dim headlights

[spitty]

As the subject suggests. Went for a drive this evening , came back in the dark . I dont usually drive in the country at night in the MX so i didn't realise how bad these NA8 lights are .. any suggestions

cheers John

[Matty]

90/100W globes and upgraded wiring.

[spitty]

Thanks Matty. Globes OK Upgraded wiring loom ? How much and were are they available from
John

[Mr Morlock]

I would be checking the quality of the reflectors to see if they have deteriorated.A 7inch round with a good insert should be a pretty reasonable light. The higher wattage bulbs are not always what they are advertised to be and there are only a few manufacturers who really made a good product like Philips and Osram ex Europe- not sure if production has been shifted in the last few years. !00/55 used to be a reasonable choice but if the high beam performance is really down for your eyesight then a suitable aftermarket driving lamp makes a very big difference. Check also voltage drop as you may be getting short changed. You will find that virtually all OE vehicles fitted with H4's are 60/55's

[Hammer]

90/100W globes and upgraded wiring.

I'd be very careful using 90/100w globes in the headlights of the MX5 - even if the wiring has been upgraded. The bulb mount (some plastic) and the light assembly itself could either melt or discolour from the extra heat the globes will generate.

One effective way to increase the light on NA is to replace the globes with HID. HID Kits are available from as little as $100-$150 from eBay (example here, but buyer beware).

They are only 35w (meaning generating less heat - compared to the standard 55w/65w lo/hi beam), but packs a much, much, much brighter light. Plus the added bonus that it won't use up as much electrical juice - perfect for a car like the 5 with a small battery.

Regarding light intensities of the HID ... stay away from the blue hues. I'd recommend 6000, 5000 or 4300 kelvin (white or daylight colour light). 8000 kelvin or higher emit a more blueish light. They might look cool, but are useless at reflecting the road surface when it's wet. OEM HID are usually rated @ 4300 kelvin.

NOTE:I believe the NA has an H4 bulb fitting ... if you do get an HID kit, make sure that you get a hi/lo kit (ie. both hi/lo beams are HID). Some H4 kits, only give you HID on lo-beam, and then normal filament globe for the hi beam. Yuck

The HID kits are very easy to fit. They're Plug N Play. With no auto electrical experience, and having not fitted any HID kits, it took me one & 1/2hrs to fit (that's including finding a spot to afix the 2x ballast and headlight beam alignment. The plug and play wiring itself took less than 30mins. (Fitting my 2nd kit on my other car took less than an hour)

Having said that, Australian Design Rules (ADR) states that unless you also install headlight washers, they are technically illegal. I don't see what difference a headlight washer makes on the light.



But if HID is not your thing ...

... The other (legal?) way is to replace the whole OEM headlight with new parabolic or crystal style lights. They look modern and still use filement (normal) type globes, so no need for headlight washers.



You can also get them from ebay (here).

But improvements in the brightness of the Parabolic/Crystal lights are no where near the improvements you can gain with an HID kit.

[TieNN89]

Having said that, Australian Design Rules (ADR) states that unless you also install headlight washers, they are technically illegal. I don't see what difference a headlight washer makes on the light.

Also Auto Levelers too I'm pretty sure

[spitty]

Thanks for the input guys. I had seen those lights on Ebay

Thanks John

[Garry]

DO NOT PUT HID LIGHTS INTO A NON-REFELECTOR BEAM HOUSING

The light cutoff is very average and the light spread will blind oncoming drivers. Not that most people worry about that, as long as they can see where they are going who cares about the hapless soul trying to see going in the opposite direction.

[AJ]

what Garry said........mainly coz i'm the average poor bastard that gets blinded by poorly fitted HID's........i remember copping an NA MX5 on the Gateway one night coming home in the truck, he obviously liked spotting roos because they were VERY badly aligned & i honestly couldn't see squat, had to back off & avert my eyes down to the left hand side of the road to use the white line as a guide.

surely they still sell kits that upgrade round headlights to better versions??

[Hammer]

DO NOT PUT HID LIGHTS INTO A NON-REFELECTOR BEAM HOUSING

The light cutoff is very average and the light spread will blind oncoming drivers. Not that most people worry about that, as long as they can see where they are going who cares about the hapless soul trying to see going in the opposite direction.

I agree with Garry, but it's actually the other way around ...

They work well with PROJECTOR type headlights (ie. NB8B lo-beam) but not on the REFLECTOR type (ie. NB8B hi-beam, NA, NB8B).

You can get Projector type headlight assembly for the NA, if HID is what you're really after. But that would still make it illegal without headlight washers, auto leveller etc.

[Matty]

90/100W globes are fine in an NA, which has metal reflectors. I ran these for several years. I wouldn't do it in an NB.

An upgraded wiring set is easy to make. My old one is actually for sale in the Used section: http://www.mx5cartalk.com/viewtopic.php?t=29869

[Mr Morlock]

Garry and the boys are right- HID are not legal used in the std inserts ( ie the reflector / lens etc) and are not optically designed for them - so control of the light is certainly not guaranteed. Inserts in good cond or new inserts such as Hella should be effective with std bulbs(60/55) - 100/90 is just not necessary. Small driving lamps with 55w H3's makes a very big difference for high beam where you have open road- you have to dip for oncoming cars anyway. You should be able to mount lamps in the grille opening if you think it is worth the effort.Personally I would be dubious of any USA sourced lighting product given that they lagged Europe/Asia in effective lighting for many years.

[Garry]

oops Thanks Hammer. I meant to say non-projector beam headlights.

On a side note, I was in KK's NC the other night driving back to Tamworth to swap cars. They have an amazingly sharp cutoff. The best I have ever seen. The long grass beside the road looked like it had all been cut at exactly the same height due to the sharp cutoff of the lights. They should work really well with a set of HID globes. Not that you really need them because the stock non-HID globes work very well. Surprisingly the cutoff was much sharper than his STI which has factory fitted HID's.

[Mr Morlock]

Well spotted Garry- you obviously take notice of things- many people pay no attention to lights but they are so important to driving comfort and safety. Most road testers pay no attention and a car with poor lights esp low beam is very hard to fix. Projector lights are popular at present because they are such a small package. The characteristic of projectors lamps is the accuracy of the light and the cut off however some people do not feel comfortable at the sharpness and prefer some light bleed. I am very pleased with the NB8b lights- nice spread and accuracy of low beam and hi beam is quite reasonable. One down side of xenon lamps in my opinion is that replacement is likely to be expensive. Tks for the feedback on the NC.

[bensale]

Spitty, I just installed some new Phillips \"+ 50%\" globes in my 1990 na6 this weekend. They are the second globes up in their range and cost me $39 from autobarn. They are the same 50/55 watts so are a direct swap.

The difference is amazing! I went from being able to see next to nothing on country roads, cursing the pathetic lights, to having very acceptable light levels. They are now comperable to my mum's 2000 peugeot 206 gti, although not quite as good as dad's 2006 ss commodore.

Probebly the best $40 and half hour I have spent on my car

I wouldn't worry about higher wattage and upgrading wiring looms, I'm very happy with these

Ben,