grmchne78

Ok, just thinking! My daily driver, 87 Cutlass Supreme was the first year for composite headlights. GM used the same part number bulb for high beam and low beam. The difference is in the pigtail, leaving half of the bulb unused. With today's newer cars ultra bright headlights mine seem dim. There could be a few reasons, like low buck bulbs, and possible adjustment opportunities. Ignore that for a moment. Now, with that said on dark back roads, when a new car gets right behind me, it is hard to see. I can actually see a shadow of my car directly in front of me and with their light spray lighting up everything around me, it feels like driving into a black hole. In town, it is not bad.

All of this to say, what if I changed the low beam pigtails to high beam pigtails and immediately increased my light bulb output for the low beam, to high beam output. I could adjust the beams to lower the direction to not blind other drivers. From an electrical standpoint would this cause any problems... i.e., overheating? I honestly think it would appear to on coming traffic that I was simply a newer car coming at them.

RocketRonnie

New cars are so bright I feel your pain, I turn up my rearview mirror when a new car is on my tail. I went a while just using my hi beams on them back but realised that was just a jerk move..
As far as if it is safe to do what your doing , I really don't understand but in auto class I learned that with electricity it's like math. For example a circuit let's say your lights all have to add up correctly to the amps that will be running through that circuit.. If you add a load that throws off these numbers, that's when things start to give.. I could be showing my greenness on having some words wrong but the concept is a law.. hears a cool link and sorry if all ready knew this. http://www.aa1car.com/library/automotive_electrical_circuits.htm

It sucks I know, so many cars out there in my opinion should be recalled for thier lights .. but that won't happen $$$$$

svnt442

Step up to a brighter bulb. They cost more, but allow you to see better.

Olds64

Just make sure you have high quality headlights that are aimed properly. No need to go overboard.

Rocketguy

They used that 9004 bulb on many cars in the 80s. If a low beam burns out you can still use it on the high beam side (and vise versa) which can be very helpful in a pinch.

On my 90s cars the chrome on the parabolas deteriorates and makes the lamps dim. Fortunately I can buy new ones for around $100 each but I don't know about the G bodies.

Most all cars have about 55 watt bulbs in factory headlamps. You can buy 100 watt bulbs from Summit and they make a big difference, but to use them you should modify your wiring harness and install 14ga wire.

If your low beams go out when you switch the high beams on like my cars you can modify the harness so they stay on witch also makes a big difference.

grmchne78

My car has either a 9004 or 9006, can't recall, but the high beam side of the low beam bulb is not even wired up, what I was proposing is basically moving the wire from one terminal over to the unused. That should be the equivalent of using a quote unquote "brighter bulb", I want to avoid blue or ultra white looking lights, are the "better" bulbs really that much better or is it all hype?

RetroRanger

check your headlight voltages anything less than say 13v engine running and you could improve the current bulb output w full voltage