ITS BAAACK!

This FAQ is an answer to all of the questions that are asked regularly about Magna headlamps. It is a collection of information relating to headlamp improvements, 'white/blue' bulbs, HID kits and retrofits and legality of bulbs/modifications.

It is also a great resource to arm yourself with the knowledge to avoid spending your hard earned money on junk - HID Kits, blue coated bulbs and the like, and spending it on worthwhile modifications.

Read the Background Information Links first, they are general headlamp articles, whereas I will endevour to keep the FAQ as Magna-specific as possible.

This information is as technically accurate as possible, with independent information from multiple sources.

Background Information Links
These are off-site web pages that contain days worth of reading (at least) - all are technically accurate, and are very worthwhile reading.

Illegal and dangerous blue bulbs - mandatory reading for anyone looking at upgrading their headlamps. Why these bulbs mostly are marketing junk, with no real benefits.
http://www.danielsternlighting.com/tech/bulbs/blue/bad/bad.html

Legal White Bulbs - 'E' marked bulbs - relates to Crystal Vision, Diamond Vision, Silverstar and Artic Blue - ADR/Legal bulbs that meet the requirements ( /- 15%) but are not neccesarily a better than standard.
http://www.danielsternlighting.com/tech/bulbs/blue/good/good.html

Why HID kits dont work in the way you hope they would
http://www.danielsternlighting.com/tech/bulbs/Hid/conversions/conversions.html

An excellent article explaining (with pictures) why you DONT buy HID kits
http://www.intellexual.net/hid.html

The Headlamp FAQ - a Mecca for all people interested in headlamp upgrades/mods - bulbs, relays, HID kits (bleh!), HID retrofits (with the most comprehensive source of measurements for projectors etc around), and Hella 90mm projector info.
http://faqlight.carpassion.info

HID Planet Forums - you need to join as a member, but this is the largest collection of people who have HID retrofitted cars on the planet.
http://www.hidplanet.com/forums

And now... without furthur ado... Onto the FAQ.

Q: My headlights are not bright enough - what things should I do first?
A: Clean the front of the lens, throw those headlamp protectors away (they reduce your output by up to 15%) and fit something like the 3M self adhesive lens protectors if you must, get them levelled properly!

If you have bulbs that are original, change them if over 50,000Klms. Inspect the reflector and lens, if the lens is badly pitted with stone chips, or the reflector is white and/or cloudy - time to get some new ones. You can buy new OEM lenses and clean reflectors.

If you are buying new headlamp assemblies, watch out for crash repair parts - some are of very poor quality, but look OK - they are a cheap way out for smash repair places to provide a competitive quote. There was a batch of really bad EL falcon crash repair lamps that the lenses went almost opaque on in a year! There is a reason to buy OEM.


Q: I have heard that the bulbs should be changed every year - mine are the original bulbs and have never blown yet - why do I need to change them?
A: You need to change your bulbs every year because their output drops over time (even though they still work. The reason why is that the halogen cycle that keeps the bulb filament from depositing onto the glass from the heat works by causing the filament material (tungsten) to deposit back onto the filament.

But the deposits are not uniform - they appear crystaline, and you end up with thicker and thinner filament sections that are brighter and dimmer. Look at the difference between a bulb that is old and one that is new and the difference is very visible.

Your other bulbs (tail lamps, parkers, number plate lamp etc.) go black due to the filament material depositing on the glass - this reduces the light output both by making the glass opaque (old bulbs go like a chrome mirror finish on the inside of the glass). These should also be inspected from time to time.


Q: What bulbs should I buy for the best legal lighting (best output).
A: I recommend Philips Bulbs in the Vision Plus range and Osram Silverstars. The reasons for this are simple:

Correct filament geometry - the filament is in the correct place, a major issue in cheap off-brand bulbs, messing up the beam pattern.

Higher efficiency - they use a thinner filament, at a higher temperature, in Xenon gas, which produces more light, and less heat for the same electrical input.

Completely legal - 'E' marked (E code relates to ECE, on which our ADR's are word for word - an E mark is a capital E followed by a number, both in a circle. The number relates to the country in which they were approved. 1 is Germany, and is very common for Hella parts.

UV Cut - Very important for polycarbonate lenses, as the UV content will cause the lens to prematurely yellow, and reflectors don't go cloudy.

Stock wattage, so no problems with overheating the connectors and wiring.

The Philips are not much 'whiter' than the standard bulbs though, the Osrams are.


Q: What about 'overwattage' bulbs?
A: Overwattage bulbs, are as the name suggests, higher than OEM (and ADR compliant) wattages. There are Philips 80/100W H4 bulbs, Philips 100W H1 bulbs and Philips 80W H7 bulbs - These are the Philips Rally series. They are designed (as the name suggests) for offroad competition. Narva now also makes 90/100's that I recommend as well.

Their output is truly amazing compared to stock bulbs, and all aftermarket overwatt bulbs (including PIAA, Raybrig etc).

They do have a downside - if you just stick overwattage bulbs in the standard harness, they will still work, but because of the voltage drop of the stock wiring, the bulbs are performing only at 75% of their capacity. They *must* be run with relays to get the best out of them.

Another downside is the heat that they generate - the stock headlamp connectors can only take it for so long before they melt onto the bulbs.

These bulbs are NOT legal - no E markings. They are not recommended for polycarbonate lensed headlamps (eg. 1 piece parabolics) due to the UV created (they are not all UV cut).

Lifetime on these overwattage bulbs is short - under 100 hours.


Q: What is so bad about those Ebay overwattage/blue bulbs?
A: Filament geometry is often off (messes up your beam pattern), they also have a tendancy to just create more heat (but about 10-20% more light) than properly manufactured overwatt bulbs, EXTREMELY short life - less than 10 hours has been measured on some of these off-brand bulbs.

The coatings on the (blue) bulbs also have been known to outgas as they are heated, and fog your reflector with a coating of unremovable crap that reduces your light output. They also have been known to explode for no good reason, and it is a pain to get all of the glass fragments out of the headlamp.


Q: I want white bulbs - what should I buy?
A: Since you have already read the articles about blue bulbs (if you haven't, I suggest you do) in the background links sections, you understand that there are a lot of very useless bulbs around.

For the best (white) bulbs around, I recommend Philips or Osram. At the lower end of the scale, there are the Blue Vision bulbs. These are quite a bit whiter than their vision Plus range, but they do not produce as much light (about stock output). Moving up the scale, there is the Crystal Vision, which is a white light, again, a little better than stock brightness, and at the top of the range, Diamond Vision - about as bright as the Vision Plus. But they are quite pricey.

Osram SilverStars are also an excellent performing bulb, cheaper than the Philips, but as good (and some say better). They are an uncoated (very big ticks for this) bulb, with a good lifetime and dependable filament geometry.

For other brands, there is the Narva Arctic blue, which is quite cheap, and is stock brightness - but don't expect a major difference here.


Q: My white bulbs look great, but my parkers look a horrible yellow - what can I do?
A: Philips make some ADR legal 'Blue Vision' parker bulbs. Bulbs style is H6W. Narva have the bayonet fittings to suit the parabolics in a similar style.

Q: But I want BLUE bulbs:
A: Go and read the background information links, ricer! Blue is bad hmmmkayy...

Q: OK - I already have Vision Plus or Osram Silverstars in my headlamps, they are aimed properly, clean, and there are no headlamp protectors - but I want more light. What can I do?
A: Fit relays wiring harness - these reduce the voltage drop in your wiring, giving all of the battery voltage to the bulbs that they can get.

Read more here: http://www.danielsternlighting.com/tech/relays/relays.html

This should also be done in conjunction with fitting new, quality, glass filled Phenolic plastic headlamp connectors (they don't melt), and cleaning up all of the connections.

This also allows you (in the future, if this isn't enough) to upgrade to overwattage bulbs if you so desire.

Q: What about these mysterious black boxes that supposedly make your headlamps 150% brighter?
A: Was once sold as a Catz Zeta (amongst other things). These are DC to DC converters, that take the 12V or so that would normally be fed into your headlamps, and convert it up to 16V. Makes the headlamps a great deal brighter and whiter but exponentially decreases their life. Can also cause overheating of your wiring and connectors.

Of marginal use (especially considering the lifetime reduction of the bulbs) causes bulbs overheat and distort (have seen bulbs get bulging 'pimples' on the sides) and even crack and explode.

You would be better off with relays.

Q: I have a 3rd Generation Executive, and I want to fit the parabolic headlamps to get
better lighting - would these help?

A: NO, NO, NO! The parabolic headlamps are a very poor design, basically designed for the export market (they are a flat beam cutoff, so they are usable for LHD/RHD). They are manufactured by Stanley (the standard executive headlamps are manufactured by Hella).

The parabolics also are not 'E' marked - so are technically very shady under our ADR's. They are DOT reflectors, so the pattern is very poor, with very bright foreground lighting (giving the illusion of better lighting, but actually reducing your long distance vision) and giving a wide angle dispersion of light for the high beam - which also is very poor for long distance vision.

The executive headlamps on the other hand, have excellent long distance high beams, and are ideal for highway/night driving.

The second generation parabolics are a true complex corner reflector, and are excellent. I would be interested to know if they could be shoehorned into a 3rd gen. (Havn't tried yet).

Q: What about a HID kit?
A: Read the background information links on HID first to get some information. I can speak from personal experience with HID kits (and retrofits, which I will explain later) in 3rd Gen headlamps.

OK - while you can get a HID capsule to work OK in a Magna Executive headlamp, it isn't as simple as just throwing a plug and play kit into it. All of the kits I tried had insufficient shielding, and caused excessive glare to oncoming drivers (a lot of people flashed high beams)

As an experiment, I used two Philips 4300K D2S bulbs (3200 lumens), two Hella Gen 3 ballasts, some modified Casper's electronics Billet Aluminium shields (very well designed and made) painted matt black, and fitted with a nose shield (to shield oncoming drivers from looking at the bulb) it produced an acceptable beam pattern on the wall (no glare) and a beam pattern with a lot of hotspots.

Properly aimed, it was not glaring to other drivers, but the amount of shielding required to produce a safe(ish) beam meant that a lot of the output of the bulb was lost, meaning that the increase in output was not at all worth the effort.

Apart from the colour, its output level was indistinguishable from a Philips Rally overwatt bulbs, with relay, and the beam pattern from the Philips Rally was better, not to mention the fact that you still have two high beam filaments!

And for those with parabolic headlamps - a H7 kit does not fit. The return wire (at up to 25,000V potential) touches the glare shield. First time you power the bulbs up, you risk a fire at worst, and blowing your $500 HID kit at best.

Not recommended - don't waste your money, especially on a high kelvin (>5000K kit).

Q: Whats this about a HID retrofit?
A: A HID retrofit takes all of the parts out of a car with OEM xenon (in the magnas case, an Audi TT or BMW 3 Series E46) including the reflector/shield/lens assembly (a projector), bulb and ballast, and mounting it in place of the OEM magna headlamp reflector.

This is a time consuming and quite frustrating procedure, and must be done with great care so that there is not glare produced for other drivers, and that the headlamp can still be aimed, and is level. It can be done with 3rd generation Parabolics, either single piece (polycarb lens) or two piece.

The result is that they are almost indistinguishable from standard headlamps when off, with the same beam pattern and intensity as the donor vehicle when on.

They are illegal, because they remove the parking bulb and there is no headlamp washers.

Possibly the best lighting you could ever get on the magna, especially if using the Bosch Bixenon modules (which use xenon for both low and high beam, and work by using a solenoid to move the shield, thus moving the pattern).

Q: What about custom headlamps with Hella 90mm headlamp modules?
A: Costly, but doable, and possibly (depending on your RTA engineering signatory) ADR compliant. This involves creating a totally custom headlamp, keeping only the directional indicators. Even more complicated and expensive than a HID retrofit, if you are keen, it can be done.

The limitations of this are the bulbs that can be used - the low and high beam reflectors are both H7, and designed for both 12 and 24V - the highest wattage from this would be about 80W for the lowbeam (as they use a plastic housing) and 100W for the highbeam (as they use an all metal housing).

This is the best lighting you could ever fit (legally) to a Magna.