H4 wiring harness upgrade

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by 02gzm

Lol that's a load of crap. They just didn't wanna order them. Go visit an Ashdown-Ingram branch.

---

Don't Ashdown also own Repco?:D

Oh no - as you were - I just looked it up, and it's the other way around. Repco Corp own Ashdown-Ingram, Motospecs, Repco, and McLeod Accessories.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by NightKids

Yeah I heard that Narva are just rebranded Philips and I definately wouldn't touch anything over 100W as i'm not 100% sure my relay can handle it.

---

Yeah - it's not just Philips they sell. Basically Narva don't make a lot of their stuff, as they're mainly just a distributor - all their brands are made for them on an OEM basis by other manufacturers. For instance, their Narva Ultima driving and fog lights are made by the Swedish company NBB, and I've seen the same lights branded as Volvo, Land Rover, Jeep, Night Vision and Britax. My brother in law has a set of Narva Ultima 160/115 driving lights, and I have the exact same driving lights, with Ashdown's (before Repco bought them and merged them with Ingram) Night Vision brand on them, and a set of the same type fog lights, with Ashdown's Britax brand name on them! They all also have the NBB brand on them, because that's who makes them.

Thanks a lot hopefully u got some in stock... but why do I have a feeling they're gonna be pretty expensive..

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by dahondr98

Don't Ashdown also own Repco?:D

Oh no - as you were - I just looked it up, and it's the other way around. Repco Corp own Ashdown-Ingram, Motospecs, Repco, and McLeod Accessories.

---

Was renamed to the Exego Group not too long ago to avoid confusion between the group name and Repco on their own ;)

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by NightKids

... but why do I have a feeling they're gonna be pretty expensive..

---

Shouldn't be - somewhere around $20-25 for a pair would be about the going price for them. They won't be as expensive as the "Plus" globes (eg Philips Xtreme +80), because they haven't had to reesearch how to get extra brightness out of a standard power globe - they've just increased the power input, which makes them brighter and hotter automatically.

Hmm i dunno that seems way too cheap. Cause Vision plus and blue vision is already more than that. These are specialised 'off road' bulbs as wel... well we'll see what happens when 02gzm goes back to work.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by NightKids

Hmm i dunno that seems way too cheap. Cause Vision plus and blue vision is already more than that. These are specialised 'off road' bulbs as wel... well we'll see what happens when 02gzm goes back to work.

---

Go to this link: https://rsp-secure.com/waggawagga/ and in the part number box at the top left, paste one of these numbers in: 48901 or 48901BL , and press Go. They are the numbers for the Narva 100/90W H4 bulbs, and the prices are $8.61 or $9.27, for either one boxed, or one blister packed globe. Or at another seller http://www.eziautoparts.com.au/premi...-48901bl-.html , the price is $12.25 per globe. While these are the Narva globes, the Philips or Osram ones should be in the same price range, and chances are one of those brands supplies Narva anyway. Even Supercheap Auto sells their own brand bulbs for $14.98 http://www.getprice.com.au/SCA-Halog...--41505491.htm .Then toddle off down to Ashdown-Ingram, tell them 02gzm sent you ("Who?"), and slap down $30 on the counter. You should get some change, hopefully.

There are also plenty of sellers on Ebay, selling various 100/90W bulbs, all with special colours (eg Superwhite) and at various prices, but out of 8 Aussie sellers, 7 are selling a pair of globes for less than $30. There aren't any big name brands, unfortunately, so I suggest you go to your local auto store and get some for a reasonable price, with a good brand on the package.:D

The Vision Plus and Blue Vision bulbs are specialist bulbs, not just standard 100/90W bulbs, so they cost more - that compensates Philips for the research they put into making bulbs that are 50% brighter than standard 60/55W bulbs, as the Vision Plus bulbs are, and the better components (eg halogen gases or blue coatings) that they put in them. In general, the premium bulbs have a higher pressure of gas in them, so you are getting more for the extra money, whereas they don't have to worry about that with high wattage bulbs, as rally drivers have been using them for years, and the research was done many years ago.

Checked the price at work today. The Essential Visions are the same price as Extremes. Philips Rally's are roughly the same price as the Narva 100/90W equivalents though.

The Essential Visions are the same whiter colour as Blue visions. And both of the cheaper ones are your normal colour ranges so will look a bit more yellow.

I'd probably go for the ebay bulbs as mentioned above if you wanted the whiter colour as it's going to save you a lot of money.

Yeah so what's the price on the essential visions? I've always bought brand named bulbs cause more money have been put into research and developement. Don't really trust no-name bulbs...

From the sounds of things they are prob a lot more expensive than $25-$30? Have any of you guys tried IPF bulbs? The Jeep drivers swear by them & they cost an arm & a leg!

Around $90. Could get 3 cheaper branded sets for that much. Which combined would probably last longer.

Holy smokes! $90!! Man that's really expensive.

I quite like the bulbs but damn that's dear... I wonder where I can get em' cheaper cause they seem like a bulb that's only available from Australia.

IPF globes never seem to live up to their hype, and like PIAA globes, are overpriced. Both Japanese companies never actually seem to back up their claims with test data, unfortunately. If you'd just spent $150 on a pair of IPF Fatboy globes, are you going to admit you were ripped off? Didn't think so! You'll tell everyone how good they are.:rolleyes:

But, as an ARB shareholder, I'm quite happy for you to buy them. Great globes, aren't they? Just excuse me while I take this fat wallet out of my back pocket - I almost overbalanced off my chair.:)

Haha yeh they do seem a bit overpriced. That HIR style bulb is just awesome though! Wonder what light output the Fatboy x4 would put out against my Osram 100/80s?

It seems as though u own a 4WD on the side cause your knowledge is pretty 4WD based.

The godfather of automotive lighting (Daniel Stern) has expressed his opinions about the IPF bulbs when I asked him. His quite disgusted it seems although I only half understand what his talking about. Maybe dhondr98 will understand this better....

For reference, the IPF lamps are not E-code headlamps. There is an uppercase E in a circle on the lens, but it's only one third of an actualECE type approval mark. An ECE type approval mark has approval numbers and country codes and regulation amendment sequence codesinside and outside the circle. This isn't just pedantic babble about what markings have to be on the lens; IPF never submitted these headlamps fortype approval testing, so all you can go on is IPF's say-so that they'rephotometrically acceptable. That might or might not be good enough for you-- it isn't for me (and if IPF lacks the confidence in their lamp to put it through real 3rd-party tests, I don't really feel like dropping $350 to see if they would meet the minimum ECE photometric requirements...or the US SAE/DOT photometrics, for that matter.) I find it kind of slimy that IPF put half an E-code mark on their lens, in an obvious effort to trickpeople into thinking they're ECE approved. How many people know what areal E-mark looks like vs. a phake? If they didn't want to (or couldn't)get them type approved, why put even part of the mark on the lens...? What's $350 to a company the size of IPF...? It's pocket change. This is the kind of question that arises in my mind when I see silly tricks like this. That's with IPF's headlamps; their bulbs are likewise marketed in a less than forthright manner. IPF doesn't lie nearly as constantly or brazenly as PIAA does, but IPFstill leans more heavily on hype than science. IPF's "X51 Fatboy" H4 bulb,a 60/80w bulb (sixty over eighty, 60w high beam and 80w low beam) isreasonably well made, but unfortunately it's largely a scam. They'verevved up their hype machine with all kinds of meaningless gobbledy****about this bulb, e.g. "190w optical effect on low beam, 150w opticaleffect on high beam". There is no such thing as "optical effect", and abulb's wattage is only a measure of its electric power consumption, NO**** light output. Also, the large size of the glass on the "Fatboy" bulbis visually impressive, and it entices lots of people into shelling out$70 for a set of these bulbs, but in fact, the *smaller* the glass tube ofa halogen lamp, the better its performance! That's because performance ofa tungsten-halogen bulb is directly linked to bulb wall temperature, andthe closer the bulb wall is to the filament, the higher the bulb walltemperature. Very simple. So here again, we have handwaving and marketeering instead of science and facts. It's not a mystery why they do this (it makes the cash register ring) but I find it dishonest and disagreeable.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by NightKids

Haha yeh they do seem a bit overpriced. That HIR style bulb is just awesome though! Wonder what light output the Fatboy x4 would put out against my Osram 100/80s?

---

Sorry - just got back after being away. They are extremely overpriced. I don't think you need to have too many worries about how bright they are - I think your globes should be brighter - the Japanese seem to think boasting boosts sales. They could be right, but I doubt their claims are accurate (eg Fatboy 80W low beam as bright as a normal 190W globe - in their imagination, I think). On the other hand HIR globes were originally developed by one of the two big boys in car lighting, General Electric (owner of Osram), and the HIR bulbs work well, and are more efficient than normal globes.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by NightKids

It seems as though u own a 4WD on the side cause your knowledge is pretty 4WD based.

---

Used to own a Land Rover, but currently don't. The 4WD market is usually a good place to get info on improving car lights, because plenty of 4WD owners take their vehicles well away from street lights, where good lighting is a must, due to large animals (roos, cattle, camels etc) wandering around near roads at night. I used to find that well away from towns at night, there would be heaps of animals (mainly wallabies, possums & wombats here in Tassie), and as you got within about 5 km of town, they would suddenly almost disappear. I have a relative who worked in an outlying suburb of Hobart (Kingston), and every morning on the way to work she'd see a council truck on the 100km/h expressway to Kingston, with a council employee collecting the roadkill from the night before!

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by NightKids

The godfather of automotive lighting (Daniel Stern) has expressed his opinions about the IPF bulbs when I asked him. His quite disgusted it seems although I only half understand what his talking about. Maybe dhondr98 will understand this better....

---

Yes, Daniel Stern knows what he's talking about. He's saying that the Fatboy bulbs aren't approved for use in Europe, so don't have the E code on their bulbs. He's also saying, that like PIAA, they like talking BS, in order to confuse people into thinking they know what they are talking about.

there are ebay sellers from UK which sell Philips Xtreme for $35AUD delivered.
much cheaper than the $80 asking price in Oz

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by lefty

there are ebay sellers from UK which sell Philips Xtreme for $35AUD delivered.
much cheaper than the $80 asking price in Oz

---

Yes, they can be obtained from the UK relatively cheaply. You can get them around the $60 mark from local sellers, and there are plenty of local Ebay sellers selling them for that. One reason is the GST, which adds 10% to the price. But I've certainly bought them from Britain, at about half the price they were available locally - I got 4 Philips X-treme H4 globes for about $60 2 years ago. I've got one set in my car, and the other set as a spare. The best value +80 globes at the moment are the Narva Blue Power bulbs, which, despite the name, aren't a blue coated bulb - they are similar to the Philips X-Treme bulbs, and are available for about $50 a pair.