Autopal Headlight Brand H1/H4 Sealed Beam Conversion

[MSGGrunt]

I searched and only found one mention of these Autopal brand headlights. I am looking to upgrade the sealed beams in my 1987 M6 and the Autopals seem to be a reasonable, compared to Hella's and Cibie's, way to be able to run H1 and H4 bulbs. Less than $100 for 4 lights with H1 and H4 bulbs.

I know the quality of the housing is decent as I bought a pair for my 1982 Mercedes 300sd but, never installed them as I ended up doing a complete Euro headlight conversion so, I have no idea of the light pattern.

Opinions on what light would look better, the less fluted diamond cut ones or the more standard ones? And I would not run anything over a 6000k bulb and stick with close to stock wattages so I don't have to run relays or worry about melting my stock harness

Normal fluted lights:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/5-3-4-H5001-H50 ... db&vxp=mtr

Diamond fluted lights:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/5-3-4-H5001-H1- ... e9&vxp=mtr

[MSGGrunt]

More research seems to indicated the diamond cut ones don't produce as good of a beam pattern and people complain that the glass on the Autopal isn't as thick as Hella's, Cibie's, IPF, etc... Easy fix there, cut some thin polycarbonate or buy headlight protectors of some kind.

My car is a weekend only ride so, I'm less concerned about breaking them.

[MSGGrunt]

For $83.89 including shipping for 4 lights with 2 H1 bulbs and 2 H4 bulbs I thought it would be worth trying these lights. They may not be as nice as Hella's or Cibie's but, I bet they are better than the stock sealed beams that are currently in the car.

And I have the option of higher wattage bulbs if I upgrade the harness and run them through relays.

I'll post before and after pictures with the cutoff pattern and give a review of them once I get them installed.

[hornhospital]

I was hoping you'd be the guinea pig for those lights. I hope they are worth buying, because I've got that seller saved. and I'm tired of feeling like I need to supplement my sealed beams with a flashlight out the window!

[MSGGrunt]

I have read on Jeep and Toyota truck sites and on a few other sites that people are generally pleased with them and at just a tad over $20.00 a light with shipping they are worth a try.

As with any light after replacement re-aiming them is important.

If the concerns are that the glass is thinner than the top of the line Hella's and Cibie's you could always put a clear laminate film over them for added protection.

And different wattage bulbs can be had. I'm leaning towards the Osram 75/65 Rallye H4s.


Just be patient for my review as I'm in the Sand Box playing Army and won't be back with the car until mid September.

[MSGGrunt]

I failed to mention, I chose the more traditional lights. I read that the fluting on these helps to distribute the light better.



http://www.ebay.com/itm/5-3-4-H5001-H50 ... db&vxp=mtr

[MisterFixit]

If the concerns are that the glass is thinner than the top of the line Hella's and Cibie's you could always put a clear laminate film over them for added protection.

I have this if you need it, XPel film cut to fit the 146 mm lights perfectly. Clear of course.

And different wattage bulbs can be had. I'm leaning towards the Osram 75/65 Rallye H4s.

You might consider high OUTPUT bulbs first, stock watts and more light, safe for wiring, fuses, relays, all that stuff.

Just be patient for my review as I'm in the Sand Box playing Army and won't be back with the car until mid September.

You go guy - keep your head down and your spirits up! We look forward to reading your review.

[MSGGrunt]

Installed one side today. Almost as easy as replacing a normal sealed beam headlight. Took a little time to get the air box out to get at the two nuts that hold the marker light in place. The high beam light had to be wired. I installed blade connectors on the wires coming out of the headlight and plugged those into the factor plug to avoid cutting the factory plug off. I left the other side in place for now so I can compare the light output of the Autopals vs halogen sealed beams.

[dwcains]

Got the proper re-wiring finished on mine lsat week. Three new relays and 12awg out to the lows/highs/fogs, and everything wrapped with TESA tape to look somewhat original:

[MSGGrunt]

The low beam light accepts the factory three prong plug with no issues but, the high beam light as supplied by Autopal only has two wires and it needed to plug into the factory plug. My solution was to unsolder four of the bayonet connectors off the back of the old sealed beams. Once off I pounded them flat, soldered the wires onto the bayonets, shrink wrapped the ends and now I know I have the proper size that will not be loose in the factory headlight plug. There maybe a better idea out there but, this was what was free and seems to work perfectly.

I do think I need to get lower wattage bulbs. The low beams work no issues but as soon as I put the high beams on it blows the fuse. I even upped from the 7.5 amp fuse to a 15 amp fuse and it still blew the fuse. Or maybe time for relays and dedicated wiring to the lights.


While everything was out I also removed the headlight bucket, scuffed it with a scotch bright pad, gave it a coat of self etching primer and then painted them black with some rustoleum I had.

[sansouci]

I've got vintage Hella H4 envelopes and the sturdy glass fended off a number of rocks. They are so vintage I can't recall getting them. Thick is good. But I need to do something about the high beams which are OEM/DOT sealed beams

[dwcains]

The adapters you made look fine, but you shouldn't be blowing a 15-amp fuse with those high beams. Are you sure you don't have a short in one of the light? Try the circuit again with the original sealed beams, and then one of the H1's at a time, to see if you can isolate the problem. In any case, the bulbs will surely work better with larger wires and new relays, as there is definitely a measurable voltage drop with the original wiring.

[MSGGrunt]

I was thinking a short as well. It was getting late last night and didn't have the time to replace the bulbs with the old sealed beams, of course now I am short two high beam lights that I used to sacrifice for the bayonet connectors. I think I have couple spares.

[dwcains]

Try just one of the H1's at a time. If you had a 100w bulb in each one, then you would be right on the limit of what would blow a 15-amp fuse using the pair, but just one would only draw ~7 amps. And, of course, if you have the standard 55w bulbs, then the pair would only draw ~8 amps. Also, I'm not sure how your car is wired (mine is different as a Euro), but is there a separate set of fuses for the high beam filaments of the outer H4 lights? When you flip on the high beams, the outer low beam filament turns off, but the outer high beam filament comes on, so all 4 headlights are on as high beams. (On the unmolested Euro cars, the high beam filament of the outer lamps never comes on, but outer low beam stays on with the inner highs - not the best way of doing things, so in that way the US wiring is superior to the Euro.)

Hopefully, you just had a wire touching a ground, and it's nothing weird like one of the new bulbs being defective. Last week I received a pair of Hella H3 bulbs for my fogs from Amazon, and I sent them back because they sent bulbs made in India rather than the German bulbs they advertised. The Indian-made bulbs may be fine, but having always used the German ones, that what's I wanted to stick with.

[MSGGrunt]

All is back together and working properly. The 100W high beam bulb apparently was too much for the stock wiring/circuit. I replaced the 100W bulb with a 55W Osram bulb and no more blown fuses.

Now all I need to do is print off the instruction from Daniel Stearns site on how to aim a 4-light system.

[dwcains]

Glad you got it figured out. Aiming is pretty simple. I always start with all the beams parallel and horizontal to the ground. Left/right adjustment should be parallel to the centerline of the car. I use the back wall of local grocery store, and park ~20 feet back from the wall. You can measure the height of the lights and put a piece of tape or a chalk mark on the wall at the same height for reference. Then I'll drive around a bit and see where the low beam ends up on the rear of other cars and down the road, and fine tune the horizontal adjustment. Since the car is so low, you can usually get away with parallel to the ground, though, which will give you the best range without bothering the oncoming traffic.

[MSGGrunt]

The car is stored away in the garage for the Winter but, aiming these will be one of the first things to do in the spring when all the snow and salt are gone.

[dwcains]

I don't miss New England winters.

[Da_Hose]

Interesting point you make, Dean.

I will have to test my connectors to see if I have 12V to the third leg of my low beam connector. If I do, I will just replicate what you have done. If not, I will wire up an H4 with the 100W bulbs in the high beam lenses and a relay to battery power.

Jose

[dwcains]

A US E24 should have both filaments wired on the outer lamps. Back when they were new, I had an '84 325e, ,85 535i, '88 M3 and M5 - all of them did, and I had the Hella H4/H1 setup in each one.

[MSGGrunt]

Prior to aiming the new lights appear to be putting out a lot more light than my old Halogen sealed beams. And from an esthetics point of view, I really like the looks of all 4 round lights lit up when the high beams are on. The four headlight system, IMHO, is such an iconic look, right up there with the BMW kidneys.

[hornhospital]

Bump to see if the lights ever got aimed, and if you like them or not. I still have them on my eBay watch list. If you say they're good (as in better than sealed beams) I'm pulling the trigger on Buy It Now.

[MSGGrunt]

I did get them aimed and they far outshine (pun intended) the old sealed beams that were in the car. They also have the advantage of being able to run higher wattage bulbs for even more light if you wanted to upgrade the wiring and run relays. I didn't go this route as I just wanted a plug and play set-up. I'll try to get some pictures of the beam pattern and try and show how much light they throw as well.

[hornhospital]

Excellent. Thank you very much. Looking forward to the beam pattern pictures.

[MSGGrunt]

The only beam patterns for now are against my garage door though I will snap some at night when I have the chance to drive the car then, which isn't all that often but, I'll make it a point of getting some anyway.

The car was parked a few feet back from the door. The first picture is of the Low beams and the second is High beams. One observation is that one bulb, I can't recall if it was the high or low beam, is a much brighter white, say a 6000K vs a 5000K. Maybe because of the bulb being a different design? or brand? I'll have to look into that.

As I know nothing about headlight beam "interpretation" feel free to comment on your thoughts on the Autopals. And if my aiming isn't the best feel free to comment on that as well.