Hi All,
In the not so distant furture I will be sourcing myself a set of these for my Magna:

http://www.wn.com.au/akko81/Multi-Parabola_Type.jpg

Are there any gotchas that I should be looking out for when trying to fit them, perhaps some people who have done the conversion themselves would like/care to share their experiences?

I know BOOYA has done this conversion and looking at GAMOSOUs pictures intially, it looks like his car came out of the factory an executive.

You may wish to post this in the TE-TJ section as it may get more coverage with those owners. ;) I'd say do a search but I couldn't find anything quickly myself.

Thanks - Any ideas how to move this thread into that section without cross/double posting it?

PM Killbilly and/or Manual :D

Done it recently, the problem is the parking bulbs. I will be posting a do-it-yourself, complete with pictures guide to converting the verada blanking plugs into working bulb holders. Should be done in the next few days.

Sneak preview of the diagram for conversion attached...

Also, will post wiring colours for connectors.

Cheers
Heath Young

I've also done this conversion it's not too hard if you plan it, the wiring looks like a nightmare but in the end it's quite easy, the problem with the Parabolic Headlights is that the outer lights are low beam and inner are high beam, I left the high beam inner wiring unchanged but the outer wiring needs a wire grounded to the body and the positive to the light left unchanged, as the other two earth wires just change the outer lights from high to low beam, if you just plug them straight into the para's the low beam lights will go out when the high beam come on.


I hope this is not to confusing.

Yeah, as above. We had a quick go at fixing it but gave up. Also noticed that I get a small amount of current through the high beams when low beams are on. I also need to rig up some parkers.

Yeah, as above. We had a quick go at fixing it but gave up. Also noticed that I get a small amount of current through the high beams when low beams are on. I also need to rig up some parkers.

Did you use the original earth wires from the head lights or did you wire up a seperate earth and not use the original wiring except for the positive wire.

I wired a seperate earth and get no leakage into the high beam

Is that into the high beams? Yeah, it's using existing wiring. The wiring for the high beams are only missing one wire. Apparently the earth is what is switched when going from low to high beam.

Ok this is how I wired my Parabolics, I went to Autobarn and bought 2 new headlight plugs, I then found the positive wire on the wiring harness to the outerheadlights this is the wire with positive power all of the time while the headlights are on, if you want to use a multimeter etc to find out which wire this is unplug all of your headlights otherwise the earth wires will have positive power from the headlight which is still pluged in. the other two wires a earth wires which are only used for switching the high to low beam. i then spliced into the positve wire with the new headlight plug, the other wire I earthed at the main earth points in the engine bay one is behind the water bottle and the other is just to the right of the battery. I then pluged the new plugs into the headlights and all work as they should.

No modification is needed to the highbeam wiring

At low beam outer lights are ON
At high beam both lights are ON

and if I ever put my old lights back in I'll just unclip splice and plug the original plug in. If any one wants I'll look up the proper colour codes of the positive wires and take a few photos.
http://www.members.optusnet.com.au/dvscomputers/side.jpg

Cool, ta. I think I'll be having another go at it sometime soon. I wonder if this will fix both probs, guess we'll see.

Would anyone like to make it easier by expanding on the colours of the wires for some of us n00bs. cheers. :-)

hahaha yeh i agree. someones gonna havta write up a nice big tech article. i hope to do this soonish. help us noobs!! haha

Trav

Yah in a week or two - I have to replace one of mine so it is a good excuse to document how to take the car apart, sort out the wiring, and put it all back together :) without any bits missing :)

I was meaning to get a bit furthur with the parking bulb holder documentation, but unfortunatly I had to do some work :)

Found some good cheap sources of springs for the holder as well.

Maybe this weekend.

Cheers
Heath Young

....No modification is needed to the highbeam wiring
At low beam outer lights are ON
At high beam both lights are ON

What about parking lights?
I'm pretty sure you have to have them by law.

I was thinking a dual filament bulb on the outside so they are on really low for parkers.

-Dan

This may seem like a dumb question, but where can I get the Verade KE "parabolic" headlights. Any place that actually stocks them, or would I try my luck at the wreakers? Also, any idea of the rough cost of a pair of them?

Thanks.

search for Bogus on this site. he seems to sell them regularly. about $450 i think

Trav

[quote:0a5a9292b6="dvs magna"]....No modification is needed to the highbeam wiring
At low beam outer lights are ON
At high beam both lights are ON

What about parking lights?
I'm pretty sure you have to have them by law.

I was thinking a dual filament bulb on the outside so they are on really low for parkers.

-Dan[/quote:0a5a9292b6]

I pushed the standard TH ones into the holes tight fit but legal

how mcuh would i be lookin at a set off these lights fitted or not fitted

What about parking lights?
I'm pretty sure you have to have them by law.

I don't have any at the moment. No idea if you can get defected, I'd presume so as they are required for a road worthy.

mine came with them :)

Yeah, well mine were from a Verada and their parkers are in the bumper. I've got my old parkers here and I think I'll try installing them into the lenses, somehow.

Yeah, well mine were from a Verada and their parkers are in the bumper. I've got my old parkers here and I think I'll try installing them into the lenses, somehow.


If you take off the caps for the bulbs (low beam) you will see there is mounting holes for the parking bulbs, they have a blank mounted in the hole which you will need to pull out.

Yeah, saw that except it looks like there's a fair but if metal in there to unscrew and stuff. I'll have another look at it on the weekend. Think I have to chop my old lights out of the old lenses.

"If you take off the caps for the bulbs (low beam) you will see there is mounting holes for the parking bulbs, they have a blank mounted in the hole which you will need to pull out."

Yes - I am in the process of working out if you can modify the blank to work as a parking bulb holder, if anyone has any blanks - I would be very interested in purchasing them from you.

The easiest way to fit parkers is to enlarge the hole by a few mm with a tapered reamer, and fit the executive parkers in - they fit OK.

And yes, you have to have parkers or your car is unroadworthy - defectable, and cannot pass rego.

Cheers
Heath Young

Here's my car.

Here's my car.

bah! did you get one piece para's!!..

bah bah bah!

oh, and while we are showing off paras :D
you can clearly see mine are 2 piece :x

bah! did you get one piece para's!!..

bah bah bah!

I did. Is that okay?

and here is mine

http://www.members.optusnet.com.au/dvscomputers/side.jpg

[quote:27ee47c5d4="BOuncin' BOoya"]bah! did you get one piece para's!!..

bah bah bah!

I did. Is that okay?[/quote:27ee47c5d4]

yes yes you did!! and YES they are ok!! thats the thing! they are ok!! gerrr!! they look sooooooooooooo much better than the 2 piece :x

GERRR!!! :lol:

i want one piece paras :cry:

They may look "slightly" better but is it worth the cost difference?

Also, how do you get them to fit into the same hole as the two piece equivalent - is there any modifications required to the existing mounts / brackets at all?

And what about the wiring is that the same or slightly different again?

I reckon they look way better. The illuminate better too. Downside is that my old lens covers don't fit. They fit in easy. I had to unbolt and lift the guard to squeze them in as they're the one piece but that's easy. Plug and play really.

Hi,

Are the parabolas alot better than stock magna headlights? I am trying to do my best to get the best possible illumination without changing them to parabolas

I'd say noticeably better. Go the paras, they look great. Not cheap though.

If price is your reason for not wanting the parabolas try some nice new bulbs, I can recommend PIAA (http://www.piaa.com/Bulbs/Bulbs.html) they're good, a little pricey but no where near the price of a set of parabola and the time taken to install them.

If I could afford it I'd convert my stock magna headlights to Parabolas & put in new PIAA bulbs aswell. =)

Well I did put in some new bulbs, the brand was trifa and they said super white 30% brighter than normal bulbs on the pack. They cost me 30 bucks. They were a bit better, alot whiter and brighter. But still id like to get the maximum that you could do without converting to parabolas. I might try the piaa's. anyone got em?

Just a question on parabolics

Was being followed home by my own car (the TJ VR-X) and now I know why the odd person flashes me at night! As the car bounces in and out of ruts in the road, the lights, on low beam, do flash quite noticeably as the front goes up and down.

Anyone else noticed this?

plus, I thought my [bog standard] VR-X lights were average... seeing them last night for the first time.. they are farrkin bright! .. they don't seem to be, from the driver's seat. :D

at cruises there should be workshops held by people that have done particular mods to their cars - so if you buy a set of lights for your car - at a cruise - there'd be another 5 people putting theirs in with the help of experts - how's that for an idea?