Semikolon

I was just testing my new headlight setup with 35W philips 85126 with OEM Hella gen3 ballast and the fuse melted 3 seconds after powering on the high beam.

Looking at the fuse chart there are one fuse for each high beam. they are 7,5A. and there are one fuse for each low beam, they are 15A.

So the question sounds, are the wires to the high beams smaller than the wires to the low beams? I have xenon low beams equipped from factory. I guess I can just put in 15A fuses if the wires are the same...

raymond g-

dbl check your wiring. all I did was to spice in the solenoid wires into the
high beam. so the resulting and additional load should be low, ie the
added load should only be the relay clicking and opening the cutoff shield.


....right? or am I not thinking clearly while at work ?

illest

I just finished mine last weekend and they are wired in the same way raymond described. Drove around for about 30 min with the high beams on with no problem.

Semikolon

Actually what I meant was xenon in the dedicated high beams.... The bi-xenons works perfect, but I had a spare set of ballasts and bulbs, so I thought why the hell not..

But I think it's a better idea to stretch a new wire from the positive terminal and add it to a relay to reduce load when I have to turn the high beams on and off several times in a short period of time.. Then I'll just add a resistor to the high beam wires to bypass the bulb warning..

How much current do the ballast draw when heating the bulb by the way?

ohlord

the pos output from the alternator.Much shorter run and wired to a dedicated relay you will be pumping full 14 volts to the beams.
www.danielsternlighting.com has a pretty good schematic of the routing.

Semikolon

I was thinking of the positive terminal under the hood.. I would think that is a bit easier than connecting to the alternator.. And I guess the results will be the same. Haven't had a good look at the wiring in this car, but I would guess the terminal is connected directly to the alternator, not via the battery as there's only one big wire connected to the battery.

But will higher voltage make any difference for the xenons? I thought the ballast was limiting the power as it's supposed to run at 9-16Volts... then 16Volts would mean 46W if it was a resistive load, which it ain't, but you see my point.


But I think I'll rewire the headlights and add some resistors. How often does a xenon bulb burn out anyways? For my headlights I really don't need the bulb warning, as I am awake enough to actually see when there is light missing in front of me... I don't understand how people doesn't notice...

ohlord

last a good while,and at the price they should last for years
Post under hood goes to battery that is why it is not only used for jump starting but also key out the best charging point for a discharged battery.
I don't think I would try to run a hid system off of it.

Yacht Master

Less than an incandescent halogen bulb. You may want to check, the draw your ballasts have, mine start and run fine (Jap hid kit) with OEM 7.5 amp fuse.
I would bench test it with an in-line fuse, maybe a 10 amp fuse will carry it. One thing I worry about is that it took 3 seconds to blow the 7.5, HIDs initial load is the highest once the arc is struck the load goes way down.

Semikolon

The reason why the fuse doesn't melt immediately is because the ignition current isn't enough to melt it alone. But if the current is still over or close to 7,5A after those 2-3 seconds it will then get warm enough to melt. Actually the current doesn't need to be over 7,5A for the fuse to melt if the ignition current warms it just up to the point of melting. I'm an electrician..


The nominal power here is 35W + loss =about 40-45W. This means nominal current will be about 3,5A. As long as the bulb is getting heated the ballast will draw more than nominal power, how much I don't know, but I would think its more than a 55W tungsten bulb would draw. There is probably a reason for equipping the low beams with 15A fuses.

This was a hella ballast, it may draw more current than other ballasts as it heats the bulbs faster.

Semikolon

I just tested my new high beams, Awesome! Pulled a wire from one of the original high beams into the the car, connected it to a switch, connected that one to relays and took the power from the terminal under the hood. I don't see any problems with that. It's equipped with a 150A fuse, so it's probably made to take some power out of it. the underhood fuses is supplied from it too.

So when driving with much oncoming traffic I turn off the switch and use only the bi-xenon projectors. and when I'm alone I turn on the switch and make the night become day

raymond g-

E55 high/full beam is quite bright when it's activated. I can imagine it's
super blazing.... and ready to land aircraft if you're running four full beams - wow

Semikolon

Haven't been able to fully test them yet but it looked very good yesterday.
I'm getting my headlights properly aimed at the dealer today, and then we'll see

This is at least a whole new world compared to the oem headlights. They were crap

h0rn3t920

Take a picture and show us how powerful your setup is!

Semikolon

that was the plan.. it'll post later

koskesh

it does not seem practical for high beams to be HID unless you only use them for long periods of time. If you ever want to flash your high beams to signal someone on the road it is going to shorten the life time with all the start ups and they don't even get that bright until 5-15 seconds after. just a thought.

raymond g-

i dunno about that - reread #10

koskesh

Did you put a separate fuse for the wire you ran from battery terminal to the lights? you have to have a reasonably rated (idk 25A?) fuse as close to the battery terminal as you can so if there is ever a short you dont set the car on fire. That 150A fuse is probably not going to blow before the wire catches fire.

Semikolon

I'm an electrician, I know what I'm doing. I have one 15A fuse for each ballast and wired with 2,5mm^2

The point with that 150A fuse was that ohlord said I shouldn't run the ballasts from the terminal under the hood, but with a 150A fuse in there it should be able to deliver power to a couple of headlights.

here are some pictures from this evening. It's snow, so the light looks a bit better than what you can expect when there's no snow, or when it's raining.

The pictures weren't the best I've seen. I probably got the focus point of the camera somewhat wrong...


The car. Low beams off. Camera flash is on (it was totally dark outside)





Low beam




Projector high beam, same view





Full high beam, same view. Distance in view is almost 300meters. There is a house in the middle of the view (you may not see it), almost 300meters away. I can clearly see the red color and the windows on that house. It doesn't come forward on the picture though





Full high beam, distance in view is well over 300meters. not able to measure accurately, but from the looks compared to measured distances I would say about 350.

Semikolon

I'll try to make some better focused pictures tomorrow night.

koskesh

sorry, didn't mean to imply you don't know what you're doing, just looking out, it just came out wrong.

That place looks cold and scary, but the light are nice and bright. That's a 4matic right?

EdzBenz

Those photos are awesome. It looks like the roads by my cabin during the winter. Great job on the headlights.

Semikolon

It's cold alright, but not scary

4matic? nooo, its a 220tdta+



(the diesels never came with 4matic for some weird reason)

Semikolon

A small update. The red line is a left turn. Measured to 400 meters away. I could clearly see the road all the way. Doesn't come forward on the picture though.

Semikolon

by the way, does it still look scary where I live?

koskesh

no it's beautiful during the day

So you drive this car around in snow with rear wheel drive? how?