Datsun240ZGuy said:My Toyota dealer still sell these for less than $20. I'm trying not to hoard up over here.
Uh, part number?
Datsun240ZGuy said:My Toyota dealer still sell these for less than $20. I'm trying not to hoard up over here.
Uh, part number?
In reply to eastsideTim :
Toyota headlamp details in this thread:
https://grassrootsmotorsports.com/forum/grm/if-anyone-needs-h4-headlights/265435/page1/
In reply to John Welsh :
Thank you. I may be wasting some money soon.
Can't blame automakers for producing what sells. They are incentivized to do that because it makes money. That's just good business.
I don't like higher insurance rates or expensive parts but I also don't buy expensive cars. I've bought 1 new car in my entire life and it was $26k. To bring it back around- it's a 2018 and it has the best halogens I've ever seen (after updating the bulb, maybe that's cheating.) The reflector (it's not a projector) has a sharp cutoff and to my eye very even lighting. It beats the tar out of anything else I've owned and that includes a projector assembly on my previous car which was 10 years older.
As with all things, balance is best. Using modern tech to refine old ideas and make them work better and cheaper seems to be the way to go from where I'm sitting. But no one wants that. Marketing rules the sales game, not quality.
Trent said:Headlights are wear items. Period.
They have a much shorter service life than even the paint or glass at the front of the car.
Quoting this image to say for the love of god, bring back glass headlight lenses.
There must be a way to polish that out - unless it's on the inside, which seems unlikely - but I get your point.
californiamilleghia said:Are any headlights linked to the car/truck by serial number code in the car/trucks computer ?
At these prices it makes a new item for the catalytic converter thiefs :(
Converters are "easy money" because they can be sold for scrap for a high return. There isn't much scrap value in a headlight.
There was a car, I think a Maxima, that had HID headlights designed such that they were an easy retrofit to a non HID vehicle. Thefts were so common that (Nissan?) made a repair kit for the cars, because thieves don't care about damaging the car they are stealing from.
codrus (Forum Supporter) said:Wait, you guys are seriously saying you'd rather have SEALED BEAMS than modern headlights? Are you insane? Sealed beams were miserable. Hell, even the halogen H-whatever bulb lights that replaced them were pretty bad compared to modern headlights. Have you ever driven a modern car at night?
Yes. Modern headlights absolutely suck. They light up the road 20-30 feet in front of you, very brightly, which destroys your ability to see beyond that.
This is also why the instrument panel should be run as dim as possible. Preserve night vision.
Some of the new GMs can disable the vehicle when moisture gets into the headlamps. Its pretty common, atleast in my neck of the woods.
ADAS components can be very expensive, im assuming headlights are getting tied into this now.
New cars are dumb, Ill keep my older stuff and retrofit the new tech thats good.
Lighting peaked with the H4 headlamp. Change my mind.
I stuck those conversions in everything I had back in the sealed beam days. Bright, great low beam cut off, replaceable bulbs. Hella, Bosch, Carello and Cibie all made them.
codrus (Forum Supporter) said:Wait, you guys are seriously saying you'd rather have SEALED BEAMS than modern headlights? Are you insane? Sealed beams were miserable. Hell, even the halogen H-whatever bulb lights that replaced them were pretty bad compared to modern headlights. Have you ever driven a modern car at night?
Have you ever been blinded by one?
ddavidv said:Lighting peaked with the H4 headlamp. Change my mind.
I stuck those conversions in everything I had back in the sealed beam days. Bright, great low beam cut off, replaceable bulbs. Hella, Bosch, Carello and Cibie all made them.
I do really like some of the modern Halogen bulbs like the 9012, and I quite like a halogen in a projector, but that does raise the price of replacement housings.
I feel like in the question of "are modern headlights better?" we've moved too quickly away from "there's no improvement that's worth thousands of dollars per light" as well as "they sure appear to cost an awful lot to buy relative to what they appear to cost to manufacture."
I also think we give way too much weight to "hey, you can't blame them; they only build what sells." Tell me with a straight face that given every other constraint on purchasing a new car I'm supposed to say "no, I'm holding out for headlights I approve of." Consumer choice is heavily constrained in this area, and without differentiation on the area in question, cannot be expressed in the market.
I've bought two new cars, leased another, and for extra credit bought a used current-gen model from a dealer (currently stranded at another dealer three hours away with Modern Car Problems), so I totally get a vote. 😜
codrus (Forum Supporter) said:Wait, you guys are seriously saying you'd rather have SEALED BEAMS than modern headlights? Are you insane? Sealed beams were miserable. Hell, even the halogen H-whatever bulb lights that replaced them were pretty bad compared to modern headlights. Have you ever driven a modern car at night?
Have you driven down a modern city street at night? How much headlight do you actually need?
What about country driving? Bright headlights are awesome!!! But then you are driving too fast to avoid Bambi when your surface-of-the-sun bulbs freak him out.
I'll stick with my sealed beam and halogen auxiliary lights.
In reply to Jesse Ransom :
I've been told in this very thread that I'm an outlier, but one of my car non negotiable must haves is amber turn signals in the rear. Red turn signals in the rear are just a crappy cost-cutting measure and CHMSLs are a crappy way of compensating for trying to figure out if that car in the next lane is getting its brake tapped or its indicator is on and they are about to yeet in front of you.
I do applaud that many vehicles in the US are getting side repeaters now, which helps, at least if you can see them from the rear aspect.
One of the things I have to do with my Quantum is replace its Euro spec headlights with US. The US headlights have the turn signals on the outside corner. The Euros have the turn signal inside next to the grille, because they were engineered with the presence of side repeaters in mind, and the person who did the swap didn't include side repeaters.
I tried in vain to find taillights for my S197 Mustang that had the amber turn lenses. I had found a photo of an Australian import car that had them. Never could find the source. They looked so much better than the all-red ones it is saddled with.
codrus (Forum Supporter) said:Wait, you guys are seriously saying you'd rather have SEALED BEAMS than modern headlights? Are you insane? Sealed beams were miserable. Hell, even the halogen H-whatever bulb lights that replaced them were pretty bad compared to modern headlights. Have you ever driven a modern car at night?
These are sealed beams. 2 - 7" rounds on a 1956 B600 with a pair of F500 Hella driving lights.
If you need more, you need to have your eyes checked.
FWIW, the best headlights on a car I've ever owned were bi-xenons on a 2009 Audi A4. Those things cut through the night like nothing I had experienced, turning night into day. They were better than the LED's in my newer 2019 GTI, which are good.
But in the darkness of the morning, as a courtesy to others I'd actually turn the lights on the Audi off in the parking garage at work if I was going up or down the ramps and others were heading in the opposite direction. On level surfaces, they had a nice distinct "cut off" level, but I thought I was blinding others the inclines. No one ever flashed their lights at me and I never had a pedestrian say something, but I just thought "in their shoes" I wouldn't want to have to look into that blinding white light.
Now my old Miata, otoh, had lights akin to a candle in front of a mirror in comparison. 
ddavidv said:I tried in vain to find taillights for my S197 Mustang that had the amber turn lenses. I had found a photo of an Australian import car that had them. Never could find the source. They looked so much better than the all-red ones it is saddled with.
IIRC, amber turns are mandatory in Oz, including on trailers.
I ride a 6 volt motorcycle. I would kill for the output of even the crappiest example shown.
Pete. (l33t FS) said: IIRC, amber turns are mandatory On every continent but North America
Fixed that for you
Trent said:Pete. (l33t FS) said: IIRC, amber turns are mandatory On every continent but North AmericaFixed that for you
They didn't have an easily bribed government in the early 70s when the standards were being written 
Datsun240ZGuy said:My Toyota dealer still sell these for less than $20. I'm trying not to hoard up over here.
By the time I got around to checking in on these when the other thread popped up, they were on backorder. This thread reminded me to look again. I picked up 2 sets for 34.66 Tax/Title/License out the door from a Rochester Hills dealer. One to use immediately, one for the shelf.
If NHTSA had the guts to, they could totally mandate standardized LED sealed beams. 2"x4" rectangular or 5" round headlights, 2"x3" or 3" round amber and red taillights, 2" round markers.
Modern headlights suck because they're designed to fail. Plastic does not maintain clarity as it ages and wears. My '89 Mazda 626 had glass lenses and they were as clear on the day I sold the car as they were the day I bought the car 14 years earlier. How long do plastic lenses stay clear before they get all fuzzy? 5 years? 6?
Manufacturer's head on a pike is the answer!
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