Hella 500 fog / driving lights

[Wilyb]

Feedback from anybody with prior experience of knowledge of these lights is appreciated.

I am about to purchase Hella 500's for my car. Since I am not interested in the Black Magics, I have 2 choices.

1st choice is the FF series, Halogen free form reflector technology:

http://www.myhellalights.com/index.php?cID=105

http://cat.hella.com/hella-nafta/jsp/search/advanced/Frameset_ButtonBar_Bottom.jsp?nologin=yes&currentObjectId=CA@USAData@PR@005750941

2nd choice is the standard 500 series with Halogen parabolic technology:

http://www.myhellalights.com/index.php?cID=103

http://cat.hella.com/hella-nafta/jsp/search/advanced/Frameset_ButtonBar_Bottom.jsp?nologin=yes&currentObjectId=CA@USAData@PR@005750952

They both have the H3 bulb, and judging by the light spectra graph at the bottom of their respecting pages, things seem to be the same...

Can anyone explain the difference between the two and for those who have them, what they chose and why?

I will also be buying the color shieldz. This way if I don't like the clear, I can put these on...You'll need to look on the right and click on Auxiliary lighting accessories

http://cat.hella.com/hella-nafta/jsp/search/advanced/Frameset_ButtonBar_Bottom.jsp?nologin=yes&currentObjectId=CA@USAData@PR@005750941

[wheresthericego]

I have them, I stuffed them with HIDS theyre fking amazing

[tireboy]

i have had several sets of hella 500's. on various cars .. the regular 500's are an excellent buy and very good light output. not too sure bout the black magic ones tho.. but if its from hella its good..

[DuRWooD]

I'd invest in the covers too, both my 500s have rock holes through them. I can't comment on the light output, as I've never used them.

[Wilyb]

Frigg it... I'm buying this:

H11176222 500 Halogen Driving Lamp Pro Kit (Limited Edition)

They have the stone shields that I want as I would rather more black than white, yellow removable/ reusable lenses, 2 sets of bulbs and the complete wiring... plus they are parabolics... wider beam...Ha!! 25th anniversaries for my 25th anniversary car!!! Booya!

$172.34 landed to my door...http://www.myhellalights.com/index.p...s/500-pro-kit/

[SgtRauksauff]

I have a set of the FF's and the regular 500's.

I really don't like the FFs much, there is a wierd "W" shaped light pattern that doesn't fill much. Since I used these on the 4WD for night-time ice time trials, I was looking for good fill and some decent beams. I was very unimpressed with the FF's. I got a set of the regular 500's, but haven't installed them yet, as this year there just wasn't much ice, and it didn't last long enough for me to bother.

Here you can se the W pattern I was talking about. This was after having some HID bulbs installed, but the W pattern still shows up with the incandescents, just not nearly as bright. This was also before being aimed.



I think what I might end up doing is moving the FF's to be the cornering lights, and then put the 500's in the center.

oh, and that type of "protective grille" tend to be absolutely useless against every rock you encounter. The only rock big enough to be blocked by them is the one buried in the ground that you're going to smash right through the bumper into the radiator and oil pan.

99% of the time, you're encountering pea gravel or whatever they use for crushed stone on gravel roads (3/4" lots of places). those fit right between the slats of the guard and will still break your lenses.

Also, the wiring in the kit, and the fuse, is too freakin' small. At least in most of the other Hella kits I've bought and seen, it's always been super-dinky 16 or 18 gauge wire. If it's not at least 14ga, rebuild the harness. I'd suggest getting a 30A fuse holder with 10-ga wire from wal-mart, instead of their little baby 15A that they sell people. I melted the stock fuse/holder on my FF's when they were running the stock bulbs. Couldn't take being turned on for any length of time longer than about 5 minutes.

and, the bulbs are kind of crappy because they're coated with tint.

sorry, just giving you my experiences. But with $172.00, you should be able to get four lamps, four 55W HID's to upgrade, and the wiring and relays to make it all work properly.

--sarge

[Wilyb]

I appreciate the comment sarge. One review on the lamps said somewhat the same the wiring and connectors were poor...friig the grills I don't want them anyways...I'll just use the stone shields...I did notice that the glass on the lights they sell in the pro kit have a different texture than the FF's, however the pro kits are the same technology... parabolic... it looks like they used parabolic reflectors on the std 500 lights...see what I mean?

[tireboy]

yeah i can really see the w you refer to sarge.. that would be really annoying ..

[SgtRauksauff]

The FF lights use the reflector exclusively to shape the beam pattern. The regular 500's still have a parabolic reflector (I don't know of anything except for LED's that don't use them) but the flutes in the glass lenses shape and direct the beam to prevent hot spots and glare.

Also, on my FF's (and the regular 500's will probably be the same) the top of the lights were visible from the cabin of the car. If you look at the top of the lights, the lens is flush with the bucket, meaning that when the lights are on, you see the uber-bright edge of the lens. That totally messes up my ability to see deeper out to where the beams are at, since there's this really-close thing causing a bit of retina-burn (like, looking at a light bulb, then close your eyes and you still see the spots...)

What I did to stop it was take some vinyl electrical tape, and basically covered the seam between the bucket and the lens all the way around. stopped the bright spots, is easily removeable/replaceable, and you can't even tell its there unless you're really looking.

I really kind of like the "Black Magic" 500's on that page, from an appearance perspective. the covers are almost all black, too.




-sarge