# Converting headlights to H4, help!



## DisBeBrand0n (May 11, 2003)

I just bought some Piaa H4 bulbs for my crystal clears, i origanily left the stock 9004 harness on with Silverstars. The only thing is that brightness and beam pattern is really bad when driving on non-street light lit roads. I have to drive with the high beams on just to see 15 ft infront of the car.
Anyways, need help wiring the H4 harness that came with the crystals to the stock 9004 harness. The wires on the stock harness are black, red w/ black or gray stripe (cant remember), and a red w/ yellow stripe. The H4 have a black, blue, and white wire.
I know black is ground, but i need to know which ones are hight and low beam! 
also the stock wires are about a 20 gauge wire and the H4 wires are 8 or 10 gauge. Is this a problem? and how far back will i have to cut the stock socket? Close to the head or near the end of the harness?

BTW, I did search but couldnt come up with anything.
Thanks for any help guys!


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## holy200sx (Jan 8, 2003)

well basically enough..

the white is bright, blue is low, black is ground. i want to say red with yellow is bright, red with black is low, and black is ground. you will have to test..


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## DisBeBrand0n (May 11, 2003)

yeah i'll have to trouble shoot it, but thats what it thought it would be.

thanks for your help!


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## DisBeBrand0n (May 11, 2003)

i jsut looked at the pass. side of the car and the wires are different colors!!! They are black, pink w/ blue stripe, and red w/ green stripe!!

which is which??

HELP FAST!!!!!!!


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## Ninety-Nine SE-L (May 5, 2002)

ok, on the left, red/yel is low, red/blk is high. On the right, pink/blu is low, red/grn is high.

on both sides, black is the ground.


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## DisBeBrand0n (May 11, 2003)

I guessed when I wire them up, and it was right!! 

good guess ahh... 



thanks for the help guys!!


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## go4broke44 (Jan 14, 2003)

well now you cant leave us hanging, how much better do the H4's work? whats the difference between H4 and 9004 anyway, are they brighter or something?


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## Ninety-Nine SE-L (May 5, 2002)

ok, this is my assumption, but I'm sure the beam pattern had to be horrible. H4 housings are meant for H4 bulbs, 9004 Housings are meant for 9004 bulbs. If you switch it around you're going to get terrible light output. On another note, H4 filaments are perpendicular to the base while 9004 ones are parallel. You need to convert the bulb and harness when you convert the housting.


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## holy200sx (Jan 8, 2003)

yea, and the beam pattern is well worth it with hid..


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## DisBeBrand0n (May 11, 2003)

The H4 bulbs are so much better then the 9004, with the 9004 i could only see about 10ft infront of the car due to the angled down design of the crystal clear's housing. now i can see about 25ft out now!! I can actually see better with my new setup then i could with the stock housings and 9004s. over all i say it was worth it!!

oh, and btw i have PIAA Super White Plasma H4s. they are pretty white but not as white as i would like them, I was hoping that they would have a slight blue tint to match my POLARG B1 Hybrid Visuals..


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## go4broke44 (Jan 14, 2003)

i myself have the sylvania blue halogen bulbs, although when it isnt completely dark, they still appear yellowish in color. if only there was some way to assemble a bunch of those hyperwhite LED bulbs so that it could be a bright white output from the headlight. i guess retrofitting HID would be cheaper though


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## holy200sx (Jan 8, 2003)

yea.. considering a single white LED is 4 bucks... imagine like.. 100 of them in each lamp.. although bright as hell, it would be like 800 bucks for the full conversion.. lol


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## Ninety-Nine SE-L (May 5, 2002)

what are you guys talking about? LEDs?

BTW, I dont have any idea why you had 9004 bulbs in the H4 housings in the first place, if you do a housing conversion, you need to go the whole 9 yards and finish the job at the same time.


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## SilverSentra99 (Oct 23, 2002)

I didnt think H4 was a different brightness, are they HID? or just a step up from the old bulb (i have silverstars). I thought HID lighting was like a grand or two, to have put in. 

Oh and are the LED corner light replacements worth it, Like the ones at autozone ($15)?


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## Ninety-Nine SE-L (May 5, 2002)

SilverSentra99 said:


> *I didnt think H4 was a different brightness, are they HID? or just a step up from the old bulb (i have silverstars). I thought HID lighting was like a grand or two, to have put in.
> 
> Oh and are the LED corner light replacements worth it, Like the ones at autozone ($15)? *


 H4s are supposedly a little brighter, but it may just b the brand you choose. HID is usually around $300-500 for an aftermarket kit (illegal in all states), and $300-800 if you do a retrofit (legal).

as for LEDs, I think they were talking about replacing the headlamp with LEDs which is nuts. LED corners on the other hand aren't worth it IMO. I had LED corners at one time, they cost $15-20 each, they burnt out in a few weeks, and durring that time, I got a warning from a cop that if he sees me with those (BLUE) lights again, I'll get a ticket. if you want a good hiperwhite 1157 bulb, go with B1 Hybrids.


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## DisBeBrand0n (May 11, 2003)

1997 GA16DE said:


> *BTW, I dont have any idea why you had 9004 bulbs in the H4 housings in the first place, if you do a housing conversion, you need to go the whole 9 yards and finish the job at the same time. *


No one ever told me about wiring the H4s with those housings... Ive only had them for a couple of months, and i origanlly replased them with Silverstars. After driving it at night I realized that I need to install the H4s, and I gu ess it just took me a while to get around to it...


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## go4broke44 (Jan 14, 2003)

i was actually talking about putting LED's in the headlights, since they are really bright white, even during the day, when even hyperwhite bulbs look yellow, the LED's would still look white. only problem is how expensive they would be


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## DisBeBrand0n (May 11, 2003)

pretty expensive

i have no idea though...


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## Ninety-Nine SE-L (May 5, 2002)

replacing the bulbs with LEDs is nuts, has anyone even heard of something like this? it's really expensive and you're not going to get alot of illumination from LEDs. LED technology only goes so far, they are realy intense to look at, but they don't project very much light. Check out LEDtronics.net they ave bulbs on there that replace standad incandescent bulbs. One is 231 LEDs inside a bulb, the cost is $346 for one bulb and it gives the light output of a 60watt incandecent.


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## Slayer2003 (Jun 4, 2003)

....the led thing would be the shiznik for something like a fog lamp, or maybe driving light. but not for a headlight replacement. 1. they dont project far enough n 2. they have different angles at which they dissipate at, and 3. it would be a PAIN IN DA ASS to make them on a etched circuit board, then ya gotta line them up so they dont angle all over the place. btw, im guessing it would be hyper bright LED's, with the highest output you can find, wich runs around 5-5.7 volts...then ya got resistors, a transformer if ya need one (dont know how much power headlight sockets put out), then figger out how to do high, and low beams. also, youd have to have a reflector in front of the LED's to dissipate the light so it looks like one lamp, not 500. same as the tail lights of a Caddy STS. and the hyper led's go for 2-3 bucks a pop.


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