Spent about 3 hours driving through our first real snow this year, and decided my current forward lighting is terribly inadequate. Currently have Super Blue headlights, problem I had was too much light just everywhere illuminating the airborne snow.

What are some good functional headlamps and fogs I can install to improve this? Function being the primary concern over appearance, I've pretty much accepted the fact I'm going to have foglights hanging off the Formula's bumper and I hate spending money on something that isn't a real improvement.

i have always used amber lensed fog lights for snow or deep fog.. old school way of doing things. younger guys may offer a new way of doing it. anyway, hope i have been of some help to you. good luck sir.

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymot...fPartsQ5fAccessories

My GF has these on her S10. They give good light and have a better beam pattern than the shapeless blob of light that the stock sealed beams give. With the improved beam pattern, you could also try higher wattage lights if the standard wattage H4's aren't enough for you. I would install relays for overwattage bulbs though.

Bonus with the H4 conversions: since the bulb installs from the rear of the headlight, you could change a burnt out bulb much more easily.

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'88 Formula. 2800/automatic. Finally ready for a drive tonight, but battery is dead...

The rest of the garage:
'92 LeBaron sedan: 3.0V6/5sp
'77 Camaro: 350/4sp
'71 Fiat Spider: 1800/5sp
'71 Mercedes 220D: 2.2L/4sp
'70 DeVille: 472ci/TH400
'62 DeVille: 390ci/Hydramatic Jetaway

Very bright lights that are great for dark, clear nights will reflect off snow and fog. Better to chane to OEM, and amber or yellow fog lamps for bad weather.

I'm seeing a bunch of different options for the H4 conversion kits, varying from $5 to over $100. What is there to look for when choosing one of these kits?

Hella apparantly makes one, its more on the expensive side but their product is supposed to be pretty good right?

For Headlights the simplest method is:
Topic: Mark II 90mm Low-profile buckets
https://www.fiero.nl/forum/Forum4/HTML/049551.html

For fog lights, if you want a good cutoff you should look into blazer brand projector fog lights, and if you want lots of light from them a hid retrofit into them (only suggest this as they are known as excellent and have an internal cutoff shield.) You may not need the headlights upgraded if you get decent fog lights.

I ended up with the blazer fogs after my first set of reflector fog lenses cracked (halogen, used as daytime running lights), and a set of cadillac xlr bi-xenon hid for the main beam
Topic: How to install Hid headlights
https://www.fiero.nl/forum/A...090219-2-084985.html

If I were to do it again I would do a flush mount as there is very little room for the bi-xenon in pop-up form,
Building a popup I would try the 50 or 60mm hella projectors (60mm are less expensive ~ 1/2 the price)

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1988 Fiero GT

Check power and ground Before buy headlight bulb!
Headlight use allot of power. Bad power and/or ground make dim headlight.
Bad Aiming make it even worse. See cave, headlight.


fog... see fog light https://www.fiero.nl/forum/Forum2/HTML/105083.html

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Dr. Ian Malcolm: Yeah, but your scientists were so preoccupied with whether or not they could, they didn't stop to think if they should.
(Jurassic Park)

The Ogre's Fiero Cave (It's also at the top of every forum page...)

quote Originally posted by johnt671: Very bright lights that are great for dark, clear nights will reflect off snow and fog.

It depends. If you just have bright bulbs without a good delivery system (reflector/lens) that is very true. But if you have a good delivery system, more light is fine. What is essential is that the have lights have a good cutoff. The cutoff keeps the light where you need it and prevents glare from rain, fog and falling snow. I have a set of the Hella 90mm lights on my daily driver and I can tell you that while they are very bright (65W and output close to early HID's), they are a joy to drive with in snow or fog. No more squinting in foggy glare as the POS stock headlights cast glare up in front of you. Just a well lit roadway and dark sky above that. Everything is deceptively clear.

If you look at a H4 bulb, you will notice a little shield on the low beam filament. This prevents light from hitting the lower half of the reflector which is what would send light upwards and cause glare. Pretty much any H4 light will give you a general cutoff on low beams because of this. H4's are also nice because they have the same connector as Fiero stock headlights and have been around for a long time so there are many products made that use them.

The Autopal lights I linked to above will give a flat cutoff with a reasonably broad beam. The same seller also has "Euro" lights for sale. I have tried those and while the beam pattern does have the European style kick-up to the right, I found the pattern rather narrow and turning onto unlit roads left me in the dark for a moment. The only drawback I can say to those lights is that the glass isn't as thick as it could be so if you live in an area with lots of gravel on the roads, they seem more prone to rock chips than I would like.

I haven't used Hellas sealed beam replacements, although I have been tempted to. I have used several of their other productsand liked every one except one set of $20 cheapo fogs. Something else you might try is the Hella Optilux 2020 model. It is a dual (two seperate reflectors and bulbs) fog/driving light that I ran on my LeBaron before I found the 90mm lights. The fog portion of the 2020 is much better than sealed beam lights and gives a broad, flat beam while the driving light gives a great pencil beam.

I use the Hella H-4 (DOT) replacement lenses with a 80/100w bulb in each.

They light up the road very well and do have a nice clean (cut off) at the top of the beam preventing reflection in heavy snow.

I know some of the HID conversions are probably better and I will convert someday.

Here is some additional information:

https://www.fiero.nl/forum/Forum2/HTML/095980.html

That thread is excellent, this post shows exactly the kind of comparison I wanted to see:

quote Originally posted by Marvin McInnis: The Hella headlight assemblies we're discussing are designed to use a 60/55 watt H4 halogen bulb. Anything else is overkill, IMHO, and probably voids the DOT/ECE certifications. The 60/55 watt bulbs provide plenty of light. From the link I posted above: Here is a baseline low beam photo for comparison ... a single Fiero OEM Delco H6054 headlight, a rectangular 65/35 watt (h/l) halogen sealed beam lamp (rated ~800 lumens). Yes, I realize that it's aimed too high: Here is a comparison photo of the low beam pattern of a single Hella HL79567/H6054A headlight fitted with the standard 60/55 watt H4 halogen bulb (~1200 lumens), taken under identical conditions and properly aimed: I highly recommend that you start with the standard 60/55 watt H4 halogen bulb. You can always experiment with other H4 bulbs later.

just a thought, but it sounds like you're getting side-tracked. Headlights and fog lights have different purposes. I would not expect that changing your headlights is going to help visibility in fog or snow. From my experience in East coast snow storms, low-mounted amber lights are The way to go. The amber doesn't cause "white-out" reflection and seems to better reflect off the lines on the road.

quote Originally posted by PaulJK: just a thought, but it sounds like you're getting side-tracked. Headlights and fog lights have different purposes. I would not expect that changing your headlights is going to help visibility in fog or snow. From my experience in East coast snow storms, low-mounted amber lights are The way to go. The amber doesn't cause "white-out" reflection and seems to better reflect off the lines on the road.

I'll definitely be getting some Amber fogs, probably the Hella kits.

Reason I'm so concerned with headlights is my sealed beam units throw too much light upwards and illuminate a wall of snow in front of my face. Even aiming the lights down still ends up with a lot of light going where I don't want it. The cutoff on those Hella units looks far better and seems like it would keep the light completely down and on the road with less airborne snow illumination.

quote Originally posted by Xanth: ... this post shows exactly the kind of comparison I wanted to see:

Thanks. That's why I went to the trouble of staging a controlled comparison and posting the results here on PFF. There's no substitute for good data.

FWIW, the ECE-compliant (European) Hella H4 headlights (Hella HL79567/H6054A) work very well in blowing snow conditions. I haven't tested the DOT-compliant Hella H4 headlights, so I can't comment on them.

quote Originally posted by Xanth: [Does the DOT pattern] have the upward angle to the right at all or flat all the way across?

Neither. The DOT pattern (and the "unified" DOT/ECE pattern) is often called a 'Z' pattern. The right side of the pattern is higher than the left, but both sides are flat on top. The net result is that the ECE pattern (see below), which sweeps up on the right forever, puts more light higher onto the right side of the road.

For reference only, here are four comparison shots from the same test session as above that compare the DOT-compliant Z-beam pattern of the Hella 90mm halogen low-beam headlight module and the "unified" DOT/ECE Z-beam pattern of the Hella 90mm HID low-beam module:

Stock H6054 halogen sealed beam (DOT only), low beam:



Hella HL79567/H6054A halogen (ECE only), low beam:



Hella 90mm halogen (DOT only), low beam:



Hella 90mm HID (DOT/ECE), low beam, 5100K D2S capsule:

[This message has been edited by Marvin McInnis (edited 12-07-2009).]

I've used the 'Hella' H4s both large square, and large round, as well as the small H4s teamed w/H1s
over many years, '72 Dodge Swinger, '74 Saab 97(Sonnet), '79 Saab 99, '79 Yamaha XS850LG, & my
'88 Fiero GT. They are good lights, I liked 'em better than the Cebie(sp?). The cut off is precise, but
not as radically noticable as some may expect. The light that flares up and right is for illuminating
street signs and mailboxes, a good thing.
On the fog lights; the warmer colors(yellow) are better when snow and fog is present as the human eye
focuses better w/the longer wavelengths and the higher wavelengths(cool, or blues) have much broader
refraction patterns when reflected back towards the source from water droplets(fog). A sharp upper cutoff is
desired to lessen light reflected back(shine under, not through) towards the source, wide side dispersion
is good for 'fog lines' and center line.
A driving light should be relayed off the high beams and provide reach. For night driving in flat desolate
conditions a "pencil beam" will really show whats out there(and give the bugs lots of time to line up for
your windshield). As conditions are usually more condensed in my local rural driving, I found a less
concentrated(read broader pattern) more to my liking. If I were living in Eastern Washington my choice
may have been different.
YMMD

Norm

[This message has been edited by gt88norm (edited 12-08-2009).]

marvin, Nice Work

Xanth, Hella also has this conversion headlamp but i don't know if it has the same projection patterns that Marvin posted above. I too would love to upgrade my headlights, but can't come to spending $400 for the brackets and lamps that the low profile / projector setup would cost.

http://www.summitracing.com/parts/HLA-003427291/

quote Originally posted by PaulJK: Hella also has this conversion headlamp but i don't know if it has the same projection patterns that Marvin posted above.

Yes, that's the DOT-compliant Hella HL72207. I didn't have access to one when I did the comparison shots, so I haven't tested them. The pattern should be a Z-beam similar to the Hella DOT-compliant headlights shown above. According to Susquehanna Motor Sports, the performance of this headlight is not quite as "good" as the ECE-compliant Hella HL79567/H6054A, but the differences are probably pretty subtle.

[This message has been edited by Marvin McInnis (edited 12-07-2009).]

Got the DOT compliant Hella conversion lamps in today, from RallyLights.com, also got a set of Hella Micro FF fog lamps. I'm wiring up the fogs right now and hope to get some decent pictures of how my headlight pattern looks tonight.

Well, with the Hella conversion set-up, it looks like you can even do the HID upgrade later on if you want more light. Here's some info from a PFF member who sells the kits:

https://www.fiero.nl/forum/Forum4/HTML/043399.html

maybe you saw this already but here's another member with an HID kit: https://www.fiero.nl/forum/Forum4/HTML/049881.html