Electronics > Projects, Designs, and Technical Stuff
Measuring A Car battery
IDEngineer:
--- Quote from: Benta on May 02, 2019, 08:40:32 am ---Nobody in Europe has been using sealed beams for decades. In fact, they are not allowed and must be replaced with E-codes. This is always done when someone imports a car from the US, otherwise it will fail inspection. H2, H4 or H7s don't need a reflector for this application, just a socket is enough.
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Remarkable. I wonder what the "logic" is behind this edict.
Sealed beams are an entire form factor. There's no "socket" to hold a standalone halogen bulb even if the connectors were compatible. If the UK compels you to replace sealed beams with standalone bulbs, there must be a market for some sort of retrofit "body" with the same form factor as the original sealed beam unit. Then the halogen bulb would screw into this body. That's how halogen bulbs are done in the USA... the body is semi-permanent and includes the reflector and lens. The replaceable bulb inserts from the back and has an o-ring to keep the interior of the body clean and dry.
How do you replace a full-sized sealed beam body with a standalone halogen bulb, while maintaining alignment and shaping the beam and whatnot?
Benta:
--- Quote from: IDEngineer on May 02, 2019, 05:13:49 pm ---How do you replace a full-sized sealed beam body with a standalone halogen bulb, while maintaining alignment and shaping the beam and whatnot?
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Easy. In the US, the sealed beam is a replacement part. In Europe, the reflector/glass assembly is part of the car. Only the bulb is replaceable.
The reason for banning sealed beams in Europe is their miserable beam pattern and low light output.
If you follow US car forums, you'll see that a favorite modification is replacing the sealed beams with E-codes (although not allowed in all states).
When replacing sealed beams or Hx bulbs, the headlights should be re-aimed afterwards. No difference there, but the European lamps probably need less or no adjustment (the Hx bulbs are very precise).
IDEngineer:
--- Quote from: Benta on May 02, 2019, 05:37:33 pm ---Easy. In the US, the sealed beam is a replacement part. In Europe, the reflector/glass assembly is part of the car. Only the bulb is replaceable.
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Yes, that's how it works in the USA too. Older cars with sealed beams replace the entire assembly - bulb, reflector, and lens are one integrated unit with connectors on the back. Newer cars have the reflector and lens as a standalone component, "part of the car" as you put it, and the bulb replaces in the back. That's why I said:
--- Quote ---Sealed beams are an entire form factor. There's no "socket" to hold a standalone halogen bulb even if the connectors were compatible. If the UK compels you to replace sealed beams with standalone bulbs, there must be a market for some sort of retrofit "body" with the same form factor as the original sealed beam unit. Then the halogen bulb would screw into this body. That's how halogen bulbs are done in the USA... the body is semi-permanent and includes the reflector and lens. The replaceable bulb inserts from the back and has an o-ring to keep the interior of the body clean and dry.
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My question, again, is: How do you replace a sealed beam in the UK with a halogen bulb? To be excruciatingly explicit, when you remove the sealed beam you remove the reflector and lens too. Now you have your nice new fancy LEGALLY COMPELLED halogen bulb, and you screw it into... what? The car doesn't have a reflector nor a lens anymore. Do they also sell aftermarket reflector+lens bodies that match the form factor of the now-missing sealed beam? There are a lot of different form factors for sealed beams, so they'd need a whole lot of aftermarket reflector+lens assemblies to match. Is that how they do it? If not, to what do you attach the halogen bulb when there is no reflector nor lens in the car anymore?
--- Quote ---The reason for banning sealed beams in Europe is their miserable beam pattern and low light output.
--- End quote ---
Interesting that they compel replacement even in older cars. I can't think of an equivalent requirement here in the States. Old engines can still drive around just fine, they're not required to install EFI or a new engine or anything. Old products are sort of grandfathered in, you're not punished due to the whims of some recently passed law.
--- Quote ---If you follow US car forums, you'll see that a favorite modification is replacing the sealed beams with E-codes (although not allowed in all states).
--- End quote ---
Yes, swapping out for halogens or xenon or, more recently, LED's is popular. But not compulsory. You must have operational headlights of course, that's always been true, but the ones that came with the car (which, by definition, were compliant with requirements at the time of production) remain legal forever and you simply maintain them to the original specs or better.
Benta:
--- Quote from: IDEngineer on May 02, 2019, 07:48:56 pm ---My question, again, is: How do you replace a sealed beam in the UK with a halogen bulb? To be excruciatingly explicit, when you remove the sealed beam you remove the reflector and lens too. Now you have your nice new fancy LEGALLY COMPELLED halogen bulb, and you screw it into... what? The car doesn't have a reflector nor a lens anymore.
--- End quote ---
Easy. You install OEM or aftermarket E-code headlamps (reflector, lens etc.) which will then stay in the car in the future. Into those you mount the H2/H4/H7 bulbs. Usually, you don't even need to replace the connector/socket.
Gyro:
--- Quote from: IDEngineer on May 02, 2019, 07:48:56 pm ---Interesting that they compel replacement even in older cars. I can't think of an equivalent requirement here in the States. Old engines can still drive around just fine, they're not required to install EFI or a new engine or anything. Old products are sort of grandfathered in, you're not punished due to the whims of some recently passed law.
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I think you're getting a bit tangled here - we're talking newly manufactured cars - or newly imported cars from the US (of which there are very few). If an EU car was manufactured long enough to have had sealed beam lamps, there is no compulsion to retrofit them with modern replacements - it's the same as airbags or seatbelts, although most owners of such old vehicles would of course want to retrofit seatbelts, mandatory annual safety tests do not require items that were not standard back when they were manufactured.
As I said, the last car I had experience of with sealed beams was getting on for 50 years ago, it really is a very small problem. The US seems very behind in headlamp optics technology, we went through the standard tungsten versions of the Hx bulbs fitted in 'permanent' headlamp assemblies for many years (decades?) before moving to halogen [Edit: actually Halogen for several decades too], HID, and now LED, replacements on more recent vehicles.
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