HID's - any issues i should be made aware of?

D

drewbee

Registered User
Joined
Dec 15, 2009
Messages
196
Reaction score
0
Points
16
Location
London
im getting HIDs fitted this week, and i was wondering if anyone has them fitted and experienced any problems with them?

mines going to be fitted with cancelling units from a company called autolights.
 
Presumably your ignoring the fact that they're illegal, unless fitted with automatic load levelling and a high pressure washing system, and are fitted in type approved headlamp units...
 
aragorn said:
Presumably your ignoring the fact that they're illegal, unless fitted with automatic load levelling and a high pressure washing system, and are fitted in type approved headlamp units...
Click to expand...
It should also be illegal to fit **** headlights on a car OEM but that doesnt stop audi with the B6 ,
theres a lot of things that are illegal do you stick to them all ?
Its hardly a capital offence is it !!
 
****** hell why does someone have to come on and ruin a thread by lying through it, Nowhere has said its illegal and all the documents people throw up have no withstanding laws afiliated to them.

Law states in simple terms the headlights are to be white and correctly leveled to not dazzle people.

my HIDs are in projector lenses and leveled.

All these people claiming illegalitys? What about cars that came standard without washer jets and without leveling before the saftey standard came into effect?

Should they be made illegal now?
 
Last edited:
That's not strictly correct, and aragorn does have a point....

Whilst the majority of people running projector headlights will get through the Mot no problems, DOT legislation states that retrofitting xenon lights is illegal.

In the Department's view it is not legal to sell or use after market HID lighting kits, for converting conventional Halogen headlamps to HID Xenon. If a customer wants to convert his vehicle to Xenon HID he must purchase completely new Xenon HID headlamps. The reason for this is that the existing lens and reflector are designed around a Halogen filament bulb, working to very precise tolerances. If one places a HID "burner" (bulb) in the headlamp, the beam pattern will not be correct, there will be glare in some places and not enough light in other places within the beam pattern.
Click to expand...

In practice this means:
1. The headlamp unit (outer lens, reflector, bulb) shall be type approved to ECE 98 and be "e-marked" to demonstrate this. That can only be done by the headlamp supplier - Hella, Valeo etc. who must test the headlamp in an independent laboratory.
2. Once fitted to the vehicle it must have headlamp cleaning and self-levelling (which can be for the headlamp or can be in the vehicle suspension - some expensive estate cars have "self-levelling suspension" and that is adequate). Also the dipped beam must stay on with the main beam.
3. The headlamp must be maintained in good working order, kept clean, and aligned/adjusted correctly like any other headlamp.
Click to expand...

The full article is HERE
 
But aren't the B6 housings the same except for the lamp mounting inside ? My headlight has both Halogen and Xenon markings...
 
"quattrojames"
This is true , but theres far more important things that are not right than a set of bulbs
i done it as a safety thing as i already said the B6 lights are disgusting to the point of dangerous
people also put high wattage bulbs in wich are not emarked thats illegal too
the list gets endless and at the end of the day if there set up correctly in projector lights no harm done
lets be honest how many Discovery , range rover , X5 Zenons have you come across that are nice for oncoming cars and there stock with all requirements
theres so many things that people do to there cars which is far more serious .
rant over :)
 
I agreed entirely mate, I didn't write the article, just quoted it ;)
 
audi upgrades
quattrojames said:
That's not strictly correct, and aragorn does have a point....

Whilst the majority of people running projector headlights will get through the Mot no problems, DOT legislation states that retrofitting xenon lights is illegal.





The full article is HERE
Click to expand...

Not worth the paper its printed on, its merely a VIEW and wouldnt hold up in any case against a stop and search on a car unless the officer could proove it was a danger to other road users. It is also only their view when the light casing isnt meant to house the xenon bulb, where the B6 A4 is designed in this way and is adjustable so.

I still refer also to the series 1 renault laguna when Xenons first apeared they had them without projectors or washer jets. the suspension was self leveling anyway.
 
Now now folks!!:)

Drewbee - You shouldnt have any probs really. Some have had issues with the Ballasts causing their dash to light up with errors such as ABS/bulb out warnings but nothing that major, just annoying! You have the cancellers too so you should be ok!
 
I'm just making you aware of the actual legal stance.

The UK construction and use regulations make no provision for HID's at all. This means that HID's arent allowed to be used in the UK. It states that quite clearly in the DOT article linked above. Manufacturers get round this by holding European type approval for their designs, and vehicles which hold this can be used in the UK, ie it overrules the C&U regs. However fitting them to a non-type approved headlamp unit, without the prerequisite auto levelling and washing systems, would not meet the type approval, and is therefore illegal.

Nutkin: If you'd actually read the article you'd see that while yes, the article represents the departments "view" it also quotes the LEGAL stance. Read the 3 paragraphs under "The following is the legal rationale:", and understand what its saying.

The light housing ISN'T designed to take a HID bulb. If you think it is, i'm sure you'll see the problem if you tried to fit the proper D2S type approved lamp into the H7 socket in your halogen projectors...

You mention a laguna, no where in the regs does it say they require projectors for HID's, plenty cars exist with reflector based HID setups. Self levelling suspension is also fine for the levelling aspect. Not sure how they got round the washers though.
 
Last edited:
I've seen many flicker.. aslong as they 35w ballasts and not 50w you should be fine
 
audi upgrades
Whats the difference with the 35w and the 50w anyway apart from Power wise????
 
I can't wait until they make aftermarket xenon kits illegal
7.gif
 
golf said:
So I won't get blinded by 8000k kits in headlights designed for halogen bulbs.
Click to expand...
lol you'll love mine i got 12000k 1s to blind you..
if the kits were illigal they would not pass m.o.t.ive had the same kit on a couple cars and they all passed
 
golf said:
So I won't get blinded by 8000k kits in headlights designed for halogen bulbs.
Click to expand...

The higher the kelvin the less bright they are, 5000k are brighter than 8000k. What about cars that have both fitted like A4? I have fitted 6000k HID's in mine but it could have came with factory HID's. Do you just hate any car with good headlights like new Range Rover, Mercedes etc?
 
The higher the Kelvin the more blue the light which is what I find dazzling. I think Golf's point, which is one I agree with, is that when HID's are fitted to cars with reflector headlights they can be dangerously dazzling. Our A4's all have projector headlights which are more suitable for HID's as they suffer reduced light scatter. Any manufacturer fitting xenon lights as standard will use a projector unit.

Anything above 6000k is looks over function in my opinion anyway.
 
quattrojames said:
Any manufacturer fitting xenon lights as standard will use a projector unit.
Click to expand...

So next time when I drive next to coppers in Volvo V70 I will stop and tell them to switch off the lights because they have no projector lights.
 
slepy said:
So next time when I drive next to coppers in Volvo V70 I will stop and tell them to switch off the lights because they have no projector lights.
Click to expand...

D2S is for a projector/ellipsoidal housing.. D2R is for a reflector housing

Different bulbs for different type of headlights, i will say this(changing the subject slightly) I drive about 40k miles a year and have looked at lots of different cars headlights, I can tell you that it has got to be a myth that OEM use 4300k Xenons, I think 5000/6000k are more like what is used, i have 4300k in mine and if you park it up next to a Q7 for example the blue hue is much more visable, this is the same for almost all HID OEM lights i have seen.

i know people say the housing make a difference, but a projector is a projector the optics are almost identical apart from the beam cut offs, i would say OEM is more likely to be 5000k.
 
ronny said:
D2S is for a projector/ellipsoidal housing.. D2R is for a reflector housing

Different bulbs for different type of headlights, i will say this(changing the subject slightly) I drive about 40k miles a year and have looked at lots of different cars headlights, I can tell you that it has got to be a myth that OEM use 4300k Xenons, I think 5000/6000k are more like what is used, i have 4300k in mine and if you park it up next to a Q7 for example the blue hue is much more visable, this is the same for almost all HID OEM lights i have seen.

i know people say the housing make a difference, but a projector is a projector the optics are almost identical apart from the beam cut offs, i would say OEM is more likely to be 5000k.
Click to expand...

The same as H7R for example, for reflector housing. These were sent on my first kit & when I looked up the difference between H7 & H7R I found that the H7R is an anti glare bulb for reflector headlamps. Wrong bulbs for me though has my lights are projector.

I know what you mean about OEM lights being really blue sometimes, a new laguna passed me yesterday on the back roads & the lights were the bluest I'd seen. Also an 09 Vectra I seen yesterday had really blue headlights & I thought surly they must be more than 4300K.
 
I think Audi use 4300k for their lights, maybe other manufacturers use different ratings. Certainly the new Mazda 6's look very blue.

slepy said:
So next time when I drive next to coppers in Volvo V70 I will stop and tell them to switch off the lights because they have no projector lights.
Click to expand...

I stand corrected then in that case.
 
head said:
lol you'll love mine i got 12000k 1s to blind you..
if the kits were illigal they would not pass m.o.t.ive had the same kit on a couple cars and they all passed
Click to expand...

I didn't say ****** aftermarket kits were illegal, I said I couldn't wait for them to be illegal. I'm sure you can see very far with your purple lights anyway...

reggieroo said:
The higher the kelvin the less bright they are, 5000k are brighter than 8000k. What about cars that have both fitted like A4? I have fitted 6000k HID's in mine but it could have came with factory HID's. Do you just hate any car with good headlights like new Range Rover, Mercedes etc?
Click to expand...

You'll have to rephrase that, I don't know what you mean. If you look through my previous posts you'll see that I'm a bit of a xenon nut, and I don't hate good headlights, I actually spend hours researching them. Sad, I know!

ronny said:
D2S is for a projector/ellipsoidal housing.. D2R is for a reflector housing

Different bulbs for different type of headlights, i will say this(changing the subject slightly) I drive about 40k miles a year and have looked at lots of different cars headlights, I can tell you that it has got to be a myth that OEM use 4300k Xenons, I think 5000/6000k are more like what is used, i have 4300k in mine and if you park it up next to a Q7 for example the blue hue is much more visable, this is the same for almost all HID OEM lights i have seen.

i know people say the housing make a difference, but a projector is a projector the optics are almost identical apart from the beam cut offs, i would say OEM is more likely to be 5000k.
Click to expand...

It is actually the beam cutoff which gives the illusion of a higher kelvin rated bulb. All projectors are very different. To the uninitiated they look the same, but each one has differing properties which produce varying beam patterns, colour and cutoff. All manufacturers fit either 4100k or 4300k from the factory. The only reason some look bluer than others is the design of the projectors, nothing else. After a few years some of the Philips 4300k xenon bulbs are designed to colourshift, so look closer to 4600k. Apparently BMW briefly fitted 5000k's to some models but went back to 4300k almost immediately.

I used this image below of an Audi A4's OEM xenon headlights to explain how colour flicker is achieved:

beam.jpg
 
hi guys how can i tell what lights i have mine have the blue/purple line at the top
 
quote_icon.png
Originally Posted by golf

You'll have to rephrase that, I don't know what you mean. If you look through my previous posts you'll see that I'm a bit of a xenon nut, and I don't hate good headlights, I actually spend hours researching them. Sad, I know!

So you understand that people want to just improve their headlights then, not **** off other road users? I fitted them to our A4 as it's the misses car & she drives home late, in the dark on lots of back roads from work for 35 miles each night. I thought the standard halogens were crap to be honest & wanted her drive home to be safer.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

H
Should I be worried?
Replies
2
Views
1K
haytch75
H
A
Mayonnaise, Should I be Worried?
Replies
5
Views
902
AndyF
A
CHRIS555
Anyone aware of any strutbraces for the B6?
Replies
17
Views
4K
CHRIS555
CHRIS555
D
I believed Audi's were made of Galvanised Steel ?
Replies
33
Views
31K
Seeker_UK
Seeker_UK
jdp1962
Central Locking Click; Should I be Concerned?
Replies
2
Views
921
jdp1962
jdp1962
Top
Back