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1990 Subaru Sambar LED headlights

Discussion in 'Subaru Sambar' started by 6.0 in Idaho, Jan 5, 2020.

  1. 6.0 in Idaho

    6.0 in Idaho New Member

    Howdy everyone. I have a 90 Sambar I just picked up in Seattle and brought back to Sandpoint Idaho. I have searched over this site multiple times but can’t find any info on upgrading the round headlights to LED? Do I need to replace the whole fixture or can I put in LED bulbs?

    thanks a bunch!
     
  2. matt167

    matt167 Active Member

    If they are round headlights, you can use 7" LED headlights, but if they are a reflector type with replacable bulb, then you need an LED 'bulb' 9003/H4 most likely
     
  3. rkrenicki

    rkrenicki Active Member

    1990 would be a normal 7" round (aka PAR56 bulb).

    I personally put some Morimoto Sealed7 LED 1.0 headlights in my 1992, but I needed to make a relay harness since most Japanese vehicles use switched Grounds instead of switched hots. LumaWerx makes a "plug and play" adapter for Switched Ground vehicles, but I had relays and I am cheap so I made it myself.
     
  4. Ohkei Dohkei

    Ohkei Dohkei Active Member

    I bought a switched ground conversion kit off of ebay cheaper than I could have made one myself. I didn't go with LED's but I might since the 100w high beams really tax the hp on the engine.
     
  5. rkrenicki

    rkrenicki Active Member

    Why did you get a conversion kit if you went with halogens? Those are only needed for LEDs and some HID kits.
     
  6. Ohkei Dohkei

    Ohkei Dohkei Active Member

    Because it came with 2 relays and I could buy it cheaper than I could buy the relays and the wire I would need to install the high watt bulbs and off road lights. It doesn't take long to burn up a bright light switch when you are running 200watts worth of high beams through it.
     
  7. rkrenicki

    rkrenicki Active Member

    Oh, so it has a feed from the battery? That is different from what I am talking about. The Switched Ground conversion kits do not connect to the battery, they just have an extra ground connection and thats it.

    But yes, I agree that 18 amps through that switch is not a good idea for sure.
     
  8. Ohkei Dohkei

    Ohkei Dohkei Active Member

    Yes, direct feed through the relays to the battery.
     
  9. rkrenicki

    rkrenicki Active Member

    Yep, thats a completely different product from what I am talking about. That is just a relay harness, while I am sure it does the job of reversing the polarity, it is a more of a replacement to the headlight wiring rather than just changing the polarity of the existing system.
     
  10. Ohkei Dohkei

    Ohkei Dohkei Active Member

  11. rkrenicki

    rkrenicki Active Member

    Yep, those will do the job for sure, but this is what I was talking about: https://lumawerx.com/product/h4-9003-switching-ground-polarity-module

    It just goes inline and has one ground connection, so is nearly "plug-and-play". It still relies on the wiring of the vehicle to deliver the needed power instead of bypassing it. I am personally too cheap to pay $50 for a pair of these, so I just made them myself with a few relays that I had kicking around.

    Either will do the job, just two different ways of going about it.
     

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