80 Series driving light upgrade; sick of terrible lights?
80 Series Land Cruisers have a great reputation for being a solid, reliable, capable and comfortable 4WD. However, their driving lights have always had a very poor reputation. On mine, high beam was borderline acceptable, but low beam was downright dangerous.
Even with basic halogen spotlights, the difference when flicking from high beam down to low beam for oncoming traffic was a serious concern for me.
At night, we rely on a quality set of driving lights and spotlights (or an LED bar) to push through the darkness and identify potential hazards. Commence 80 series headlight upgrade!
If you want to see the rest of the Land Cruiser build, check this out – 80 Series Land Cruiser build for touring Australia.
Luckily, Narva have an off the shelf lighting upgrade, which fitted the bill perfectly. This involves replacing the headlights with new ones, and installing new globes. I’d been meaning to upgrade the spotlights too, and while I was at it decided to grab a 600mm Narva LED light bar.
Why are the light output so poor from the factory headlights?
Sealed lights
There are a couple of reasons for the 80 series headlights being very average. The first is that they are sealed lights, meaning if a globe blows, you have to replace the whole headlight. With this, comes very old technology, reflectors that don’t work too well and globes that aren’t very bright.
To top it off, you aren’t able to open it up and swap the globes over. The new Narva reflectors are very obviously better, and the globes used are considerably brighter too.
Wiring voltage drop
As electricity travels through wiring, it can lose some of its voltage. This can be overcome by installing thicker cables. The factory wiring in an 80 series is quite small, and the voltage flow drops considerably by the time it gets to the lights.
Ideally, when you measure the voltage at the headlight, it should be close to that of your battery voltage. On the 80 series though, a significant amount is lost as it travels through the wiring.
The solution to this is to install an after market wiring loom, and ARB sell these off the shelf. You can build these yourself, but I didn’t want the hassle and opted to get one through ARB.
Buying the new Narva lighting
Narva sell replacement reflectors and globes for your high beam and high/low beam lights. As the 80 run two of each, Narva sell a kit to do either side of your vehicle.
I opted to purchase Plus 120 globes too, which are significantly brighter, whilst are still within the legal requirements (I wasn’t going down the HID/LED/higher wattage globe path as its not legal).
Installing the new lighting
The whole lighting upgrade didn’t take more than a few hours, and is really quite simple. The below photos will guide you through the process.
Firstly, you check you’ve got the right products!
From there, strip the front of the 80 series apart. This involves removing the centre grill, indicators and headlight surrounds.
Unpack the new products, and lay them out in the right position. Then, fit the globes into the headlights. This is a very easy process, and the globes are held in my a little metal clip.
Make sure you don’t touch the globes with your fingers, as the oil will ruin the globe.
Narva supply parking lights for their high beam reflectors, but as our 80 doesn’t need it, you simply install the grommet to seal the light.
Undo the old headlights, and unplug them. Install the new ones, and plug them back in. On the high beam light, you need to cut the plug off, and join the lighting cable directly to the factory wiring.
It’s best to solder this, as on a 4WD the vibrations can easily work a crimped or twisted wired and taped join apart.
Once you’ve done both sides test the lights work as they should!
Reinstall the headlights surrounds, parker lights and front grill, and you are done.
Plus 120 globes
Narva’s Plus 120 globes are a performance globe, and put out 120% more light volume than standard globes.
This translates to around 40 metres longer beam, and they use no additional power or heat. When you do a job, you may as well do it properly, so I’ve now got 4 plus 120 globes in the 80, which are great.
Installing the new ARB wiring looms
The wiring loom from ARB took longer than the whole Narva upgrade, but it too wasn’t overly complicated.
I made up an aluminium bracket to hold the relays, and bolted it to the body (which under the engine bay is getting very tight!). From there, its a matter of running the wiring to each headlight (which was a bit of fun, but not impossible.
The way the wiring works is to take power directly from the battery to the headlights through 4mm cable, so the voltage drop is considerably less. It uses relays and the factory lighting harness to switch the headlights on and off.
Installing the LED light bar
The 600mm light bar (9800 lumens) is built extremely solidly, and looks like a top quality product. It took all of 5 minutes to bolt on, and we used the existing wiring that was set up for the spotlights.
Being mounted nice and low you have no issues with the Light Bar shining on the bonnet, but if that’s an issue, we have a solution for you.
Also, if you’re thinking about where you can mount LED light Bars and spotlights, we have that covered as well.
The moment of truth; how bright are they?
I was pretty excited to see what sort of difference the new lighting arrangement would make, so we took the 80 to a quiet back street with no street lights. We spent about 20 minutes adjusting the lights, and to say I was blown away would be an understatement.
The difference is night and day. The night before, I came out and took photos on a tripod at specific settings. We used the same spot and camera settings, and took new photos, which you can see below.
The light bar throws light out in every direction, and is absolutely awesome for slow speed work. Even on the highway it provides plenty of light to see out front. I know the HID spotlights shine up to 1100 metres in front, but do you really need to see that far?
My overview
If you have an 80 that is struggling to light up the other side of an intersection, the lighting upgrade is totally worth it.
I now feel much safer driving at night, knowing that I have a considerably greater time to break or move out the way, should an animal jump in front, or I come up to something on the road that shouldn’t be there.
On our new Isuzu Dmax, we installed a Stedi ST4K Light Bar that has made a huge difference, and makes you appreciate how much technology can improve!
Hey Nathan,
Its been a long time since we purchased these. I would confirm with Narva, but I think you only need one of each conversion kit (from memory there is two part numbers). I know we ended up with double what was actually needed, as per the photo in this post
All the best
Aaron
Hi
Really keen to get on to this as my 80 series lights are pitiful as it stands. Just wanted to confirm the Conversion kit used would be the H4 conversion kit (72068) . And I’d need 2 kits total (1 each side), thanks for this!
Nathan
Hey Jake,
Honestly, it’s been years since I played with these, and I can’t remember, but you have me questioning why they’d be sealed now!
Either way, sounds like you’ve got it sorted
Take care
Aaron
“they are sealed lights, meaning if a globe blows, you have to replace the whole headlight… you aren’t able to open it up and swap the globes over.” Wow I didn’t know this about 80’s: when I bought my ’96 I found the lights were a bit dim for my liking so I just swapped in a set of Narva +120 globes without a second thought. And the end result isn’t half bad. Combined with LED driving lights I don’t feel the need to do anything else light wise. So a previous owner must’ve already upgraded the headlights on my 80?
Thanks a lot for the extra information mate. Much appreciated
All the best
Aaron
Just doing an upgrade on an 80 also. Thanks for the info, very helpful.
In follow up to Paul’s info, from my own research, I found:
The 72070 with 100/55W H4 globes is not ADR approved, because the high beam on the H4 is 100W. Looking carefully at the specs on the Narva website, ARD is listed for the 72068 but not for the 72070 (the box picture is misleading as it is the 72068 box)
As far as I’m aware, 100W globes have never been ADR approved.
ALL the lenses (smooth or cut) don’t meet ADR if they have a 100W globe in them (or replacement LED for that matter, but only because there is no ADR for them, see https://www.narva.com.au/blogs/blogs/2020/Dec/20/aftermarket-led-globes-adr-approval)
From looking at the pictures, the difference between the housings with the CUT GLASS and the SMOOTH GLASS lenses, is the CUT GLASS has the beam forming in the glass, and the reflector is smooth. (for some reason they are still referred to as free form?)
The SMOOTH GLASS has the beam forming in the reflector and the glass is smooth.
From what I have read, the beam forming in the reflectors is much more efficient.
See https://support.stedi.com.au/hc/en-us/articles/360034799712-Types-of-headlights-Everything-you-need-to-know-be-careful-it-s-a-long-read-
Hope this helps
Hey Bonnie,
I can’t recall exactly but maybe about $400?
All the best
Aaron
Hi Aaron.
Thanks for the post. Are you able to say what the whole upgrade cost roughly?
Hey Dean,
Have a look at this, and find the 80 series section, then driving light upgrade. Any branch should be able to find the part numbers for you, and from memory there are a couple of other companies that also sell similar kits
https://www.arb.com.au/site/wp-content/uploads/pricelists/ARBRetailPriceList.pdf
All the best
Hi Aaron I managed to get the lights but still having trouble finding the ARB wiring is there a part number for this? Thank you.
Hey Dean,
Look at the links he posted – it has the numbers at the end of it
All the best
Aaron
Hi Steve I was wondering if you have the part numbers for all of the products you used thank you.
Hey Paul,
Cheers for the information mate, really appreciate it
Take it easy
I’m about to embark on a similar lighting upgrade to my 1997 FZJ80 and thought I’d follow up on Phill’s question. My investigations into the Narva replacement 165 x 100mm light housings reveal the following differences.
For the H4 high/low outer lights in an 80 series:
-72066 is a single H4 high/low housing in a box, with no globe. 72068 and 72070 are the numbers for lighting conversion KITS using these housings (2 per box, incl bulbs). 72068 is 60/55W globes and 72070 is 100/55W globes. These lights have free form reflectors, parker bulb function, and CUT GLASS lenses.
-The alternate is Narva 72016. This is a single H4 high/low light in a box with no globe. It has no park light capability. Free form reflector but has a SMOOTH glass lense. The kit is 72018. 60/55W
For the H1 high beam (inner) lights:
-72076 is a single H1 high beam housing, no bulb. Free form reflector, cut glass lense, no park light. Kit PNs are 72078 for 55W, 72080 for 100W.
-Alternate is 72020. Single housing, no globe. Free form reflector, smooth glass lense, park light. Kit PN 72022 55W.
These lights are all ADR compliant when used with the recommended globes. I can only assume that the smooth lense lights do not pass ADRs when fitted with higher wattage globes (e.g. 100W) and this is why 100W is not shown as an option in the Narva catalogue.
Hey Phil,
I honestly don’t know of the difference, but went the free form style. I have a feeling it was something to do with the headlights looking different from the exterior than what most 80’s do from the factory. Sorry I can’t help mate.
Aaron
Hi Aaron, Not sure if you came across this when you were headlight shopping.
Narva have two very different H4 Free Form headlight housings, different reflectors and different lenses.
I emailed Narva to try to find out how the headlights differed, hoping to get some useful info, like beam pattern, spread etc. but got a meaningless reply from a guy who obviously didn’t know the difference either, except for the appearance.
The two lights in question are #72016 and #72066 both H4. I haven’t looked at the H1 lights as yet, but probably going to find the same thing.
Can you shed any light on this (pardon the pun) 🙂
Hey Steve,
Nice work; you’ll love it.
That’s the ones. Actually, I bought them online and was invoiced for the wrong amount; I ended up with double!Nevermind; I gave a set to a mate and he was very happy!
Aaron
Hey mate,
Thanks for all your posts and experience sharing on your 80. We really appreciate it as we’ve just bought one ourselves!
We’re about to do a trip in about a months time and loved the input for replacing the driving lights. Just checking that these are the right products you got for yours?
Noticed you’ve got 4 sets in your photo so was just checking these were the right ones. I’m assuming you bought spares incase you needed to replace later down the track.
Thanks mate!
Steve.