1500 Headlight Replacement - Rimmer Bros halogens any good?

[BenJamp]

Hi All<br>
<br>
3 of the four headlights on my '72 1500 FWD seem to have blown almost simultaneously, the day before the MOT needless to say! I understand they are sealed units so need to be replaced rather than simply changing bulbs - this correct? If so I guess some decent halogens might as well be used, what is recommended? I see Rimmer Brothers do a kit with 4 halogen lamps, relays and wiring for the Dolly so I assume this would fit the 1500 too as the headlights appear the same apart from the chrome/black bezel. Is this a good (/the only!) option?<br>
<br>
Cheers,<br>
<br>
Ben

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[Toledo Man]

Yes the headlights that R*mm*r's sell will fit your car. I was lucky in that I was able to make up a fully working set for Baby Blue from 2 sets of headlights. The only other option would be a secondhand set off a car that's being broken up. eBay or an autojumble are the best places for such items.

<p>Toledo Man<br>
<br>
1974 Toledo 2-door (currently a spares car for Snowdrop)<br>
1973 1500fwd (Baby Blue slowly being recommissioned)<br>
1971 1500fwd (spares car for Baby Blue & future donor for the "Stretch 1500" project)<br>
1983 Acclaim HL (Becky, my daily driver)<br>
1977 Dolomite 1300 (Snowdrop my other road going Triumph)</p><i></i>

[MaddMart]

Before you invest in any replacements, I would try & trace the fault, otherwise you'll blow the new ones.

<p>Martin<br>
<br>
<!--EZCODE LINK START--><a href="http://www.dolomitesprint.com/" target="top">www.dolomitesprint.com</a><!--EZCODE LINK END--></p><i></i>

[Sprint36]

I've got halogen lights on my Sprint and they make a huge difference. A bit of an investment at first but then you only need to change bulbs and not lamps so it will cost less in the long run.<br>
<br>
Chris Witor also does halogen lights and I think he's cheaper than Rimmers. Worth a look.<br>
<br>
David

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[Jon Tilson]

lights will need an upgrade to your wiring involving a relay to take the high current away from the column switch. The contacts are not up to the job.<br>
<br>
I would trawl the breakers for sealed beam originals first. The 3 pin light unit plugs will have to be changed otherwise and its a non trivial task replacing those bits of loom. You can of course cut these off and fit spade connectors if you want, but then going back to original will be difficult.<br>
<br>
I have decided to stick with sealed beams on most of my fleet. While I hear the arguments for going down the halogen route I dont like the flat glass look that usually results. If you must go down this route, the best source of round halogen lights is an XJ 40. These are usually convex and dont look too out of place. I think my stag came to me with these but somehow the outer units seem to be single filament, which is of course wrong. So Ive gone back to sealed beams again.<br>
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The Rimmers halogen conversion price could well exceed the value of a 1500fwd...and I mean no disrespect to 1500 fwd's by that!<!--EZCODE EMOTICON START :hat --><img src=http://www.ezboard.com/images/emoticons/pimp.gif ALT=":hat"><!--EZCODE EMOTICON END--> <br>
Jonners<br>
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<br>
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[BenJamp]

Thanks very much for the replies.<br>
<br>
To give a bit more detail about how the problem arose: the car is actually my mum's sunny Sunday car so gets very little use (~500 miles pa) but she's just put me on the insurance now I'm old enough to be on a classic policy. I'm intending to use it whenever I can and also start maintaining it myself rather than the local mechanic who frankly doesn't care for it the way a classic should be . My mum avoids driving in the rain or dark so I doubt the headlights had been switched on since the last MOT, and when I switched everything on to test the day before this MOT, the dipped headlights blew; main beams still work on all 4. One of the sidelights also stopped working for a bit, and the horn needed some wiggling. The indicators also stopped working after a few journeys after (passing!!) the MOT which is a bit worrying.<br>
<br>
All I've done to the car is remove the earth straps to clean them up in the hope of improving the electrics' performance (specifically the wipers needing to 'warm up'). I doubt this could have led to a gremlin with the headlights, could it? I suspect they're just old and infrequent use has done them no good.<br>
<br>
As for the halogens; I was intending on using the standard wiring to switch a relay to which I'd fit fresh power wiring directly from the battery. This is more or less what I did with my Impreza and that was successful. Surely I could make up a spade to spade wire to fit between the standard connector and the relay, thus can go back to standard at some point in the future..?<br>
<br>
Are the Rimmers lights flat faced then? That would be a bit of a turn off. The Chris Witor kit claims to have the same power consumption as standard and suggests no need for relays, which seems optimistic to me. Especially as 55W bulbs are specified.<br>
<br>
Thanks again,<br>
<br>
Ben

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[Sprint36]

On the sprint I have a relay in my main beam circuit, but not in the dipped, although I should probably have both. Frankly, the switch is barely up to the job with the original sealed beams, so we should probably all fit relays (and multiple fuses!). I changed the outers on the 1850 to halogen recently and the plugs came off the sealed beams and went straight onto the H4 bulbs.<br>
<br>
The halogen lights on the Sprint have flat glass (but I didn't buy them, they came in a box of spares I inherited). Those on the 1850 have convex glass.<br>
<br>
David

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[Jon Tilson]

did the units that you have just put in come form David? It would be nice to know a source of dual filament halogen light units with 3 pin plug light fittings. Were they new or from another car? I agree with your comments about the relays and fusing.<br>
Jonners

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[Sprint36]

Not sure I'm afraid as they came from ebay, but they take H4 bulbs which I got from Halfords and the plug just changed over. The lights were pretty cheap and a bit of a pain as the rim was not as thick as it should be so the chrome retainer does not hold them properly. I had to make up some rubber gaskets to increase the thickness at the edge. Don't think they'll be staying on the car for too long!<br>
<br>
To add to the original subject, as we hardly get the chance to drive on full beam in this busy age, it's probably makes economic sense to change just the outer lights for halogen.<br>
<br>
David

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[Richard the old one]

It is rare to find that three sealed beam units have failed at once as I have found them to be very reliable.<br>
<br>
Have you taken the units out and checked them with a battery? The problem on some if not all could be bad connections to the back of the lamp units. Give them a wiggle and spray with WD40.<br>
<br>
The sealed beam units were still readily available a couple of years ago at my Lucas agent now LSUK @ about £14 but can usually be picked up at auto jumbles etc for afew pounds<br>
<br>
<br>
<br>


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[BenJamp]

Thanks for that. The units have visibly blown - one inner lamp looks like it's got some creamy substance all over the lense which is a bit odd, the outer pair look like they have smoke/soot over the lense, mostly from the top.

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[dollyboy]

concur with everything above.<br>
<br>
the flat glass halogens are possibly hella ones, used on early golf, bmw, ford, various others. <br>
<br>
I got a full set of halogens from rimmers, firstly the flat glass hella ones, but didnt have the rubber boots, couldnt find them for love or money, so took them back. nice rimmer man swopd em for convex glass cibie ones, but I think this was some kind of 'deal', coz have a feeling they now do wipac ones which dont have as good beam pattern, but will still be a massive improvement on sealed beam.<br>
<br>
sounds like there could be a lot of terminal/connector corrosion, very common, not a big prob, typical of the skanky way that the looms were made. proper thing to do would be replace the duff spade terminals and use heat shrink to keep the damp out, but its a time consuming ball ache. a quick clean with fine grit wet n dry or emery paper and a squirt of wd40 or even switch lube or silicone pcb spray will work wonders.<br>
<br>
XX<br>
<br>
<!--EZCODE EMOTICON START :D --><img src=http://www.ezboard.com/images/emoticons/happy.gif ALT=":D"><!--EZCODE EMOTICON END-->

<p>project orange - slow progress<br>
project black - coming on, could be sold...<br>
project white - pimp my tolly, next year!</p><i></i>

[BenJamp]

Thanks. Has anyone got a pic of a Dolly with flat glass lamps? Can't quite visualise it. Cheers.

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[alun n]

Sealed beams which have not been used for a while often finish themselves off when brought back into sudden use; the filaments smoke for a while before burning out, hence the creamy substance and soots. I don't exactly know why, maybe the vacuum has become compromised, moisture in, I don't know. What I now do with s/h sealed beams or ones that have stood is bring them back into life gently; use a 6v supply first until they warm up before hitting them with a full 12v...seems to have worked so far for me, I wasted a whole box full of a dozen or so units a couple of years ago by 'testing' them to see if they worked; without exception they smoked and burned, but since the 6v trick I have yet to lose one...

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[slant04]

H4's are ok but know what you mean about flat glass. I friend has some on a spitfire. You can get the kits, and the original sealed beam from most places quite easily. I'd stick to the originals myself, lets face it 4 lights is better than 2 anyway and how often do you use main beam?

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