Canbus and vehicle driving lights

[WelshGas]

I know that the California headlights could be better. One upgrade is changing the headlight bulbs. Easily done.
However the wiring from the headlight switch to the lights themselves does cause a not insignificant voltage drop which can be countered by the use of relays to switch power directly from the battery to the headlight and using the existing wiring to just switch the relays themselves. Using thicker wiring from battery to relay to headlight minimises the voltage drop and hence brighter lights.
I've done this on my Defender, but it does not have a Canbus lights warning system. I know you cannot just change road bulbs to LED without a resistance in circuit otherwise you get a bulb fault, But what about the use of relays? is there sufficient resistance to prevent a bulb fault showing?

 

[Andresz]

I would be very surprised if the headlights are not already supplied by a relay...

 

[Calincolnshire]

The resistance of relays is significantly different to that of a lamp so you will still get the failure warning on the dash. You could fit hi-wattage resistors and there are kits on eBay for this that allow you to fit HiD kits, but the principle is the same for what you are wanting to do. HOWEVER putting resistors in the circuit is no guarantee of problem free operation and their failure / heat build-up could create other more serious issues .
If you really think volt drop is an issue measure the voltage at the battery then at the the lamp itself. I don't believe you will see any significant differance on the Cali so the benefit may be slight at best.
So you are left with either trying to turn off lamp failure with VCDS or buy a set of Osram night breakers or Philips X-treme vision lamps. Both tested by Autoexpress and both supposed to give better results than the standard part.

 

[WelshGas]

So the California uses relays to switch the headlights! Wasn't aware of that. Good to know and that explains why the Headlight relay wiring looms are labelled for T4's .

 

[snowy55]

You could try slowing down and relaxing then you wouldn't need brighter head lights :laugh2

 

[WelshGas]

Oh No, the 30mph Brigade.