19-03-2023, 11:19 AM
(This post was last modified: 19-03-2023, 11:20 AM by David Stepney.)
I must admit that i have occasionally thought about ways that I could improve the lighting on my own Seven, but have tended to be somewhat conservative in this, given that my car is so original. The dynamo gives 10 amps reliably which, with 24 watt headlamp bulbs just about balanced the current consumption with all the lights on. However, 24 watt bulbs are grim unless you have the road to oneself, so I upgraded to 36 watt bulbs, which have made the car much more pleasant to drive in the dark. Unfortunately, with the headlamps on, the ammeter now shows a net 4 amp discharge. Given that my car has plain glass headlamp lenses (?), I don't think that LEDs would look right somehow, so I have decided not to go down this route.
I go to Wrexham once or twice a week and, if I go in the seven, this often requires an hour or so's drive in the dark returning home during the winter. Since the headlamp bulb upgrade, I have had one or two instances where the battery was flat the following morning, so I have simply abandoned my usual practice of switching to half charge after about ten minutes running and keeping the car on full charge all the time, checking the battery every week and topping it up as required with distilled water to ensure that the plates are well submerged. The battery itself is the same one that came with the car and was new at that time. It is now over four years old and shows no signs of giving up the ghost so I must be doing something right (unless I am just lucky).
I would imagine that such an approach would be part of the judicious management of the car in the days when our forebears were using these cars as everyday transport.
I go to Wrexham once or twice a week and, if I go in the seven, this often requires an hour or so's drive in the dark returning home during the winter. Since the headlamp bulb upgrade, I have had one or two instances where the battery was flat the following morning, so I have simply abandoned my usual practice of switching to half charge after about ten minutes running and keeping the car on full charge all the time, checking the battery every week and topping it up as required with distilled water to ensure that the plates are well submerged. The battery itself is the same one that came with the car and was new at that time. It is now over four years old and shows no signs of giving up the ghost so I must be doing something right (unless I am just lucky).
I would imagine that such an approach would be part of the judicious management of the car in the days when our forebears were using these cars as everyday transport.