LED Headlights for the NA Miata

Since the late '90s I've had a set of Cibie H4 headlights on the Miata. If you're familiar with Cibies you'll know they are European-spec "E-code" headlights and as such have a superior light pattern to the ordinary US DOT spec sealed beam lights early Miatas were saddled with. I had them loaded with Halogen H4 bulbs and they performed admirably for many years. Now that we have other cars with modern lighting technology, though, the old H4s were starting to lose their charm with their yellow light which doesn't seem very bright anymore. So I decided to update my car with some LED headlamps with the hope of getting a brighter, whiter light that hopefully would also look cool and fit with the character of the car. Our CX-5 has LED projector lights that swivel to turn toward the direction the steering wheel is turned, and the Cayman has Xenon HID projectors, and both are excellent. So the lights I chose for the Miata are up against world-class competition.

There are a dizzying array of aftermarket 7-inch LED light units on the market, mostly aimed at the Jeep and cruiser motorcycle crowd, but they fit NA Miatas too. I wanted to avoid no-name Chinese units but also didn't want to spend too much money. As it turns out, I probably spent too much money. I found some lights made by a company called Grote. They looked good and upon investigation I found that Grote is a real lighting company and not just a brand created to sell knock-off items on Amazon. Here's where I screwed up (although it was not entirely my fault). The Amazon listing for the lights said "headlights" and I assumed that meant for $150 I'd receive a PAIR. Not so. I received a single lamp. Reading the reviews and comments I should have picked up on that, but I didn't. I bit the bullet and spent ANOTHER $150 to order an additional lamp, and then left a review on Amazon to alert others to the fact that "headlights" does not indicate that you'll receive plural lamps. Almost immediately after I posted my review, the listing was corrected to say "headlight" - singular. So, you're welcome.

To be honest; the jury is still out on these lights. I hardly ever drive anywhere myself because I work at home, and if my wife is with me we usually take her CX-5, so I have very little night-time driving time behind these lamps. Compared to the Cibie's the light pattern is not as precise. There is a sharp cutoff at the top, but there is a weird bright spot in the middle of the beam which I don't like. It also lacks the characteristic E-code "kick up" to the right which is useful for illuminating road side signs and such.

The lights are very pretty to look at. They have a classic look and don't look ridiculous like most of the LEDs on the market for Jeeps.

Here's the light pattern from a single lamp. Pretty good but not great. There's no kick-up to the right like an E-code has.

Here's the pattern from one Cibie lamp. SO YELLOW but the pattern is actually really good; although it does have a bit of a hot-spot too.

Side by side, Grote and Cibie. Ignore the aim as I had just had the car in pieces and didn't re-aim the lights yet.

Here both Grote lamps are installed and these are the high beams.

Low beams. I'm not enamoured with the hot spots in the center of each beam but I will have to get out for a longer drive at night to really make an informed judgement.

The question I now have in my mind is whether there's an LED H4 bulb that would perform admirably in the Cibie housings. I've seen a couple threads on the Miataforum where people have had decent results, but no long-term reviews. If the LED H4 is designed carefully I think it could give the correct light pattern in the Cibie housing, however just throwing any LED that fits without regard to the reflector design is unlikely to work well. Some LED bulbs have big heat-sinks on the back, too, which may interfere with the Miata's pop-up headlamp design. I'll update this post when I know more.

Hella FF50 Driving Lights

This may be the worst installation write-up ever, as I pretty much didn't get any pictures of how I did the installation. It's quite straightforward, though. You just need to know how to crimp end connectors on wire and build a basic harness, as the kit doesn't come with a complete harness. It just comes with about 25 feet of wire, a relay, and a bunch of end connectors. To the kit I added an in-line fuse holder so I don't burn the car down, but most of what I needed was included with the kit. I cannibalized some nice wire loom from a harness that came with an old light set I had but never used.

I mounted the Hella FF50 lights in the mouth of the Miata, using existing holes in the bumper cover. Wiring involved installing a relay which is energized by a 12V source in the engine compartment that is hot when the ignition is on. In turn, the lights are powered by a feed directly from the main power feed at the fuse box, with a 30-amp fuse in-line (which was not included in the kit). The relay is mounted just outside the main fuse box to keep the wire runs short. I spent a lot of time tucking wires and running them through wire loom to protect from abrasion. As a result, there is very little wiring visible from the engine compartment. That's why I'm not showing a picture of it.

They come on with the ignition and are aimed very low so as not to blind other drivers. The right one is angled to the right to light side of the road.

The headlights are Cibie H4 e-code lights. The Hella driving lights are a nice compliment. I've decided I need to be able to turn them off, though, and raise the aim so they extend farther down the road. Right now they light the foreground too much, which actually hurts your ability to see farther. My main reason for installing them is to have them on during the day as daytime running lights.

Here's the light pattern from the driving lights with the headlights off. They are basically spot lights, so you can aim them exactly where you want them. There's a bit more scatter than the e-codes but as long as they aren't pointing into oncoming traffic they should be ok. Once I get the switch installed I won't use them at night unless I'm not in traffic.

New Steering Wheel

MOMO Tuner wheel. I really like it.

Here it is in the car. The previous wheel lasted 12 years but it was time for a new one.

One of the next projects - Hella FF50 driving lights. I'll do a blog post on the installation.

Installed

Here's what the smoked parking light looks like installed. I really like it. It's a nice update to the Miata's 20 year old styling, and not too ricey or cheap looking. The lights themselves are exact copies of the factory lights. Perhaps the plastic is a tiny bit thinner, but every detail of the fixture is identical to my eye - with the exception of the lens and reflector, of course. They even came with new mounting screws, wiring harnesses, and light bulbs. We'll see if they fill up with water or melt or something.

New lights!

Just got a pair of these to replace my old tired cracked parking lights on the '94. They might not hold up to sylistic scrutiny but for now I like them. They are NOT made in China. Rather, Taiwan. I know, not much better but at least it's not China. At least Taiwan likes us. They were about $35 for the PAIR on that online auction site. I couldn't justify over $100 for OEM.