I've been thinking about upgrading to 80/100W headlight bulbs and spent an hour or so the other day consuming a double latte and studying the Bentley wiring diagrams. I think I had a minor revelation! I've already "upgraded" the lamps on my 87 to the pre-86 style 7" round lamps. Since the stock rectangular lamps use two 55W bulbs per side for high beams for a total of 110W per side, I figure I can use the 80/100W bulbs in my round lamps and be pulling less current on high beams than a stock setup with rectangular lamps. The low beams will draw more current, but that shouldn't be a problem as the gauge of the low-beam wiring is the same as the high-beam stuff. There's still the problem of possibly melting the plastic connector that connects to the H4 bulbs. I'm not too worried about that--it's pretty easy to replace and you could get away without using it at all. This scheme only applies to 86 and later vans that have been upgraded to the pre-86 round lights. Any thoughts on this? -Mark McCulley 87 syncro Westfalia |
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