Hella H4 100/80W High Wattage Bulb, 12V

First, be aware that no automobile or motorcycle sold in the United States has, stock, a wiring harness and headlight switch capable of surviving these bulbs. You *will* eventually burn out your headlight switch on your turn signal stalk, which *will* cost major dollars to repair -- *unless* you buy or build a heavy duty relay harness for your headlights. Furthermore, even if your headlight switch survives, it is quite likely that you will melt the light bulb socket down at the headlight unless you've replaced it with a heavy duty high temperature one, both due to the high amperage caused by voltage drop in too-small stock wiring and due to the simple fact that these bulbs put out more heat. The end result is that a simple light bulb change will turn into a trip to your local NAPA store to get a high-temperature socket, then a lot of cursing as you cut off the old socket (and bulb) and wire in a new socket. With that aside: I have used these bulbs in two Jeep Wranglers (using H4 conversion kits with heavy duty relay wiring harnesses) and two motorcycles (using a custom relay kit and harness that I built myself). They are as bright as stock reflectors are capable of handling. They do make more heat than stock bulbs, thus I recommend them only in glass enclosures, not in plastic ones. My Kawasaki motorcycles had a glass enclosure, and the Hella H4 conversion kits I used on my Jeeps have glass enclosures too. My Suzuki motorcycle had plastic enclosures so I used the Phillips X-Treme Power bulbs in that one instead. That said, the Phillips X-Treme bulbs are quite a bit more expensive than these bulbs and last about the same amount of time. If your car or motorcycle is properly set up to use these, they're a lot cheaper than the X-Tremes and put out a little more light. They're great bulbs, all in all. Just don't think you can put them into a stock wiring harness without a problem -- you *will* eventually burn something out or melt something.

H4 100/80W This bulb would be a god sent for motorcycles, only if it came in the fog/french yellow too... The low beam is properly positioned, quite bright and whiter than I expected from an incandescent. The high beam is also properly positioned, the mirror seems to focus it just like a DOT 60/55W bulb, no funky blinding patterns or wide spread beam as experienced with some LEDs. My intent was a brighter low beam and I am satisfied... I have tried a number of LEDs and it is comparable in luminosity/visibility. With LEDs I was not satisfied with the high beam as my mirror would not properly focus the beam, so I kept using 60/55W after testing 3-4 brands, the high end models. This 100/80W does not suffer from that. It is considerably brighter than a regular 60/55W, in fact some white road signs seem to reflect back almost too much light... It may be distracting at first.. It does not seem to heat up in a ridiculous manner. In theory it should put out ~60% more heat and light than the typical H4 so check your equipment after a few uses if it has completely enclosed headlights... For setups that keep both low and high beams ON, double check the values of the fuses as it may blow the typical 10Amps... Divide wattage consumed by the volts supplied to find the amps required for the fuse. 100W/12V=8Amps, 80W=7Amps, both ON = 15 (in reality the voltage is between 13.4-14V for a running motor, I don't know at what voltage the fuses are measured) Also, if possible degrease the bulb before installation w/ acetone, isopropyl alcohol, contact cleaner, etc, as oily spots on glass create hot spots. Be safe, have fun.

These bulbs helped, a LOT. I'm an old guy, and my aging eyes need all the help they can get when I drive at night. These Hella 100/80W H4 bulbs are BETTER than the TRS Mini-D2S HID Projector Retrofit I had installed previously. The Hella bulbs give you full spectrum TRUE white lighting that helps you see everything, and the stock headlight housing puts the light where it's supposed to go, down the road. I have a set of TRS 3Five ballasts and Mini D2S projectors sitting in my shop cabinet ... I am NOT going to re-install them, not going back to that poorly prioritized TRS HID D2S projector lighting pattern with stupid blue tint from TRS HID capsules and stupid amounts of just-in-front-of-the-bumper foreground lighting. It's for sale, cheap. My vehicle's headlight wiring does get a tiny bit warm with these Hella 100/80W H4 bulbs in use, as does the headlight lens, but it's just that ... warmer, not hot. Will probably build a thicker gauge wiring harness (12 AWG wiring) to see what these Hella 100/80W H4 bulbs can really do , as the stock 18 AWG wiring in my vehicle is probably choking these a little in terms of voltage drop and current limitations from the thin stock wiring. Even with that electrical slowdown from the stock wiring, these Hella 100/80W H4 bulbs still illuminate noticeably better than stock 60/55W H4 bulbs. Gave them 5 stars for longevity, as I have no reason to downgrade them (high performance bulbs tend to last a bit less than regular bulbs), but if they don't last a year, I'll be back with a revision to the review. Very pleased with the increase in illumination while maintaining a useable beam pattern. Win win.

Update: June 2009 I sold my bmw as it was getting on in years. Not one problem with this bulb! Please check the comments - I might post either pictures or a video of the bike with the bulb installed. This review focuses on using the Hella H4 bulb in my motorcycle. Basically most of the information in this review applies to any brand of bulb. However, the price on amazon is good and the opportunity to read and write product reviews is probably second to none. The shipping was kind of high in my opinion so I recommend you consider buying two bulbs in different wattages (stay with white uncolored bulbs if your goal is to light up the road at night). Here's my situation, I have a 1992 BMW K75S with almost 60K miles on it. The alternator was rebuilt a few years ago and upgraded to 600W (Watt) / 46 Amp max output. This is important because many cruiser typ motorcycles only produce 280W max and may not have enough power to run a 100W bulb and add on fog or driving lights. Recently I had performed a major mechanical renovation including installing some aftermarket products to improve the motorcycle. Headlight was never very good at night. Especially on Southern California's 4 lane highways where speeds can reach 70 to 80mph at night. I don't like to go that fast but I like to move with the general flow of traffic. Focus not just power: a few years ago I added incredibly powerful generic "driving lights" from the autostore. These lights were 110W each! The light seemed to go everywhere except the road in front of me. If you buy driving / fog lights take one and run wires from your car's battery to the light at night and hold the light at the height it will mount at on your bike and see if you like the beam pattern. I had the same experience with the last fog? light kit light I bought for my honda shadow. This is why this bulb is such a nice / cheap easy upgrade. Your head light enclousure is designed to focus light in two places near/far low/high. The wattage between hi and low is only 5w's on stock bulbs it is the focus that lets you see farther (at the expense of seeing closer if you have only one bulb / head light and not a dedicated hi only and low only like some cars and motorcycles provide. First, I bought a sylvania Silver star 60/55W bulb for $20 at autozone. It was virtually no better than stock and so I returned it. Keep in mind there are "plus" bulbs that can be brighter or whiter while using the same wattage but they are expensive ~ 40 to 60 for one bulb! But if they really work and you have a motorcycle that has little or no surplus power to run a more powerful bulb then I recommend it. For everyone else it is much cheaper and easier to throw more power at the road. I bought two bulbs: 1. "Hella HLA-H83140161: H4 12V 80/70W Yellow Star Bulb Off Road Use" 2. "Hella HLA-H83140171 H4 12V 100/80W Halogen Bulb Off Road Use" The first bulb 80/70W "Yellow" was aweful - it was noticibly dimmer then the stock 60/55W bulb! I could barely see the road a night as though my head light was off! Not sure what the purpose of that bulb is. I ordered it accidently because I was focused on the wattage and didn't pay attention to the color. If you want to see better order "white" or "clear" etc not yellow, and maybe not even blue. Next, I installed this bulb and I really liked it. I don't give it 5 stars because it lights better but I still feel I need to add powerful "Driving lights" to see farther. Don't confuse that with "Fog lights" which brighten the low beam area on the pavement and add nothing to distance viewing. I think the 100/80W is an excellent first step to improving motorcycle lighting. As a bonus I meant to order 100/55W figuring I would use the lower power and heat during the day (motorcycle lights are come on when the ignition is turned on and can't be shut off). But I noticed the biggest improvement in the low beam at night. Super bright beam pattern and that is the advantage of using 80 watts on low. Also, I have only one light. Other motorcycles have two bulbs so both high and low are on at the same time and this provides much better lighting over single bulb setups like mine. For motorcycles like a yamaha virago 1100 with weak alternators they should use 100/55W and only use the 100 on the highway when the motor is spinning fast and is closer to its maximum electrical output vs idling at lights which could easily drain the battery. Finally, wires should be in good condition and dielectric grease should be applied to contacts to avoid melting wires from too much power and / or resistance from corroded connections. Glass vs plastic: my motorcycle and my friend, Joe Monzo's 1993 virago 1100 have glase head lights. If yours is plastic (car or motorcycle) it could melt! So find out from others that own the same thing what is safe to use. Note: if your headlight is off and someone shines a flash light at the bulb while it is mounted in the headlight and looks at the base the words "off road use only" and 100/55W will be visible. So if questions were to arise don't say how do you know my bulb isn't stock - prepare to honestly explain the upgrade and why. So far no one has flashed high beams at me and I pointed my headlight down as much as possible to avoid blinding people and concentrate the light on the road. It is still not nearly as bright or clear as HID. Compared to cars with stock oem bulbs on the highway at night and at red lights etc my bulb provides as much and usually more light than most or all cars except those running HID. I would say the HID are lit about 30% or 40% better. I considered HID but those bulbs use a special ballast to generate 20,000 volts to start the bulb then 85v to run but consume only 35 watts. They take 1 minute to reach full power. The claim to have 3X the light of regular bulbs which is quite possible. And the quality / usability of the lights is much better than hallogen which was first used in europe in the 1970's. Bulb Life: longetivity is shortned if the bulb gets too hot because the enclosure does not accomadate the extra heat well. Seems to be no problem on my bmw but some riders using other high power bulbs need a new one every year! My friends virago probably has only half the interior volume for the bulb to cool in and might need a "plus" bulb solution. If you monitor your wiring and the switch it costs very little to try the 100/xx W solution and gives you something to compare the "plus" or any other solution(s) too. I ordered a pair of Hella FF50 "driving lights" from amazon with a concentrated beam pattern of ~ 25 degrees ( not quite "pencil beam" like the fameous but discontinued PIAA 910 driving lights). The enclosures are plastic which won't rust but would probably melt if higher wattage bulbs were used. I rated 4 not 5 stars NOT because of any failing on part of the product but rather to emphasis that high power bulbs help alot but still may need to be suplemented with driving lights. My goal is to see farther so I still plan to install driving lights. I am fine with stock lights on my car but my life depends on seeing objects at night in the road. I prefere to ride in the day but this time of year it is hard to avoid night riding. The Future: HID and LED lights. Both use less power. HID driving light kits are probably better for motorcycles and cars rather than trying to retrofit the stock bulbs. HID's have only one filament so they can't provide Hi and low from the same bulb like H4 bulbs do. There are gimics to simulate hi/low but I read that they don't work well. Currently, an HID driving / fog light kits runs about $400 (2007 prices). Conclusion: Before buying check your charging systems output (motorcycles only, cars have plenty), wiring & Hi/Low switch, relay(s), glass? head light enclosure (heat). Internet forums for your brand of motorcycle will give you results of other owners. Finally, buy with confidence that this product will deliver much better light at night for your motorcycle. My TAGS: bmw, k75, k75rt, k75s, H4, 9003, HID, motorcycle, watts, alternator, stator, wires, melt, heat beam, pattern

So far, these have been mighty fine bulbs on my '13 JKU Rubi although I would not use them with the stock 16ga wiring. With the PWM, your not getting even close to their full potential since voltage and current is limited. I upgraded to the Hella Vision plus housings, which made quite the difference themselves, using the included H4 bulb and stock wiring. You will need to get an H13 to H4 pigtail for this to work. Then I installed an upgraded wiring harness and installed the 100/80's in the Hella housings. On low, these things are now cutting through the dark like sunrise and with the Hella housings, the light is focused with a nice cut-off so I'm not blinding traffic. On high beam, they throw farther than I can see. Even with the light flickering problem from the PWM since I don't have a capacitor installed yet, the difference is dramatic. Yes, you will need an anti-flicker on the harness upgrade since the PWM really messes with the load relays needed to run full current to the higher output bulbs. They flicker just like LED's since the relay's are turning on and off so fast it sounds like a bee buzzing. Hopefully my 2nd order for the anti-flicker device will be here tomorrow since my first order was through an 'overseas' supplier and is still over a month out. The one major problem I'm having is that when driving the back-roads, bugs come from miles and it sounds like I'm going through a rain storm. I've had to start carrying around a gallon of washer fluid as I go through so much now. Edit 1.0 - I received the Rigid anti-flicker device and I guess the more stable current really brought these 100/80's to life. The relay buzzing was cured instantly. I pulled them and reinstalled the factory wattage Hella bulbs. With the updated harness and the Rigid anti-flicker installed these were just too bright to run on the highway. My goodness they got hot! To the point even with the upgraded wiring I was concerned of melting something. I could not touch the Hella glass reflectors without causing pain. It's fortunate I did swap back because these bulbs running 'wide open' charred the ground plug slot on my ceramic H4 connector after a 30 minute road test. The stock bulbs with the upgrades are giving me more than enough light to see by and although under the right connection conditions these 100/80 will throw incredible light, they had to go. Also, now I don't have to worry so much about Mr. D.O.T. officer saying hello to me. If I ever run the Baha in my Jeep, I will put them back in with even heavier upgraded wiring but for now they will just collect dust on the shelf.

I bought these several months ago. I was using Silverstar and Phillips Xtreme bulbs that adjust the capsule size and gas mix for more light output per watt, at the cost of high temperatures and short bulb life. I thought going with these Hella bulbs rated for a high wattage might give me equivalent or better light output but longer life. Well, much to my disappointment, while these bulbs were bright -- even brighter than the Xtreme's -- they did not necessarily last any longer. After only 2 months in use one of the bulbs burned out. Fortunately I bought two pairs so I'll replace the one hoping it was just a random manufacturing defect, but I am not encouraged. Edit 3/1/13: So its been around 6 months now since the first bulb burned-out and was replaced. No further problems, so I'm going to assume the one bulb that died quickly had a manufacturing defect. I'm getting a fantastic amount of light in Bosch 7" round e-Code H4 reflectors on my Jeep JK -- probably around 5X the illumination of the stock setup. But even with all that light AND the Jeep lifted 4", I never get flashed about glare by oncoming traffic. I'm ordering two more bulbs to have spares on-hand. Rating upgraded from 2 to 4 stars. Edit 10/17/15: Perhaps I got one bad bulb or it got contamination of the glass between manufacturing and my door. The other bulbs I purchases are still working after more than 2 years. So I'm upgrading the rating again to 5 stars but leaving the title in case someone else experiences the same problem. BTW, make sure you have adequately rated wiring, connectors and fuse holders. I was using a no-name 8-position fuse holder rated for 100 amps. Well it melted and I lost my low beams one dark and stormy night and had to drive home on high-beams (much to the oncoming traffic's displeasure). I replaced the no-name fuse holder with the higher-quality Blue Sea Systems 5025 ST Blade Fuse Block - 6 Circuits with Negative Bus and Cover , rated 30A/connection, and even that one is starting to melt a bit.

Purchased 2 bulbs. One was broken when it got here. They sent replacement bulb and then I noticed the difference between the replacement and the other 2 bulbs. Replacement had 6 welds/crimps and metal was thicker gauge. First bulbs were obviously lower quality (not real Hella bulbs). The first bulbs only had 4 crimps/cheap welds. Make sure the bulb you receive is real Hella not fake. If you look at picture of bulb you see 6 welds not 4. The screen printing was also smeared on first bulbs. Replacement bulb screen printing was clear. These bulbs were made in 2 different machines.

This headlamp provides an unbelievable amount of light! You almost can't over-drive it on high-beam, certainly not at the speed limit. On low beam at less than highway speeds, it lights up a lot of the area in front and to the side, and is more than adequate, REALLY out performing the stock lamp. No one has flashed their high beams at me, indicating this lamp is too bright in their eyes, which I was originally concerned about. It uses a lot more wattage, but it's within the capacity of the electrical system, and has caused no problems. I've used it many months now, and it still works (on all of the time). I'll never ride without this lamp. If it goes out, I'll get another. It's fantastic. It's a lot cheaper way to go than LED's, and likely provides a better light.