512 tr light headlight size

I cant get access to my car to measure (long story) - can anyone confirm that the headlamp size is 5.75"?

 

vlamgat,

Yes, I can confirm that the headlight size, for both low beams and hi-beams is the standard 5.75 in. diameter. For your information, I was certainly not pleased with American/DOT lighting, so I replaced my headlights with the Euro Hella lamps with H4 bulbs, then aligned them. The difference at night is most pleasing, with much improved forward visibilty, and NO one has flashed me because of too bright of lamps. The Hella's, or Cibie lamps have a much improved reflection with a much improved focus pattern. It's any easy upgrade, and will cost around $160 for both low and hi beams. Have fun.

512Professore...........

 

Good call on the Hellas. Cibie are good as well.

Here is a good discount source for Hellas that I have used:
http://catalog.com/susq/hella/hdlmpprc.htm#5

 

Which are the correct high and low lights for the 512TR, Thanks

 

I am going the same direction with hellas and a relay set up toallow both filaments to burn when brights are on. I also need to polish or replace the lenses on the fog lamps which are almost opaque. I saw this on another low mileage car - is this a common problem?

 

Stuart,
The H4 variant is used on the outboard position (combo low/high beam) and the H1 is the inboard (high beam only).

I would recommend sticking with the oem wattage bulbs to avoild overtaxing the existing wiring and relays. This would mean a 55w/60 for the H4 and a 55w for the H1. If you want to go all out, you can get a wire harness with the relays and heavier wiring to handle up to 130watt bulbs if you wish.

Dave

 

Right on all counts. This is what I did with Cibies. You have to go h4 bulb pattern for the outers because of the socket wiring. H4s are now about the oldest halogen technology and performance is about 2000 lumens down on the 7000 maximum you can get from H1s but about 2000 lumens better than the stock lamps. YMMV depending on manufacturer.

Interesting is that the so called super whites and super brights are not better than any German made clear glass H1 or H4. I understand that they are built brighter but the blue tint absorbs enough light to reduce performance to the 7000 legal maximum. Also noticed that the light spread was worse with most because their focus points are not set for the lamp and reflector design. Tested about a dozen on a mule with light meters.

 

It looks like you have the hi/low beam light situation under control. Good job with the Cibies, but I prefer the Hellas, but no big deal.

You mentioned that your fog lights are not clear and approaching an opaque condition. This is somewhat a comon issue, as it happend to one of mine(right side) over time, and have seen it with other 512's. The issue is such that "stuff" builds up on the inside of the lens, probably from outgassing or a poor seal. The fog light assemblies can be taken apart and cleaned, but the seal around the lens itself has to be cut/broken. The lens are made of glass not plastic, so a polish won't do much good. If you do this, by cutting the seal(carefully) and then follow with a good cleaning, you can use clear or white silicone sealant to put them back together, and then I used a couple of large tie-wraps to hold the lenses in place while curring. It's not that difficult, just a little tedious. It is also possible to clean the inside of the lens without cutting the seal and removng the lens itself, but the results will not be perfect. IF you take out the fog light bulb(H3 I believe) that will leave a small opening in which you an try to cram/shove a small towel inside the assmbly and then work the towel around the surface of the lens with some sort of flexible tool, but I think this method will be very frustrating and not produce the results you are looking for.

Also, while I had the fog light assemblies removed for this purpose, I got some protectant film, cut it to form, and placed it on the outside of the glass lens so as to inhibit breakage from road debris. Ferrari won't sell just the lens separately, they will just sell the whole damn assembly for $$$. I followed with the same protectant film on the new Hellas as well. Cheap insurance, if you ask me.

 

Great treatise on how to correct this problem which I have also noticed on some of the early 3 series cars. I decided to get a set of new housings before I learned these were seperable having assumed that they were not based on some Audi and Bmw experience. Should have waited, clearly.

But lights are much improved. Now to find a way to rewire the lights so that the fogs lights flash when the headlamp flasher is pulled!!

 

Sorry, guess I should made a posting earlier in regard to your fog light issue, as it might have saved you $$$$.

Yeah, I know what you mean about flashing the fogs, it would be nice, but most people on the road either ignore the flashing lights behind them(non cop lights), or just don't know what a couple quick light flashes mean. In Europe on the Autobahn, flashing your lights is not the accepted practice to let someone know you want to pass, instead, they turn on the left side turn signal to indicate they want to pass. Of course, on the 512TR Euro version, the fog light assemblies have a third light in them, which flashes when you pull the headlamp lever. The US fog light version has an empty "socket" inside the assmebly for this third light, which might be ordered from Hella, but I kinda doubt it, and even if you could order that peice, the wiring would still have to be changed because we have the US version. Those Europeans get all the good stuff, and don't have all those huge "London Bus" types of SUV's on their highway.

Anyway, to change the wiring should not be a large issue, and I can reference a shop manual to see what would be involved, but it is not a priority for me at this juncture.

 

I have a few fog light related questions. On a 512tr do you have to remove the grill to get to the fog lights. I took a quick look but I am sure there is an easier way. If I understand correctly the consensus opinon is that if you want to get the fog light problem corrected the best way (short of buying new light housing) is to remove the foglight, cut the seal and open the light, clean the inside of the glass, silicone together and reinstall. As far as the headlight bulbs, I just want a nice improvement, no re-wiring which bulbs will do the job? Thanks, Stuart

 

Stuart,

To get at the fog light assemblies on the 512TR and remove them for cleaning or bulb replacement, the grill must be removed. It is held in place by six(6) phillips head screws, and takes about 3 minutes. Then, you will see a long protruding bolt(10mm) on each side where the grill used to be. Take out these long bolts, and the fog light assembly is pulled out at an angle. Then disconnect the wiring harness, and you can then do the procedure(as described) to clean the inside of the lens. Do the reverse to re-install the fog lights.

As far as upgrading the headlight bulbs themselves, well.... you can't, because they are of the US DOT sealed beam type. That is the main reason for getting the Hellas, as the US DOT version have a very poor projection pattern(fluting on the lens), or focus pattern depending on your terminology, plus the bulbs can't be replaced as a single entity. The US sealed beams are such you have to replace the whole thing. Once you upgrade to the Hellas or Cibies, then you can replace the bulb as a single entity in case one burns out, or if you want to upgrade to a higher wattage bulb. The Hellas and Cibies have a much different fluting on the glass lens, which provides for a much improved lighting pattern. When changing to the Hella or Cibie headlights, no re-wiring is required, it's plug-n-play.

Have fun.....

 

Are you sure? I don't remember removing the grille when I removed my foglights (I opened, cleaned, and resealed), but it was a while ago.

I also put Hella housings in mine and higher wattage (but not blue tinted) bulbs. The difference is huge.

Steve

 

Stuart - I got my stuff from Daniel Stern at [email protected] who can supply matching Cibie units. The outer lamps are H4 and the inner ones are H1 which is the easiest plug and play compromise. You will have to swioff the power to the lights unless you want to do it with the ignition and lights on which I dont recommend. The you manually crank up the lights pods, remove the outer cover which exposes the 3 phillips screws for each of the headlights.

If you need more details let me know.

 

Howdy...I was just quoted $250 to replace my high-beam (yes, just ONE of them) lamps...and that was just the part! I read this thread with much interest and would like to know if the sites/individual you list here has the same setup (H1/H4) for a 1991 Testarossa...I am spent calling AutoZone and PepBoys looking for the "General Electric 1C1(I assume the model number)" replacement lamp...and $250 seems to be a bit high, but I guess that is the dealer making a tiny profit...thanks in advance for the help!!!

Cheers,
Travis

 

$250 ?!?!?! Ouch

5.75" is a standard size and will fit all 4 headlight Ferraris. For less than $250 you can upgrade all 4 of the headlights to Cibies or Hellas and actually be able to see at night.

The discussion here about foglights is, however, specific to 512's

All the best,
Norm

 

I don't think there would be any difference, but can anyone confirm that the Euro Testarossa's headlights are also 5.75" as I am looking to upgrade them to HID headlights and don't have access to the car at the moment to measure them.
Also has anyone out there performed the HID upgrade?
Thanks
Steve