Headlights too dim in intensity

[David White]

This has probably been discussed before. Night time driving is terrible with the original headlights. I have tried silverstar but not good enough. Is there any aftermarket that will compare with the lights on a new car.

[David White]

My apology, I probably should not have put this on the buy/sell forum. How do you erase a topic ?

[DAVES89]

I bought an LED mostly plug and play. The company is Truc-Lite. They are on Ronnie's site with the relay harness you will need. You also will have to extend the truc-lite pigtails.

 You will have as good or better illumination then any car on the road. These lights are built to and use government specifications.

[David White]

thanks I will check it out

[DAVES89]

 The lights are not cheap but work great. I am on my second winter with them in the Black [my winter Reatta] and everytime I turn them on I am glad I bought them. They really brighten up the road. When I am on a didided highway I constantly compare them to other cars as they pass me. My dims shine farter down the road by at least two car lengths. [i can tell because they are a whiter white]. When you turn on the brights you can really see not just down the road but also to the ditches. I really like that on city streets and lonely country roads.

 I will tell you that while the relay harness is good, they went cheap on the relays. I bought two harness's [one for each of 1989 Reattas] to take some of the draw off the headlight switch. I replaced both relays on the Red's harness as shortly after I installed that harness the relay failed. I saw last night that the harness that is in the Black is starting to have relay failure. I have extra relays from Reattas that I have stripped so can use them. The relay is a common one that any parts store has on the shelf. So if you buy the harness you may just want to install the better relays and be done with it.

[Barney Eaton]

You can also have some problems with old age on other components that will affect the lights.

 

(1) poor ground(s)

 

(2) broken strands in the power going to the headlight.

This goes back to the routing of the cable at the headlight, it should be coming from the fender side, over the casting, turn and into the back of the bulb.

It is quite common to find the cable coming up from the bottom directly into the back of the bulb, this causes flexing that will eventually break the conductors inside the cable

(there are usually 7 twisted wires) as they break, less power gets to the bulb and you get less light.

 

Do some checking before you spend big $$ on replacements.