legacycentral bbs

Ill make this short.

9004 and 9007 bulbs use the same connector, 9007 bulbs usually have 140% brightness at low beams and 115% more lumens at high beams.

In order to make the 9007 fit you only need to snap two of the three "position tabs" off. These are at 5 oclock and 8 oclock

I also plan to get seperate relays for each filament of each bulb, for a total of 4.

The part Im confused about is the actual wiring. I have read conflicting information, perhaps someone can help.

Either:
9004 and 9007 are the same connector and same wiring so "plug and play"
9004 and 9007 use the same plug but two wires must be switched

Any ideas? The best information I have found has come from newsgroups, and the majority say the high beam and low beam need switched.

edit: here is a good source, from 1996!
http://www.audifans.com/archives/1996/03/msg01437.html
http://www.audifans.com/archives/1998/11/msg00480.html

how do the bulb itself match up.

If it's position is off a little, you won't get the correct focal & beam pattern....light will suck even more........

I'd be curious to know a little more if you find anything.

I did some more research. In fact this does provide better lighting with a very similar (hard to measure) beam pattern.

The difference is that the filament in this bulb is perpendicular to that of the 9004. Just create two notches in the bulbs or snap the tabs off in your existing housing and they will go right in.

The bulbs have the high and low beam connector switched, easily fixed if using an external relay.

BTW I found a place that sells pre wired FUSED relays with 30a contacts ratings for 2.95 each! Left overs from a car alarm system. They even come with the socket, so the realay can be replaced easily.

They are spdt, meaning I will connect 12 volts from the battery, and this will be switched from one of two outputs. Those outputs will connect to low and high seperatly. Ill use one relay for each headlight. Im going to get some broken lights and solder the relay to them, then use some h4 harness I got from the junk yard. This lets me return the vehicle to stock configuration really easy!

do you still use the 9007 bulbs how are they working? and to my understanding all you had to do was switch high and low and snap the tabs?

Uh, the optics are completely wrong with the 9007. The reflector and lens are designed around a transverse filament. Putting an axial one in bounces the light in all kinds of random directions. When the weather's good, this random light might seem okay, but it'll give you a lot more glare in bad weather, and will always give oncoming traffic a lot of glare.

Putting 9007 bulbs in headlamps meant for 9004 bulbs is a bad idea, plain and simple. You wouldn't wear someone else's eyeglasses, would you?

Upgrading the wiring harness, though, with relays like this, is a good idea. You'll get more light even from your stock bulbs. Put in some high-performance bulbs like Sylvania Xtravisions and you'll be close to the upper limit of what you can do with the crappy optics Subaru graced 90-91 Legacies with.

I had to build a wiring kit for an old vehicle once. Too much wiring, traveling too far with too small wiring. Started with 18g and replaced it with 12g. Re-routed the power from the ignition to straight off the battery. Added some solenoids, actuated by the old wiring, and some breakers (instead of fuses). That upgrade alone was worth it. Later, I added some Hella 7" headlights.

I doubt this upgrade would be too hard on a Suby (famous last words). But would it be worth the trouble? Are there any higher intensity bulbs with better patterns that will fit the Legacy lenses?

It wouldn't be too hard on a Subaru, since very little of it is vehicle-dependent. The use of circuit breakers instead of fuses is a nice touch!

In my opinion, it's worth the trouble. Like you say, on your old car the wiring alone had a positive effect on light output. So even without different bulbs it's a good upgrade.

You don't say which body style of Legacy you're talking about.

The Sylvania Xtravisions mentioned above (and bulbs like them) are high-output, but there aren't any bulbs out there that can improve the beam pattern of a 90-91 Legacy. The bulbs have to be built to very specific geometric and photometric specifications, because so many different types of headlights use them, so any bulb will give you the same beam pattern.

The one exception is with H4/9003 bulbs... some of the performance H4s (the Xtravision included) do actually change the pattern slightly. That's possible because ECE-type H4-based optics are very formulaic, so the change in filament geometry produces a predictable change in beam pattern.

RIK-H4R kit to properly install H4 or 9003 headlamps in place of 9004 or 9007 headlamps: $55 (Audi, Mercedes, Subaru, Saab, Volvo, etc.)

Could anyone enlighten me to as what the purpose of these (above) harnesses that daniel stern lighting sells?
Thanks

That harness allows you to install European headlamps in place of the stock trash without having to do all the wiring yourself.

vrg3,

Thanks for the info! I have a '91 Legacy wagon.

Oh, I see that in your signature now.

Oops.