Date:         Sat, 20 Jul 2002 00:31:25 +0200
Reply-To:     Robert Steven Fish <fish@SALZBURG.CO.AT>
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From:         Robert Steven Fish <fish@SALZBURG.CO.AT>
Subject:      Re: Cloudy headlight glass?
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1"

----snipped----
There was also a site mentioned in the last couple of months that had relay
setups
that were plug and play, for a very reasonable cost, that were supposed to
give a lot better light from the stock bulbs and reflectors.
---- end snipped----

If you are still using the stock Vanagon setup for your headlights, you are
probably not only losing light due to dirt, grime, or whatever on the inside
and/or outside of the headlight lens housing... but you are losing well over
15% of your light due to the screwy way that VW chose to wire the power
through the headlight switch, using thin wires.

I replaced all headlight (high and low) as well as fog light (front and red
rears) power, with relays... simply pulling the power directly off of the
battery, and using the stock switch to open/close the relays.  I also, of
course rewired the grounds with matching wire (I used an insanely thick,
soft copper wire, but that was overkill... it just has to be like twice as
thick as the stock I think) and the grounds go directly to the ground shared
by the battery.

What I noticed was like the difference between night and day... no joke.  I
also bought the 100/80 Watt H4 bulbs, fully intending to install them along
with my upgraded wiring... but the lights are so bright now, that I don't
even think I need the brighter bulbs.  Next time I have the grill off, I'll
pop them in though and see what things look like. Should be interesting!

Yes, I do have the European H4 squares... but the wiring and voltage loss
issue applies to all Vanagons, round or square,  as far as I know.

RSF

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<º)))>{   <º)))>{   <º)))>{   <º)))>{   <º)))>{   <º)))>{

Robert S. Fish
Salzburg, Austria
1987 Wolfsburg Vanagon 2.1 GL Weekender
1987 Golf Cabriolet
1991 Golf