need some advice on "Heliolite Xenon Wht H13" 100/80w bulbs.
will they work without any issue's on my 2006 ram? will these throw a "lamp out" code?

i need better lighting from my headlights. i have Hella High Perf. Xenon Blue now but need a brighter light. getting difficult to see at night. any advice/recommendations will be greatly appreciated. thx

 

"i have Hella High Perf. Xenon Blue now but need a brighter light. getting difficult to see at night. any advice/recommendations will be greatly appreciated. thx"Try taking your sunglasses off.Sorry (I think) but you walked right into that one.

 

I would be concerned about melting or over heating your factory wires. You might have to look into a new headlight harness with upgraded wires and run relays directly from the battery. Infact you might consider doing this first instead of going to a higher bulb. One thing I would do is measure the voltage at the headlight socket and make sure your getting 13 volts. If not then a new harness hooked directly to the battery would make the lights alot brighter.

Second suggestion, is to ditch any bulbs with a "tinted" glass. I have yet to see one that shines better then a clear bulb.

Good Luck

 

Also, take into consideration what the other drivers will be facing while you are coming at them!

I have some difficulties when cars are coming at me and especially when the car has 1 million watt laser beams flooding the road, and trees, and stars.

 

i am taking the others that share the road with me into consideration. that's why i havent resorted to "HID's' or adding "offroad lights" to the front of my truck. i'm trying to gain better vision using a bulb that will fit the stock headlight assembly of my 06 ram and displace more light for me to see where things are in the night. (highbeams mostly) i would hate to run over a 8'-10' alligator or a hog on the road going to and from work.

thanks for that feedback

 

I tired to PM you back but you have your account set up to not allow PM's.

Here's what I tried to send you...

John,
sorry for the delayed response. The wiring kit I am talking about is usually sold buy the big lighting companies (Hella, piaa, etc). Really is a generic kit that consist of heavier wires and a relay or two. You can make one yourself for about half of what they want. Just look at the picture of the kits and you will see what you need. For relays, I try and stay away from getting the cheap generic autozone versions (like "blazer" brands) they tend not to last very long. I like to spend a couple more bucks and buy ones that fit in OEM places. Another great place to get these things are at Salvage yards, just pull the engine bay fuse boxes on some later model fords and you will get 4-5 good relays per car. I like the 5-post style better then the 4-post style, they are both exactly the same, it's just the 5th post has 2 highout power wires instead of just one.

I have made a couple of these for a couple of jeeps because the factory voltage to the head lights are pretty low (I have seen as low as 11.2 volts). What happens is that by the time the power is directed to the headlights it has gone through WAY too much wiring, computers, mutiple relays, etc and all of them loose some energy. The first thing I would do is measure your voltage at the headlight socket to see what your actual voltage is. If the voltage to lower then say 12.5 volts then a wire upgrade might be in order.

The thing you need to be very careful about when adding higher watt bulbs is the increased amp draw on the factory system. 55 watts / 12 volts= 4.5amps per light; increasing that load to say 80w/12v=6.6amps per light. It might not seem like alot but it could very likely be enough to melt your small gauge factory wiring or a least heat it up and increase the load on the computer. Always remember your biggest enemies for wiring are too much lenght, to small of gauge, and low voltage, all = higher amp draw. When in doubt run larger gauge, the only down side is alittle added expense.

 

i run the higher watt bulbs in my truck no issues, and i have the lights amied down a bit, so no problems with other cars. seems to be fine so far.

 

i tried the omniX hids $279 and the kit from AAC $289, my brother bought one of the $60 kits from ebay and guess what exact same stuff as the others same exact low quality "japanese" crap! Sylvania silverstars are brighter than both of the bixenon kits i have had. The only thing the xenon does is give a great big glare and makes street signs blind you from the reflection. I replaced the stock with new silverstars and mounted some off-road 9" and 7" hellas best thing ive ever done for long hwy driving, i can see everything.
the other day i saw a mouse cross the road about a mile ahead of me.

 

I have no doubt you running higher watt bulbs and getting away with it, but take this into consideration. The factory wiring to the headlights is tiny. I am going to guess it's something like an 18 gauge wire. So to figure amp draw we need a wire length, I'm gonna say 10 of wire from the power source to the bulb (completely a guess).

So lets do some quick calculations, (truck has a 12V system).
Factory bulbs are 55/65 watts.

So (factory bulbs)
-@ 55w/12v there is a 4.58 amp draw.
a 12v / 18g wire (w/4.58 amp draw) @ 10 foot long looses .603 volts (or has a 11.4v output)

-@ 65w/12v there is a 5.41 amp draw.
a 12v / 18g wire (w/5.41 amp draw) @ 10 foot long looses .712 volts (or has a 11.3v output)

Now (AfterMarket 80/100 bulbs)
-@ 80w/12v there is a 6.67 amp draw.
a 12v / 18g wire (w/6.67 amp draw) @ 10 foot long looses .878 volts (or has a 11.12v output)

-@ 100w/12v there is a 8.33 amp draw.
a 12v / 18g wire (w/8.33 amp draw) @ 10 foot long looses 1.096 volts (or has a 10.9v output)


So to sum it up, you might be running higher wattage bulbs, but if you didn't upgrade your wire size then it kind of defeated your purpose because your voltage drop makes up alot of the difference and your running more amps through your wires then you should be. Anytime you increase amp you create heat, heat also increases amps so eventually things (like your computer drivers, wires, headlight switch) will melt.

Not saying it's not possible to make the stock system last like this forever (guys also run 170hp programmers with stock autos), but what benefit did you really get you have higher watt bulbs but you lost voltage and increased the strain on you factory system.

I am not trying to argue with anyone here, just stating what I have learned over the years of spending money, melting electronics, and some times figuring things out...

Here is a good website for some electrical calculations...

http://www.powerstream.com/Wire_Size.htm

 

i don't doubt anything you said there, sounds like you know your stuff, i agree with the larger wires needed for the larger amp draw, but the lenght of wire to the headlights isn't that long, as the wires from the headlights and marker lights go into a FCM just behind the drivers headlight. i'm not sure if that changes anything or not, but i bet my lights i run don't use any more or less power or amp draw then say the silverstars.
i don't even think my headlights are as brite either but they work and there cheap. i haven't had much luck in the past few years with headlight bulbs with these trucks as they seem to ride rough and i usually change out bulbs a couple times a year.
good info here though, thats for sure

 

thanks asher for that(above my skill and comprehension level, lol) explanation. you seem very knowledgeable and will read your comment several times to figure out what the best way to go with my lighting issue.
also thanks for all the other comments as well. i'll let all this info sink in for a couple of days.

thanks again!

 

will something like this work? thx

http://rds.yahoo.com/_ylt=A0geu5oFpZ...ade-p-117.html

 

That kit is what I am talking about, it might be a good idea to try and find out what gauge wire they are using. Or if you ever plan on installing higher wattage bulbs later on, you can reuse all the plugs and relays and just replace the wires with heavier ones.

On a bad note:
I am not sure how they are getting away from having your "lamp out" light not come on unless the kit has a small jumper in one of the plugs that tricks the computer.

Again the first thing I would do is measure what your actual voltage is at the light socket, if you don't have much loss then your would be wasting your money on that kit.