Sealed beam light is a large conical piece of glass, vacuum inside. Heavy. When the bulb goes you replace the entire thing. This is the sort of headlight that the car came with new. Since the glass must withstand a vacuum inside it’s quite thick.
Long ago in Europe they started using a new kind of bulb where the reflector and lens were separate from the bulb. This allows you to replace just the bulb. I don’t know why but the H4 bulbs tend to be brighter than the sealed beam type. A common upgrade for sealed beams is to replace the bulb with an “H4 assembly”, it’s an enclosure that fits the same as a sealed beam.
I did this upgrade on my Porsche and was very impressed with how bright they were (and also liked the European beam pattern which focuses more light on the road).
My left headlight dead, and they’re sort of dim anyway. Wouldn’t it be great to put in some of those bright H4 headlights to replace the stock sealed beams? Bright sealed beam is $15-20. A pair of H4 enclosures and bulbs is $75 and is brighter. Time to upgrade!
I order off Amazon, package arrives in a week. I hurry out after work to install:
7″ H4 Retrofit Kit, includes 2 enclosures, 2 55/60w bulbs, everything you need to install H4 lights on your old vehicle:
I turn on the headlights. It’s the left one that doesn’t work. I take it out only to find…
Oh jeese. These are H4 Headlights, already installed in my car… 🙂
Yeah, you see where it says “H4”?
I take it apart, looks fine but the bulb is cloudy. I must just need a new H4 bulb, I don’t need the full retrofit kit!
Tape the box back up, mail it back to Amazon.
Next weekend I stop by OReilly and get a H4 bulb…
H4 Replacement Bulb goes inside the H4 enclosure.
Home again I turn on the headlights to see which one is burned out….
Both work fine. I guess it was a loose connection. The light must have started working when I took it apart.
I look more closely. What I thought was “cloudy” was actually a metal piece inside the enclosure:
This isn’t cloudy, it’s a metal shield inside the H4 enclosure.
Lesson for the future. Take it apart, clean and inspect before buying a new part.
Oh well, its reasonable to carry a spare bulb. I put it in my tool box:
Tool Box
CanadianBJ 