I have been trying to research the lighting issues...

Replaced my stock lights w/ Nokya 9004 Arctic Whites, and the fogs w/ Nokya H3 Arctic Whites...

Fogs are out, haven't taken a look. Headlights are picky about which one is going to out at a particular time... sometimes both. Apparently the plastic part that plugs directly into the bulb is toasted.

Called the dealer and the part is sold out and on back order.

From reading around, I have gathered that all the "white" and "HID-like" or blue bulbs will run at a higher wattage and cause this to happen, and thus, if I want to have that look, I just have to accept it??

 

It's not the color of the light or the bulb that will melt your stock connector, it's the wattage. Not all "HID look" bulbs are overwattage. Stock bulbs are 45W/65W for the headlights and 55W for the fogs. If you are going to use overwattage bulbs it's highly recommended that you get an upgraded harness. IIRC it cost Tony (1MAX2NV) about $300 to repair his melted connectors. APC makes the upgraded harnesses. You can probably get them from Carparts.com (out of stock last I heard), Jegs, or some other online stores. I haven't ordered from either of those places so I don't know how their service will be. Just saw the harness on their sites.

 

Do you know what the nae of the harness is in particular or how to track it down in particular? I'm a newbie hahaha... I have not been able to find bulbs that fit the stock wattage either...

 

http://www.autotoys.com/home.htm
http://www.aftermarketsource.com/

The harness is dependent on which bulbs you have, fourth gens have 9004 size bulbs, so buy the upgrade harness for the 9004 size.
There are plenty of superwhite headlights with normal wattages. The PIAA superwhites are stock wattage (just to name one), so if you get them then you don't need the wire harness.

 

All "DOT Approved" or "legal" bulbs are stock wattage. But not all stock wattage are "legal" or "DOT Approved".

As part of the DOT spec, the wattage has to remain the same to be called a 9004 bulb.

-Shing

 

Hmm... Thanks for all the help everyone...

Wow, looked up PIAA's Platinums... which are supposedly running on stock wattage and are "DOT Approved" and they are like $70 and up... I notice that they have 45/65 = 85/100 or something like that. What does that mean? They simulate the 85/100 or they actually run on 85/100?

Because, the Nokya bulbs that toasted my harness say the same thing on the package... so maybe I can't avoid this problem at all. The Nokya bulbs say 45/65 -> 80/100 for the headlights and 55 -> 75 for the fogs... Aren't these running on the stock wattage too??

Will a harness really eliminate this problem or just delay it...? Thanks again for all the input. Trying to get this right once and for all.

 

Those 55=10000 watts don't mean anything. There are hotspots in the light pattern of the bulb. if they fudge with the bulbs a little, they can cause certain hotspots to be a lot brighter, but see that doesn't mean anything cause all that means is you can see in that 1 spot mroe than before, but overall you still can't see.

-Shing

 

what's your opinion on these:

http://www.autofreak.net/cgi-bin/eli..._Goods&id=1508

Pretty expensive for a pair of bulbs.

btw, do you think Autozone will have the Bluevision? I am trying to avoid the hassle of sending bulbs back and forth.

....

oh, for those who are still wondering why an overwattage bulb can melt a harness, think about a home appliance. At home we pay attention to Amp of an appliance so that we don't plug it into an outlet that's not rated for the Amp. Same thing here with the harness. Same voltage, higher wattage = higher Amp. Same wiring, higher Amp = more heat generated. Same rate of heat dissipation, more heat = one good melted harness.

 

Honestly? Don't waste your money. I guess the key is what do you want, do you want to see, or do yuo want to be seen? If you want to see, the lighter the coating, the more you will see. If you want to be seen, well there are lots of bulbs out there to do that...

I am testing out blue visions tonight... I hope I can see. BTW, there is one notable exception, the PIAA H-3 superwhites are bright as hell... then again, H-3s in general are bright. I'll let you know how it comes out tonight.

-Shing

 

Shing:
Let me know how it goes with the BlueVisions. Can you take a look at the your package, does it say Made in Korea? The BlueVisions i got for my Dad's car were the H4s...made in Germany. I think that it has to do with the fact the the H4 are Euro-code.

Pkim23:
THose advertisements claiming 85W light from only 55W...it's a BS marketing ploy. Think of the physics. If a bulb wants to draw a certain amount of current...that's what it'll do. High wattage bulbs work by using larger (read as lower resistance) filaments. Less resistance equals more amperage and with a constant voltage, more power or wattage.

Focker2889:
In my honest opinion, bulbs should never cost more than $35 a pair.