What do people think of my HIDs

[Cal91]

Put my HID's in today. 6000k colour temp.

But I couldn't get them aligned today and I tried to get it in places but the only place I could get in was Kwikfit and they wanted £15 for them to just check it :|

So what do people think of them atm? Could I still drive it till monday?

Pictures against a 04 reg Punto with stock halogens with bonnets equal distance away from the garage doors.






This is the lights a setting 3 on the dial.

[Neo]

That looks fine for now but you can do it yourself:

Take a 6mm allen key to the vertical adjuster:



It will have 1% marked on the top of your headlight, this means the light should drop at a rate of 1 percent.

To achieve this, put your lights to 0 and park 5 metres in front of your garage, then measure from the ground up to your bulb, (say 60cm).
Then adjust your lights down so that the top of the beam is 5cm (1% of 5 metres) LOWER than the height you measured (so the top of the beam should now be 55cm).

It will work at any distance from the wall if you don`t have 5 metres of space:
If you park 3 metres away, then the top of the beam should be 3cm (1% of 3m) lower than the height of your bulb (if 60cm... then 57cm).

Hope that makes sense.

[Cal91]

Cheers, I'll give it a bash tomorrow.

The problem I have is I think they are giving off a lot of glare.
I have been driving all night and I got flashed only once (not sure if he was just switching his high beam back on early), passed 3 coppers too.

What makes me think theres a lot of glare is the fact road signs are reflecting back at me as if I had my high beam switched on.

Plus I think they take way too long to start up. They flicker a few times during this too but are fine afterwards.

This kit is a 35w 6000k H7 (Not H7R) from Diane-shop (ebay).

[Cal91]

So I measure from the ground to the bulb on my car? or did you mean light shon on the garage?

[churcherj]

i just got my 6000k from diane shop aswell and mine wont start! they just flicker then go off! any ideas? does it with both ballasts so doubt it could be them! ur HIDs look good mate

[Neo]

Originally Posted by Cal91

So I measure from the ground to the bulb on my car? or did you mean light shon on the garage?

BOTH!
measure the ground to your bulb height, then AT THE DOOR, the TOP of the beam should be this minus 1% OF THE DISTANCE TO THE DOOR.

[Neo]

Originally Posted by Cal91

Cheers, I'll give it a bash tomorrow.

The problem I have is I think they are giving off a lot of glare.
I have been driving all night and I got flashed only once (not sure if he was just switching his high beam back on early), passed 3 coppers too.

What makes me think theres a lot of glare is the fact road signs are reflecting back at me as if I had my high beam switched on.

Plus I think they take way too long to start up. They flicker a few times during this too but are fine afterwards.

This kit is a 35w 6000k H7 (Not H7R) from Diane-shop (ebay).

H7`s do produce a lot of glare, I always recommend H7R`s because of the reduction in glare, they are MUCH better for road use.
People moan that they don`t produce as much light but that`s kind of the idea!

Bulbs at 6000k will reflect road signs more, even if the beam is correct, so I would`nt worry about this too much - it`s a bonus.

A bit of flickering is acceptable as far as maufacturers are concerned when starting, as you said they are fine when warm.

[Cal91]

Thanks a bunch Neo!
I was just checking it's all set up right .

What I didn't like about H7R bulbs is the fact they only come in 8000k. I wanted 6000k idealy and the people who managed to find 6000k H7R bulbs have had some awful issues with them such as smoking inside the headlight and melting that plastic coating.

[Cal91]

Originally Posted by churcherj

i just got my 6000k from diane shop aswell and mine wont start! they just flicker then go off! any ideas? does it with both ballasts so doubt it could be them! ur HIDs look good mate

Mine flicker a lot during start-up. I looks kind of cool but could be annoying lol!

I'll get a video of it tonight if you want

My mums Mini Cooper S has OEM Xenons and they just flash once, then start up and are bright within say 3 seconds.

Mine take a bit longer. But if the cars parked up they are usually bright enough before I get out of the parking space.

[george130]

Originally Posted by Cal91

Thanks a bunch Neo!
I was just checking it's all set up right .

What I didn't like about H7R bulbs is the fact they only come in 8000k. I wanted 6000k idealy and the people who managed to find 6000k H7R bulbs have had some awful issues with them such as smoking inside the headlight and melting that plastic coating.

I have 6000k H7R's from eBay - no such issues In fact, for the price I paid for them I'm incredibly impressed... no flickering or anything, just spot on.

Maybe get some H7R bulbs from eBay?

[Neo]

Yeah there seems to be a few H7R`s available on ebay at the moment in 6000k, looks like you`ll pay about 20-25 quid. I reckon they are well worth the extra, it will make your lights look more like original xenons to on-coming cars and reduce the glare.

Mine flash once when fired up and take about 20 seconds to reach pure white (I have 5000k).
I like it though... looks cool.

Flickering or tripping out can be caused by loose electrical connections - the ballasts need a very stable voltage when warming up and if it fluctuates even slightly it can cause it to trip.

[ibiza_adam]

Yeh you can see from the pic on the garage door that they have a lot of light scatter. Most people think that it's the height adjustment that stops the glare for oncoming cars, but it's the poor optics on the HID bulbs that cause all the glare! Look at the 'cut off' above the Punto lights compared to yours with the HIDs, thats all extra light that is been thrown above the cut off! Can't believe KwikFit wanted that just to check em!lol robbing gets lol

[Cal91]

So what can I do about this then Adam? Anything?

I'm gonna try and find some of the gas-discharge headlights haha! There's only a left unit on ebay at the moment :\

[Neo]

Originally Posted by Cal91

So what can I do about this then Adam? Anything?

I'm gonna try and find some of the gas-discharge headlights haha! There's only a left unit on ebay at the moment :\

There`s a right side too (in RHD), it`s been there for ages - try different wording - "head lamp, headlight"

I looked into them recently and er... to say it`s expensive would be an understatement!

All off ebay:
Light cluster o/s £160
Light cluster n/s £140
Pair of 5GL ballasts and leads (from USA) £220
Pair of D1S bulbs and leads £60

[ibiza_adam]

haha, as above mate! The cheapest way to do it is via the E-bay route etc. The H7r bulbs have a shield about half way up the bulb to stop there being too much light provided in the reflector, this gives off less glare to on coming cars!

HTH

[kidinspace]

Originally Posted by Neo

That looks fine for now but you can do it yourself:

Take a 6mm allen key to the vertical adjuster:



It will have 1% marked on the top of your headlight, this means the light should drop at a rate of 1 percent.

To achieve this, put your lights to 0 and park 5 metres in front of your garage, then measure from the ground up to your bulb, (say 60cm).
Then adjust your lights down so that the top of the beam is 5cm (1% of 5 metres) LOWER than the height you measured (so the top of the beam should now be 55cm).

It will work at any distance from the wall if you don`t have 5 metres of space:
If you park 3 metres away, then the top of the beam should be 3cm (1% of 3m) lower than the height of your bulb (if 60cm... then 57cm).

Hope that makes sense.

Fantastic!
I'll try this later!

.G.

[mazzerati]

are your headlights the single clusters or the double ones?
and what bulbs are they?
im confused by it all

[Neo]

Higher spec models have the twin headlights that take H7 and H3 bulbs - Tdi sport, FR, Cupra.
Models like the 1.2 and 1.4`s have single headlight clusters and take H4 bulbs.

Mine`s a 130Tdi sport.

[Cal91]

Mines a 1.4 sport with double headlight clusters.

I might take my current HID's out and put them in my fog lights (They're H7 right?) and buy a H7R kit off HID's direct.

I also want to sort out my highbeam. 100w bulbs are too much right? They'll melt my wiring won't they?

[Cal91]

I wanna do that purely because I feel there's still too much glare for my liking and the H7R kit I have my eye on is a 50-55watt system Brighter

But how much difference does a H7R kit make? Does it just cut the glare or does it half the light output?