As an owner of a 98 model VTi-R since new, I’ll agree that the headlights are poor. You can put in better globes, as long as they are standard wattage, to avoid damaging the plastic headlight lens and reflector. The Philips X-treme +80 globes are about the best standard wattage globes (55/60W) currently available. But, unless you upgrade the wiring to the headlights to avoid the voltage loss which the standard wiring provides, you won’t be getting the best out of any globe.
The wiring on the Civic, and on many Japanese vehicles, is just too thin to allow full voltage to get to the headlights. I measured that only 80% of the battery voltage was available at the headlights on mine on low beam, soon after I bought it – well over 2 volts was being dropped across the wiring between the battery and the headlight plugs. As voltage drop is proportional to current (Ohm’s Law is V=IR), and hence wattage, the 60W high beams would produce slightly more voltage drop, with less available at the headlights. Here’s a table from Hella, showing the percentage brightness of lights for various percentages of battery voltage:
Voltage Brightness
100% 100%
95% 83%
90% 67%
85% 53%
This shows that by reducing the voltage by only 15%, headlight bulb brightness is reduced to almost half. So, given a 20% reduction in voltage at the headlight terminals of a near-new Civic, as measured by me using a digital multimeter (I worked in electronics for many years, and have an electrical engineering qualification), we can assume that our headlights are about half as bright as they could be, if they had full battery voltage. Solution: upgrade the wiring, using two high quality relays, one for low beam, and the other for high beam, with 5mm or 6mm diameter cable run directly (via inline fuses) to the battery. You can either do it yourself, get an auto-electrician to do it, or use a quality plug-in headlight wiring loom. The 8 Standard Wire Gauge wire sold by DSE (Cat W2302, W2304), Jaycar (Cat WH3060, WH3062) and Altronics (Cat W4100, W4102) for wiring in high power car amplifiers is excellent wire for a DIY headlight loom job, and it’s nice and flexible too. If you do it yourself, here’s an explanation of how to do it, by US car lighting expert Daniel Stern http://www.danielsternlighting.com/t...ys/relays.html , who knows what he is talking about.
The plug in headlight wiring looms are commonly available in Australia from 4X4 accessory outlets, such as ARB, Opposite Lock, 4WD Megastore, or 4WD Warehouse. The two best known brands are Piranha’s Superloom, and ARB’s IPF headlight loom. I used a Piranha Superloom on my Land Rover in the mid-90’s, which I removed before I sold it, so I fitted it to the Civic, and got much brighter headlights, on both high and low beam. The effect was much more noticeable on the Civic compared to the LR, as the LR original headlight wiring was thicker, so the percentage improvement wasn’t as great. The Superloom’s just a plug in loom, with relays for high and low beam, complete with fuses, using 6mm thick wire – a ring terminal connects to earth under a convenient bolt on the body in the engine bay, another is connected to the battery positive lead, one of the original headlight plugs is plugged into a socket on the new loom, and the two plugs on the headlight loom plug into the headlight globes. The relays on the loom need to be mounted to a convenient spot in the engine bay – I made up a small bracket to hold mine, and used an existing unused, tapped bolthole to screw it to, and the fuses also need to be mounted somewhere. I used cable ties to hold everything in position, and ran it alongside existing wiring, and as it uses similar split corrugated tubing to the original Honda wiring, it looks stock. The wiring loom, combined with upgraded bulbs – lately the recently released Philips +80 bulbs, means that the dim stock headlights are a thing of the past. I can certainly believe Hella’s figures – they look twice as bright. Here are some links to information on looms on Australian 4x4 websites http://piranhaoffroad.com.au/index.p...uper-loom.html http://www.arb.com.au/products/ipf-l...s-accessories/ . Unfortunately most Aussie 4X4 accessory sellers seem to be reluctant to use the web for sales, so if you’re in a remote locality, you may need to ring around some of the stores I mentioned above to ask about the looms, and see if you can buy from them via phone or mail order, or get a local auto-electrician to make up one – a close relative in that trade would be ideal.
Expect to pay quite a bit for the upgrade loom – somewhere between $100 and $200 would be typical. It’s been some time since I bought mine in the mid-90’s – I think it cost me about $60 or $80 back then, from a local 4X4/rally expert. While you may think that’s a lot, when you price the relays, relay connectors, fuses, wires, plugs, and split tubing (and labour), it’s quite reasonable. I actually extended the length of my superloom, so that I could fit it down the driver’s side of the engine bay, and mount the relays under the airbox, where there’s more room, but at a stretch, it’s probably possible to fit the standard loom down the passenger’s side from the battery, with the relays fitted in somewhere. I fitted the loom across in front of the radiator between the headlights – the radiator can be unbolted at the top, and tilted towards the engine to gain access, without disconnecting any hoses.
Most auto-electricians will also wire up a new loom, with relays and fuses, for you at a reasonable price, using decent 5 or 6mm wire (the Civic uses 2.5mm wire, which is why it produces such a voltage drop with high wattage accessories like headlights). Do a google search on headlight & loom on Australian websites, and you’ll see what plenty of Australians had to say about the difference in brightness after fitting a headlight loom to their (mainly) Japanese 4X4 – the majority, if not all, said what a major difference it made. Note that you shouldn’t use high wattage globes in the EK Civic, due to the plastic headlights – only standard wattage globes (60/55W) can be used, as higher wattage bulbs damage the plastic headlight lenses and reflectors through excessive heat and UV output. The upgrade standard bulbs, such as +30, +50 and +80 bulbs, from reputable manufacturers such as Cibie, Hella, Osram, Philips or Narva, are quite OK, as they run at the same temperature as standard, and they also make a worthwhile difference, but not as much as fixing up the wiring. The Philips brand globes are superb, and if you go for +30 or +50 bulbs, you can save a bit by buying the Australian Narva brand items – they are actually the Philips globes, in Narva packaging, or the ones I’ve checked have been! But remember, when you fit new headlight wiring, you’re effectively fitting the equivalent of “+100” bulbs, and you can also install the +80 bulbs, and get a total 180% improvement! That’s 3 times as bright.:) If the headlights are properly adjusted, you won’t dazzle other road users – I’ve been using the upgraded wiring, and brighter bulbs, for almost 11 years, and I’ve never had anyone flash their headlights at me because they were dazzled. I’ve also driven towards my Civic, in another vehicle, when a relative was driving it, and although the headlights looked nice and bright, they didn’t cause me any discomfort, unlike those of some other vehicles I’ve had the misfortune to meet coming the other way!
