Date: Wed, 5 Nov 2008 18:03:42 -0700
Reply-To: Andrew Grebneff <goose1047@GMAIL.COM>
Sender: Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From: Andrew Grebneff <goose1047@GMAIL.COM>
Subject: Re: Rectangular headlights... low & high-beam units same shape?
In-Reply-To: <ccafde090811051354v5a893528kee305e860625fab3@mail.gmail.com>
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> Andrew, those are aftermarket kits by Projektzwo (and clones by other
> makers).
OK. Quality will be very variable.
> The inner beams are for highbeams only and are identical to ones found on
> rectangular headlight models in Europe.
That's an odd layout... high beams are usually on the outside in
dual-light cars. Are they narrower than the outers, or is this an
illusion?
If they are narrower, then they certainly will be not available
aftermarket. Hmmm... I wonder of the Santana (Quantum, Audi 90) units
are the same... Santanas were brought into NZ used from Japan, having
being made there by Nissan. Perhaps that might be the answer.
> The outers are unique to the T3 and came in two different flavors. The North
> American spec T3's got ones with poor
> reflector design. The European spec H4's (also called e-codes) are virtually
> identical in shape except for the reflectors.
> They also only accept the NA spec headlight bulbs vs. the e-codes which
> accept any H4 bulb. If you will pardon the
> pun, the difference between the NA spec (DOT) headlights vs. the e-codes are
> like night and day.
DOT mandates "black" light... all in the name of safety, y'know.
> With DOT lights,
> you can actually see a shadow of your vehicle in y9our headlight pattern on
> the ground when another vehicle with
> regular lights get behind you.
Well, that can happen with halogens too... they are not all equal,
even with bulbs of the same wattage. Been there, done that. I have
tried 100W H4s, but these get too hot and their bases burn and fall
apart!
> The H4's are just fine not to mention offers
> a larger array of available bulbs wattages.
55/65 seems to be the standard. And avoid those blue-tinted ones sold
as "HID"... not only are they blinding to oncoming traffic, but the
human eye is relatively insensitive to blue light and therefore cannot
see as well when using these as with the yellowish light given out by
untinted QHs.
> Be sure to check legality of use in your locality. They are technically
> illegal in the US though enforcement is nearly
> nonexistent. They look like the DOT lights afterall.
Yep. Halogens are the norm in NZ. I believe that the US is the only
place where they are not.
>> I'm thinking now that rectangular lights look better than South
>> African round ones... but sourcing a set of "semisealed" RHD halogen
>> low-beams could be a problem if they are unique to these vehicles.
>
>
> These headlights come-up on Ebay UK all the time. They are usually much
> cheaper than the LHD counterpart
> because there is less demand. I've seen them sell for as £10 each from
> Ebay.
If the Santana units prove to be different, I'll have a look there, thanks!
> Some enterprising inviduals have taken the headlight adjusters from a SAAB
> and bolted them to a modified Vanagon (T3)
> bucket then used a generic rectangular Hi/Lo headlight in it's place. I
> can't remember what they did to the inner highbeams
> though. Others had mentioned some Ford headlights adjusters can be used as
> well.
I have some Golf II GTi electric adjusters, which I will attempt to
fit to the van.
> Yes, the e-code Halogen replacements will fit the US bucket. There is no
> difference in the buckets for rectangular headlight system
> in any markets. In fact the only difference are the lenses on the outer
> lowbeams.
That's good. I thought I remembered mention on the list some time ago
that the halogens wouldn't fit the US buckets. Perhaps they were
talking about fitting H4 bulbs to US reflectors... and of course if
you butcher an H4 bulb to fit a US reflector, the lens pattern will
not work and there will be no beam, just a random scatter of light.
Tried 6V H4s in my 59 van's stock headlights... bright, but no beam
pattern, and that was with both ribbed lenses and lenses with a
low-beam cutoff.
?They will not fit just any generic rectagualr headlight
> w/o modication though.
Now, that is not good design. I'm sure that during the van's design
stages Hella tried to talk VW into using generic rectangular mounts.
--
Andrew Grebneff
Dunedin, New Zealand
Fossil preparator
Mollusc, Toyota & VW van nut
Temporarily in Calgary, AB, Canada
<goose1047@gmail.com>
