SR5/GTS and AW11 MR2 headlight upgrade!!

[aaron7]

Ok, took me forever to get a winning combo, but here are the instructions on how I got AMAZING headlights on my 1989 Corolla SR5! It should apply to any 2 headlight sealed beam car. I have tried nearly every headlight on the market (bought and returned till I found the brightest ).

First, get the following headlights at most any car part store:

Sylvania Silverstar H6054 (2 of them) - ~4000K, Low 55w; High 65w

Then order this from Summit:

Painless PRF-30815 H4 wiring harness

http://store.summitracing.com/defaul...PartSearchFlag=


Ok, now what that harness does is re-route the power to the new bulbs, for a MUCH brighter light! Instead of the power from the battery going thru the car, to the switch, then back to the bulb, it goes right from the battery to the bulb and uses the switch to activate the relay on the harness.

If you are going with an H4 conversion (housing with a separate bulb), then you are all set. If you are running sealed beam (like stock, and the ones suggested above), then you have to do the following (it has been brought to my attention that this step might not be needed. Try the harness as is, and try both high and low beams. If it works, keep it that way. If not, then do the following):

Look at the following diagram, and see that the pinout for the new H4 harness you just bought and the sealed beam bulbs are different. Easy enough to figure out what to do here. Just move the pins around.



Once you do that, plug the male connector on the new harness to one of the stock headlight connectors. It may be a different connector, if so remove the pins from the new harness and just plug them in respectively. Then make sure to tape them well so they don't come in contact!! Now would be a good time to get out a wirebrush and pop the pins out of the stock connector to make sure they are nice and shiny.

Attach the red to the positive connector on the battery, and the black to the negative connector of the battery. You can also just ground it, but I chose to take the shortest route of resistance!

I crammed all the wiring and relays in the corner, since there was nothing there anyways. I routed the passenger wires under the radiator hold downs for a nice, clean look.

Install the new bulbs (if your screws are stripped, which they probably are, go to the hardware store and get 8 new ones. They are .7 pitch metric screws), connect them up, and check it out!!! You can now finally drive your car at night!!

Pictures below. New nighttime ones to come tonight.

Sticky anyone?

[aaron7]

Stock bulbs, stock harness, low beams, no moon:



Stock bulbs, stock harness, high beams, no moon:

[aaron7]

New harness plugged into stock connector:



Wires jammed in the corner:



Routing of passenger wiring:



New headlight installed with new screws, no bezel:

[Liter]

Awesome dude...im definatley gonna try this out next time i change my headlights

[aaron7]

New bulbs, new harness, low beams, no moon:



New bulbs, new harness, high beams, no moon:

[REN69]

Cool.. I was actually tempted to buy an H4 HID kit someone was selling before, I'll have to try and find this harness and see how much difference it makes.

[toyotaspeed90]

wait until it rains...... white/blue lights are much brighter in a clear night, but worse on rainy nights..... i've played my games with headlights in all my cars.... and i live in WA, so you know i get the rain

[aaron7]

I know what you mean, I had the cheap "blue" bulbs, and in the rain it was as if I had no lights!

But with these, I tried them last night (in the rain), and they are just as good. I was a little scared!

[89yotarollagts]

humm.. your lights dont seem right at all ? maby its just the pictures but you should be able to see a hell of alot further than that your original headlights look like fog lights to me ?? that looks really bad

[aaron7]

It's a bad pic, it's pointing towards a hill :p

[bob022004]

I got very similar results with a sealed beam conversion. i used this housing but i did have to cut my headlight buckets to get the housing to fit properly.

http://www.carolinaclassictrucks.com...nversions.html

The link is just to show the Pilot housings i got. i actually bought a pair of them at autozone for 40 dollars.

I just simply put h4 sylvania silverstars in the housings and plugged it up. It looks like daylight out of the front of my car.

Silverstars are designed to use stock voltage so the wiring upgrade isn't needed but with our cars as old as they are i'd say its an excellent idea and it increases the effeciency over the 17 year old wiring. I plan on upgrading my harnesses when i get done with fixing &*%%^$$%@# leaking camshaft seals. With as bright as mine are now i'm actually surprised i haven't burned my connectors or the old wiring.