projector headlights

[seldo]

One of the most disappointing things with my VY Senator is the performance of the lights, and I have been trolling the net trying to find a worthy upgrade. For a performance car the lights are woeful. I tried some 80w (vs 55w) upgrade globes which I bought over the net but because the H9 and H11 globes are quite unusual there is very little alternative. The 80w ones I bought turned out be blue tinged which made them look good and appear to be HIDs but they did not work any better in terms of showing me where the road was. So after some very generous help from Daniel Stern Lighting in the US, I was advised to try the H9 hi-beam globes in the H11 sockets. Now, it is a fiddly conversion but well worth the trouble - I reckon about a 50% improvement. This will improve your lumens output from 1350 to 2100! If you are interested, listen carefully... The H9 globe and the H11 look more or less the same except that if you hold them side by side the locating lugs on the bulb-base are slightly different. the top one (closest to the wiring plug) is asymetrical and the one on the H9 is sort of biased to the left and the H11 is biased to the right . to make them fit I just used a pair of good snips to trim about 3mm off the left side of the top lug so that it became roughly symetrical. However, you will find that whilst they will now fit the head-light socket the plug will not fit the globe. You will find that the bulb female socket has 2 locating lugs moulded into the plastic of the base either side of the 2 electrical pins in the centre, but 1 of those will prevent the male plug from fitting into the socket. I decided that it was a very precise and delicate job so I just used a very sharp fine chisel to remove the top lug from the globe socket. After that, the plug slipped in like a pr*ck in a pillow-case. Put it all back together - replace battery, globe-sealing caps, radiator top shroud, CAI access hatch etc, and Robert's your uncle. It is a very worthwhile improvement if you want to see where you are going, and best part is - only costs the price of 2 H9 globes - about $50. BTW, it seems that the genuine globes are cheaper than, and as good as any aftermarket ones. Cheers