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High-power halogens redux 850 1994

posted by  The Volvonator on  Sat Dec 28 12:25 CST 2002
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There have been a couple recent posts regarding increased night-time visibility (and I have a pair of E-code lenses on order, based on several owners' recommendations) but I still have some questions regarding uprated halogen bulbs.

1) I checked out the AutoOptiks site (www.autooptiks.com) and reviewed the recommended bulbs for my '94 855, as well as the product matrix showing the various bulbs they carry. Their low beams (9006) run between 55W-80W, with the 55W bulbs putting out around 1,000 lumens and the 80W's almost 1,300 lumens. The high beams (9005) are either 65W (1,400-1,700 lumens) or 100W (2,200-2,300 lumens). Makes sense that the higher wattage bulbs kick out more light.

2) Now, if I remember my high-school electronics formulas correctly (a big IF), a 100W bulb in a 12V system should draw 8.3A of current, well below the fuse rating (15A) for the high beam circuit. I always thought the whole idea of designing fuses into a circuit was to protect the downstream components (i.e., wiring) from a meltdown due to too much current.

3) Since each headlamp (LH/RH, hi/lo) is on its own fuse, it doesn't seem that, even running uprated bulbs in each lamp, that you'd be in danger of blowing any fuses.

4) The back page of the trusty old Owner's Manuel (!ole!) lists the low and high beam headlamp "Power" as HB4 and HB3, respectively. Dunno what the hell "HB" is -- must be some European thang, but I do find it interesting that the high beams (9005/HB3) on the AutoOptiks page correlates to 65W while the low beam (9006/HB4) is 80W. Is the lower wattage of the high beams made up for with a different reflector/lens pattern?

Could some of you knowledgeable folk enLIGHTen me, please? (Sorry...it was too easy.) Seems like some of us want to use the highest power bulbs but don't want to melt our headlamp system.

Thanks.
--
'94 855 5-spd stick brick w/2 carseats and no mods (yet!)






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