Contour Enthusiasts Group Archives Forums Modifications General Mods a different headlight question. Chris H would probably know best

ON the low beams,
The Reflector covering the front of the lamp on the lowbeams,(Looks like a dome) is the inside of that Reflective?
What would the lamp look like if it was some how removed. Would we get more light output? Less?

When i EVER get around to either sending my lights to Chris or to try to hack mine up myself I am curious as to what it would do.

Anyone?

Chris, I hope I'm not infringing on your headlight-guru status!

That reflector "cap" is designed to keep the direct light from the low beams from blinding oncoming traffic. If you remove that you'll effectively have yourself another set of high beams and very unhappy people in front of you. This is also why the low beam bulbs have that gray covering on their tip, trying to control the direct light.

thanks silver, kind of figured that is what they were there for, but was trying to visualize the headlight without them,

I would love to do it, but would probably piss a lot of people off,

That or paint the "cap" Black to match the rest of the headlight if i were to paint all but the reflector.
BUT then it would give it an "eyeball" effect.

You don't want to remove that cup. It will produce no more light, and will give the on-coming traffic an intense spot.

This is kind of a repeat of SilverSVT though.

Notice on the high-beam bulbs there are no gray tips. I occasionally get people flashing their brights at me -- the high beam in low socket mod must be that obnoxious. But it makes me see better!

Funny, I get people flashing me and I still have the stock bulbs in. I wqouldn't worry about the brighter bulbs if you only get a few flashes.

warmonger

This is because 98+ Contours/Mystiques have *really* effective headlamps.

I've been flashed a few times (after the 9005-to-9006 thing). All I had to do was aim my headlights a little lower. Maybe half-a-notch on the little leveling gauge that Ford so nicely provided.

.RMk..

people will flash at anything. it doesn't necesarily mean YOU are wrong.

FWIW: i had 80/110W H4s in my GTi (i've never seen (non-auxiliary )lighting to beat that other than the rallye setup on same car). so they have that quick cutoff that the Ecode lights are designed with. i also had VERY tight suspension thanks to bilsteins and neuspeed springs (which sucked). but the combination on bumpy roads made the people in front of me always think i was flashing them.
just had to aim them a tad bit lower.
:rolleyes:

i really really miss those e-code lights. can't wait till we figure out how to get those suckers on the contiques. i'll shell OUT for those. i'm doing the 9005 mod this weekend (just got the car)
-eric

I was messen around one day and took it off, man do I hate myself for it, the light output isn' any whre close to what it use to be, but looks pretty cool, with my green crome headlights I have. IF you do it make sure you have some bright driving lights or fogs.

Later Nick

Wrong my friend. The car companies and suppliers have shown that thin and wide headlamps throw light in a much more efficient and usable pattern than big square ones or any other shape for that matter (cicles being very bad). So I believe that the pre-98 Contiques have a better headlamp design. Looks wise? Ehh 98+ looks more aggressive, 95-97 looks kinda wimpy.