HID or not?

[icermanz]

Just thought id post up a pic of my newly installed lights, and love the look of them at night and have much better vision than i did beforehand.

Im very pleased at the price i paid for such a sudden improvement on the looks, but can you guess if its a HID kit i installed or just ordinary bulbs?

 

[Pid_16V]

Looking good matey, i'd say they are Xenon's, i just swapped my Xenon's for HID and the hids are loads better

 

[FormerSmurf]

As you can see, I popped a bulb last night (BOOOO!) so I thought I'd see what the local rip off merchants (Halfrauds) had to offer...

?ú49 lighter, I left with a pair of Rally bulbs (H7, 80w) and Laser Blue (9005, 60w) and just fitted them. Whole job took 25 minutes excluding cup of tea and fag break, and they all work. Will take a pic at some point when its nice and dark. Can't afford HID just yet The rally bulbs do state (many times) not for road use, but I reckon they haven't updated the law since HID's came out, so sod 'em!

 

[FormerSmurf]

Here are my new lights:

Full beams at around 10 cars distance with me standing....

Dipped beam a bit closer

I guess with these I can wait a few more months for HID!

 

[skinnydawg]

you have to be careful with some of the none road legal bulbs - not just cos coppers may show you their truncheons but also because if you get the higher wattage ones your headlight units will melt

 

[hadrien_coug]

HID kit is better than xenon effect bulb
It's ligther and safer to my mind (and more beautiful :W)

 

[FormerSmurf]

you have to be careful with some of the none road legal bulbs - not just cos coppers may show you their truncheons but also because if you get the higher wattage ones your headlight units will melt

I don't do masses of night driving, but the box said they were UVA/B screened and safe to use in plastic headlight units. I used to have these in the spotlights of my old 4x4, which where mainly plastic with no melting. I'm keeping an eye on it though, better safe than sorry

 

[skinnydawg]

Its not the UV its the heat from the bulbs. its generally the 100w ones that chavs put in and they are usually marked offroad/rally.

Last time I was buying bulbs at motorworld some lad came in to complain that his escorts headlamps had melted. he was just told he was an idiot using 100w bulbs instead of standard ones and to kindly go away as his car was probably still smouldering

 

[FormerSmurf]

used the 80w for around 45 mins last night, lenses seemed cold to touch afterwards. Put my hand on the back panel of the clusters, and it was just the usual engine heat. I will keep an eye out on longer night journeys, don't fancy tanking down the motorway just on sidelights...

 

[sc9ar]

the 45 minute test sounds like they are ok. expensive bulbs are much better that the cheap ?ú5 ebay ones.

although heat can be an issue with the xenon filled bulbs marked for off road use, the main problem is the fact they are 80w. these use so much more power and 99% of cars standard wiring will not cope with this. you will probably find the connection to the bulb will snap and wires will burn out over continuous use. at work we change the wiring harnesses for our track cars if they need lights to allow for this

hopefully this wont happen but I've used plenty of them in previous cars. try some wd40 on the connections to keep them from fusing together.also be careful at night when the bulbs are a few months old. they tend to lose light output quicker than standard bulbs. some last a year or so, so just keep an eye on the light they are projecting onto the road. when you cant see it clearly, its time for new bulbs