Thread: Anybody Tried HID Kits from E bay

Has anybody tried or bought any of the headlamp HID kits available on e bay or other places.

As my lights on my A6 are crap compared to my wifes Corsa SXi thease are Halogen and realy good.
i asume its the lens in the A6 causing problem, i even tried 50% brighter lamps but still not a patch on the corsa.
I had the same problem on my calibra that had lens inside the lights, and yes sorry to say i had a calibra once. (16v black, leather trim and a/c)

I have an Ebay HID kit in my A4, its great, but i do have projector lamps, i am not sure how it would fair in a normal lamp unit tbh.

For me it was deffo worth it, like night and day difference( excuse the pun) and i had Osram silverstars in mine originally

i was tempted but i would want to get the self washers as well to be "legal" and since my car doesnt have the self washers, it would be another added cost as well as cutting the bumper, which im not adverse to doing.

tempted though.. still!

As mine is an aftermarket kit, the autoleveling and washers are not a legal requirement, or at worst it appears to be a grey area, i know a few peaople that have aftermarket HIDs with no probs at all at MOT time etc

so aftermarket kits (is that OE retrofit or third party aftermarket, ie hella) dont require washers as a legal requirement??

in that case..!

was not aware of legal issues ,

i am not sure if i have auto leveling but i do have a headlight hieght ajuster
i have a lens in my headlight( i asume this is what you ment by projector lens) which looks identical to my mates skoda superb with HIDs

My car is an A6 Avant 2.5TDi Auto tip year 2000

also anybody know what the headlamp adjusters do which one is hieght and which is left to right? one on the back one on the side down a hole.
Where did you buy the kit from send PM if you dont want to post

also what colour temp k 4300k 6000k 8000k, i thought 4300 as they gave more lumins of light output and not worried if they dont have 6000k blue tint

I'm pretty certain that the head light washers are not a UK legal requirement for Xenons, they are on the continent.

J.

Thats good news
now back to the questions

also anybody know what the headlamp adjusters do which one is hieght and which is left to right? one on the back one on the side down a hole.

Where did you buy the kit from send PM if you dont want to post and what was install like? any pics?

also what colour temp k 4300k 6000k 8000k, i thought 4300 as they gave more lumins of light output and not worried if they dont have 6000k blue tint

about the old xenons are illegal without washers issue, for example, if you retro-fitted xenons with no washers and say you drove past a couple of officers on a really bad day (a "shot another officer, crashed into a school bus full of children" sort of bad day ) with your lights on, could they pull you over purely because you have no washers?

..or is it at MOT time that the issue lies?

and the washers do exactly what?
clean? make them bright again?
i dont get it.

how many Audi's have HIDs loads, very very low chance of being pulled
vauxhall Nova black windows HIDs, may get pulled

well thats what i dont get, everywhere everyone says "no no bad, must have washers if you have xenons because then its legal!" but what does that mean exactly if you're "illegally" using xenons?

can you be stopped if some over zealous cop decides to take it out on you?

Like I said it is a requirement in Europe to have washers with xenons but not in the UK...

"Like I said it is a requirement in Europe to have washers with xenons but not in the UK..." nuff said credit card in hand.

well after yesterdays storms and my drive home could not see a thing, its a wise chioce.
Anybody recomend a buyer..

Originally Posted by marriedblonde

Like I said it is a requirement in Europe to have washers with xenons but not in the UK...

oh dont say that, i have a cambelt service due in the new year, flirting with the idea of getting koni fsd dampers and eibach pro-kit springs and now you have to go and say something like that!

anyone planning to knock a bank over and need a wheel man?

rich, im looking at the ones from hids4u.co.uk, the ebay ones seem cheap enough (£150) but i dont know if the ballasts are waterproof etc etc, the ones from hids4u are..

http://www.hids4u.co.uk/product_details.asp?id=332

I think with the washers thing, people confuse type-approval with legality. After a car is on the road the only real test of fitness for purpose is the MOT and that doesn't check for headlight washers and levelers.

For example cars have to have a high-level brake light these days, but there are millions of cars on the road without them and no one bleats about them (the cars) being illegal.

Here's some recent threads
B6 a4 xennon oem
and
HID Conversion Kit

yep good links
the ebay guy is selling 8000k ones i am looking for 4300k
these look ok Solid Metal Waterproof / Weatherproof Ballast
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/HID-XENON-CONV...QQcmdZViewItem

rich, that ebay link says you can specify what temp you want, so if you're after 4300k then thats what you'll get.

im debating 4300k or 6000k, ideally need to see it "in the flesh" as photos cant do them justice. also since i have the pre-facelift reflector lights (i think), im not sure how bad the light output would look compared to xenons in a clear glass housing.

tempted though, half the price of the hids4u, but then i know someone who has retrofitted a hids4u kit onto their a3 and it looks nice.

Something else you need to consider if you decide to go for one of these after market kits. You might need someone with Vag-Com to activiate the Xenon light options in one of the control modules.

Not all cars are effected but the mkV golf is, the Merc B-class is for example. It's something to do with the voltage delivered to the lights when the engine is running.

What happens is when you fit them and test them they look fine, then yo udecide to go for a drive, start the engine and then it's flicker central - the lights act like strobes! The other wqay round this is to take a feed from the battery and wire them up using a relay.

I went for the 4300's as this is pretty close to stock xenon lights. The 8000's are really blue.

J.

thanks for that, im going halfs with a mate on a vag-com lead (skoda dude) so i will need the codes for that.
i also had a look at the adjusters on the head lights as one of my lights points to far to the right.
so the adjustments are the cog at the back of the light adjusts the hieght
and the adjuster hidden under a hole at the side is lens focus as this moves the lens back and forth.
i ajusted the focus and found it straiterned my beam back again (someone been fidling) but did not seem to focus much, i used to repair electrical products like projection tv's and the light by looking at the lens with the lights on looks cloudy as like a projection tv looked with a dusty lens (hence poor light) so i may and try and strip the headlight down (if possable) and clean the back of the lens or poke a large made up cotten bud in from where the lamp goes in soaked possably in isopro alchol 100%
i will give it a go and let you all know

I've just fitted an H7 kit from HIDs 4U into my new A3 (with standard reflector lights).
It was one of their cheaper kits and I don't think the bulbs are the best.

I originally had the kit fitted to my Alfa 156 and neither the Alfa nor the A3 have as good a beam pattern with the HID bulbs as they did with the original filament bulbs.

That said, the ballasts in the kit are particularly designed for use with cars that "detect" aftermarket HID kits like the A3 and don't suffer from the flickering that is mentioned above - and nor do they activate the "bulb failed" warning light as some types do...

Has anyone else fitted H7 HID bulbs and got a proper beam pattern, as with the old filament bulb?

I notice that the headlight assembly says "H7 or D2S" for the dipped bulb. Has anyone put a D2S HID bulb in? I wondered if that would give a different or better beam pattern?

Originally Posted by marriedblonde

I went for the 4300's as this is pretty close to stock xenon lights. The 8000's are really blue.

J.

mines r 8000k




dont think they r that blue, maybe ur thinking of the 10,000k??

They look cool dude

they look good.

I see what you meen on hids for you site about the flicker problem

QUOTE from http://www.hids4u.co.uk/product_details.asp?id=45
"This is a special kit for post 2001 BMWs, post 2003 Saabs, post 2004 Volvos and post 2002 Mercedes, post 2002/3 A3, post 2005 A4, A6, A8, post 2005 Passat (new shape), New shape Octavia and Superb, post 2005/6 VW Polo and other post 2005 cars, all of which need a special kit to overcome the latest bugs designed to cause bulb alarms or the ballasts to shutdown. We supply all you need to overcome these issues. We also recommend this kit for the previous model of the VW Passat as we supply special metal bulb holder clips like in the picture to make fitting even easier without the need to cut off the rubber grommet when fitting the bulb."

there is £100 difference in price but they are TUV aproved.
is this just a relay kit? or is it loaded balast? raymie did you get a relay kit?


Still nothing found on 2000 model A6 to change on vagcom, you would have thought it would have a code because its an option.
VAG lead arrived at mates now he is on hols so still waiting to play.

Originally Posted by raymie

mines r 8000k

dont think they r that blue, maybe ur thinking of the 10,000k??

Nope they 8000's compared to the 4300's do look quite blue!

Some colour charts.



Couploe of cars with different bulbs fitted. First one is the 8000

4300
8000
10000


First one is the 8000



This one has 4300's.

Hmmm....... I have an S4 with std Xenons and they are great, but I have a A3 Tdi pre facelift with reflector headlamps which are pish..... It seems the beam patterns arent great with these reflector lamps and the HIDs. Has anyone fitted HIDs to the Projector style Lamps fitted to the post facelift A3s? Whats the beam pattern like. I suspect the HIDs will work much better on the projectors style lamps, otherwise why would Xenons all be projector style lamps?? In which case its probably worth converting to the later headlamps first....?!?

OK so I made the decision. I went for HIDS4U £215.78 all in if you pay by debit card (discount for debit card).

Really good quality kit nice solid ballasts and very waterproof. Took a while to fit as not much room in the A6 near the head lights, I put the drivers side unit(ballast) on one of the front bumper nuts, easy to get to if you take out the air box, the other side was just above the head light on the front panel bolt.
You do need a 25mm hole cutter or patience with a file to cut the back cover hole out to let cables go through, they supply quality rubber grommet already wired. I had to loosen the offside headlight so that the cover would come out as it gets caught on one of the air hoses. The new bulbs come in a handy protector which is needed when wiring the wires to the ballast. I had to use pliers to crimp the original spade females up to get a good connection then i covered with heat shrink sleeving for insulation.
Put all back together and took for a drive, NO LIGHT OUT WARNINGS,
AND I CAN SEE.

The booklet that comes with the kit is very detailed.
All in all a well worth purchase.
A mate who was helping me now wants a set for his Passat.

"Genuine" kits are now down to £105 delivered with a 3yr UK warranty.
HIDS4U are making a tidy profit.

Yesterday I bought a HID conversion kit 6000k. £129.99 + postage from ebay here

I'm waiting for it to be delivered. I'm not sure how it compares with other kits but it sounds very promising from what I've read so far. Just wondering how easy it is to fit.