Group Buy for Bosch E-code Headlights

[scannon]

Flyin Miata is having a group buy on these headlights. They are the standard 7" headlights with H4 bulbs. Far superior to the standard halogens many cars come with. They are on sale for $49.95 for a pair.

 

I ordered a set as spares for my Miata which has been running e-codes for years.

 

http://www.flyinmiata.com/groupbuy/

 

They need 50 sets sold to go through with the buy, 32 have already been sold in the first day. I assume they will purchase more than 50 sets if the need arises. They do not charge your credit card until the minimum number have been sold.

 

I have no fiduciary interest in Flyin Miata and am getting nothing for posting this. Its just too good a deal to pass up if you have a car with round 7" headlights.

[Boxologist]

Skip, have u on over to FM to see how much of an improvement over the stock caterham lights? While its a good deal, is it an improvement over the reflector housings and lenses we have now. otherwise I'll have to have Mazda or gert figure a way to use the million candlepower spot lights as headlamps and melt the cars in front of me.

[scannon]

I don't have any statistics on output but the difference when I upgraded the Miata years ago was very noticeable. Besides being brighter, there is the European style cutoff of light on low beams that you see as a sharp line across the car in front of you with a raised wedge on the right to illuminate road side signs.

 

On high beams you get a better illumination of the whole road and it extends further out.

 

Since installing them on the Miata in place of the standard halogen sealed beam units I have never considered any other upgrade.

 

If you want more light than the 55/65 watt H4 bulbs provide, there are 80/100 watt H4 bulbs available for about $10 each at Checker and other parts stores which usually come with a For Off Road Use Only warning on them. I put a set of the 80/100 bulbs in my Civic which I thought had very poor headlights and they fixed the problem.

[scannon]

I found a comparison picture.

 

http://forum.miata.net/vb/showpost.php?p=4328382&postcount=39

[gjslutz]

Think Relay!!

 

Several years ago, late at night with a GM product that had 4 headlights 100W and ??/100 on the outside lights, the switch relay kicked out at speed on a two lane. I didn't hit anything, but it was interesting.

[solder_guy]

Would these lamps work in the standard Lotus Seven head lamp shells?

 

Rob

[scannon]

Would these lamps work in the standard Lotus Seven head lamp shells?

 

Rob

 

I believe they would. They fit anywhere a standard 7" sealed beam headlight would fit. That said, I never opened up the original shells on my Caterham to see what was in there. I replaced them with 5 1/2" motorcycle shells and lamps.

[bsimon]

Skip,

 

I've got the standard Caterham 7" socketed headlights with parking lamps. Do the Bosch e-code reflectors have a provision for the parking lamp bulbs? It's not clear in the FM pictures whether the parking bulb socket is present or not.

 

I had just replaced the OEM no-name H4 bulbs with Silvania Silver Stars. The difference was somewhat less dramatic than when I changed the bulbs in my Tahoe. Maybe it has something to do with the height above the roadway. I'm hoping the e-code reflectors will be more brilliant.

 

Rob,

 

As far as I know, all 7" head lamps are the same and should fit the Lotus/Caterham shells be them 6014 sealed beam or replaceable bulb types.

[scannon]

Bob,

 

I don't think the reflectors have an integrated socket for parking lamps. A call to Flyin Miata (800-359-6957) would confirm that.

 

I looked at a picture of your car and I can see the parking light bulbs mounted in the headlight reflectors. I hadn't noticed that before.

 

If you wanted to use the Bosch e-codes you could integrate the parking lamps into the turn signal housings that are mounted below the headlamps. My Caterham came with the parking lamps integrated with the turn signals.

[bsimon]

I got to thinking about it and went out in the shed and flicked on the parking lights. Evidently Jeff had already wired the indicators and wing repeaters to turn on with the parking lamps. Problem solved! I'll just tape off the leads to the parking lamps and install the e-codes as is.

[scannon]

This was just posted by Keith Tanner concerning the group buy of E code headlights:

 

The guys are shipping them as fast as they can. It's going to take a week just to ship the orders we have. Looks like the two pallets that have come in are spoken for, so we're going to order more.

 

However, when I inspected the lights I discovered that they are not marked with an E code. Instead, they have DOT motorcycle markings. According to what we've been told, they are identical to E code Bosch lights. I'm going to do a beam pattern comparison between stock, Hella E code, Hella DOT and the Bosch units tonight when it gets dark.

 

If you have a problem with this, please let us know ASAP so we can cancel your order.

[scannon]

Here are comparison pictures taken this evening.

 

http://forum.miata.net/vb/showpost.php?p=4356622&postcount=136

 

http://forum.miata.net/vb/showpost.php?p=4356629&postcount=137

 

I'm not planning on canceling my order.

[Boxologist]

interesting. still rather have a forward mounted flame thrower. i guess i'm picky.

[scannon]

It doesn't hold a candle to a '68 Mercedes Benz I used to own. The previous owner installed aircraft landing lights in place of the upper pair of headlights and moved the hi/lo beams to the lower position.

 

You had three levels: low, high & fry their retinas.

 

A two second flash of the landing lights at someone who wouldn't dim their high beams in response to a flash of the regular high beams usually resulted in the oncoming car pulling off and stopping.

 

It momentarily hurt my eyes when I used them but it turned night into day when I did.

[Boxologist]

don't give mazda any ideas.