeah, got that too. Its a legal requirement in vic to have this (the switch "on/off" and the lights only to work on highbeam when switched on - fog lights are different and are allowed to operate with the parkers). Its also good for when my low beams are playing up or when i want extra light rather than low beams, just dip the spotties and use high beam. The early AU ford's lowbeams are much brighter than my standard high beams... that sucks.

Cheers