info on headlight bulbs

i have a 99 800 and im trying to switch out the headlight bulbs. i know they are h4's but everytime i pick up a set of h4( ive tried pilot, and sylvania silver stars) they dont line. any ideas or help would be great. thanks

 

They don't line up? Like they are upside down or something? H4 is pretty standard i don't think there is variations of H4.

 

thats what i thought to but the two bottom prongs that stick out are more at a 45 degree angle rather then mine which are more on the sides say at a 30 degree angle. id like to put h.i.d.'s on it like some 8000k series. i guess the stock bulbs will have to do.

 

Just bend or break of the bottom tabs. Did mine and they work fine.
There is an adapter you can buy, but you don't need it.

 

8000K is ridiculous, that's like totally blue lights, i got 5000k on mine and i still think they are a little too much on blue side. The 4300k on my gixxer looks just perfect.

 

5th gens are NOT standard H4's. Honda modified them slightly and you either have to bend the tabs or buy an adapter to make the standard H4 fit. 6th gens however they got smart on and gave us standard H4's.

If you're looking to actually see and not show off, 8000K HIDs are useless as Viffer said. 4300K-5000K will give you the best light for actually seeing.

See this: An explination of Kelvin Temperature and where our 5500K Life-Lite lamps measure on the Kelvin Temperature scale
And this: http://www.ddmtuning.com/images/products/secondary/38.jpg

Hope all this helps.

 

hey good info guys im sold on the 5000k.

 

if you dont want to bend the tabs on your bulbs someone makes adapter plates available on ebay to fit standard H4 bulbs.

 

Much Appreciation for this thread

I spent a bit of time trying to figure out getting the connector to come off and the shop manual says to remove it first. It's on there pretty good. But soon realized you didn't have to. This thread was a help but not everything I was looking for. Read on...

So, here is my process for those who were scratching their heads like me.

- remove rubber dust cover. It takes a little bit to get it past part of the fairing but it will come off enough to access the clip.

- once that is off, the clip is pretty easy to feel. Just push it in and push down. It will come loose.

- pull assembly out enough and you have access to the connector and it's easier to remove from the bulb.

- I bought the Sylvania Silver Star 4100k. The two lower tabs on the housing clip right off with wire cutters.

- put the new bulb in and re-attach the retainer clip.

- put the rubber dust cover back on. There is a top and bottom and it is labeled. Just slowly work it back on and it will fit back on as its supposed to.

- plug in the connector and you are done.

The Silver Star's are a noticeable improvement over the stock bulbs. Probably better bulbs out there but that was what they had at the parts store across the street.

Anyway... thanks again to this forum for helping a guy out.

 

That's exactly what I did this past Thursday--took me forever to figure out that clip, but you're right....just put the bulb in, push the clip in and then down. It's pretty simple once you figure it out.

I bought the sylvanias too--look a tad brighter to me. :thumb: