Hey everyone. Haven't been on here for a while now. I had one question. Recently, I purchased some headlights off of e-bay for my 98 Ram Sport. They are those new projector head lights with a halo rim, and they also came with a pair of fog lights. Even though they look great, a big problem arose out of instaling them. First of all, there seems to be a problem with the brightness of the low lights. When I turn them on, it's like I don't even have the lights turned on...I can't see squat! Even the high beams have some issues. They're much brighter but the light displayed is very close, and not quite far enough...VERY DANGEROUS! On top of all of this, I can't even use the fog lights when I have the driving lights on! This seems odd, however, since I was able to do this with my stock lights.

Some of you may be thinking that perhaps the installer messed the installation. The truth is that they installer is a very good electrician and even offered to try and rewire them at no extra cost! We compared the lightbulbs that came with the new lights to the lightbulbs of the old ones and found one big difference. The stock lights have a lightbulb with two filaments, and the new lights only have one! However, with the new lights, the halogen bulbs turn on halfway when the low lights are on. This seems to make the low lights less bright though. I even purchased those high voltage bulbs put out by sylvania that are much brighter to make up for the defecit, but not even this helped. Is there anything I can do to fix this problem, or am I doomed to take off these lights? Thanks in advance for your responses.

 

I wouldn't expect aftermarket lights to be anywhere near the quality of OEM as often they are not and light output is worse. However there is a issue with these lights where you have to ground some wire to the chassis. Not sure thats what your issue is but that is a issue. Does your highbeam light stay on all the time? I was thinking it did something weird like that too. I'm not 100% sure on what has to be done as I haven't had these lights and don't really want them after hearing all these bad things but there are posts on PS I know and probalby here too about how you have to change a wire or ground it to the chassis or something. Might have to switch wires too idk for sure what all you have to do.

 

they did mess it up , on my cousins ram we did his and we had to switch the pins in the harness , and it was like day and night switching it

 

The guy that wired them did put ground to the chassis. So that's probably not the issue. Do you know if the lightbulb having two filaments has anything to do with this? Maybe the Ram Sport lights are different, or maybe the fog lights affect all this, not sure. But thanks anyway.

 

Typically the bulbs that come with aftermarket lights aren't worth the plastic they're packaged in. You did the right thing purchasing aftermarket bulbs, but if you're still having issues then your next step is to make sure your new housings are properly adjusted. Installing aftermarket lights isn't all about wiring and I highly doubt that wiring is your problem. BTW, I do believe the Sylvania SilverStar Ultra's are the brightest (street legal) halogen bulb available to date, and well worth every penny of the $49.99 price tag (I have them on all my vehicles). Here is a link to the proper procedure to follow to safely and accurately adjust your new lights:

http://www.coolbulbs.com/HID-VISUAL-...-PROCEDURE.pdf


IF I were you.... since you already have aftermarket housings with projector lenses I would invest in an HID kit. Your night time vision will be superb, and that's exactly what the projector lenses are designed for due to the clear cutoff line so as not to blind oncoming traffic. There are some great kits on ebay, ranging from $100 to $300 depending on brand and color temperature. If you do decide to go that route, be sure to carefully consider what color temperature to get. The higher the temperature, the more of a blue hue will be present and blue light fatigues the eyes. Bluish/purplish HIDs look very cool and are great for show cars but serve no practical purpose for enhanced night time vision imho. Good luck with your lighting issues.

 

So you think that my issue is not the wiring? I do have the siverstar ultra lightbulbs intsalled right now, but they look about the same as the ones that came with the aftermarket lights when I have my low beams on. Its as if I don't even have the driving lights on when I turn on my low beams. What is causing the lights to be so low in power?Thanks for the article though, it is very helpful and I'll make sure that my electrician takes a look at it and see if it will help any. One other question, what do these kits do? Will they work with these aftermarket lights that I purchased?

 

The SilverStar Ultra's should look amazingly bright compared to standard halogen bulbs. Now if I understand your situation correctly, you replaced your headlamp 'housing' which has the new projector lenses and halo rings. If this is the case, then the wiring itself should NOT have changed whatsoever. The old wiring harness plugs into the same type of bulb, but the bulbs are secured inside of the new housing. This alone means your power output at the harness should not have changed at all. Like I said before... the adjusting of new headlamp housings is absolutely critical. If not properly adjusted, it can look like your lights are not on at all.


Here is a good test you can perform yourself, preferrably at night or in your garage where sunlight won't make it harder to see the lights: Park about 10 feet from a wall. Install one of the bulbs that came with the new headlamp housings in either the passenger or driver side, whichever you prefer, and leave the SilverStar Ultra bulb in the other. You should now be able to CLEARLY and definitively see the difference between the brightness of the two bulbs. Now what you must concentrate on is adjusting (aiming) your headlights up or down, left or right, etc. using the guide I linked you to previously (at 20 feet as stated in the article, not 10 for this test).


Another thing to be sure of is that your bulbs are completely inserted into the new headlamp housing and secured with the locking fastener, spring clamp, or whichever method they may be utilizing to hold the bulbs in place. When it comes to projector lenses, if the bulbs are not inserted all the way or are not installed properly by any means then the beam simply will not 'project' as it is supposed to and instead it will only look faintly lit up. Oh and one more thing... just to clear up any confusion as far as the installation goes... be sure your LOW BEAMS are the bulbs you are installing the SilverStars on and that they are being used in the projector lenses, as they are the only ones designed to do so. Hope this helps.

*EDIT*

Sorry, forgot to answer your question regarding HIDs. HID stands for High-Intensity Discharge. It's the super bright lighting you see on most newer vehicles. The technology itself is wonderful, the bulbs last much much longer than standard halogen bulbs, they consume less power than standard halogen bulbs, and the obvious benefit, they're much brighter and easier to see at night giving you superior night time vision (which, above all, translates into safety). As to whether or not they will work with your aftermarket lights.... they're designed to! When you upgrade to projector lenses and an HID kit, this is considered an HID 'conversion'. Both are designed to work together safely and produce the best light output. On the flip side, let's say someone purchased an HID kit for their regular reflector-style headlamps and did not purchase your aftermarket lights... they would achieve all the benefits of HID but they would do so while blinding ALL oncoming traffic, not to mention everyone driving in front of them as well. Here are some good resources on HID lighting if you want to learn more:

HID Wiki

Mobile HID

Understanding HID Lighting

and my personal favorite...
Search Google for 'HID Lighting'

 

Ondatkryptonite, your awesome man. lol. Thanks for all the input. Now, we did test with the different lightbulbs, but the brightness looked the same....weird. However, I will try to adjust the "housing".(now by this you refer to where the whole one piece assembly that includes bulbs, halogen bulbs, etc. right?) What do I actually have to do to adjust them?Everything is alreadyin place, since these new lights are one piece. I had another issue when I turn on my high beams. The light is not projected far enough, and it is too close. How can I adjust this? Do I have to actually move the halogen bulbs (those round bulbs) differently? can I actually move them? I also had another question. Why won't my fog lights turn on when my driving lights are on?They only turn on when I have my parking lights on, or having the lights at the lowest setting. This is what we were trying to figure out when this happened. This is weird because the fog lights have a switch of their own, which makes no sense. But after trying so many things, I became sick of trying.

Now as far as the wiring, we didbasically "plug and play" with the wiring, but we tried to wire them differently when we saw thatnot all the lights were turning on (fog lights and everything) how we wanted. Just a complete mess. Now, do you knowwhy the stock bulbs have two filaments, and the new ones only have one? Even the plug in the back is different.Doesthis affect anything? Wow, so many questions, so little time! Really appreciate all your input

 

Sorry for the delay, just dropped a brand spankin' new (reman.) 3.9 in my dodge 2 days ago and I've been prepping it to head to Austin for the holiday weekend.
[sm=alcoholic.gif]
Glad I could be of assistance though. [sm=proof.gif]


Yes, the housing is the entire one piece assembly. I'm not sure if the aftermarket housings will utilize the factory adjustment screws since they might be integrated into the stock housings... but it's highly unlikely there wouldn't be a way to adjust the new setup. Here is a guide pulled directly from the factory reference manual to adjust factory headlight housings using 2 adjustment screws (assuming this work is being performed on your 98 Ram Sport):

1998 Ram Sport > Headlights > Aiming


These wiring diagrams may also be of use. I'm assuming DRL stands for Driving Lights, but it doesn't specify:

Headlights Headlamps & Fog Lamps Circuit W/ DRL

Headlights Headlamps & Fog Lamps Circuit W/O DRL


As far as your high beam issue goes, I'm afraid I might have some bad news for you... they're gone! I will answer 2 of your questions at once here, the other regarding the filament count per bulb. Like I said before, the projector lenses are ONLY designed for low beams. Your high beams will NOT work with this new setup. That is the price for projector lenses, however there are HID kits out there (Mobile HID sells a nice kit, though pricey) which will allow you to splice into your factory wiring and retain both low & high beam functionality. The reason the old bulbs have 2 filaments (your stock bulbs should be 9004) is because 1 is for the highs and 1 is for the lows. That would explain why the new bulbs only came with 1 filament.


Lastly, but not leastly(?)... your fog light/driving light issue (those wiring diagrams above may prove helpful here). I had a similar issue with another one of my vehicles in which I wanted the fog lights to stay on when I switched my high beams on (they would only run standalone or w/the low beams). I solved my problem with about a 20 minutes of wiring time and 1 SPDT relay($3). Your solution will most likely be identical, requiring only 1 relay to solve all your lighting issues. the12volt.com will be an excellent resource in this area, explaining how you can easily get your 12 volt systems to do anything your heart desires with the use of seemingly magical relays. But pertaining specifically to your Dodge... here's a thread I found on this very forum which may prove useful:

'DIY Sport Headlight Mod And Driving Light Wireing'

I realize it's not exactly what you're trying to achieve, but you may want to mod it up since you'll be working on your lighting system anyway. A good starting point might be the steering column, as this is where I was able to perform all my wiring and keep my fog lights and low beams on while clicking my high beams on at the same time. If all else fails.... you can always rewire the factory fog switch to be 'hard-wired' (and fused) so that as long as the switch is on (and the ignition switch is on) your fogs will stay on regardless of whatever factory setup is shutting them off when your high beams are activated. Hope this helps, and once again....

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This might also help clear things up. Your high beams are gone only temporarily, all you have to do is splice into the stock harness and tap the high beam output for a new set of bulbs. If I were you I'd use an HID kit in the projector lenses and the SilverStar Ultra bulbs you already bought in the reflector for the high beams. The picture below should look similar to the aftermarket housings you purchased and give you an idea of what I'm talking about. If not, please do post a pic or a link to the actual housings you purchased.



***EDIT*** I hate imageshack... new img link...