gearbox

iTrader: (95)

I thought i would make a quick guide about lights for anyone looking to improve their stock setup for safety with brighter bulbs.

I. accessory bulbs. anything like turn signals and parking lights can be upgraded fairly easily to make your car more visible at night and even during the daytime!

II. Parking lights. most cars out there use mini wedge bulbs for parking lights and tag lights, but there are many different kinds to choose from. also over time, bulbs will lose their brightness from black deposits that form on the inside of the bulb. alot of companies even recommend replacing them once a year to keep them looking bright.

194 is the dimmest of the bunch coming in at only 2 candlepower (CP). The only advantage is that it is rated to last up to 2500hrs. But they are so dim, it is useless to even use them, esp when it is fairly easy to change a bulb.

168 is the next brightest, it uses a different filament and can put out 3 candlepower and usually last 1500hrs. a good compromise between life and brightness, but still the light color will be yellowish.

w5w or sylvania part 2825 is the brightest bulb you can buy in stores. it has an even brighter filament at 4 candlepower yet uses the same 5w of power as the 168 bulb. the only disadvantage is the life rating of only 400hrs (about the same as a standard turn signal bulb).

raybrig w5w is the top of the bunch coming in at 5 candlepower. it is more than 2x brighter and whiter than a 194 and uses a special pressurized gas mix to achieve the higher brightness over the standard w5w. It is well worth the price tag of $10 a pair if you want the whitest and brightest light from a clear bulb that will work with stock wiring.



blue "hyper white" bulbs will not be recommended because the coating will reduce output, but if you must have them, stick with the products by leading manufacturers (philips bluevision, raybrig platinum white) because they choose the brighter w5w bulbs to put the coating on.

III. Turn signal bulbs. Every car has turn signals, and it is proven fact that an amber signal is easier for drivers to spot and brighter than a red one. Our eyes tend to be most sensitive at picking out green/yellow from the visible spectrum. that means given a test panel with equal intensities of every visible light color, our eyes will tell us that the yellow or green sample is the brightest.

These days, there are two general types of signal lamp assemblies: clear bulb with colored lens, or clear lens with colored bulb. in almost every case, the colored lens is superior because it traps all the bulb light inside and prevents outside light from washing out the color. and it is very easy to upgrade to a brighter bulb later.

for the rear signal of 01-03 civics, the 7440 bulb is used behind a red lens. But the lens also filters out alot of useable light and adding a brighter bulb can make quite a bit of difference. raybrig actually makes an upgrade 7440 bulb with a pressurized gas mix that is significantly brighter than a standard bulb.

for the front signal, older 01-03 civics use an amber lens and a clear 7443 bulb. amber filters out less visible light than red, so you are already a step ahead of the rears. now having the front signal also function as a parking light is not the best idea. It lessens the visibility to other drivers. In fact, cars in europe are not allowed to have blinkers and parking lights share the same bulb. the turn signal must be separate and only light up when the signal is used. luckily on our cars, there is a very easy mod to accomplish this. Just use a 7440 bulb in the turn signal corners instead of a 7443. This way you will only have them flash when the signal is used. and you still have the dedicated parking light in the round reflector next to the headlamp. this parking bulb should remain clear, so that amber light is only seen when signaling. this greatly increases visibility of the turn signals, especially at night. a raybrig 7440 can easily be swapped into the front turn signal for a brighter light.



clear lens turn signals are becoming more popular because they look more "modern," but they must use colored bulbs which are harder to find and upgrade. also having the lens clear means sunlight can shine in and wash out the light from the bulb. the most common bulb is one that is colored orange. but be careful when choosing one. alot of orange bulbs (like those from sylvania) are poorly manufactured using a cheap coating process that can often cause orange flakes to fall off the bulb and into your clear housing! a much better alternative is a bulb made out of actual colored glass, which will never fade or peel even under extreme heat. many of these sizes are available from ebay seller "autopartshouse" and are recommended if you have clear turn signal housings.

specialty turn signal bulbs are also available and i will only discuss the brands that actually work. the two maajor bulb manufacturers both have their own bulbs, and they are a great alternative to the orange color versions. osram makes a signal called "diadem" in europe or "silverstar" in usa. basically it is a normal bulb with interference coating which makes them look blue when off and amber when lit. this coating will not fade or peel, although it is known to reduce the life of the bulb overall. an excellent choice if you want some different color for your clear housings, altho they currently are not available in import bulb sizes, only domestic and euro.

philips also has their own bulbs marketed as crystalvision and silvervision. the crystalvisions are only made in domestic and euro size, and they have more of a silver/blue coating. the silvervisions have only a clear/chrome coating and are the cleanest looking of the bunch. They are also brighter than standard orange bulbs. here is a comparison of osram diadem on the left, stock orange in the middle, and philips silvervision to the right.



the silvervisions are also available as 7440, so you can use them in clear headlamp or taillamp turn signal housings on the civic. dont be fooled by cheap knockoff chrome covered bulbs which are nowhere near as bright and can be dangerous to use.



sidemarkers are small lamp assemblies mounted on the upper fender of the car and sometimes to the side of the bumper. they can be very useful in making the car more visible from the side, especially at night (whether you wire them as turn signals or parking lights). So it is important to make sure they have bright bulbs in them. most sidemarkers use the mini wedge, so an orange lens sidemarker should use the w5w. For a clear sidemarker, it is hard to find a natural orange wy5w bulb that will not fade and flake. the best bulb i have come across is the philips silvervision wy5w that combines a bright bulb filament with a silver cap on the tip to cover the color.

IV. Brake lights. Most civic brake lights use a 7443 clear bulb behind a red lens and you guessed it, there is an upgrade for that as well. Polarg actually makes bulbs now with a special collumating lens built into the top of the bulb that amplifies light. this makes the bulbs appear to be brighter from the rear, which is important for braking. The bulb itself does not have higher luminance, but the optics of the tip are able to concentrate more light to the rear that otherwise gets wasted. this is called "lens type" bulb and is only available from polarg.





polarg lens type bulb installed in front turn signal behind amber plastic.



V. fog lights. what makes a good fog lamp? why are some yellow and some clear? does it matter? i will try and answer some of these questions for you. First of all, good fog lamps are mounted low in the bumper and should project a wide, focused beam of light on the ground. reflector fog assemblies that come from the factory are 99% useless and usually cause dangerous glare to other drivers while providing little benefit to the driver. good fog lamps have a sharp cutoff line that is aimed at a 2 inch drop at 25ft to avoid blinding other drivers. in most cases, a projector assembly is far better than a reflector based assembly. as far as when to use them, here is a quick list:

-never use fog lights on a dry road, especially when combined with the low beams. doing so will greatly reduce your eyes' ability to focus on objects far away from the car. the bright foreground light will cause your iris to dim the light coming into your eye, and you will not be able to see as well into the distance.

-never use fog lights on a rainy night, as doing so will cause excess glare to other drivers due to the excess light reflecting from the road surface. you will see better with the fog lights turned off.

-do not use foglights as a way to make yourself more visible to oncoming traffic. they can already see your low beams well enough.

-only use fog lights when driving in severe weather, with the low beams turned off, so that you can safely make it home at a reduced rate of speed. usually the only example of when to use foglamps alone is driving in a blizzard on surface streets less than 25mph. in all other cases, use low beams only.

does yellow make a better fog light? yes and no. while our eyes see yellow as being brighter than other colors, the process of making a clear light look yellow also reduces the overall brightness of the source. if there was a way to make a yellow light source as bright as a clear one (there isn't), then the yellow would appear to be brighter to our eye. however this can be accomplished using a high intensity discharge HID yellow emitting bulb which would then be brighter than a halogen clear bulb setup. however, the lamp assembly must still be able to produce a sharp cutoff. everything else you may have heard about yellow fog light, such as its ability to "cut" through fog and snow better, or not reflect as much off wet surfaces, are all myth. every visible light color has the same properties of reflection and refraction and no one color is better than the other optically speaking. it is only our eyes ability to see yellow as a brighter color that makes it appear to be brighter than other colors of the same intensity.

here is an example of a good foglamp projector output with a sharp cutoff line and little to no upward glare. however, the light should project in a wider beam to allow road lines and curbs to be seen in bad weather.



and the same lamps with yellow coated bulbs. the output is not as bright.



Using foglamps in conditions that do not call for them is illegal in most states. so leave them off and do everybody a favor, including yourself.

VI. headlamps. these become one of the most important lights on your car at night and allow you to see the road ahead. it is critical to keep them as bright as possible. here are some simple steps to make sure the headlamps are performing at their best.

-clean the lenses often. dirt on the headlamp can reduce light output by over 50% and rain water by over 25% alone.

-take care of the lenses. use a plastic sealer on them monthly or at least any type of wax to keep UV light from the sun from damaging and dulling the clear plastic, which can reduce output.

-upgrade the factory wire harness using thicker wire and a new relay, so the lights draw power directly from the battery. voltage drops to some headlamps have been measured as low as 11.4v with the car running! they should be getting at least 14v. With halogen bulbs, the light output drops off rapidly as you reduce the voltage.

-consider using a headlight booster such as the catz zeta system, which uses DC/DC upconverter ballast boxes to send a constant 15.4v of power to the bulb. This allows much higher light output (approximately equal to using a 70w bulb) from the factory system without causing excessive glare or messing up the wires or housings. the difference can be as much as 1000 lumen total increase, which is the equivalent of running a third halogen bulb on your car.



so what are some brighter headlight bulbs? again you want to stick with bulbs that do not use a coating to reduce light output. here is the order of brightness when it comes to most bulbs. for our civics, there are alot of choices available for H4 size. dont forget to add bulb grease when replacing headlight bulbs.

1. osram HYPER 65w/70w bulbs. these are the brightest bulb in existance and allow a much brighter beam with only a small wattage increase. safe for stock wire harness and headlamps. only available in H4 and H7 sizes.



2. philips XP X-treme power +80 bulbs. these are stock 55w/60w but due to a smaller capsule, hotter filament, and more precise geometry, this bulb burns whiter and brighter than any other bulb. the brightest legal bulb you can use on the road and no other bulb comes close.



H4 philips XP in 02 civic headlamps



3. The next best is the +50 series of bulb offerings such as the philips VP (vision plus), osram silverstar (not sylvania), and a few others like GE nighthawk and halfords. These bulbs are still clear but use a better gas mix and more tightly wound filament to achieve maybe 100 lumen extra output. not much but better than stock. many of these bulbs are so cheap now, you can pick them up for $20 a pair.

4. oem and blue coated bulbs. down at the bottom. if you must get a coated bulb for whiter light, stick with the name brands that will at least be as bright as the oem clear bulb. philips bluevision and osram cool blue are the way to go here.

VII. Converting to HID lighting. this is a very complicated topic, but i will keep it as simple as possible. the cheap and easy way to convert to hid is simply buy a $100 kit that includes hid bulbs made for your halogen bulb size (like H4), and the ballasts to power the bulb with. This becomes dangerous for many reasons: first, your reflector was designed by computer based on the exact position of a HALOGEN bulb filament, and not an hid arc tube. they are completely different. well when you go ahead and throw the hid in anyways, you will end up with alot more glare and not much extra light. the reflector is not designed to use all the extra light, so much of it is wasted not even making it past the reflector itself. and since the reflector were already designed to emit a small amount of glare to allow overhead signs to be visible, that glare will be 3x brighter with the hid in there. the cutoff line will not be as sharp, and you will be shining too much light everywhere without much benefit. in many cases, the arc tube position is so far off, you actually end up with less useable light than you had with halogens!

take a look at this pic of H4 rebased hid kit in 02 civic reflector headlamp. all of that light above the cutoff line will be shining into other drivers eyes.



and when you look at the light on the road, it is not very smooth and not much brighter than using a good halogen bulb.



most modern hid systems use a specially designed projector to shape the beam and distribute the light evenly. this way, all of the hid bulb output will be used without blinding traffic.

take a look at how smooth and defined the lines are of audi hid projectors



and on the ground, the beam is very smooth and distributed over a greater area.



the best and safest way to achieve this is to put the hid projector right into your stock headlamps and use some shrouds and bezels to make it look nice. you can drill a hole in the reflector and mount the projector in the center, making sure that the beam is leveled and aimed properly as not to blind other cars.



and make sure to use a new upgraded wire harness to run the ballasts off of. they draw much higher amounts of power upon initial warmup, and using the thin stock wiring will cause problems down the road. its very simple to make yourself using a relay and some wiring.



and the results are very straight and well defined cutoff just like the oem bmw the projectors came from

when you drive at night, there is light everywhere without hotspots. hope this helps you out in upgrading the poor stock lighting!

hvc

iTrader: (1)

Kudos to you bro.

very nice guide. So the Hyper is brighter than the XP's?

gearbox

iTrader: (95)

yeah, since they are overwatt and have a better filament design. the H4 hyper puts out 1350 lumen compared to a stock H4 at 1000 lumen. the H7 hyper puts out 2100 lumen compared to stock 1500 lumen!

hvc

iTrader: (1)

haha, that's a bright bulb.

I like my XPs though. They're more than bright enough, i couldn't imagine the hypers. lol

gearbox

iTrader: (95)

the xp are nice cause its alot whiter, prolly even more than the hypers. and the xp has that lil ring around the top which tints the light a bit without stealing output. but the xp hi beam is terrible imo. they focused alot more on the lo beam filament position, so the hi beam is all messed up now.

DDragon7

Nice guide with useful light options.

lordhelmet

iTrader: (3)

Bump for a great guide. I'm looking to get some of the catz zeta boosters. Do you have any pictures of the improved output? I don't know if gearbox still runs them with all of his retrofits and what not but does any one else?

lordhelmet

iTrader: (3)

Would I benefit from just using a relay set-up? I'll check the actual voltage making it to the headlight this weekend but theoretically would it make much of a difference going from 10-11 volts (which is hopefully a low estimate) to the battery voltage of 12?

kcari

iTrader: (5)

is it really essential to upgrade the harness if one is using a plug and play hid kit? where can i buy a new harness without having to make my own

gearbox

iTrader: (95)

ebay has harness, but its really easy to make yourself. and yes you must have one with hid kit because the ballasts draw too much power on startup and will eventually melt the thin stock wiring.

catz zeta i dont use anymore, i think i lost em when i moved so i dont even know if they are still around the garage. they were nice, but i found them to be too bright on long distance dark driving. so im using philips xp bulb by itself. the upgrade wire harness is usually worth it, but on our cars the bulbs already get around 14v with the car running so there is almost no room for improvement. i used to have upgrade harness and could not tell the difference. with catz zeta, there is huge difference like having a third headlamp divided between the two sides. i have a few comparo pics i guess will help you. make sure to add new bulb grease whenever you install new headlight bulbs!!

when i had H3 projector driving lights with catz zeta, i took a before and after pic. this was easy since the catz zeta takes a few seconds to go from stock to boosted output. both shots are exactly the same exposure. when stock, i could not even tell they were on. when boosted, it shined over my old 50w hid retro.



here is when i had h3 fog light with catz zeta. i could drive just fine with only fogs and see way further than oem headlight



here is another great comparison when i had catz zeta and h3 yellow fog bulbs. obviously the dim one is running at 12v, and the bright one is with zeta.



catz zeta with oem headlamps and xtravision H4 bulbs



very wide and bright light, too bright lol almost like hid



catz zeta with catz H4 hyper bulb (blue tint)



and a quick comparo between boosted VP and XP philips bulbs





and catz zeta with yellow bulb balloon

lordhelmet

iTrader: (3)

Bingo. That's exactly what I was looking for. I'm going to keep a look out for a pair of the catz zeta boosters then. I assume that there is very little issue with glare because the position of the filament doesn't change like it does with HID bulbs. Is that correct? I don't know how long you ran the catz zeta but I read somewhere that shorter bulb life can be expected. Was it noticeable?

lordhelmet

iTrader: (3)

Lol at this post: http://www.honda-acura.net/forums/3614093-post13.html

Gearbox's only post on that site.

gearbox

iTrader: (95)

hahaha. yeah glare was the same. it prolly got a tiny bit brighter, but i could not tell and other cars never flashed me. the zeta kit is usually around $75 from ebay seller "allcatzlights"

i used the same xtravision bulbs for 6 months and they never burnt out, and i drove ALOT every night sometimes for hours at a time. if you check ebay, im sure you can find a cheapo pair of bulbs around $20. but stick with brand name ofcourse. no generics or GE crap bulbs lol. go with philips or osram.

lordhelmet

iTrader: (3)

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/CATZ-...=p4506.c0.m245

They are as low as 46 bucks after shipping. I'm not exactly sure how these hook up. I'm assuming that you plug the booster into the bulb and the wiring harness as well as the fuse box?

gearbox

iTrader: (95)

you have to splice the ballast directly to the bulb wiring near the bulb socket. the fuse pnp design doesnt work cause its a big fuse and wont fit in the box. make sure the ballasts have a good ground. and man thats a cheap price! i may pick one up just in case for future use lol.

oh yeah i just remembered something else. i never got the H4 hi beam to work with these. all i had working was the boosted lo beam. there is a specific way to do this, because the ballast can only run one bulb filament at a time. i figured out how to make both lo and hi beam boosted but never tried it out. im sure you will be able to tho with the detailed description they give. the only problem will be if you use the flash to pass function (which keeps both lo and hi beam filaments on together) for more than a few seconds, you will blow the zeta fuses. i should still have the instructions for the kit i can email you. but i lost my own diagram on how to wire the lo and hi beam to work off the same ballast. if you think about how the stock headlight wires work, it should be easy to figure out. basically power goes into the ballast, then the ballast amplifies it and sends it back out to the bulb. so you are splicing the ballast inbetween the wiring from switch to bulb.

lordhelmet

iTrader: (3)

If all else fails I should be able to splice the booster into the low beam wire and leave the hi beam un-boosted.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8LqQz5nIg7U

That guy figured it out so there must be a way.

sdaidoji

iTrader: (1)

Amber 7440 bulbs can also be ordered in honda dealers. just tell them you need bulbs for the 2003 civic sir (canada) or si (US) they are stanley. you will not have them light as parking since they are7440, though.

sdaidoji

iTrader: (1)

just be careful - i can't inseret the 7440 due to its different locking placements - am thinking on grinding the locks out of the bulbs or try to change the connectors, still wondering which of them...
will inform if i find the best solution...

gearbox

iTrader: (95)

some like the silvervisions require grinding the tabs on the bulbs which is easily done using a dremel with sanding bit. just go slowly and keep fitting them til it clicks in place. if you sand too much, the bulb will be loose.

rgop63

hey guys....i just had 1 question..i have a 03 lx sedan...and im thinking of getting these off amazon...Sylvania 9003 XV BP TWIN XtraVision Halogen Headlight ....are they ok for the car?do i need catz zeta boost..or they will run just fine with stock?
thanks!

gearbox

iTrader: (95)

yup the xtravision is a great upgrade bulb and will run just fine on its own at stock wattage. it is a clear bulb with brighter filament. 01-03 civic takes H4/9003/HB2 bulb, all the same bulb. catz zeta is a separate system using dc-dc conversion ballasts to give the bulbs more voltage. they have come down in price alot and you can get a pair for maybe $50 on ebay. wiring is a bit complicated, since you need to cut and splice. here is a diagram i made for someone else on how to get the catz zeta working with H4 bulb for both lo and hi beam mode.

if you are wanting alot more brightness from the regular halogen bulbs, i recommend it. but be sure you are familiar with electronics before trying to install.

rgop63

thanks a lot gearbox..ill order them right now!!..one more question...what type of bulb do you recomend for fog lights..i want all lights to be the same color...soo..what do u recomend for a good lighting!!thanks again!

gearbox

iTrader: (95)

i assume you have factory fog light with H11 bulb for 01-03 civic. some guys like the yellow coated ones but if you want it to match the headlights, stick with the factory clear bulb. i do not know if they make xtravision in h11 size. if they do, then get that. otherwise the regular clear bulb it comes with should still be a good match with the xtravisions you just bought. they are brighter but the color does not change much.

iallan

iTrader: (1)

What is the average lifespan of the Philips xtreme power lights?
I was originally going to get Sylvania silver star ultras until i read they only last 6-12 months usually. I dont want to change them that often.
I wanted to buy an hid kit but after reading this, im not so sure. If the philips last a good amount of time i might look into them more. approximate cost of the philips?
Im new to the civic scene, i want to learn everything!

Thanks,
IA

gearbox

iTrader: (95)

philips XP has the same rated lifespan as a standard H4 bulb. it is also the brightest bulb available in that size. on www.powerbulbs.com philips XP is usually around $30 shipped per pair from the UK. i had the xp for almost a year before switching to hid and they were still good, even using the catz zeta to boost voltage.

lazlong

Hey gearbox, I could have sworn my moonroof switch had a light. Is this light replaceable? Where would I find a replacement?

xRiCeBoYx

iTrader: (22)

it does have a light. There's 1 single filament bulb that has it's (for a lack of better words) leads wrapped around the base in a way to secure the bulb down and make contact with the copper contacts on the moonroof switch circuit board. I think your best bet to replace it would be ordering the part from hondaautomotiveparts.com or hondapartscheap.com, or converting it to an LED (which could be a bit time consuming, and you have to situate the bulb so it illuminates that switch properly.

http://ledautomotive.com/guide.php?id_cms=32

the side looks like the switches they have for example at the bottom, but there's only a single bulb for the moonroof switch instead of 2 shown.

lazlong

Cool, thanks. Has anybody tried the solderless kit?

xRiCeBoYx

iTrader: (22)

I did the DIY style, then I re-did it using SMD LEDs. I can only imagine they'd do a professional job with the solderless kit..
Clicky. Everything circled or pointed at is what I converted to SMD LEDs using their DIY guide

ATMJDM01

I have a really n00b question. What exactly is the STOCK wattage for my 2001 Civic Headlight Bulb?

Is it 55w/60w?

And is the 2 numbers for Low Beam (55) and High Beam (60)? Because on some, the numbers are shown 60/55w instead of 55w/60w so I'm confused.

The bulbs I have now say "(60/55=110/100 watt)" Just really wanted to know what each number is meaning. I appreciate the response.