uwackme Posted December 3, 2007 Report Share Posted December 3, 2007 I bought regular Silverstars a year ago when I got the car. A lowbeam burnt out the other day, figured I'd step up. Ill save the unburnt lowbeam for replacement incase one of the high beams dies.At the time I bought the car, noone around had the Ultra's yet. I prolly should have shopped smarter at the time. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GShyneDM Posted December 4, 2007 Report Share Posted December 4, 2007 Distance Old Sylvania Stock H7's New Osram's 53' 7.1 Lux 14 Lux 145 Lux 0.66 fc 1.3 fc 14 fc 98' 1.8 Lux 3.5 Lux 36 Lux 0.08 fc 0.66 fc 3.5 fcWow! Thats a big difference! :-) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tjts1 Posted December 4, 2007 Report Share Posted December 4, 2007 You've pretty much doubled the current that the circuit was designed for.You might wanna toss a relay in there. It's a very simple job, all north of the firewall.Connectors, wire, Fuse, relay, some splitloom and by gum, Bob's yer uncle, mate. It's gonna be a whole lot easier and cheaper to do now, before you melt something. Really.I've done my fair share of relayed 12 gauge wiring harnesses for a 240, 760 and 960. All of those cars had 18 gauge wiring from the factory. The 240 had the headlight switch wired between the relay and the bulb. The 850 on the other hand uses 16 gauge wires (twice as thick) and has built in relays from the factory. Not only that but when you switch high beams with stock bulbs, you have 120w running through the common ground wire so volvo already sized things appropriately from the factory. The only situation I can imagine anything melting is if you were using 100w low and high beams 100% of the time, for hours on end at which point the ground wire would melt first. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BEJinFBK Posted December 4, 2007 Report Share Posted December 4, 2007 I've done my fair share of relayed 12 gauge wiring harnesses for a 240, 760 and 960. All of those cars had 18 gauge wiring from the factory. The 240 had the headlight switch wired between the relay and the bulb. The 850 on the other hand uses 16 gauge wires (twice as thick) and has built in relays from the factory. Not only that but when you switch high beams with stock bulbs, you have 120w running through the common ground wire so volvo already sized things appropriately from the factory. The only situation I can imagine anything melting is if you were using 100w low and high beams 100% of the time, for hours on end at which point the ground wire would melt first.Then you know what I'm talking about! I haven't trackedthe circuit all the way through. Hell, I'm still using 55 watters.I'm simply advising going Heavy Duty with wattage upgrades for thosewho choose to go that route. ( The "Better Safe than Sorry" principle ).I just don't like fixing things that melt...Call me Crazy.And I really don't like driving in the dark or fixing things at -50 on the side of the road, so I've developed a habit of overengineering stuff that I really count on. Lights, heaters, stuff like that. But that's just me, man. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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