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gearbox · 08-31-07, 02:32 AM

hey everyone, i was just passing through and saw this thread so I will clear up some of the misinformation. The zeta kit consists of two ballasts, one for each headlight bulb (single filament). It is actually a DC-DC upregulator. It works sort of the same as a stereo amplifier. you hook the ballast to your existing headlight wires, it takes your input voltage which is almost always around 14v when the car is running (assuming your wire harness is near perfect), converts it to 15.4v, and sends it to the headlight. Increased voltage to the bulb makes it run brighter, this should be obvious. So does it work? yes ofcourse. Now the variance will be in how good your stock wiring system is. Most car alternator put out 14.4v, but by the time this makes it to the headlight bulbs, alot of that voltage can be lost. I have actually seen cars where if you take a multimeter and probe the wire at the bulb, it is only getting around 12v with car running! This means the bulbs are way underpowered. Installing a zeta kit to this car will make a HUGE difference jumping to 15v+ to the bulb. On my car, the wiring was already very good and i was getting 14.1v to the bulb, but the zeta still boosted this up by more than 1v extra. The difference is very noticable, especially since the zeta boost takes 1-2 seconds to kick in. this allows you to see what the original wattage looked like every time you turn them on. You will always see the difference and say wow it works. This should be a stock item on every car.

important: this was only designed to be used with stock wattage 55w bulbs. anything more will cause serious damage to your car, the bulbs, and the zeta ballast. only use stock clear bulbs, or the recommended catz colored bulbs that were designed for the system. For the poster that mentioned bulb life, yes, the more voltage you feed a bulb, the faster it will burn. These days, most modern bulbs are rated for around 200 hrs and most modern systems feed the bulbs 14v. that is still quite a bit, and having 1v extra or so will not reduce the bulb life that much more. Even if the bulbs only last 6 months, the benefit of brighter light is worth it. You will never wanna go back to stock once youve driven with this zeta booster. Bulbs are cheap and easy to replace, so dont complain about that. Also, the zeta ballast says it delivers power to the bulb in a much more controled way to increase lifespan. the worst killer of bulbs is the voltage surge when you first turn them on. the catz system overcomes this problem, so this bulb saving feature may act as a balance for the decrease caused by running them with more voltage. And for what the system sells for on ebay, a mere $75 shipped, it is one of the best and most useful mods i have done so far.

08-31-07, 02:32 AM	#13
gearbox Junior Member Join Date: Aug 2007 Posts: 1	hey everyone, i was just passing through and saw this thread so I will clear up some of the misinformation. The zeta kit consists of two ballasts, one for each headlight bulb (single filament). It is actually a DC-DC upregulator. It works sort of the same as a stereo amplifier. you hook the ballast to your existing headlight wires, it takes your input voltage which is almost always around 14v when the car is running (assuming your wire harness is near perfect), converts it to 15.4v, and sends it to the headlight. Increased voltage to the bulb makes it run brighter, this should be obvious. So does it work? yes ofcourse. Now the variance will be in how good your stock wiring system is. Most car alternator put out 14.4v, but by the time this makes it to the headlight bulbs, alot of that voltage can be lost. I have actually seen cars where if you take a multimeter and probe the wire at the bulb, it is only getting around 12v with car running! This means the bulbs are way underpowered. Installing a zeta kit to this car will make a HUGE difference jumping to 15v+ to the bulb. On my car, the wiring was already very good and i was getting 14.1v to the bulb, but the zeta still boosted this up by more than 1v extra. The difference is very noticable, especially since the zeta boost takes 1-2 seconds to kick in. this allows you to see what the original wattage looked like every time you turn them on. You will always see the difference and say wow it works. This should be a stock item on every car. important: this was only designed to be used with stock wattage 55w bulbs. anything more will cause serious damage to your car, the bulbs, and the zeta ballast. only use stock clear bulbs, or the recommended catz colored bulbs that were designed for the system. For the poster that mentioned bulb life, yes, the more voltage you feed a bulb, the faster it will burn. These days, most modern bulbs are rated for around 200 hrs and most modern systems feed the bulbs 14v. that is still quite a bit, and having 1v extra or so will not reduce the bulb life that much more. Even if the bulbs only last 6 months, the benefit of brighter light is worth it. You will never wanna go back to stock once youve driven with this zeta booster. Bulbs are cheap and easy to replace, so dont complain about that. Also, the zeta ballast says it delivers power to the bulb in a much more controled way to increase lifespan. the worst killer of bulbs is the voltage surge when you first turn them on. the catz system overcomes this problem, so this bulb saving feature may act as a balance for the decrease caused by running them with more voltage. And for what the system sells for on ebay, a mere $75 shipped, it is one of the best and most useful mods i have done so far.