The headlight kit I bought and installed from Ecklers consisted of the following:

A set of glass headlight housings (left and right) for a single bulb, wiring harness, two relays and euro-lamps, model # PIAA 135/90 watt. Part #13590 12 v H4

The headlight housings need to be glass vs. plastic as they do generate a fair amount of heat and relays are necessary to balance the electrical system as the draw is significant without relays.

If using the PIAA bulb, believe you will soon discover why the relays and glass housings are necessary. I bought a spare set of bulbs just in the event I am on the road and one fails as I have become very adjusted to driving in almost daylight conditions late at night.

Hope this helps everyone interested in improving their Vette so they do not over drive the lights at night, these are the hot ticket.

 

Oh, you mean these...

 

How much was the total out lay of cash for the ecklers light up grade and the PIIA bulbs? I am interested in this.

Thanks!

BC

 

I think everyone is making a good point about insufficient/inadequate lighting. It seems like "true HIDs" are the best, but it means big dollars to replace the headlight assemblies with the with projector lenses, etc. I'm not familiar with the Euro alternative but it might be a good one. I have researched the HID conversion kits (bulbs and ballasts only) and it seems to be a good alternative considering "best bang for the buck." HID conversion kits are readily available on the big auction site for $100-$150. While not perfect they seem to be the poor mans fix for what should not have been a problem in the first place. Just my 2 cents. I'm sure each individual has an opinion, a budget, and a desired result.

 

I e-mailed Gene about a month ago about these lights and never recieved a reply!!

 

As I recall the total kit price was around $400, which included the glass (L&R) headlight housings, wiring harness, relays for each side (L&R), and the PIAA light bulbs. The GM headlight assembly is DOT approved. Will also ask Connell Chevrolet (Costa Mesa, CA) for an itemized parts breakdown if available.

The spare lamps were about $25.00 each.

The picture of the silver C-5 is the headlight assembly I have on my white C5. When my son returns from vacation, will get photos taken with my digital camera he is using on his vacation. Will then post photographs of the housings, relay positions, bulbs etc.

The instructions which came with the entire kit were very clearly understood and is a simple operation to do until it comes to wiring in the electrical harness..

Uses a single bulb per side and on low beam floods nicely without interfering with oncomming traffic to about 250 feet. The high beams light it up to twilight conditions with no perceptible beam pattern for either side when covered and aimed. Will show the entire engine bay so each component that has been installed for more go and improved night safety will be clearly understood, i.e. a picture being worth a 1000 words. Feel comfortable driving at 80 at night with these headlamps.

Hope this helps, give me until July 28 to get it all on the board.

Grandpa Bear
BearKat_Ind2@msn.com

 

As an interested party I have to ask, did your son get back from Vacation yet?

thx

 

I took a cheaper route.
I replaced my 9006 and 9005 bulbs with high power off road bulbs.

Much brighter and took 10 minutes to install.

Low beam is 80 watts and high beam is 100 watts.

Don't go bigger than that or you might have to beef up the plug.
The heat can melt the wires.
Have a good one
Fireman591

 

Dont get left hand rule of the road. Those are left dippers for driving in England

The T85 lens focusses the beam left of center. If you fitted those in the US you'd blind oncoming drivers

 

I agree with you Grandpa Bear. I've had the Euros fitted for a few years now and they're way better than the stock lights. I fitted mine myself and its a really straight forward mod. The lights give a much more focussed beam. The US spec lenses are called T84s and they are GM parts.

The only downside is the glass lenses are heavier than the stock so it may give your headlight motors a hard time. I have brass gears waiting to go in if I hit the problem.

If you plan to do the mod get the harness because that makes it plug and play. It converts the wiring to take the dual filament bulbs

I got mine from PFYC.com and they have a great How To that covers the installation:

http://www.c5forum.com/diy/eurolights2.php

 

You can do HID's for about 1/3rd the cost of the Euros now.

 

Bill,

Been there, done that.

The $150 "kit" being referenced is just HID bulbs and ballasts to be fitted in your stock reflector housings. While these will be WAY brighter than your OEM lights, they will not be a true HID install as they do not include Projector housings for the HID bulbs........which is what the HID bulbs are designed for. So while you will have a lot more light, it is poorly focused, lots of hot spots, no clean cut off.
The only true HID kit made for the C5 is the ACA kit that runs $700-$1400 depending on the vendors.

http://www.kbcarstuff.com/97_04_Chev..._p/xd-3031.htm

http://www.corvettegarage.com/produc...-corvette.html

 

Personally I like the idea of the Euro assy with HID bulbs. Not real keen to run a 90/135 bulb in a daily driver ... in town. Now if I lived out in the boon docks, Definately.

 

Even in a Euro housing, the HIDs will not have the right beam pattern as they were not designed to go in a reflector housing.

 

No doubt. So ultimately, we're back at the Euro headlights with their better cutoff and spread, without HID... OR, spring for headlight housing that are designed for use with HID bulbs. $$$$$

And as I think about it, probably the stock housing would be less of a problem than euro if you run HID bulbs becuase you would have 2 seperate fixed HID bulbs, vs 1 articulating HID bulb... which I view as being less reliable option with the moving parts. just my opinion...

 

The euro kit can be ordered from Eklers as it is now shown in their latest catalog. The headlights are a simple remove and replacing of the plastic housings (2) bulbs, to the glass housing containing a single high output bulb, 90/135 watts. The entire kit can be ordered from Eklers and it is mandatory to use the new harness that plugs into the exisiting two bulb system and to use relays. Without the relays, there is a severe drain on the battery, with the relays, the voltage even at idle stays above 13 volts.

My system was installed by A&J Autobody in Santa Ana, Ca and took about an hour.

There have been no complaints about using higher wattage bulbs from oncomming drivers nor local police. The system definitately corrects the over driving problems incurred with driving a Corvette at night which I am sure we all have experienced at least once in our lifetime.

Will have my son digitally take photo's of the installation, most of which is now contained in the original factory lighting harness. The spicing into the stock system occurs on the passenger side of the vehicle.

Hope this helps anyone who is equally as concerned about night driving safety.

Bear

 

I did !

 

The T-84 euro glass headlamps are not DOT approved.

It does not stop me from using them.

thay only have the E on them no DOT markings at all.

 

T84 Euros with 6000ks H4 and US fogs also with 6000ks

 

been there, done that.....

installed the euro T84 housings (when I bought them, they actually cost $48.00 each from the dealer!) with the high wattage bulbs.
they were a little better than the stock headlights, then I installed a 6000k "bulb swap" HID kit in the euro T84 housings (just like the $140.00 ebay kits, AND the $299.00 forum kits)

it was brighter than the high wattage halogen bulbs, but due to the halogen housings not being designed for HID, there was WAAAAY too much light being thrown directly on the ground in front of the car (and into oncoming drivers eye level), the bright light directly in front of the car fools your eyes into thinking you can see better, while in reality you don't see any farther than the halogen bulbs.


here are euro T84 housings with HID bulbs in them.
you can see all of the unwanted reflected light being thrown onto the garage. you also loose you highbeams with these bulbs in the euro housings.




here are real DOT approved HID projector housings by ACA (Vette-HID).
notice the nice sharp cutoff, and the hot spot that focuses the light down the road and NOT on the ground directly in front of the car!
this pic was taken right after install while adjusting the headlights, notice my left headlight cover is still off.
this is what the C6 headlights look like!