I am interested in installing these lamps. the question i have is about the wiring. The plug and play harness seems to be just a 2 to 1 plug in adaptor.(from pictures i have seen) It seems that this is fine for stock output h4 bulbs, others show that you can use apc 100/90 bulbs with this harness. Then there are wire it yourself relay/wiring kits for high output bulbs( one forum member saying it took 6hrs to wire). What is the real deal? I want to install these lamps with the brightest bulbs available, but i dont want to rewire the car.
thanks
neal

 

Hi: This is a confusing topic. I installed the E-Codes and APC plasma whites (90-100) using the adapter harness from LAPD and have not had a problem. I asked the same question before proceeding and Shawn said that they would be fine. Other posts I have read have said just the opposite. That is, you must re-wire with relays etc. before going to high wattage bulbs. I think that maybe (not sure) the APC provide the equivalent of 90-100 bulbs but in fact, don't draw much more than stock. I know that Daniel Stern lighting recommends that you do the high wattage re-wire before installing the Narva H4 Bulbs. 100-120's I think. I'll probably get flamed for the above but I can think of no other good reason why the APC's seem to be safe. Maybe some techies will chime in and clear this up for everybody. Have fun! :D :D :D

 

Check out my post-you'll need it. :crazy:

Go through LAPD, it's cheap, fast, and bolt on. I guess the whole "re-wire" thing is optimal, but you face the same issues you would anything else. Time vs Skill vs Warranty Vs OOPS I really !@#$ed things up and now nothing works on my very expensive mechanic confusing car.

You will see an improvement with any of the light systems with the full re-wire. I would stick to the middle of the road 100 watt type lights. I think the higher in wattage you go, the more load you put on the car, and the less light you get (due to the limits of the stock wires).

Hope this helps.

 

There is another vendor, who can't be mentioned on CF but runs another forum for the C5, who sells a high wattage plug and play harness that does what the "custom" do-it-yourself harnesses do, i.e., run back to the battery with relays.

The low gauge factory wiring is then no longer an issue, and the wiring is good to 135 watts (for high beams).

 

Let me chime in here since I am the one that related the 6 hour plus installation time© If I had it to do all over again, I would probably go the route of the harness that EHS is referring to in his post© I had my brother in law who is an EE help me do my install because of the very concerns that DAP related in his post© Here I had my less than 3 week old 2001 Roadster torn doing a major install with a significant amount of trepidation about messing things up© In fact, that probably accounts for 2 hours plus of my install time in checking and rechecking the installation© I can confidently say that I could do the entire install in 3 hours now that I have measured and located everything© The other time consuming part of my installation is that we used a temperature controlled soldering iron and special solders and fluxes and then shrink wrapped all the connections etc of the color coded 10ga wiring I bought, that went into looming prior to going into the car© ¥ My brother in law works on lasers :D¤ My installation was first class, but the premade harness has a huge advantage in that you don't have to cut off the passenger side headlight wiring receptacles to do the installation© Is 10 ga wiring overkill, probably, but again who wants to take a chance© I can only say that lots of people running stock H4s next to the 100/130 Narvas are blown away by how much light my car throws© Even if the 10 gauge wiring is overkill, do you want to take a chance??

Despite all the cursing and the time involved, I would do it again in a heartbeat© This isn't an easily reversible mod though :crazy: © When I sell this one, the lights are staying in the car :cheers:

 

I have the kit that EHS is talking about, was very easy to install and I love the new lights! :smash: :cheers: