Thoughts on the Hella 500 driving lights?
 

Just bought an 06 MCS cabrio and thinking of adding Hella 500 lamps. Is that a good choice?

i would have been able to give you a comment on those but i havent been able to hook them up yet:sad: but i cant wait to see them in action!:thumbsup:
Are you doing the install? and Are you planning on using the supplied wiring kit?

They are not a bad choice. I've used them on a Subaru & they worked well.:thumbsup: I have a set for my MINI that haven't been installed yet.:wink:

If I buy the Hella 500 or any other driving lamp I need help
 

Would love to have a competent semi-professional install driving lamps on my car for a reasonable price. My night vision might be losing a little bit. Need better overall illumination.

Great lights:thumbsup: They will light up the night :eek:

http://www.angelfire.com/blues2/1sxe-mini/New_Mods.jpg

http://www.angelfire.com/blues2/1sxe-mini/1sxe-mini.jpg

How did you get to the firewall on your R56?
 

1SXE-MINI:

I just installed a set of Hella FF200 - they look fab. Now I need to hook them up and I'm having a heck of a time figuring out how to get to/find the firewall to thread the switch wires into the car interior :confused:

Any tips/how to's would be greatly appreciated

I was also frustrated as to where to run the wires:confused: , so for my installation I actually ran the wires through the fender and into the drivers side door through a notch cut in the door seal. I later came across the factory pdf for the light install and they have a diagram on page 7 showing a rubber grommet on the drivers side that the wiring harnes can go through. The link to this install is below:

http://www.motoringfile.com/howto/Dr...Lights_902.pdf

Look on page 7 for the diagram that shows the location of this rubber grommet. Hope this helps :thumbsup:

BTW: Here is another link to a light install that might be of help in locating a good place for your interior switch.

http://www.sjbaker.org/telamom/mossmini_lightbar/

Yes, I thought of the thru the door, etc method and I think that is exactly what I will do to. Just didn't know if it was OK to do it that way.

thanks!!!

Finally had them hooked up, and theyre kick ass!! i got the amber fogs so they dont illuminate as much as the driving lights but they are still pretty damn bright!!

Here are some photos of my wiring thru the door area. It's a pain to thread the wires through the fender, but it seems to work fine. Just make sure that you don't pinch any wires :thumbsup:

http://www.angelfire.com/blues2/1sxe...lla_wiring.jpg

Yes they are a "Hella"-"va" bright light, :eek: and make a big difference on those lonely dark drives, just be sure to dim them for oncoming traffic :eek2: :thumbsup: that's why I wired mine through the bright light switch.

More stupid questions
 

How did you hook them up to the electrical? Do you have them tied solely to your high beams or are they independent? How did you id which wire to splice into for the 12v?

Helpless in California!!

i had mine tapped into the parking lights, the parking lights have a brown wire (ground) and a black/green wire.......you should tap into that one, i know that if you want to tap into either the low or high beams the wire colors wil be different, hope this helps!:thumbsup:

I have Hella driving lights. I had them wired by a local company (AMS) that does upscale stereos, navi systems, dvds etc. They did a great job. The lights are wired to a switch of their own placed where a heated seat switch would be. I also had AMS wire OEM front fog lamps the same way to a second switch where the other heated seat switch would be. I've only used the Hellas one time as I don't often drive the MINI at night. They really lit up the road. I did need to be aware of on comming traffic. They all flashed their lights, apparently the Hellas are quite blinding!

If you're going to run driving lights I'd strongly suggest (especially in a car like the MINI that uses the harness as a data bus) that you wire the lights independently of the car's other wiring.

What I've done is to run a fused 12 gauge lead from the positive underhood terminal (on my S, on a base cooper you can run it from the battery) to a relay. A fused 16 or even 18 gauge lead goes to the light switches. I put my switches down next to the mirror controls where the seat heater switches would be. The switches are wired to the switched side of the relays so the switches only control low amperage loads to the relays and turn the relays on and off. The relays connect with 12 or 14 gauge wire to the driving lamps.

So everything is fused, the switches only turn the relays on and off, and the heavy wiring goes from battery terminal to relay to lamp.

Other folks do it differently.

I love the Hella lights, I have two fog and two driving lamps.
http://c4.ac-images.myspacecdn.com/i...a3a10dc223.jpg

Aolatelli -
What bracket did you use for the driving/fog set-up?
I love the position of the lights. Looks great.
Thanks

http://i74.photobucket.com/albums/i2...2/DSCN4079.jpg

http://i74.photobucket.com/albums/i2...2/DSCN4294.jpg

http://i74.photobucket.com/albums/i2...2/DSCN3411.jpg

Relayed for driving lights on w/ high beams (relay signal wire shown), fogs on with parking lights (tapped off fender light). Put relays where driver's side horn is, switches on the downtube. Bar is an eBay bar ($50ish).

Hella 500's are fine, the driving beam is a shade narrow for my taste, but they work great and the wiring harness is top notch. I kept picking up stones though, and have clear shields but STILL broke a lens!

www.rallylights.com had them without harnesses for $19 each (clear fog), and full kits under $70. Good company.

DixonL2 how did you make that connection?

John

Oh here are Mine with custom mounts, I need to get over and Look at how Alocatelli's mounts

^^ that one? I used a spade connector on the end of the signal wire heading to the relay, and bent the spade 90 degrees. I believe I trimmed it a bit for width, then found the wire that supplies 12v+ to the high beam (it's an incandescent bulb, FWIW). The plug is held in by a little spring clip, and there was j-u-s-t enough room to kinda wedge the spade connector in there - I may have had to hold it away with a small pick for a sec while I worked it in. It felt pretty secure, but that hood gets opened and closed and the road causes vibration, so I ziptied it around the plug/socket to keep the connection secure. 1000's of miles of motoring and no issues. There is more info here:
https://www.northamericanmotoring.co...d.php?t=125573

A couple other pics that may be useful: I used a trailer plug so the lights are removable with 2 bolts and an unplugging (the end with the conduit stays behind the lights outside the grille, the exposed end with colored wiring ties into the relays):
http://i74.photobucket.com/albums/i2...2/DSCN3389.jpg

...and here's the light bar that reddrocketts was selling on eBay. I've rotated the crossmember 90 degrees and flipped it to get the lights close to the car, it can also be rotated so larger or deeper lights can fit (by attaching them to the front using a 90 degree bracket). Those are Hella 500's.
http://i74.photobucket.com/albums/i2...2/DSCN3397.jpg

http://i74.photobucket.com/albums/i2...2/DSCN3394.jpg

Hope this helps, and good luck! If you're near Pittsburgh we sometimes have Garage Days where we install "stuff" like that...
and my wiring looks like this as a total:

Nice, Thanks, Was hoping you found a different connector. Don't know that I will be in Pittsburgh any time soon, but thanks for the offer :thumbsup:

I actually like the connector - it's difficult to even see (it's black, and hidden), it's made to be out in the weather, it's commercially available, and it's cheap! I took the precaution of using bulb grease to rpevent corrosion, and weather-sealing it (Scotch 33+ tape wrapped in a ziptie, crude, but effective and hidden) Also, once the lights are removed, it can be tucked back into the grille. I don't have a good picture of the light wiring itself (the one pic above was well before I weather-protected the wiring), but it's all black conduit and weather protected now.

Heck, if I wanted to, I could make another crosspiece with six or EIGHT lights on it and it'd both bolt up, and run off the existing wiring! hmmm.... maybe a siren! Strobes! The possibilities are endless (as long as I can run them with 4 wires...) :eek2: :cool:

When one of the factory driving lamps suffered a broken lens, I inquired for a factory replacement....wow!!! VERY SPENDY!!. Went to Auto Zone and bought a pair of Hella 500 driving lamps for $49.50. Used the existing mounts and wiring. Just wired the power and ground to the existing power and ground from the factory installation. The illumination is wonderful. I too, suffer from a little night blindness at my advanced age and the new 500's work very well. Might upgrade to 100W bulbs when I have to replace one of the 55's. On my 970S(Monte Carlo Clone) I run 4 Cibie Oscars with 100W iodine bulbs, two fogs, two long range driving. In addition, I run the 7" Cibie dual bulb headlamps. With all this wattage I had to upgrade to an Asian 145 Amp Alt and dual dry cell batteries. Of course I also rewired the whole car with a Painless brand fuse box and wiring kit. The 'Prince of Darkness' Lucas demons no longer plague me:lol:

Cheers,
Randy

Wait wait wait... so I don't have to spend $300 to get some really nice looking driving lamps on the front of my car? :eek2:

I'm thinking about this as an upgrade on my car, trying to figure out what all I would need... so if I bought the Hella 500 lamps, I'd also need some form of mount and a wiring harness as well? And then, since I'm fairly electrically challenged (I generally end up trying to play connect the dots with wiring diagrams), get someone like a Best Buy technician to install them and put some nice rocker switches in?