What part of your Autopals rusted? I just want to know what to look out for. I've had my Autopal E-codes for 6 years and haven't seen any sign of rust.

I might not buy the Autopals given the option again, but I certainly wouldn't shy away from a higher quality H4 housing. A harness with a 100/55W H4 bulb is a potent combination.

 

If you install a $21 relay harness, you will see IMMEDIATE improvement in your stock lights, and it will protect your headlight switch from failing or catching fire. Here's one:

https://www.ebay.com/itm/CERAMIC-H4-...-/330997592807

If you still don't like your stock lamps, you can upgrade to sealed beam Silverstars or Nighthawks for another $30 or so.

If you want an upgrade to a better cutoff pattern, you can do the e-code H4 upgrade. The H4 housings come in DOT or the European e-code pattern, which is much better. A Hella or Cibie kit will run you around $120 with the bulbs. The Autopals are $40 cheaper, and although they're usually fine, they can't handle moisture or water inside the housings.

If you really want to upgrade to LEDs, JW Speaker and Truck-Lites are really the only ones that are bulletproof. The cheaper Chinese light banks tend to have issues with the drivers crapping out. Sometimes they flicker. Sometimes they won't turn off, or they always glow dimly. And even the good quality LEDs have a problem in ice and snow because all the heat radiates from the driver board out the back of the unit. Since there's nothing heating up the glass in front, snow and ice will accumulate on them, making them pretty much worthless in winter weather.

Also, keep in mind you do NOT need the relay harness if you go with LEDs, because LEDs pull a lot less current than incandescent lamps and don't cause issues with the headlight switch.

You're right to forget HIDs. At one time they were the best lighting you could get, but the good quality LEDs have surpassed them.


This is a known issue with Autopals. The Hella and Cibie housings don't have that problem. If you get any moisture inside the Autopals, the reflective coating inside can peel off. There are reasons the Autopals are $40 cheaper than the others, and this is one of them.

Don't steer people away from H4s just because of one manufacturer's quality problems. It would be like telling people not to buy Truck Lites because your cheap Chinese Ebay LEDs failed.

 

No, definitely not these ones. I tried a pair and they have no beam at all, high & low beam looked the same, no adjustment of the headlights either.

 

NO problems here......been using them for ~ 3 yrs, almost 4 now

 

This is why i love this site. I ordered my upgrade harness from a fellow cherokee forum user and will be saving for a set of truck lights. Now its back to saving for my lift.

 

As stated you don't need the harness if you run LEDs. You do need something if you are going led blinkers, but everything except blinkers will work with existing harness. Less amps=less wire heat due to draw. Translates to safer loads for LEDs.

 

I bought these for my new 99 XJ project last week.



They are absolutely fantastic.

 

I have a set of these to test for a buddy's company, but haven't installed them in anything yet. Basically, he gives me a set, I install and take Hi Beam and Low Beam pics for him so people can see what pattern they have, if any at all.

 

They are bright but the scattered light kills them.

Let me save you some time. The ones in the link above (first pic) compared to TL. Both on high beam.

 

i also had no problems with them. they still worked great, but the bottom of the reflector inside was rusty. ill try to get a pic. to be fair mine were 4.5 years old and almost 100k miles of use. they saw a lot of wind, rain, snow etc. i got another pair from a friend that were 2 years old and were rusting in the same place. they only had 5k miles on them.

also i noticed the actual glass used on the autopals is thin. i put my hand through one just nudging it.

i'm sure the other h4 housings are better quality. how many people here have 100k miles and 4-5 years+ on them? i dont know anyone that has kept their jeep that long and or put that many miles on a set of them.

 

Ok so i found someone near me that had a set of those lights i posted about. He let me try them and they are bright but no real adjustment. They don't have a cut off line like other lights out there. So I am definitely going to hold off and do truck lights or jw speaker. Now by running those i don't need to run the upgrade harness?

 

Along time ago I got Toyota MR2 projectors and stuffed them in, they are great.

 

Well, I've had both my cherokees longer than 10 yrs....but not on the lights......

96 - 168k
88 - 375k

 

No, you won't need the harness with those lights. However, if you're not planning to install the LEDs right away, your stock headlights are still going to be dim in the interim. So if you're planning to wait a while, I'd install the harness anyway. You already ordered it, right?

And when you do finally upgrade, you can remove the harness if you want, or you can probably just leave it in there. If you remove it, you can probably sell it to someone else for what you paid for it. Or just hang onto it to use on your next Jeep.

 

I know you're not going to do that with the Hellas I have. Those housings are solid.

I don't drive my Jeep that much, but my Hellas have been on it for just shy of four years and about 16K miles, much of that in the humidity of southern Louisiana and central Florida. I've had no issues at all with the housings or the interior coating. They look almost exactly like they did the day I installed them.

Again. $40 difference in price. The Autopals are the "budget" H4 option. You have to be realistic about what you're buying. XJ people are notoriously cheap and/or poor, so that $40 may make enough difference for many that they're willing to live with the lower quality for better light than stock.