New Eyes for an Eta- Cibie/Hella Content

[DaButt]

Just got them in and operational-

Cibie CSR High Beams
Hella BiFocal H1 Low Beams
Bulbs- Narva +50 Range Power H3s and H1s

LOVE these lights. All sourced through Daniel Stern, who is a true professional.

[randomsv650]

Look awesome! Had to get a few parts for mine, adjusters, etc but should have them in within a few weeks. Look good :up:

[PKR]

I've got the Hella BiFocal H1s too - and I love 'em. They're an excellent choice. Since most of my nighttime driving is suburban I decided to spend the $$ on low beams first.

[m3fuz]

Link to where I can purchase? Did it come with a harness if you had the sealed beams? Classic Garage appears to be out of stock for the H1/H4 conversion. Thanks in advance.

[Jszy25]

Nice, I love the look.

[DaButt]

https://www.danielsternlighting.com

email him- he'll likely send you something like this- which he sent to me=

"you have made an error in low beam selection. H4 lamps in the 5.75" round size (any brand of lamp, any bulb) are extremely inefficient and minimally effective. More detail on request.

I have a 1984 BMW 325E.

Ah, here we are, it's an E30.

Send back those H4s; if you're only driving at night you need much better lamps than those.

Here is the text I send to everyone who's upgrading a quad-round-headlamp car such as yours:

First, decide how well you want to see at night and how much money you want to spend doing it. This should be decided based on how much nighttime driving you do and at what kinds of speeds, and/or on your personal preference for how important it is to you to have highly effective, well-focused headlamps. H4s are the standard upgrade, and are not advisable if you are planning on doing much night driving. H4 lamps (of any manufacture) in the 5.75" round size are not very efficient, because with H4 (any H4 bulb in any H4 lamp), only 55% of the total reflector and lens area is used to collect and direct the light for the low beam, because of the low beam filament shield inside the H4 bulb. That's OK if you have a large lamp, but with small lamps like the 5.75" rounds, you really can't collect much light from the bulb.

If you do much of any night driving, instead of H4s, put in the Hella BiFocal H1 low beams ($102/ea white, $118/ea selective yellow), which were co-developed by Hella and BMW. They look like normal headlamps but are very much more efficient and better focused. Use them in conjunction with parabolic H1 high beams ($77.95/ea Cibie white, $88.95/ea Hella selective yellow). Use Narva Rangepower+50 H1 bulbs all around ($15.50). These will give vastly better performance than the sealed-beam junk _and_ vastly better performance than any H4 conversion (much more efficient optics; entire optical area used to form the low beam). Illumination is broad, long-reaching, and very well focused, with no upward stray light and significantly less glare to oncoming drivers (because the light is focused where you need it) -- a substantial upgrade from the sealed beam lamps' dim, narrow tunnel of light with no side spread and excessive upward throw that causes backglare in bad weather, and likewise a substantial upgrade from the H4 lamps' relatively meager beam performance.

HOWEVER!

You have asked about selective-yellow headlamps, and in your lamp size/shape format I have an option substantially better than the Hella BiFocals: Cibie CSR units. Read about them here:

http://danielsternlighting.com/products/csr.html

They are no longer manufactured (same with yellow BiFocals) but while all the white ones are gone, I have remaining stock on the yellow ones. $129/ea and well(!) worth it; I run them on my quad-lamp car and even though I spend all day messing with headlamps these still make me grin. There is just nothing like them, low and high beam.

The BiFocal and CSR low beams incorporate a built-in parking lamp which you may hook up or not, at your option. This is a small 5w bulb ($4.24/ea) that sticks through the lamp's reflector into the lamp itself, a couple of inches away from the main headlight bulb, via a socket and grommet. "City light" is a common casual term for this. The official term is "front position lamp" or "parking lamps". It is _only_ a parking lamp, not capable of producing an effective or legal daytime running light or turn signal function no matter what bulb is installed. Electrical connection is by a standard 1/4" spade terminal, which you wire into vehicle's parking lamp feed. The city light illuminates the whole headlamp in a "pilot light" sort of fashion; this makes for large-area parking lamps, and if a headlight bulb ever burns out, oncoming traffic still sees you as a double-track vehicle. Outside North America, parking lamps must emit white light, the North American style amber ones are not allowed. In North America, parking lamps may emit white or amber light, and these white ones built into the headlamp are a legal form of parking lamp in the USA and Canada. This type of parking lamp is not used on vehicles with hidden or pop-up headlamps.

There's a minor/easy mod required to keep the low beams lit when high beam is activated, achieved at the same time as you install headlight relays with relay kit RIK-CSR ($54). The RIK is not a harness, but a _parts kit_ containing all relays, brackets, terminal blocks, terminals, plugs, sockets, fuses and fuseholders. You supply your own wire and use the parts from the kit to build up your own wiring harness. Specific instructions are provided, and the concept is explained at http://www.danielsternlighting.com/t...ys/relays.html .Parts are specially made premium-grade items (e.g. ceramic headlamp sockets) that accept large-gauge wire; this is not the "consumer grade" junk you can find at the parts store. All the components (relays, etc.) are compact enough that you'll have an easy time hiding them and they won't crud up your engine bay. The in-car switches continue working normally.

Other lighting upgrades for your '84:

Can make your reversing (back-up) lights nearly 100% brighter for $8.20/bulb .

Can also make your front and rear sidemarker lights 60% brighter for safer side-on visibility of the car at night, $4.24/bulb.

Your turn signals are presently invisible from the side because your front amber side marker lights are not currently wired to flash with the turn signals; they only burn steadily whenever the parking lamps or headlamps are on. There is a very easy modification you can make to their hookup so that they do double-duty as side markers _and_ side turn signal flashers, see
http://www.danielsternlighting.com/t...rkerflash.html This
is a very good safety improvement, as your turn signals become visible to
the side instead of just front- or rear-on. With the one-wire/body-ground front side markers on your car, you can do this using the module method described in the linked article. The module kit is $42 (one module does the whole job, left and right).

Daytime running lights significantly reduce your risk of being in a crash during the daytime, and are required on all '90 and newer vehicles in Canada. There are many ways to implement them, each with various drawbacks and benefits. If you want (or need) to have (or keep, after you install headlamp relays) a daytime running light function on your vehicle, the best (most beneficial, least detrimental) implementation is the steady-burning operation of the front directional signals. They produce a light distribution with a wide view angle, are generally well located for DRL service at the outboard edges of the front of the vehicle, consume considerably less power than any headlamp-based DRL implementation, use light sources of generally much longer life than any headlamp bulb, do not encourage improper nighttime use of lights, and do not require additional lighting devices to be added. Most recent Cadillacs, Chevrolet/GMC large vans and minivans, Corvettes since 1997 in the US and since 1990 in Canada, some Toyota and Lexus models, certain new Lincolns and Chryslers and assorted
other vehicles use this implementation. It is steady-lit operation of the bright amber turn signals (except when they are flashing to signal a turn), not operation of the dim parking lamps; parking lights are not bright enough and don't have the right view angles to serve the daytime running light function. Turn signal DRLs comply with US and Canadian Motor Vehicle Safety Standards #108 and are approved in all states, provinces, and territories. You can easily enable this functionality in your vehicle using a DRL-1 module ($42); see http://dastern.torque.net/Mods/DRL/DRL1.html for instructions and http://www.allpar.com/fix/electrical/DRLs.html for an example installation.

I also have excellent high-quality LED center 3rd brake light retrofit kits from Hella New Zealand; see http://www.danielsternlighting.com/p...cts.html#CHMSL -- definitely not the dimestore junk that flooded the market in the '80s and '90s. It is $63.40 for the lamp kit with installation supplies and materials. See example installation at http://www.allpar.com/reviews/other/...ake-light.html .

The brake lights and turn signals can be made 40% to 50% brighter, but I can't sell you those bulbs. You can get the required bulbs (which have nice nickel-plate bases that will not corrode and seize in the sockets) from your local Honda (car) dealer or a price-friendlier online supplier of genuine Honda parts.

Part number for the single-filament variety (replacing 1141, 1156, 1073, 7508, or P21W) is 34903-SF1-A01.

Part number for the dual-filament variety (replacing 1016, 1034, 1157, 2057, 2357, 7528, or P21/5W in brake/tail or park/turn lights) is 34906-SL0-A01.

Don't try to buy these bulbs in the aftermarket, and don't let the dealer sell you anything but a genuine Stanley-made Honda bulb; everything but the genuine Honda product is junk. These are ultrapremium bulbs with very long lifespan, corrosionproof nickelplate base, etc.

HOW TO ORDER:

Orders may be sent via e-mail to: dastern@torque.net

You may also voicemail or fax your order toll-free on 1-866-861-8668.
Please note this is a recorded orderline only. PLEASE send me an email advising that you have sent me a fax or left me a voicemail so that I may retrieve it and process your order straightaway.

If you'd like to speak with me in person, please use 303-835-1300; if you miss me, please leave a message stating when and where I can best reach you back."

[DaButt]

Link to where I can purchase? Did it come with a harness if you had the sealed beams? Classic Garage appears to be out of stock for the H1/H4 conversion. Thanks in advance.

The H1 High beams were pnp- excellent.

The H1 Los require slight mods- it depends on the model of light you select, I think.

No mods necessary to buckets, carriers, etc, they're the same size/shape as sealed beams.

[bmwstephen]

Wat modification is involved with h1?

Sent from the heavenswhat

[DaButt]

Wat modification is involved with h1?

Sent from the heavenswhat

You have to cut the standard 3 pronged 1/4" Spade Terminal thing off and crimp new terminals on.

[jekaio]

awesome info on the lights!!

i would love to see some night shots if you could!

[DaButt]

awesome info on the lights!!

i would love to see some night shots if you could!

I could but... my camera is my phone... and I'm a terrible photographer... and my lights aren't aimed very well yet.

If you look at the website for the isocandela diagrams- it gives you an idea.

If you're using sealed beams, take the light you're used to and make it about 5 times brighter and better.

Where you at in Charleston? I went to school there.

[freeride53]

Cool looking car.
However, your sig .gif isn't complete.
It's missing the part when the ladies scurry away.

[bmwstephen]

just spoke with Daniel and it was interesting how much he hates hella H4/H1's

[JasonC]

OP, please remove the gif. from your sig. Animated sigs are not allowwed on here. Thanks. And the yellow lights look good. But what about the driving lights now?

[DaButt]

OP, please remove the gif. from your sig. Animated sigs are not allowwed on here. Thanks. And the yellow lights look good. But what about the driving lights now?

My bad, man.

I'm not sure- I know Daniel Stern has some cibie/marchal/hella options- but I'm not sure about the sizes?