Hella BM 500s

[DanJetta]

I just installed a set of Hella Black Magic 500 on my Bull Bar and I'm afraid I'm gonna hurt someone with their power. What if a child looks right at them with unprotected eyes? Not sure I could live with the guilt of burning out someone's retinas with these babies.




Anyone else have these? Are yours this bright or did someone at the plant accidentally put dome light bulbs in mine?

[skinny2]

I've ran those for the last couple years. I had them mounted in the upper grille and set to come on with high beams. They were definitely bright but not considerably more so than the regular high beams. I had them aimed higher and wider to cover more area, particularly when going up/down hills where the OEM lights would cut off too low. You would need to aim them really low to avoid blinding others, and having them down on a bull bar probably helps. They're definitely bright if you look right into them but they're 55w bulbs unless someone swapped them out with bigger bulbs (which isn't recommended with the stock wire/harness.

One of mine took a rock awhile back but was still functional. Then the relay failed for the 3rd time so I decided to replace them with IPF's which have heavier wiring and include 100w bulbs. You definitely know when they come on! How do they compare to the LED's on the roof?

[DanJetta]

Sorry, I was kidding. They're about as bright as my son's Thomas the Train nightlight (not bright). I'd say they're about as bright as my low beams. In fact, when my brights are on, I can't even tell they're on. Not sure if this is how bright it gets or if my relay is bad.

[skinny2]

Sorry, I was kidding. They're about as bright as my son's Thomas the Train nightlight (not bright). I'd say they're about as bright as my low beams. In fact, when my brights are on, I can't even tell they're on. Not sure if this is how bright it gets or if my relay is bad.

At one point I thought you were kidding but then it seemed like you were serious. I was trying not to totally offend you if you were serious. But your pics are deceiving because these types of lights don't appear bright until you step into the beam area.

They're good lights depending upon what you're after AND compared to the shitty OEM headlights anything is an improvement. It takes careful aiming though because they're a driving lens. They should reach just a bit beyond the OEM high beams but a lot more vertical coverage. Mine were mounted up at the same height as the headlights. If you're not getting light it could be a ground or power problem. My relays just failed completely so nothing would work at all.

For the extra $50 the IPF's are a huge improvement and came with grids to hopefully help with rock hits.

[smj999smj]

Where do you have them grounded?

[DanJetta]

Ha! People always say it takes them a while to figure out I'm kidding. I have "dad humor" and it's only getting worse with age. When my kids grow up, there's gonna be a lot of eye rolling.

Good thought on the ground. The relay is grounded in the engine compartment. I found some grounds connected to the side wall in the driver's side and I just tapped in there.

The lights are grounded to their own brackets on the bull bar.

I just ordered a Nissan factory Off Road Lamp switch so I'll try re grounding everything when I install that.

Where do you guys have your lights grounded?

[smj999smj]

The relay ground should be fine. You may try running a temporary, supplemental ground between the lights and the negative battery cable just to see if the lights get brighter. If they don't, they are probably as bright as they are going to get. If they do get brighter, then you know you'll need to get a better ground for the lamps.

[DanJetta]

I'll try that, thanks!

Any reason you can think of that the lights would flicker when I take my foot off the brake? A change in voltage causing the relay to freak out maybe?

I definitely know why these lights were $100. You get what you pay for I guess.

[DanJetta]

In case it helped anyone, the problem was grounding. When I grounded each light to the chassis rather than its own respective bracket, the light got about 25% brighter. I also put 100 Watt bulbs in which helped.

Ultimately, these lights are more for appearance than function because even with 100 Watt bulbs they were somewhat underpowered. I ended up getting a set of LEDs that work much better. They don't look as good but they can light up a city block.

[skinny2]

I doubt the wiring could handle the 100w bulbs. That's why I didn't go with brighter bulbs in mine (plus the shitty relays). The IPF's have much heavier wiring and pick up a lot of distance. Pretty solid light for 200 meters or so.

Are you getting much distance with the LED's or just heavy flood? I couldn't find any LED's that really had a lot of distance that weren't outrageous.

[DanJetta]

You know, with a 30 degree spot angle, I thought they might be too spotty for me but they have an incredible reach. Even mounted where they are, the beams don't hit the road for a good 15-20' ahead of me.

Definitely better as driving lights than off-road lights because they'd burn a hole in a tree if you stopped.

I bought them on Amazon but here they are on eBay: http://www.ebay.com/itm/like/2714106977 ... =82&chn=ps

Only thing is the included bracket is too tall for the bull bar opening so I had to make a custom bracket that's shorter.

[DanJetta]

Just installed a factory switch for the LEDs.


Here's the beam pattern of one light.

[Path-Less]

The lights look good on that bar, gives a nice Aggressive edge.

That switch is nice and clean... Do you have a part number for it?

Would you buy different lights again if you could go back? I was looking into a light bar for the mouth of the bumper as I think it looks clean but yet still remains functional.

[DanJetta]

Thanks! I wouldn't buy the Hella 500s again (threw them away) but I would definitely buy the round LEDs again. They're heavy and solid — and have what feels like the perfect beam pattern. They throw a nice, bright light a good way down the road. I had to make custom brackets to get them to fit in the bull bar opening.

The switch is: [21566M] SWITCH ASSY-OFF ROAD LAMP - Xterra (N50) 2005-2012 (25166-N50002) = $15.90

You'll need a couple of relays and some wiring to make the switch work. Cheap stuff. I'll post some links when I get home.

[hrorganics]

can you help me out with the connections on the switch? i need to make my own connector and can't find a schematic anywhere.[/img]