110 Headlight

Hi

The nearside headlight on my 1983 110V8 has just failed. The workshop
manual says UK & Europe models have a 60/55W halogen bulb, whilst elsewhere
RHD has 75/50W sealed beam. On investigation, my 110 is fitted with a
60/45W sealed beam unit.

I believe my 110 is one of the very first 110s and may have been a
pre-production model or press demonstrator, so I'm not surprised that it's a
bit of a parts bin, but the question is what replacement lighting should I
fit? Ideally I would like to go for the 75/50 sealed beam, to give me a bit
more light - is the wiring likely to be able to take this and would I have
to do both headlamps or is just one OK?

Thoughts much appreciated.

Regards

Neil

On Tue, 6 Dec 2005 19:29:57 -0000, "Neil Cummins"
<[email protected]> wrote:

>Thoughts much appreciated.

You could buy a pair of new halogen lights with bulbs for around £25

just buy a halogen headlight conversion kit from BROOKWELL supplies .

choice of 2 kits but the RING kit will suffice youre needs .

look under accessories and then lighting to find the healamps .

you can of course buy from other companies as well but brookwell are
as cheap if not cheaper than others .

when you remove headlamps you need to take off the large square black
plastic light surround , then i think there is just 1 screw to take out
and then you can twist the whole lamp and bowl off the 2 adjuster pins
..
then you take out the 3 screw around the rims and take out sealed beam
unit and replace with the halogen one .
after refitting the lamps you just plug the connectors back on at rear
same as before .

you can change the bulbs if you wish but i wouldnt go above 80/100w .

Neil Cummins wrote:

> Hi
>
> The nearside headlight on my 1983 110V8 has just failed. The workshop
> manual says UK & Europe models have a 60/55W halogen bulb, whilst
> elsewhere
> RHD has 75/50W sealed beam. On investigation, my 110 is fitted with a
> 60/45W sealed beam unit.
>
> I believe my 110 is one of the very first 110s and may have been a
> pre-production model or press demonstrator, so I'm not surprised that it's
> a bit of a parts bin, but the question is what replacement lighting should
> I
> fit? Ideally I would like to go for the 75/50 sealed beam, to give me a
> bit more light - is the wiring likely to be able to take this and would I
> have to do both headlamps or is just one OK?
>
> Thoughts much appreciated.
>
> Regards
>
> Neil

As the headlight units are all interchangeable I would not place too much
reliance on what is actually fitted after 22 years being what was
originally fitted.If the wiring is original there is no relay for the
lights, and going over about 75 watts is asking for trouble with the
headlight switch and combination switch. For the same wattage halogen
lights will give more light. Your headlights are supposed to match, but
the difference will probably have to be pretty marked for you to get booked
for it. But I would replace both with halogen lights.
JD

In message <[email protected]>
"m0bcg" <[email protected]> wrote:

> just buy a halogen headlight conversion kit from BROOKWELL supplies .
>
> choice of 2 kits but the RING kit will suffice youre needs .
>
> look under accessories and then lighting to find the healamps .
>
> you can of course buy from other companies as well but brookwell are
> as cheap if not cheaper than others .
>
> when you remove headlamps you need to take off the large square black
> plastic light surround , then i think there is just 1 screw to take out
> and then you can twist the whole lamp and bowl off the 2 adjuster pins
> .
> then you take out the 3 screw around the rims and take out sealed beam
> unit and replace with the halogen one .
> after refitting the lamps you just plug the connectors back on at rear
> same as before .
>
> you can change the bulbs if you wish but i wouldnt go above 80/100w .
>

Certainly if you don't want to get nicked - 80/100 would be illegal
(except pre about 1954 or something) - and *very* annoying to other
motorists.

Richard
--
www.beamends-lrspares.co.uk [email protected]
Running a business in a Microsoft free environment - it can be done
Powered by Risc-OS - you won't get a virus from us!!
Boycott the Yorkshire Dales - No Play, No Pay

On or around 6 Dec 2005 15:49:25 -0800, "m0bcg"
<[email protected]> enlightened us thusly:

>just buy a halogen headlight conversion kit from BROOKWELL supplies .
>
>choice of 2 kits but the RING kit will suffice youre needs .
>
>look under accessories and then lighting to find the healamps .
>
> you can of course buy from other companies as well but brookwell are
>as cheap if not cheaper than others .
>
>when you remove headlamps you need to take off the large square black
>plastic light surround , then i think there is just 1 screw to take out
>and then you can twist the whole lamp and bowl off the 2 adjuster pins
>.
> then you take out the 3 screw around the rims and take out sealed beam
>unit and replace with the halogen one .
> after refitting the lamps you just plug the connectors back on at rear
>same as before .
>
>you can change the bulbs if you wish but i wouldnt go above 80/100w .

I's stay at the normal 60/55W and buy decent quality bulbs, meself. There
are various bulbs claiming "30% brighter" or suchlike.

but in reality, any 60/55 halogen is plenty of light for a 110, if the
reflectors are OK.

80W dip beams are illegal, though I admit that you're unlikely to get done
for it. They're also unnecessarily bright. There's a silly situation now
where everyone makes ever-brighter dip beams. Bright *main* beams I
understand, especially on a fast vehicle. bright dip beams just reduce
vision for everyone: they dazzle, even if properly adjusted and make it
harder to spot unlit objects outside the beam pattern.

Personally, I'd favour banning or making less bright the HID dip beams, too.
- subjectively, they're much brighter than halogen ones, and notwithstanding
the self-levelling, they still dazzle when the road's the wrong shape.

I'm not entirely convinced that the modern sharp cut-off on the dip pattern
is entirely useful, either - the bit that shine higher off to the right is
handy for spotting things along the side of the road, but even that gives
problems on the wrong sort of bends. The older lamps didn't have such a
sharp cut-off, and I don't see them as being any the worse for that.
--
Austin Shackles. www.ddol-las.net my opinions are just that
Appearances: You don't really need make-up. Celebrate your authentic
face by frightening people in the street.
from the Little Book of Complete B***ocks by Alistair Beaton.

On or around Wed, 07 Dec 2005 11:56:01 +0000, MVP
<mr.nice@*nospam*softhome.net> enlightened us thusly:

>
>i forget the date but 80/100's were legal on my 1984 110 as i checked
>before fitting them, however i found i got 'better' light from a pait
>of osram silver star bulbs.

there is a date after which lamps must carry an E mark, and that includes
the bulbs. However, before that they have to carry "an approval mark",
ISTR.

100/80s are a waste of time unless you upgrade the current path from the
battery supply through to the lights. This normally means putting a relay
in, and might involve better earthing as well.

On modern vehicles, the headlamp wiring is mostly too thin to carry the
higher current successfully, and so you need not only a relay but a more
convincing current feed to the lights.

Hwence decent quality 60/55s give the same light.
--
Austin Shackles. www.ddol-las.net my opinions are just that
"Festina Lente" (Hasten slowly) Suetonius (c.70-c.140) Augustus, 25

Austin Shackles wrote:

> On or around Wed, 07 Dec 2005 11:56:01 +0000, MVP
> <mr.nice@*nospam*softhome.net> enlightened us thusly:
>
>>
>>i forget the date but 80/100's were legal on my 1984 110 as i checked
>>before fitting them, however i found i got 'better' light from a pait
>>of osram silver star bulbs.
>
> there is a date after which lamps must carry an E mark, and that includes
> the bulbs. However, before that they have to carry "an approval mark",
> ISTR.
>
> 100/80s are a waste of time unless you upgrade the current path from the
> battery supply through to the lights. This normally means putting a relay
> in, and might involve better earthing as well.
>
> On modern vehicles, the headlamp wiring is mostly too thin to carry the
> higher current successfully, and so you need not only a relay but a more
> convincing current feed to the lights.
>
> Hwence decent quality 60/55s give the same light.

Just for reference, I just upgraded my headlights wiring with decent 16AWG
wires running through relays controlled by the original headlight circuit
with a minimal distance run back to the SLI battery and nearly doubled the
useful light output just with that. This was on a 1993 200 Disco, but the
principle probably holds - There's a lot of resistance in the standard
wiring and just doing a rewire on the headlights can make a world of
difference.

Doesn't mean I'm not going to stick a set of 80/100 or 90/130s in it for off
road use though, although it's already got better than half a kilowatt of
light up front on full beam.

P.

On Wed, 7 Dec 2005 06:22:52 +0000, JD wrote
(in article <[email protected]>):

> Neil Cummins wrote:
>
>> Hi
>>
>> The nearside headlight on my 1983 110V8 has just failed. The workshop
>> manual says UK & Europe models have a 60/55W halogen bulb, whilst
>> elsewhere
>> RHD has 75/50W sealed beam. On investigation, my 110 is fitted with a
>> 60/45W sealed beam unit.
>>
>> I believe my 110 is one of the very first 110s and may have been a
>> pre-production model or press demonstrator, so I'm not surprised that it's
>> a bit of a parts bin, but the question is what replacement lighting should
>> I
>> fit? Ideally I would like to go for the 75/50 sealed beam, to give me a
>> bit more light - is the wiring likely to be able to take this and would I
>> have to do both headlamps or is just one OK?
>>
>> Thoughts much appreciated.
>>
>> Regards
>>
>> Neil
>
> As the headlight units are all interchangeable I would not place too much
> reliance on what is actually fitted after 22 years being what was
> originally fitted.If the wiring is original there is no relay for the
> lights, and going over about 75 watts is asking for trouble with the
> headlight switch and combination switch. For the same wattage halogen
> lights will give more light. Your headlights are supposed to match, but
> the difference will probably have to be pretty marked for you to get booked
> for it. But I would replace both with halogen lights.
> JD

I recently went from a set of sealed beam units to a pair of Britpart H4
halogen reflectors with standard 55/60W bulbs, and it was a definite
improvement (particularly since one of the sealed beam units had failed,
which is why I did it in the first place!). However, about 10 days ago I put
a set of 'xenon' high output bulbs in (not the fancy coloured ones, just the
white-but-bright-ones) and they are very obviously better then the previous
ones.

If I wanted more light than this, I'd fit additional driving lamps which go
out when main beam is switched off. Not only will they reduce dazzle for
other people, they also give you a lot more flexibility about where the light
gets pointed, and you can wire them on a direct feed (use at least 2.5mm^2)
from the fusebox, via a relay, and avoid any possible problems with switch
contacts or overloading small wires.

Having said that, I used to have two pairs of 100W Cibie Super Oscars on my
Escort van which were fantastic for deer spotting on late night runs up the
northern part of the A9, but given that my LR has a top speed a good 30 mph
slower than the Escort and I'm not doing any serious late night offroading I
see no need for extra lamps on it.

Nick.

1990 90 2.5TD