Date:         Tue, 12 May 1998 16:40:47 -0700
Reply-To:     Mark McCulley <raven@HALCYON.COM>
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <Vanagon@vanagon.com>
From:         Mark McCulley <raven@HALCYON.COM>
Subject:      another angle on high-wattage headlight bulbs
Comments: To: vanagon@vanagon.com
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"

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