After 10 years of living with these terrible headlights I finally got crakin on a conversion. A few weeks ago it became abundantly clear just how bad the lights are when I almost hit some poor kid on a bicycle. I wasn't distracted and I have good vision. I can only blame the lights. I haven't driven the car at night ever since. Both my Volvos are equipped with e-codes. Too bad they don't get 35mpg around town. Something had to be done. Either I change the headlights or I get rid of the car. None of the options out there seemed partially appealing for an old beater. All the after market headlights out there are made of the same plastic with the same poor DOT optics. Also I didn't want to spend more than $100. In the end I went over budged by about $40. Well worth it. Keep in mind the main objective of this project is light quality not esthetics.

Budget:
5.75" round Hella e-codes + 80/100 bulbs + shipping $108
relays, wiring and plugs $20
junk yard headlights brackets and hardware $10
I found a pair of aluminum headlight mounting brackets and buckets from a Mercedes W116 at the JY. Also took the headlights pigtails. H4 bulbs use the same plug as sealed beams. Mercedes uses relatively thick 14 gauge headlights wiring. For comparison, the Neon has 20 gauge stock wiring.


Cut the mounting bracket in half. The only power tool on hand was a drill so working with aluminum made things go a lot faster.


Mounting bracket is attached directly to the frame of the car with 3 screws.




The relays are attached to the back of the plastic cover next to the radiator. Yup, i have the dinky half size radiator. No AC. All wiring is 14 gauge with crimp connectors. I measured 11 volts at the headlights on stock wiring with the engine idling. With the relays and new wiring installed I measure 13.5 V

Wiring directions

Hmmmm, I wonder which headlights puts more light on the road with less glare.


Forget Silverstar, painted bulbs, 55=100w BS. This is a real 100w high / 80w low H4 bulb. Guaranteed to melt stock wires.


I cut off the original turn signals so I can use them without the stock headlights.


Finished!


Well not quite. I need to build a filler around the headlight to cover up those ugly empty spaces. I might use the reflector from the old headlight painted black.

I tried taking some pics of the lighting at night but my cheap camera didn't do it justice. The headlights are BRIGHT!. They have a very clear horizontal line at the cut off. They produce less glare than the stock lights. The bulbs are about 50% brighter than standard 55/60 H4s. The simple 2 screw adjusting mechanism built into the Mercedes buckets works great. The reflector design and glass lens are far more efficient than even brand new plastic lights. Hopefully I'll have some pics of it at night in the next couple of days.

More information about e-code lighting at http://www.danielsternlighting.com/
Headlights and bulbs from http://www.rallylights.com/hella/headlamps.asp

 

Awesome innovation! Nice to see what people are willing to do on their own.

 

I took a couple of pics at night. My digital camera was a cheap POS 2 years ago. Also pictures don't offer a good representation of headlights brightness and color. So for reference sake, the instrument cluster was at maximum brightness.

Low beam. The tree is about 15' away from the bumper. The fence is 30' away. My favorite part about e-code headlights is the crips cut off at the top of the low beam and the even light without any bright or dim spots. In these pics the beam looks really narrow. The problem is the camera can't catch the slightly dimmer light to either side of the car. The ground in front of the car is about 6" higher than the lever of the tires because the car is facing the curb.


200W high beam. The light outside the car is actually brighter than the high bean reminder light in the dash. Now thats progress.