Guest

I have 60/55w bulbs in my 97 3.2TL, and want brighter headlights. Is it safe to upgrade to the 100/80w bulbs, or will they damage my car somehow? Are there any precautions I should take?

songer

I don't know about your TL in particular, but I do know that when they design the wiring and housing, they account for a little buffer so that some wattage variation above the standard spec's are allowed. But the question is how much. The other unknown is that all wiring systems vary from one to another- so while a wattage upgrade may cause no problems for one car, it may melt the system in another car that is the same model. The safer way would be to upgrade the wiring system to handle the higher wattage. I'm not sure how the housing itself would handle the extra heat, so if someone else could comment on that...

grishulia

Try it, see what happens...

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Just my 2 cents...

Guest

The best precaution would be two things:

(1) Be sure to use the special connector "grease" on the terminals. This helps to draw heat away from the bulb.

(2) When sitting still, don't let your bulbs burn for a long time. At a long intersection, or in the parking lot... go to park lights only until you move again. You don't want your bezels to overheat and deform.

BTW- I had the exact same wattages in my Integra for about a year and didn't have any melt-downs or cracks in the lenses.

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2000 3.2 TL, Paper maps.
Comptech axle-back exhaust.
225/55ZR-16 RE730s on OEM alloys.
205/55QR-16 Alpins on steel wheels w/covers (winter).

Pictures

<FONT COLOR="#800080" SIZE="1" FACE="Verdana, Arial">[This message has been edited by Einstein on December 29, 2000 @ ]</font>