What are 'City Lights'?

[Talesin]

I was cruising Fleabay for the last hour, trying to find a decent sealed beam->H4/9003 conversion kit, and it seems like every listing points out that they have 'city lights' built in, pointing at a tiny blue bulb.

I haven't encountered the term before... so what are they? My only guess would be some kind of parking light, extra-low-beam or daytime running light effect (depending upon brightness), intended to get you pulled over and ticketed for being an idiot and driving around at night with your headlights off.

 

[Dave_Hash]

they are a small blue led that only lights up the sealed beam with a dim blueish color, but does not light up the road in front of the car at all. you will still also have the normal bulb in the sealed beam that will give you the light you do need to drive around legally. you will have to check with local law about if you can drive around with the just the blue light on or not. i would think since living in california that you are not able to but double check.

 

[DGajre777]

They are small bulbs that tint your headlights at night. So if you had green bulbs, your headlight (housing) would look green, when the headlights are not on.

 

[onegeenewbie]

It's a european thing, where they have a tiny 194 wedge bulb (usually) stuck in the actual head light housing, and typically they're on whenever the car is in motion. For safety reasons. It's like the day time running lights of europe/britain.

Just wire it up to the parking lights

194 bulbs are nice because you can get them in many colors, so if you want a dim coloration to your head light, stick that color bulb in the housing and there you go. It's definitely illegal in the states though, so be careful which colors you choose. Cops don't usually mind the amber color ones... too much.

 

[Raph]

hahaha so funny.. we use small 5w bulbs as parking lights in the sealedbeam.. a orange parklight is illegal here (unless its a sidemarker light,then its ok)

 

[Talesin]

So pretty much useless, then. Gotcha.

 

[Defiant]

As onegeenewbie said, it's done in Europe. Many places are lit well-enough that you don't need headlights to see with, plus the speeds in those places aren't very high. But the city lights will show other traffic and pedestrians that you're moving, without glare or blinding. They also have grasp of the fact that making electricity to light bulbs costs gasoline.

Be glad you aren't out here, where it's been law for over a year now that we must have on both our wipers ("at a steady speed") and headlights on if it's raining. Writing laws gives politicians boners.

 

[Talesin]

It's the wiper/headlight law down here too, but it's rarely if ever really enforced.
Kinda makes all those cars with 'intermittent' wiper switches a little bit useless.

Still trying to find a decent version of the H4 conversion... looks like Pilot sells one for quite a bit more, with a full warranty and so on. Waffling between that $80 outright (and a special order for Autozone), or taking my chances with a Fleabay special for $15 and $35 shipping. :b It's like they expect you're a retard and won't notice that you're getting raped, if it's not in the purchase price.

 

[tkrPerformance]

they are uless I have them on my 95 evolution III sence it came that way from mitsu they are just white and light up when the parking light's are on. They use them sence they dont have to have yellow running light's on the front of the car's

 

[onegeenewbie]

they are uless I have them on my 95 evolution III sence it came that way from mitsu they are just white and light up when the parking light's are on. They use them sence they dont have to have yellow running light's on the front of the car's

yea they're pretty useless, but change the white bulbs with an amber one and it'll look pretty cool at night.

 

[AndrewD5418]

Get hella's headlight housing instead.

 

[Raph]

So pretty much useless, then. Gotcha.

umm..your park lights are 5w as well..

 

[Talesin]

If I could find anyplace in the area that stocks the 4x6 Hella H4 conversion, I'd snap it up then and there. Unfortunately, no one even knows what the hell it is, much less has any in stock. If there's a part number available somewhere, I might be able to put in a special order or just buy them direct online... but very few online retailers list the 4x6... most have 4x6.5. The rest seem to be defunct, or Fleabay based.

And yes Raph, but I don't really see my parking lights as serving any actual useful purpose, aside from being token markers. You can't drive a car at night here for ANY distance (even a foot) on public roads without the headlights on, even if you're only parking... if police see you, boom, instant ticket.
In fact, I'm planning to rewire my front marker lights to serve as turn signals; feeding a relay power from the marker light, and using the turn light wire to toggle the relay, ping-ponging the two outer marker lights to be more visible. The only way the 'city light' would do anything was if I wanted to set up the three in series and have them 'chase' outward... and that's a little too rice for my tastes.
So yes, city lights are useless here.

 

[Raph]

If I could find anyplace in the area that stocks the 4x6 Hella H4 conversion, I'd snap it up then and there. Unfortunately, no one even knows what the hell it is, much less has any in stock. If there's a part number available somewhere, I might be able to put in a special order or just buy them direct online... but very few online retailers list the 4x6... most have 4x6.5. The rest seem to be defunct, or Fleabay based.

And yes Raph, but I don't really see my parking lights as serving any actual useful purpose, aside from being token markers. You can't drive a car at night here for ANY distance (even a foot) on public roads without the headlights on, even if you're only parking... if police see you, boom, instant ticket.
In fact, I'm planning to rewire my front marker lights to serve as turn signals; feeding a relay power from the marker light, and using the turn light wire to toggle the relay, ping-ponging the two outer marker lights to be more visible. The only way the 'city light' would do anything was if I wanted to set up the three in series and have them 'chase' outward... and that's a little too rice for my tastes.
So yes, city lights are useless here.

Who ever said that ??

The point i was trying to make was this.. you guys have orange Parking lights in your turnsignals

We have white parking linghts in our headlight spheres..

No, its illegal to drive here with your Parking lights on without the Headlight on at night..duh

Ricers drive around here with their Parklights and Fogs on (a 10 euro Ticket..so they do it all the time..esp the BMW drivers)

 

[Talesin]

Thankfully that's still legal here... easiest way to tell anyone ahead of you that you aren't a cop. And someone above mentioned something about European cities allowing 'city lights' to be used while driving in well lit areas, only reason that was implied.

And no, we don't have any lights in our turn signals... they're closer to the centerline of the car than the headlights. Those only turn on when the signal is going. The marker lights are on the outer fender, just in front of the wheel. Those don't flash, or act as turn signals in any way.

 

[Raph]

no.. listen

euro parklights =white

us running lights =orange

thats the difference