

| Subject: | Re: Time to replace headlight |
| From: | Jay Brown |
| Date: | Mon, 3 Dec 2012 02:23:03 -0500 |
Hi Patti, Your Vanagon needs the 9004 bulbs for the main high/low beam outer lenses as others have mentioned. There is no readily available sealed beam headlight for the rectangular outer lens on the 86-91 Vanagon. When you go to replace the bulbs, take a look at the headlight lenses themselves. If the inner surface of the lens appears cloudy, be sure to clean it to maximize your light output. A quick swish with 99% isopropyl alcohol usually does a pretty good job of cleaning things up (70% IPA leaves spots). Foggy headlight lenses decrease the lumen output and can also effect the focal pattern of the headlights, which was pretty poor to begin with and only gets worse with time and wear. If any of the plastic headlight adjusters are broken, replacements are now available from Bus Depot, Van Cafe etc. for less than $10.00 each, or as a complete kit. Higher wattage bulbs are available that make driving at night a much more pleasant and safer experience. Before installing high output bulbs, you will need to install a set of headlight relays to protect your headlight switch from overheating. This is a pretty simple proceedure that takes most people 20-30 minutes to complete. Headlight relays are available from my website https://sites.google.com/site/vanagonheadlightrelays/ as well as most of the usual suspects for Vanagon parts. Hope that helps, Jay Brown '85 Zetec Westfalia https://sites.google.com/site/vanagonheadlightrelays/
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