That's the question I'm asking myself. This is for the new wagon that has become the daily driver. I don't usually drive much at night. The Hella's would also partly be for the look.

I'm almost ready to part with the 83 and I havn't really driven it in months; sort of a weaning process I guess.

I would like to hear from anyone who's done the wiring upgrade and or Cibie's, or any other comments.


The car is pictured here in Michigan. Just under halfway on our FL to MI trip this year. 3800 miles and no trouble! The wheels don't show too well in this pic but they are chrome lug nuts and center caps.

hi there.
i have cibie H-1, H-4, 6"+4" setup on my 85 turbo. added homemade relay setup. with #10 and #12 wire, one relay for highs, one relay for lows.
it is nice and helps alot, the high beams are unbeliveable. i just bought some big square e-codes for the 85 but havent installed them yet.
i may sell the cibie H-1 H-4 setup soon if your interested. one is 6 months old and the other three are older, but decent. the price will be very reasonable when i get rid of them.
also i have tried the silvania blues and they provide better lighting than the standard sealed beams.
i need good lights because i cant see good at night.
nice looking wagon you have. i really like the pre 86 specifically the 85.
good luck.

Just my taste talking here, but any more lights on there and it's going to look cluttered, maybe kind of 'riced'. Unfortunately, these days you also have to consider whether your add-ons make an attractive target for thieves.

I agree with the post by 'runwld2' and his order of diminishing returns. On both our 81 and 83, I have Hella H4's in the outer lamps with Sylvania Silverstar 60/55W bulbs, and plain old GE halogen sealed beams in the inner high beams. The high beams are on relays. There's plenty of light...everyone comments: "...better than my car".

Both cars have 70A alternators (the 83 is original, never touched; the 81's came from an 84 in the PnP) and have no trouble keeping voltage up.

I bought a pair of Hella 1000 driving lamps on sale a while back (Susquehanna Motorsports), and they are disappointing. Rather cheaply made with a goofy mounting assembly, and they scatter the light too much. A lot like the Hella 550 lamps I had years ago. But my Hella 4X6 H4's are quite good - not Cibie (pronounced "see-byay"), but not $$$, either. If you must have auxiliary driving lamps consider the Cibie Airport-35's from Dan Stern. Better optics, and better suited to the look of the car.

Bear in mind when adding lighting watts to a pre-86 240 that ALL the lighting power goes through your little dashboard light switch. You need relays. Even the post-85 240's which only have two bulbs burning on high beam are known to fry the wiring socket in their lighting relay.
--
Bob (son's 81-244GL B21F/M46, dtr's 83-244DL B23F/M46, my 94-944 B230FD; hobbycar 77 MGB, and a few old motorcycles)

Oh, that's easy.

Get the Cibie complex reflector lamps, upgrade the wiring. You'll get the upgraded look of quad round lamps, and spectacular lighting.

Or do a flathood conversion with the 'square' e-codes: http://www.tuff240.com/images/volvula/volvula01.jpg

Or maybe just the 'normal' rectangular ones with a bumpy hood: http://album8.snapandshare.com/28/18/340899.jpg

--
alex

I had Ecode Cibies and Hellas on my 81 245, now on my 745 and 744. The 745 has the relays to deliver higher voltage to the lamps. I have used 55/60 H4's and 80/100 H4's. Recently added H1 ecodes for high beams.
Just subbing the H4's to the low beam lamps makes a big difference. The lights are brighter and cover a much wider area with even illumination. Really are fine for bad weather as they are brighter but have a good cutoff to decrease glare.
I had some hints of problems (smelled hot wires) when I had the 80/100 bulbs and was on high beam. I was using about 150 watts (100 of H4 plus 50 of standard hi beam), which was stressing the wiring. SO I put in relays, then got some H1 high beams, I think they are 55watts. The amount of light on high beam is more than enough. I can see the road a half mile away.
So the order of diminishing returns is
1- H4's in low beams
2- relays
3-H1 high beams
4=80/100 H4 bulbs

3 and 4 could switch if you need more low beam power, but a problem I have is that the increased voltage is dramatically shortenning the life of the 80/100 bulbs, so altough I prefer them for their low beam power, I am using 55/60 H4's now.
--
744 & 745 16v 4+OD, 245 SE auto, 242Ti 4+OD, 245DL auto parts car

If you want looks, bolt whatever to the bumper and be done with it. However, if you want better lighting, it makes sense to upgrade the existing lights first, then fill in with suitable aftermarket lights if the lighting is still not what you need. Cibie makes very nice lights. I have Cibie E-codes with 100/130 bulbs in my 83 GTI, and I have been very happy with them. I have the volvo e-codes on my 760 with the same 100/130 bulbs (NARVA) and they are good too.

Thanks. Did you also upgrade the wiring and add relays or just upgrade to Cibie's?

On the GTI I upgraded the alternator first. I then installed a seperate fuse block for each circuit (high and low beam) The low beams are on one relay, and the highs each have their own.

On the Volvo, it is very much the same setup, but there is a fuse for the high and low on each side, so 4 fuses instead of two, and there are two relays on each side, so each high beam and low beam has its own relay. The alternator is next and it is going to be a 200amp.

There are really good wiring diagrams on www.rallylights.com