[SpudRider]

Originally Posted by fishman10

...i can now see safely at night ,,will have to see if it gets too hot for the plastic housing.

Originally Posted by SpudRider

The H4 bulb won't melt the plastic housing. The glass lens is huge, and dissipates a lot of heat. Also, the wind cools the headlight as you ride. Most people don't run the headlight for long periods of time while the bike is stationary. Finally, if you think heat will cause damage, just drill a few holes in the back of the headlight housing. Most headlights are completely open in the rear; the connections won't be damaged by a little dust or moisture.

In order to err on the side of caution, I am going to recant my statement regarding the heat of the H4 bulb. I have now ridden my RX3 over 4,000 miles with the H4 bulb. Today my low beam stopped working, so I removed the headlight to inspect the bulb, and determine if the low beam wire had burnt out. I discovered the bulb was good, but my headlight switch needs to be repaired.

As I examined the reflector, I noticed there was a small area of minor distortion at the top of the reflector, where the low beam is reflected. I don't know if this small imperfection was there before, or if this imperfection is the beginning of heat damage from a hotter H4 bulb. Therefore, to prevent any possible damage, I cut a large hole in the back of the headlight housing. This hole serves two purposes. First, it allows any excess heat to easily escape the headlight housing. Second, it allows me to change the headlight bulb without needing to remove the nine screws from the back of the housing.

I will continue to monitor the condition of the headlight reflector as I accumulate more miles riding the RX3 with the H4 headlight bulb.