Who has experience with Hella H4 headlights?

Kern Dog · Mar 21, 2018

I ran a pair of the 7" round headlights in a 76 Camaro many years ago. Stock wiring and everything worked fine. They came with 55/60 watt bulbs for low/high beams.
I am thinlking of getting these for my 70 Charger. All the underhood wiring is new. I do not want to add relays. I tried that before and it screwed with the operation of the lights and electric headlight doors.
Here is a link to the low beams from Summit:

https://www.summitracing.com/parts/hla-002850811/overview/

Kern Dog · Mar 21, 2018

Here is a link to the high beam set. The prices on both are for a pair of headlights with bulbs.

https://www.summitracing.com/parts/hla-002425811/overview/

451Mopar · Mar 21, 2018

I have them on my '69 Coronet, but I used relays.
I don't know about the headlight doors, or problems you were having?

ChargerST · Mar 21, 2018

I have them in my Charger an I highly recommend running relays as the current draw is much higher than with sealed beams. There is a simple solution to the headlight door problem when running relays: use a 5 prong relay instead of the original headlight door relay. The 5 prong relay has a dedicated ground wire whereas the the original relay grounds through the headlights (this small current draw screws up the door operation).

Yatzee · Mar 21, 2018

Kern Dog said:
I ran a pair of the 7" round headlights in a 76 Camaro many years ago. Stock wiring and everything worked fine. They came with 55/60 watt bulbs for low/high beams.
I am thinlking of getting these for my 70 Charger. All the underhood wiring is new. I do not want to add relays. I tried that before and it screwed with the operation of the lights and electric headlight doors.
Here is a link to the low beams from Summit:

https://www.summitracing.com/parts/hla-002850811/overview/

I use them on both of my classics. You have to watch the length of the socket that plugs into the back of the bulbs, I had to go with sockets which have the wires coming into the socket at 90 degrees. They are a bit deeper as housings go so you need more clearance on the back side of the mounting point. No alterations to the actual buckets required. Sometimes the nibs on the bulb housings don't match up exactly with the indents in the buckets as they are European. You can swap bucket position to resolve this issue if it's possible on your car. And as an added bonus, they can be wired to have the low beams stay on with high beam activation which is an old GM truck trick. Doing the wiring this way gives you the effect of having low illumination driving lights which light the road in close. I recommend a pair of relays with fused main power directly from the battery terminal and activation of the relays controlled by the high/low wires that come off the foot switch. This is easily done without major alteration to the wiring harness and can be undone at any time.

Kern Dog · Mar 21, 2018

ChargerST said:
I have them in my Charger an I highly recommend running relays as the current draw is much higher than with sealed beams. There is a simple solution to the headlight door problem when running relays: use a 5 prong relay instead of the original headlight door relay. The 5 prong relay has a dedicated ground wire whereas the the original relay grounds through the headlights (this small current draw screws up the door operation).

This is interesting. A 5 prong relay....I am not skilled with electrical stuff so I would appreciate some advice on this. Are you saying that you replaced the actual headlight relay under the dash along with adding separate relays for the headlights themselves?
When I tried the relays in 2013, it did screw up a few things. The lights came on with the switch but would not go off unless I switched on the high beams. One time, the headlight switch was turned off with the engine running and the lights and doors still stayed on. Again, only the dimmer switch was able to shut it all off. I knew there was an explanation as to why...the tidbit about the grounding issue makes sense. Is the 5 prong relay a generic item that I can find and just wire up myself?

ChargerST · Mar 21, 2018

I have a diagram somewhere on how to wire the relays and the headlight door relay. Yes, I replaced the underdash relay with a generic 5 prong relay.

powermyster · Mar 21, 2018

5 prong relay will be listed as SPDT relay if looking to get some

rlem1977 · Mar 21, 2018

I use the KC H4's on my Nova track car. They're for a Jeep, but we made 'em work. Needed to get away from glass. The car has a Ron Francis harness and we used a Ron Francis relay kit for the bulbs. I know they have a "relay relief kit" for retro fitting the H4's like you are thinking. They have 2 and 4 headlight kits. Highly recommend using relays to save the headlight switch.

7t500 · Mar 21, 2018

I am running this setup on my '70 Charger.

http://www.1970chargerregistry.com/mboard/index.php?topic=1212.0

watermelon · Mar 25, 2018

Kern Dog said:
Here is a link to the low beams from Summit:

https://www.summitracing.com/parts/hla-002850811/overview/

i just got these from Discount Fleet Supply for my 66. just the glass and no bulbs. nice glass. i am filling them with an HID setup from theretrofitsource.com. should be a fun project.

http://www.discountfleetsupply.com/hel002850001.html

watermelon

Kern Dog · Mar 25, 2018

Can those be used along with the low/high as the inner bulbs/High beams? In other words, can a person use 4 of the same lenses and just use different bulbs for inner and outer?

watermelon · Mar 25, 2018

from what i see yes, you can use same lense for different bulbs. the glass i got were all four lows; again glass only no bulbs. i dont see how it can be any different than hibeam glass. also, in another thread between Propwash and The Swede, TheSwede told Propwash that he could use the all lowbeam glass (iirc). so, thats why i went all lowbeam Hella glass; $25/lamp at Discount Fleet and cheaper than hibeam glass i think.

again i am using an HID setup from theretrofitsource.com. Morimoto Elite H4 (or something like that) setup and uses a nice modern OEM style connector set and has interface connector to old mopar bulb connector. it also has a relay box but it all clicks together. all engineered as a complete set.

https://www.theretrofitsource.com/hid-systems-20/hid-systems-universal/9003-h4-morimoto-elite.html

just took some fresh pics for you. see if they help. see the empty glass, glass with HID bulbs installed. the Hellas came with a weather shield that i had to trim and fit over; should keep things dry.

check this discussion i have going with Darius. i put some links in there too.

https://www.forbbodiesonly.com/moparforum/threads/hid-headlight-rehash.147724/

watermelon

Kern Dog · Mar 25, 2018

Thank you, that looks great. I was stumped by the weird headlight door issue and figured I'd revisit the relay issue later. The current draw of LED is what tempted me but the added complexity of ballasts, etc just confuses me. Sometimes, the "not knowing" makes a project seem to be more hassle than it is worth. I'm reasonably skilled with most things but I really wish that I had a better understanding of electrical systems.

watermelon · Mar 26, 2018

just did a bench test. 6000k HID bulbs with 35 watt ballasts. the setup is super white. all lights on when on low beam then all lights on when on high beam. i tried to get pics dead on in front of lights but camera got whited out.

now gotta mount things up.

watermelon

Who has experience with Hella H4 headlights?

Kern Dog

Life is full of turns. Build your car to handle.

Kern Dog

Life is full of turns. Build your car to handle.

451Mopar

Well-Known Member

ChargerST

Well-Known Member

Yatzee

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Kern Dog

Life is full of turns. Build your car to handle.

ChargerST

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powermyster

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rlem1977

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7t500

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watermelon

Well-Known Member

Kern Dog

Life is full of turns. Build your car to handle.

watermelon

Well-Known Member

Kern Dog

Life is full of turns. Build your car to handle.

watermelon

Well-Known Member

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