Light Upgrades

Kevin Kelly supplied these photos of his Range Rover Classic with the stock NAS lights and side reflectors, versus the Euro lights and side repeater lights. Kevin much prefers the latter, and reports that the conversion to Euro lights and side repeater lights is an easy plug and play 15 minute job.

Kevin Kelly reminds us that in 2000 Land Rover switched to clear front lights on the 4.0/4.6, along with the many other changes that happened in that model year (see model year summary). However the clear 2000 NAS spec lights (below, left) still had small red reflectors on the sides, while the Euro lights in 2000 (photo below, right) were all clear and did not have the side reflectors. Kevin likes the look of the all clear Euro lights and has put them on his Range Rover.

For comparison with the NAS clear lights (w/reflectors) above (left), below is a photo of the older NAS amber lights. There is also a photo of the back of the Euro all clear lights next to the NAS lights. To convert to the Euro lights it is necessary to make a small cut in the back of the Euro lights so the NAS bulb holder will fit in.

Kevin reports that many new cars with clear signals like the newer Range Rovers have a "yolk in the egg" look with the amber bulb visible inside the clear light. It's easy to make the "yolk" almost invisible with a thin coat of High-Heat silver spray paint (see photo at top of this page). The silver paint will slightly reduce the light output but will not noticeably change the color of the amber bulb at night.

Kevin just did this easy conversion to his Range Rover after getting the idea from guys on the BMW list and reading the info on the site below: http://www.mz3.net/articles/236.html

Kevin was bothered by the fact that the headlight wipers on his 4.6HSE Range Rover would often drop below the lights and he would have to pull them up (they still worked fine, he just didn't like it when one wiper was lower than the other).

To solve this problem, he stuck a couple clear plastic bumpers (the thing that you stick to the bottom of items so they will not scratch wood) that he got at a hardware store on to the lights and he has not had to touch the wipers to pull them back up on the lights. The photo below shows the clear plastic bumper near the lower left of the picture.

Ron Becket reports that while at his local LR mechanic's workshop recently he also saw a P38A with a drooping wiperblade. He found that the nut holding the wiper arm onto the shaft was slightly loose. The wiper still worked but would flop a bit. He tightened it up and that cureed it. Whether or not this was part of the problem in Kevin's case is unclear, but it is something to check.

Xenon Bulb Conversion on a 4.0/4.6

Ian McKiernan reports "I have an H4 Hi-Low true Xenon (with wiring, ballasts the whole deal,……not just bulbs). The system works great. I also had the H1 fog lights in the lower spoiler converted to true Xenon as well, the combined output of the H4’s and the H1’s is like daylight very crisp very clear. The only draw back is I do get the Hi/Low bulb error message when I turn the lights on and when I turn the lights off. It is something I have just learned to deal with, the trades off’s are a no brainier, the lighting color, output and clarity are worth the error message. A side note: I don’t get an error message on the fog’s, so not sure what the difference is in the Hi-Low’s that give me the error message. I have tried a lot of bulb brand’s PIAA Hella, Land Master, IPF that claim Xenon or H.I.D The fact is there is simply no comparison to the real thing. For those people looking for a close second stick with the PIAA bulbs, you get what you pay for and they have a lot of choices To fit your “light color” needs. Through my experience with just replacement bulbs, I have never gotten an error message."

Mk III Headlights on a 4.0/4.6

This conversion has now been done by a few people; a photo of such a conversion appears at this link. If you have any info on how to do it, please email me.

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