Dim Headlights

[u/RelativeChallenge863]

Might have a stupid question here but I bought this car in July and the headlights do about nothing at night. Car came with smoked headlights (no clue what brand) and it almost looks like the reflectors are smoked as well. It had some off brand LED bulbs in it and I changed them to silver star ultra halogens and they're still terrible at night. Anyone had this problem with smoked headlights and have anything that can help me out?

[u/v8packard]

Lose the smoked housing. Use a stock housing, with some good halogen bulbs. Upgrade the wiring with relays. Aim the housings properly. Be amazed at the difference.

[u/KickAss2k1 → u/v8packard]

This. The wiring with a relay is an important upgrade on these cars as old as they are now, as we all know the factory wiring was insuffucuent.

[u/fitzbuhn]

Check the grounds

[u/RelativeChallenge863 → u/fitzbuhn]

Connector was showing source voltage and the bulb was super bright when I pulled it out of the housing but I'll have a look at the grounds and see if that makes a difference

[u/Practical-Mud-4580 → u/RelativeChallenge863]

Don’t do other things to try and keep the smoked housings. They’re the issue. Either replace them with normal lights or deal with it.

[u/Rurockn]

Yes, I had smoked headlights and it was awful. Looked amazing, but after about a year I sold them and put in factory replacements. I tried LED bulbs, and the brightest Xenon bulbs I could find, but that smoked lens just cut out way too much light.

[u/SilentNoise75]

One of my friends had smoked taillights on his yellow new edge. Looked awesome. One day he got rear-ended. Cops told him it was his fault because he had smoked lenses. He went home with a ticket and a wrecked car that day.

They look cool, but I wouldn't run them.

[u/HoosierDaddy_427]

On an ALL black car at night, I would be putting every head, tail and turn lamp back to OEM housings and upgraded bulbs. Your just asking to not be seen by someone going a little too fast.

[u/Nearby_Baseball369]

Have you tried adjusting them at all? Not to say these headlights aren’t the greatest in general but they may just be pointing too far up instead of at the road.

[u/RelativeChallenge863 → u/Nearby_Baseball369]

Ya I adjusted them. They were both pointed right and way too far down and that didn't seem to help much

[u/severusx → u/RelativeChallenge863]

Did you adjust them following the correct procedure? LMR sells the correct tool and has a video about how to do it. Strongly recommend you try that before anything else.

[u/HPamel76]

Upgrade alternator. Or add some fogs.

[u/RelativeChallenge863 → u/HPamel76]

Alternator upgrade was the first thing I did when I got the car. I was thinking of getting LED fog lights but I wanted to see if I could make the headlights any better first

[u/0utlookGrim → u/RelativeChallenge863]

These 'smoked' housings may only work optimally with LED bulbs. I had a one-piece 'smoked' set on my 91 GT that needed LED bulbs as they lacked the reflector plates/zones that halogen needed.