I had flushmounts put on my car a few weeks back and I noticed that since then my low beam visibility has been very poor.
I had heard from other flushmount users that after installing them the lighting "wasn't quite as good as stock", but mine are so bad that I avoid driving at night all together. So anyways, I'm in the middle of installing some Hella foglights and I happened to be checking out the positive lead that goes to the low beam headlight and it was measuring only 10 volts. The flushmount kit was supplied with everything (lights, housing assembly, covers, wiring harnesses, relays, etc....) so I wondering if perhaps the relays in the kit are somehow reducing the voltage down to 10 volts?? No, I have not checked the high beam voltage yet. (They do seem to be pretty bright though)

Thanks for any tips....Kit (86 GT)

Do you have a good ground?
Usualy when some electric part fails like that, it's caused by bad ground, or dammaged wire.

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87-GT 2.8L 5-spd.

quote Originally posted by Kristian V: I had a chevy G30 a while back. Up here in sweden the winters are cold and dark, så good lights are kind of important. The G30 had no good lights! Lowbeam was barely acceptable, but what struck me as od was when i hit the highbeams, the light pattern changed, but the amount of light coming from the front was about the same as with lowbeams..? The highbeams was coming from 4x lights, while loow was just from 2x lights... After some looking into, i discoverd, the ground wire from both lights on each side was just ONE .75 square millimeter wire. So there it was! In Europe we have 55/60W lights, so 120W (Highbeams) had to pass through a .75mm2 wire to ground. I rerouted the original light wires to some Hella relays (To the coil) and got fresh 2.5mm2 wires from the battery, through the relays to the lights, and grounded each lamp separatly with 2.5mm2 wires, and "Voala! there where light! The original wireing may be just good enough for US-lamp's (I belive you guys use 35/40W bulbs. Am i right?) but 120W through a .75 wire is a joke. How many lights have you attached with your flushmount system?

Thanks for the tip, Kristian. I will take a close look at the grounds.
To answer your questions.....as I recall most US lighting is 55w low beam and 60w high beam.
My flushmount kit is 4 lights. (from Kris Munson) He uses the low profile rectangular lights as seen
on mid 80's Grand Am's and Geo Storms.

Thanks again, Kit

Kit,

I recently purchased the lights from Kris, my problem was my battery, it was dieing a slow death, wasn't putting out the 12v no more. Added an extra ground and a new battery. Now my lights are good and bright.

When the engine is running, the current comes from the alternator alone.
The power comes from where the current is highest. (Alt.=13.8V vs Batt.=12V)
When the current is higher in the battery, than the alternator, that's when you get the charge/batt-light come ON.
(Easy to show! Turn on the ignition without starting the engine. Batt.=12V vs alt.=0V and the charge/batt-light is light.)

The alternator runs everything in the car while the engine is running, including, charging the battery. If the battery is old/weak, you don't get enough current to run things, but as long as you get the engine started, the battery can't be the reason for lights not shining bright enough.

To thin wires makes resistance that lowers the current. Same thing with bad ground. Lower current makes lights shine less.
Another possibility is if you have something using a lot of power (Or a short somewhere.) there will not be enough Ampere's for the lights.
Alternator should deliver about 13.8V. (+/-0.2V)
And that's what the volt-meter should say, measured almost anywhere in the car. If not, the alternator might be broken.
There are alternators out there charging more than 13.8V, they tend to "boil" away the water in regular batteries.
They are OK to use in cold weather, to get that litle "extra", but not for regular conditions.

1. Check the voltage of the alternator. (measure with a Volt-meter over +/- on the battery, with engine running.)
Should be 13.8V (+/-0.2V)
2. Check ground spots. (Loosen the nut/bolt, and remove any dirt/corrosion. Make sure there is good contact, put the ground wire back and tighten good. Spray some WD40 or equalent on it to prevent further corrosion.)
3. If youre using more than 2xlight's make sure the wires are thick enough for the 2x Ampere's needed.

After all, there is ONLY one reason a lightbulb don't shine with full power. It's cause it doesent get enough Watt's!

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87-GT - 5-spd.

First, measure the headlight voltage with the engine running and a charged battery. Measuring under other conditions gives meaningless results.

If it's less than 12.5 volts (as measured with an ACCURATE voltmeter) - with the engine running and a fully charged battery - then you can start looking for a problem. It could be a bad ground on the headlight (not likely in your case), a bad headlight switch or a bad dimmer switch.

Testing with an accurate voltmeter would reveal the guilty component...

The OEM headlamp (H6054) is rated at 35 Watts low and 65 Watts high @ 12.8 Volts.

The 50mm X 135mm lamps are rated 65 watts low (H4351) and 55 Watts high (H4352) @ 12.8 Volts.

Original wiring was barely adequate for the OEM lamps when new. Power is routed through mechanical switches and connectors that increase in resistance with age.

Add a new source wire and relays as recommended by Kristian V and you will be amazed at the difference, even if still using the OEM lamps.