irvined
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| posted on 24/3/05 at 03:43 PM |
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Lights Dips and Full beam
Hello
How have people wired their headlamps for dip/main?
Some cars i've driven have had the dipped beam on even when the full beam is on, others switch between them.
Any reason why i shouldn't keep the dipped beams on all teh time?
Cheers
David
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carnut
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| posted on 24/3/05 at 04:23 PM |
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I keep the dipps on aswell when I switch to full beam.
Only dissadvantage I can see is a little more drain on the battery. This doesnt bother me as I wont be doing that much night driving.
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DarrenW
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| posted on 24/3/05 at 04:27 PM |
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I modded my old Golfs lights so the dipped and mains were on at the same time. Made a small difference. not sure about SVA though.
Shouldnt affect the total drain by much if you do mainly day driving as the battery will be charged back up OK.
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britishtrident
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| posted on 24/3/05 at 05:33 PM |
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Depends if the alternator can supply them at a decent voltage it could be that 2 main beams at say 14.5 volts give more useful illumination than dip
and main operating at say 13 volts.
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Peteff
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| posted on 24/3/05 at 05:50 PM |
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It will kill your bulbs quicker due to the extra heat and could fail sva.They are only supposed to stay on if separate units are used.
yours, Pete
I went into the RSPCA office the other day. It was so small you could hardly swing a cat in there.
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JohnN
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| posted on 24/3/05 at 06:37 PM |
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SVA requires that if it is a gas discharge headlight system, then the dip beam must remain on at the same time as the main
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clbarclay
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| posted on 24/3/05 at 07:05 PM |
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Cars that use dip at the same time as main beam have seperate reflectors and bulds in my experiance, which give different spread paterns.
[Edited on 24/3/05 by clbarclay]
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NS Dev
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| posted on 25/3/05 at 08:35 AM |
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The only disadvantage is that the bulbs will burn out quicker, as they will be operating at a higher temperature.
Running the bulbs like this was actually recommended by Cibie in the escort rally days, and especially on road rallies where you are only allowed 4
forward facing lights rather than 6.
As long as your alternator can keep up (and to be honest it ruddy well should keep up with an extra 110 Watts!) then there is no problem.
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clbarclay
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| posted on 25/3/05 at 09:46 AM |
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With every light (including warning lights) iluminated on a sierra, the crurrent in drain is about 50 to 55amps.
Not sure exactly what output the sierra alternator is but 55amp is typical for a lot of alterators of that vintage. As an example vauxhall nova have
alternators outputs 45 - 55 amps and VW golf mk2 alternators have 55 - 90 amps.
[Edited on 25/3/05 by clbarclay]
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NS Dev
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| posted on 25/3/05 at 01:07 PM |
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for a typical locost:
2 x 65 watt main beam + 2 x 55 watt dip beam + 2 x 21 watt sidelights +2 x 21 watt brake lights + 2 x 21?? watt tail lights + 4 x 21?? watt indicators
+ 2 x 5 watt side repeaters + 1 x 21 watt foglight + 5 watt instruments etc = approx 36 amps and you'll never pull all that on the lights at the
same time.
Yep you have a fair few other draws on current but running main and dip together will draw an extra 9 amps or so, which really should make no
difference!
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britishtrident
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| posted on 25/3/05 at 06:39 PM |
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A typical Locost wil draw much less curent than a saloon the non lighting big curent draws on a sallon are heater blower, HRW and windscreen wipers,
this asumes nobody in Locost land would fit and insanely powerful ICE system.
One you current load have to watch is a the fuel injection system some efi systems draw larger curents than you might expect.
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Steve @ sVc
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| posted on 13/4/05 at 04:03 PM |
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If you have the usual H4 bulb in a "7" type car, it is designed to run with either the dip or main beam illuminated. Running both will
cause the bulb to fail.
Cars with sepetate reflectors for dip and main beam (H1 or H7 single filiment bulbs) generally use both on main beam.
Gas discharge dip headlights are not generally used on our cars as they should only be fitted to cars with self leveling lights or self leveling
suspension.
regards
Steve @ sVc
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