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The OEM headlights are terrible... I cant see $hi#


BLouisGod
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Ive tried aiming, upgrading bulbs, and the oem lamps just arent cutting it. I need fogs / or driving lights and all, but my headlights have maybe, at best, half the output of other halogen lamps Ive had. I noticed the oems have almost grazing on the inside of the lamp for some reason, maybe thats causing a loss of directable light? I dunno.

 

I found these on ebay, just for example, with a simple reflector housing and straight, clear plastic for protection. Anyone have any feedback on them or ideas otherwise?

 

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How much are those? They look ok, I run some PIAA driving lights too, so no problemo.

 

On a side note, there are posts out there about using relays on the the headlight circuit to draw more power to the headlights, you might try searching around. 88 started a thread a while back, check THIS out. ;)

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You've been misdirecting your effort into the wrong upgrades. The main problem is the wiring. It's undersized, not relayed, runs power through lengthy stretches of wire and through the headlight switch and on top of that, it's 12-13 years old!

 

A relayed upgraded wiring setup will give you WAY brighter headlights.

 

But those headlights do look pretty damn cool. I'd buy a set if I had the extra. :D

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This is why I love you guys...

 

Gotta spread the love

 

You've been misdirecting your effort into the wrong upgrades. The main problem is the wiring. It's undersized, not relayed, runs power through lengthy stretches of wire and through the headlight switch and on top of that, it's 12-13 years old!

 

A relayed upgraded wiring setup will give you WAY brighter headlights.

 

But those headlights do look pretty damn cool. I'd buy a set if I had the extra.

 

LOL, literally posted the very same moment that I posted and recommended your thread on rewiring/adding relays. You go on with yo bad self. :tongue:

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I agree those headlights look good,however keep in mind that over time plastic will get dull and turn yellow. Then your back to square one! :angry: All honesty, adding driving/fog lights would be the easiest and cheapest solution. Good luck!

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Also, Note that the 90-95 Pathfinder has two different style lights. I know for a fact that in 1990 they had sealed beams and in 1991 they had the removable bulb from the back of the lenses. They look interchangeable. Also note that if you go with Actual Hid Replacement bulbs you will not have to upgrade the wiring. The real hid's work off of high voltage and lower amperage. The create a spark jump that creates the light and do not use a filament. I had a problem with my fog lams in my other car, they were mounted in the bumper and the bumper vibrated and bounced around a lot. This caused the filament to break when the bulbs aged and the filament started to get brittle. I never had a bulb last longer than 3 months. I switched to hid's and they have been going strong for 1 year and counting. Plus my little fog lamps (h3) put out almost 4 times the light my headlamps do. I plan on switching all them out. Only problem is you will either lose your high beams or have to get a hybrid bulb if you have high and low beams on a single bulb. I don't think you need high beams with these. The other problem is they are not DOT approved so you could get a ticket if they notice them. However I think if you have them pointed correctly the cops should not bother you about them.

 

Mark

 

 

 

 

Im goind to add driving lights and upgrade the wiring this weekend. Cheaper = best
Edited by msavides
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Also, Note that the 90-95 Pathfinder has two different style lights. I know for a fact that in 1990 they had sealed beams and in 1991 they had the removable bulb from the back of the lenses.

 

 

You would be in error - my 1990 has the same lights as my former 93 and the 92 I picked up this week, as well as the 87 I raided at the junkyard. The part number doesn't change in FAST, either.

 

What you may have seen was a 90 converted to use Hardbody lights, which is always possible.

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If i am in error then one of my pathfinders would be in error. My 1990 that I sold to Slick had sealed beam headlights. it is a 1990 XE

 

My current 1991 Xe Has the bulbs that come out from the back. Not sure what the difference is However the trucks were manufactured 6 month apart from each other.

 

My father bought the pathy New from the dealer. so No conversion was done,

 

Does anyone have a pathy with sealed beam lights? This is very intriguing.

 

Mark

 

 

 

 

You would be in error - my 1990 has the same lights as my former 93 and the 92 I picked up this week, as well as the 87 I raided at the junkyard. The part number doesn't change in FAST, either.

 

What you may have seen was a 90 converted to use Hardbody lights, which is always possible.

Edited by msavides
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You know what! I think I figured it out. That pathfinder was in multiple wrecks before I got it. They collision repair shop probably salvaged the front end off some hard body. Mystery solved. They did some really crappy body repairs as well so I believe this is what happened.

 

 

Mark

 

 

 

 

 

If i am in error then one of my pathfinders would be in error. My 1990 that I sold to Slick had sealed beam headlights. it is a 1990 XE

 

My current 1991 Xe Has the bulbs that come out from the back. Not sure what the difference is However the trucks were manufactured 6 month apart from each other.

 

My father bought the pathy New from the dealer. so No conversion was done,

 

Does anyone have a pathy with sealed beam lights? This is very intriguing.

 

Mark

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Im thinking about getting 9004 4300k HIDs. Im just curious about the glare. A simple plug and play kit will do, it will bypass all the stock wiring, and be powered directly from the battery. I had one before on another car and it was 160 shipped and lasted a year no problems, plus the 4300k is pretty oem looking.

 

I installed driving lights and they overpower my headlights, it is shameful. Ill keep you guys posted.

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Im thinking about getting 9004 4300k HIDs. Im just curious about the glare. A simple plug and play kit will do, it will bypass all the stock wiring, and be powered directly from the battery. I had one before on another car and it was 160 shipped and lasted a year no problems, plus the 4300k is pretty oem looking.

 

I installed driving lights and they overpower my headlights, it is shameful. Ill keep you guys posted.

 

There are a lot of varieties of 9004 based HID kits though. Most of them are low beam only and the hi/lo versions... well, the operating principles behind them are questionable. To elaborate, I've seen ones that:

 

1. tilt the bulb/capsule up and down

2. shift the capsule forward and aft

3. uses shields that open and close (fan out)

4. piggy-backs a halogen bulb for hi beam

 

Without doing any side-by-side comparisons it's hard to tell which is better. Glare is an issue with retrofits, and can usually be remedied by aiming lights down a little. Has anyone actually done HIDs? any pictures?

 

I'm leaning towards upgrading the wiring + bulbs and call it a day.

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I have done the relay upgrade on my pathy with silverstar bulbs. Overall the lighting is better, but I am still not happy with it. Nissan did a poor job of designing the headlight lens. It doesn't let the light out where it needs to be. My 86 jetta w/ stock cheapo bulbs has a better lighting pattern. I am going to give the diamond cut style a try, and if I am not happy w/ those. I am going to use the case and retrofit a set of HIDs off of a wrecked audi. I have seen it done and it works really really well. Just not all that cheap, but you get hi/low. Oh yeah, and I have aligned the headlights properly. Just my 2 cents.

 

Oh and one last thing, when doing you wireing upgrade make sure you don't just splice in the new wire at the back of the original plug. It will bottleneck the electrons and cause a hot spot also it will decrease the potential extra lighting you may recieve.

Edited by Extreme90path
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I have done the relay upgrade on my pathy with silverstar bulbs. Overall the lighting is better, but I am still not happy with it. Nissan did a poor job of designing the headlight lens. It doesn't let the light out where it needs to be. My 86 jetta w/ stock cheapo bulbs has a better lighting pattern. I am going to give the diamond cut style a try, and if I am not happy w/ those. I am going to use the case and retrofit a set of HIDs off of a wrecked audi. I have seen it done and it works really really well. Just not all that cheap, but you get hi/low. Oh yeah, and I have aligned the headlights properly. Just my 2 cents.

 

Oh and one last thing, when doing you wireing upgrade make sure you don't just splice in the new wire at the back of the original plug. It will bottleneck the electrons and cause a hot spot also it will decrease the potential extra lighting you may recieve.

 

 

Nissan did an excellent job of designing the headlight lens to standards.

 

To the screwed up, no good NHTSA/DOT standards which were in place at the time, that is. None of those composite lights of that era are worth anything because the DOT mandated fluting diffuses so much of the beam.

 

I'm buying a set of those lights for my truck as soon as other necessities are taken care of on the rig.

Edited by GhostPath
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I agree those headlights look good,however keep in mind that over time plastic will get dull and turn yellow. Then your back to square one! :angry: All honesty, adding driving/fog lights would be the easiest and cheapest solution. Good luck!

 

BTW, you can usually polish plastic headlight lenses with a bit of tooth paste and some hard scrubbing and polishing. It beats those expensive snake oil formulas out there. But yeah, some good auxiliary lights won't hurt either.

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I found a set of plug and play 9004s on honda-tech for 114.99. Dont expect oem quality, but ive used kits like these from honda-tech before for a bike and accord, and they were pretty decent and lasted a year before I sold them. I dont know how I feel about a wd21 with HIDs... Just be sure to get 4300k for the most lumens and a white color to avoid po-po.

 

http://www.honda-tech.com/zerothread/2053835

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If you could after you get them installed, do a quick write up with some pics. I was planning on doing this to my wd21. Any tips and pics of the final result would be awsome.

 

mark

 

 

 

 

I found a set of plug and play 9004s on honda-tech for 114.99. Dont expect oem quality, but ive used kits like these from honda-tech before for a bike and accord, and they were pretty decent and lasted a year before I sold them. I dont know how I feel about a wd21 with HIDs... Just be sure to get 4300k for the most lumens and a white color to avoid po-po.

 

http://www.honda-tech.com/zerothread/2053835

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ya im not getting them anytime soon. im going to search around for glare shots, if any, then maybe... installing these takes 15 mins at most. plug the connector up to the oem 9004 socket, install bulbs, wire it up, attach power and ground and go.

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