Well Done HID - Review

smurfworth

Registered User
Joined
Feb 6, 2011
Messages
2,031
Reaction score
571
Points
113
Location
Plymouth
Firstly, if you feel the need to rant and rave on about HID's being blinding, illegal, dazzling, causing accidents etc etc etc then carry on in this thread: http://www.audi-sport.net/vb/a3-s3-...204711-welldone-hids-not-very-welldone-2.html

Secondly, i've asked the mods to keep an eye on this thread to ensure any of the above does not go on in this thread.

My aim is to have this thread kept clear of millions of argumentative posts that if a user wishes to find out certain information he/she doesn't need to trawl through millions of your unhelpful opinions.

After having what i thought were a few issues and having thought i was being ripped off, simply because welldone were not answering their emails and the product was taking ages due to the failed group buy which started on here, i got in contact on whatsapp and any questions were answered promptly.

The hid kit was originally delivered after i'd ordered the A3 8P kit in H7 6000k. However D2S 4300k bulbs were delivered. It was a nice kit and everything fitted inside the light housing.

I contacted welldone on whatsapp and they offered to fully refund the product or send it back with postage costs fully refunded and be upgraded to the OEM HID kit.

I accepted their offer of the OEM kit and waited a further 2 weeks give or take a few days, due to the christmas post hold up, for the kit to be delivered.

IMG_1161.jpg


Turned up in a similar box to the A38P kit

IMG_1163.jpg


In the box you get the bulb out warning cancellers, OEM ballasts and your bulbs.

Next you'll see a photo of my halogen bulbs, which were Phillips Diamond Visions, which this forum regularly recommends however are also illegal bulbs which when fitted will also void your insurance but nobody ever says anything about them because they don't jump on their high horse like they do with HID kits.

0.jpg


Basically you see its cut off point, how it lights the road and how it doesn't light up the sign in the photo like a christmas tree.

Next is a photo of the HID beam taken in almost the same spot:

IMG_1164.jpg


Same as above, just brighter, doesn't light up the sign like a poor civic, corsa, saxo headlight housing would.

Questions about the PRODUCT are welcomed.
 
  • Like
Reactions: TheAnticitizen1
the only question i could ever think of.

Do your wipers still work? a yes or no will sufficient.
If the above questios is YES, then how many times do you think you have turned the HID's off and on again?

Also you have done ALOT of miles since both the pictures! LOL
 
also this thread as 5 stars next to it, like a few of the stickys? what does this mean :p
 
to be honest i wouldnt call that a review

and have you tried and tested any other HID's ?
 
I so want hids again, they look great

Buy some then! :D

the only question i could ever think of.

Do your wipers still work? a yes or no will sufficient.
If the above questios is YES, then how many times do you think you have turned the HID's off and on again?

Also you have done ALOT of miles since both the pictures! LOL

Yes, gotta be 50 odd times now. 12000 in a year, not that much! ha

to be honest i wouldnt call that a review

and have you tried and tested any other HID's ?

ok then, heres some pictures of welldone's HID's which i couldn't find anywhere else on the internet because nobodies ever posted anything about them. bit of a long title that.

and no, because as far as I'm aware and have found these are the only ones that state they don't destroy thee wipers. its well known other kits like the ebay ones do so i never saw the need to test others.
 
to be honest i wouldnt call that a review

What else do you want, they fit in the headlights and are brighter. :icon_thumright:

The main issue with HID kits is the wiper motor issue, looking at those ballast they look like they originate from an OEM part of some kind. So with that issue apparently sorted, the next would be the beam cut off, as in the pictures looks fine. Sure they will appear brighter than halogen everywhere but the beam is sufficiently controlled, I assume by the front mask that sits at the end of the bulb on an A3 headlight.
 
Are you using the standard Halogen fittings, or do you have a projector style headlight?
 
Good point, as there is no mention I assumed this is in the standard headlight.
 
  • Like
Reactions: gogz s3
to be honest i wouldnt call that a review

and have you tried and tested any other HID's ?

I did tried many and what smurfworth got is the best HID kit you can buy in the market.
And by the way, It's Made in Europe.
 
I did tried many and what smurfworth got is the best HID kit you can buy in the market.
And by the way, It's Made in Europe.

blaze, i think you may actually be onto a winner. i will be ordering at some point! (lets hope i get sent the right kit mind! :p lol)
 
  • Like
Reactions: mukooo
Are you using the standard Halogen fittings, or do you have a projector style headlight?

Yea standard headlight housing.

blaze, i think you may actually be onto a winner. i will be ordering at some point! (lets hope i get sent the right kit mind! :p lol)

To be honest, even with that issue Joan who I spoke to on whatsapp couldn't be any more helpful.
 
I did tried many and what smurfworth got is the best HID kit you can buy in the market.
And by the way, It's Made in Europe.

I have tried one set also, running in 3 cars, oldest been in since Sept 11 and no issues with the Motor. These are all local cars to, one is actually my Brothers GF's car.

07 sportback - installed May 2011
09 sportback - installed SEPT 2011
05 3dr - installed Aug 2012

Still in there and no complaints, all parties aware of wiper motor issues, the 1st car was the customer who made me aware of the issue but still wanted to proceed.

All 3 kits are the same and cost less than a tank of fuel.

trups
 
I have tried one set also, running in 3 cars, oldest been in since Sept 11 and no issues with the Motor. These are all local cars to, one is actually my Brothers GF's car.

07 sportback - installed May 2011
09 sportback - installed SEPT 2011
05 3dr - installed Aug 2012

Still in there and no complaints, all parties aware of wiper motor issues, the 1st car was the customer who made me aware of the issue but still wanted to proceed.

All 3 kits are the same and cost less than a tank of fuel.

trups

So you are telling me that the wiper motor issue is not real and that any regular HID kit works just fine?
 
I think the kit in this "review" looks Great so hats off to it as it is an OEM setup really.

I would like to see the HID against a white wall/garage doo to see where the light is, as its the small bits of glare that cause people to flash at you.

HID in halogen reflectors


During setup of a projector with the same headlights



And fine tuned projector and cutoff



I would say a further 25- 40% of extra light comes out from having a HID projector in your headlights.

Trups
 
So basically t8ups, what your saying is you sell a kit which also doesn't blow wiper motors or you've bought several kits from somewhere which are perfect?
 
So basically t8ups, what your saying is you sell a kit which also doesn't blow wiper motors or you've bought several kits from somewhere which are perfect?

Yes he was not very clear tbh. and he is the lighting man.
 
So you are telling me that the wiper motor issue is not real and that any regular HID kit works just fine?

Why do you always get your back up? Did i say that the wiper motor issue doesnt exist? Did i say that any regular kit works? i didnt, i was replying to your answer that you gave Bez10.

I think you need to think before you write a post, maybe wait 5 mins before replying as i have actully phrased the OEM kit you have supplied Smurthworth.

Smurfworth said in his OP he didnt want arguments on this thread so maybe you should take a back seat as every thread you have joined into you have got someones back up and the thread has gone south!
 
Last edited:
  • Like
Reactions: a6_chris, andyam, Ch3tan and 1 other person
So basically t8ups, what your saying is you sell a kit which also doesn't blow wiper motors or you've bought several kits from somewhere which are perfect?

i dont sell a special kit no, I have 3 off the shelf kits which can be bought that i have supplied to 3 poeple which are local to me who are aware of the problem but still wanted to proceed at their own risk with the HID kit, its NOT a A3 8P specific kit.

The 1st was 3 years ago before i knew this problem existed, the 07 sportback guy rang me and asked me and then i did some digging and then he just said do it, the same guy also has a LEON 2 which has the same kit which i supplied thats been in a year also with no issues.

Now i am not saying these kits are solving the issue and maybe in 3 years time the wiper motor may go but so far so good.
 
Does no-body use the bulbs with an R after the number ie H7R as they work better in lights with reflectors i have read.
 
to be fair, i dont think they make too much of a differance, but does help the glare that shines into the air which is what dazzles on coming cars.

Smurthworths lights look to have a good aim and not pointing up wards into space so i cant really see him doing that. If the headlights are dirty they also cause the lights to glare where they shouldnt so make sure you keep them clean.

yday i had two cars with OEM xenons blind me, think the cars where loaded at the rear so lights where a bit high, one was a 11reg A3 sportback with OE led's and xenons.
 
i dont sell a special kit no, I have 3 off the shelf kits which can be bought that i have supplied to 3 poeple which are local to me who are aware of the problem but still wanted to proceed at their own risk with the HID kit, its NOT a A3 8P specific kit.

The 1st was 3 years ago before i knew this problem existed, the 07 sportback guy rang me and asked me and then i did some digging and then he just said do it, the same guy also has a LEON 2 which has the same kit which i supplied thats been in a year also with no issues.

Now i am not saying these kits are solving the issue and maybe in 3 years time the wiper motor may go but so far so good.

The Seat Leon 2 suffers the same wiper motor problem, but with a huge difference.
- Audi A3: 80% fails. Maybe the 1st day or after 3 years.
- Seat Leon 2: 10% fails. (Much much lower rate of broken wiper motors)

So I wouldn't count the Seat Leon 2 for that statistics.

This is like gambling...
Fitting a regular HID in an Audi A3 doesn't guarantee that you will blow your wiper motor away, but you have a big probability.
Having a client or two with regular HID kits working on A3 without issues doesn't guarantee anything.
Some Audi A3 (around 20%) won't blow the wiper motor away no matter what kind of HID kit you install.
They may have a different wiper motor supplier or a different version of the BOSCH wiper motor.


Just sharing my experience after 6-7 years dealing with the wiper motor issue in different cars.
(A3, Leon 2, Golf V, Peugeot 407, Volvo S40 - V50, Dodge Dart all of them suffer from the same problem)
 
Last edited by a moderator:
So have you got logs of what kits you have tried and what year the cars where, how long they took to blow then with each kit in?

There are over 50 aftermarket kits out there, have you tested all?

You seem to have the answer for everything HID related for the A3 8P and now you are saying its a gamble? In previous thread you wrote that only YOUR kit will work without causing the problem and if another type of kit is used it will blow the wiper motor for sure but now its a Gamble.

i have sold to many MKv golf owners in the past with kits from me over the years as I was not aware the issue was wide spread, no problems at all with them so this would change it all, its not a CLIENT OR TWO that I have sold to, ive no comebacks about this issue at all in the MKv, The 3 A3's and the Leon, is it luck that I sold to the 3 Clients that will never get the issue?

Over the years that I have been a SPONSOR (something which you are not) I could of cleared up and supplied every member here with a HID kit that asked, I must get a couple of PM's a week asking about them but I don't want to do that as I am well aware of the problem and don't want my name associated with issues towards cars going wrong.

I support NHN in what he does which is retro fitting Audi spec stuff with a factory setup, yes its a little steep but you get what you pay for, this is in no way aimed at Smurthworth as you still spent a couple of hundred on this kit.

Like I said in a previous thread Dani, you need to take a step back and not get on the defensive in a negative way, I have had many criticism's with some products I have sold before, I sort it out rather than digging in and starting a war about how I thought someone had said something they didn't.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Cruiser89
Now that you have the HID kit, have you seen what Trups and the others are up to in the A4 section: link
Looks to be a cheaper option of getting projector style headlights, but offering great quality too!
 
yday i had two cars with OEM xenons blind me, think the cars where loaded at the rear so lights where a bit high, one was a 11reg A3 sportback with OE led's and xenons.

Shouldn't the auto-leveling on OEM HIDs deal with that?
 
Shouldn't the auto-leveling on OEM HIDs deal with that?

Well this is part of why I ignore protests from people saying that OEM HIDs retrofits must be fitted with levelling and auto-washers.The latter two things are a waste of time in most cases. Factory fitted xenons can be blinding, the main reason for the levelling is for loading not every bump and dip in the road - with that they should work to a degree, but if the factory base level is high they can still cause issues if your car is low for example.
 
to be fair, i dont think they make too much of a differance, but does help the glare that shines into the air which is what dazzles on coming cars.

Smurthworths lights look to have a good aim and not pointing up wards into space so i cant really see him doing that. If the headlights are dirty they also cause the lights to glare where they shouldnt so make sure you keep them clean.

yday i had two cars with OEM xenons blind me, think the cars where loaded at the rear so lights where a bit high, one was a 11reg A3 sportback with OE led's and xenons.

I did ask if you could put h7r bulbs on these kits but I was told that only their bulbs work with their kits. How much of that is true I don't know as I don't have any other hid bulbs lying around.

I also get constantly blinded by oem xenons as it's rather hilly around here, there's only so much angle that the levellers can adjust.

The lights in my picture are set at 0 position on the adjustment, when out in lanes I will angle them down to number 1 position just to reduce the "glare" for other people. Not had any flashes yet so can't complain.
 
How much were they?

Also how would I go about getting some for my audi a3?
 
Looking at the kit you could get a H7r bulb onto there, you would just need to move all the wiring over to the new bulb as it looks like all the error canceller units have been hard wired into it.

Trups
 
Looking at the kit you could get a H7r bulb onto there, you would just need to move all the wiring over to the new bulb as it looks like all the error canceller units have been hard wired into it.

Trups

No you can't do that with those kits t8ups.
This HID kits don't use standard connectors & wires as cheap aftermarket kits do.

As welldone told him, he won't be able to use H7R bulbs with that HID.
But even if he could, he will most likely end up blowing away the wiper motor making that kind of mod.
(which is what we are trying to avoid)

Since he owns an Audi A3, I wouldn't recommend trying to make mods to the kit, since that could cause the wiper motor to blow away.


For those asking for more info on the review they can check at a review from a Canadian user in VWVortex forums.
VWVortex.com - Well-Done HID kits

That is a long time test review. (almost 3 years running & working as expected)
 
I thought its the ballast that causes the Wiper motor to blow Danni?

What's different about this bulb compared to a "cheap" hid bulb in your opinion?
 
I thought its the ballast that causes the Wiper motor to blow Danni?

What's different about this bulb compared to a "cheap" hid bulb in your opinion?

Apparently normal hid kits use high voltage cables where as these do not. Which is apparently partly the reason. How much of that is truth I don't know. As a mechanical engineer, electrical things is witchcraft to me.
 
It's more likely that the high voltage cables are shielded, the HID bulb will require an initial very high voltage kick to get it started, following this it will ramp down to a much lower operating voltage.

Dave
 
It's more likely that the high voltage cables are shielded, the HID bulb will require an initial very high voltage kick to get it started, following this it will ramp down to a much lower operating voltage.

Dave

Yes, but isnt this standard for all kits/bulbs, what makes theirs diffrent? how can 1 kit not use a 'high voltage cable'.
 
If you read between the lines, that is what I am saying... It is more likely that the cables are shielded..

Dave
 
One of the main reasons manufacturers went from the old D2S HID to D1S/D3S bulbs (the ones with the silver box ignitors on the base) is to reduce the voltage in the cable running from the ballast to the bulb. I don't think these in this kit have ignitors on the bulb though.
 

Similar threads