Headlamp Restoration / Upgrade

Hello guys,

Sorry I've disappeared for quite some time due to my long working hours and hectic schedule.
A frind bought a pair of uprated bulbs (O***m N**********r Plus) and installed it on his car, but it didn't seem bright enough for him. THAT, gave me an idea on what to write today.

We'll start off from the basics of how a simple headlamp system work.The switch activates the headlamp, simply. And headlamp bulbs(load) draws power from the battery to illuminate the road that's ahead of us.

Over time, or when a  driver realizes, the lights get dimmer and dimmer over time. This is contributed by the below factors :


Dirty or cloudy glass / plastic cover
 - Glass or plastic covers on the headlamp gets dirty over time. They accumulate dust, grime, stone chips, oil and dirt over years and years of usage. Parking your vehicle under the sun for a prolonged period of time also causes the lens(particularly plastic ones) to discolor and haze(cloud) over time.
Cloudy headlamps can reduce the brightness of your headlamps as much as 90% at night and cause improper glare at night. The plastic covers look yellowish.

What to look for. If your headlights are yellow, cloudy, or look worn, it is very important to have them cleaned by a professional. A professional can make your headlamps look as good as new, but more importantly increase your safety as well as the other drivers on the road. The next time you are taking your car in for routine maintenance don’t neglect your headlights. They are the most important safety device your car uses at night and just a little added brightness can make all the difference.

Certain detailers also coat a layer of protective coating on the cover for long term resistance to oxidization.

You can DIY clean it with either car polish, warm soapy water(less preferred), wet sanding with fine sandpaper and water, etc etc.





The bulbs itself, or the wires
- I can't elaborate much about this, but old bulbs certainly dim out over time. You'll realise this if you replace an old fluorescent tube at home with a new one. It's brighter than usual. Upgrades are also available such as Osram Nightbreaker, Philips Xtremevision, etc etc. These uprated bulbs still consume the same amount of current at 55W, therefore wire upgrades may or may not be necessary.

100W bulbs are also available which are generally brighter than regular 55w ones. Wiring harness, or commonly called "tambah relay" by most foreman is a must. The bulb being an electrical load draws a little much more current compared to the 55w ones. Low amperage fuses may blow and OEM wires may get hot and melt in certain cases. A new external harness bares much thicker wires, ceramic sockets, new relays and a higher rated fuse.The external harness is connected to only one of the oem light sockets that will act as a switch. When switched on, the external harness draws direct power from the battery through a relay that is activated once the lights are switched on.

Another reason for installing one as per above is that you may have insufficient power supply to the bulbs, or just simply insufficient grounding. Wires oxidize over time, therefore increase in resistance. When resisitance is increased, power supplied is reduced. One may add a higher rated fuse to see if it gets any better but I can tell you that it is not advisable. WHY?

Fuses are meant to blow when there is a shortage, or excessive current running through the wires. If you add up a higher rated fuse, you risk frying wires when they run extra hot. The fuse don't blow when they're supposed to. You should swap fuses only when you know you are running more current, with thicker wires, and that you are confident that the fuse keeps blowing just because the amount of current running through the fuse is higher than it's rating.

To Sum up the above paragraphs --> Adding external harness may be necessary if your OEM wires are all old and oxidized, thus reducing current flow into the bulb.





Type of lens/cover/glass/plastic

This may be a factor too. Tempered lens and clear lens are the two main types of lens in the market on OEM cars. The tempered lens are on older cars such as the Daihatsu Charade, Proton Wira, Toyota KE70. Pic as per below :

The patterns/linings on the glass itself determines the beam pattern on the headlights. These do not have good reflectors in the headlamp casing itself. HID upgrades(will write on this later) are not advisable on these as the glare pattern will be way out, blinding oncoming drivers.

Upgrade to clear lens are advisable when available; one that comes with proper reflectors in them.

These clear glass/plastic lens may be able to work with HIDs. The beam is not blocked by and thick tempered glass. They're generally brighter than tempered glass. Glass headlamps do not turn yellow over time, but they may collect dust depending on condition of usage.



Projectors, beam patterns, output, HID conversions

Projectors are the best, if legal. Accessory shops are able to retrofit them into clear-glass headlamps, but not advisable on tempered glass headlamps(still emits bad glare). These, if legal, gives you a clear nice cut from the output of the lamp.

The above picture shows how fine the beam is on a projector lens equipped car, with both HID and OEM halogen bulbs.

Below picture shows  an example on how a HID is fitted onto a tempered glass headlamp. Blinding.

Below picture shows a halogen bulb, notice that there's no even beam cut compared to the projectors?

Converting conventional halogen headlamps to HID particularly for h4 lamps are doable. But you have to ensure that there is a proper glare shield installed on the bulb itself to reduce unnecessary glare. Pics and descriptions are as per below :

A h4 HID bulb that comes with a glare shield from a factory. May work well with clear glass/plastic lens.

HID bulb without glare shield. Should be only used in projectors.

DIY Glare shield. May be usable on tempered glass, I haven't tried.













I think that's all about it for now. Over the past few years, I've tried numerous setups on a tempered glass lens. Below are a few of them :

- Normal 55w Halogen
- 100W Wiring harness with 100W bulbs
- HID (factory glare shield, no glare shield. The DIY one didn't turn out well)
- Uprated 55W bulbs
etc etc... you name it :).


There are also hi/lo magnetic HID available in the market with decent glare shields. Most cheap HIDs come with hi halogen/low HID setup.

Hope the above article helps!