I currently have some normal halogen bulbs painted blue in my 986 2.5 Box - very chav I know. They are woefully inadequate (as were the stock ones) on country lanes at night with full beams on.
I'd like to upgrade to HID and am confident I could fit the basic (non battery lead) kit myself, however wouldn't I need 2 kits as the full beam performance is inadequate on country lanes @ night, or would the dipped beam HID provide enough light to prop up the full beam performance? Also, if I put a HID kit on the full beams, would the I still be able to flash the headlamps as don't they take a while to warm up?
Finally, is it likely that my blue bulbs (and the 9 year old stock ones that the car came with) are so rubbish that if I got some Philips +80's I'd probably be happy with the result? My main concern is that they are far dimmer than my old MK4 Golf GTi (which I found perfectly satisfactory as far as lighting was concerned & had non xenon lights).
Does anyone have experience of Philips +80's? I have the sport suspension pack & am worried about premature lamp failure due to combination of hard ride, hot bulb & thin filament.
|
The cost of retro-fitting HID is prohibitive. £5000 at least.
It's a complete set-up not just bulbs only. There's the new light units [£1000 each] the two beam-control computers and all the suspension level sensing kit. [A legal requirement.]
If you could source all of it from a write-off, maybe.
|
|
the VW Caravelle I once had came with horrible greeny blue tinted headlight bulbs - positively dangerous on country roads their light output was so poor. I put in some 'off road use only' 100 watt ones from Halfords and they worked a treat. I've seen somone use 150 watt ones but he used a relay to avoid overheating the standard wiring.
|
|
|
|
FYI, you can buy aftermarket balast & bulb kits on Ebay from £50, you have to drill a hole through the back of the headlamp and put the ballast in the wheel arch. There is no requirement at MOT for self-leveling & washer for an aftermarket kit. Modern cars have 'blown bulb' warnings and these kits can cause problems. Fitting salvaged litronics as you sugested, is the best idea for OEM look but is expensive & will only work on older cars without the ECU needing reprogramming.
|
perleman
I was aware of the rubbish on e-bay.
If you'd ever seen a discharge tube, you'd realize that it's three times the size of a halogen bulb. How can that ever be focussed by a normal reflector that is cast to microns of accuracy to shape the light from a tiny halogen filament? Why not just fit 165w halogens and drive on main beam all the time - the dazzle level will be much the same.
What's the MOT got to do with it? With HID [on cars] self levelling/washers is a legal requirement - for a very good reason. Are you not bothered that you would blind oncoming cars and put a cyclist at risk?
|
|
Agree with Screwloose on this. Cobbling together an HID lighting system from Chinese-made ballasts and tubes is not the way to go. Fit an uprated halogen bulb.
|
|
|
Funny how that answer differs to the typical comment on boxa.net. Although I agree more with you than them.
IMO factory fit Xenon's in on-coming 5-series are pretty dazzling too!
|
IMO factory fit Xenon's in on-coming 5-series are pretty dazzling too!
Apparently dazzling Xenons trigger migrane's in some people.
The law is a bit of a mess in this area - apparently technically all HID's are illegal in the UK because the law says something about 'filament' bulbs. However if factory fitted as a system, then EU type approval over-rides our law.
Same thing happens with LED rear lights, fog lamps used as cornering lights, flashing hazard lights on braking etc.
|
Get a decent voltage meter and check the wiring for voltage drop
With the engine running and head lights on test;
Alternator to engine block
Battery pos and neg
Headlamp bulb connector and body earth
Make notes of the voltage readings and report back. Its not uncommon for headlamp wiring to lose 2V by the time it arrives at the bulb, which makes a huge difference to the colour of the light they emmit.
If voltage drop is the problem then you can buy / make a loom with uprated wiring and relays to correct the situation
;O)
|
|
Wow that's something I didn't consider... will check out the silverstars when they come tomorrow and if they aren't superlative I'll whip out the old multimeter... thanks.
|
|
|
Dox
That's a very good idea. 15% volt drop loses 50% of visible light output. It's the main reason that modern cars won't give more light with higher wattage bulbs on the standard [only just adequate] wiring.
It's a bit rough of you to get him to check the alternator though. On a Boxsta' that's about three hours work - after you've found the engine....
|
My MK2 Golf GTi was losing 2.5V at the bulbs, I built a loom using 6 relays, one for each filament (spots in the grill of the gti) and cut voltage drop to 0.1V. Using an SLR camera and taking a reflected light reading off white painted garage doors the lights were twice as bright with the original bulbs, the light was white instead of the mucky brown original. Well worth it in my opinion.
I've never seen under the lid of a boxter, lol ;o)
|
|
There isnt really a 'lid' as such, you have to unscrew & remove and unclip most of the back end of the car & roof then you see the (beautiful) engine. I'm hoping it's just rubbish bulbs but I guess I'll know tomorrow... prepair for more potential questions please!!!
|
I re-opened a thread (well started a new one) with response to after market HID lamps recently after I got a reply from the relevant government agency.
Basically you would need to replace the whole unit and provide self-levelling or it's illegal. Yes not check at MOT properly but illegal. Do a search on here if you want to read her response.
On any Porsche doing this will be very expensive. You are not legal with just the replacement bulb/ballast. Not at all. Will you get away with it? Probably but we can all break the law in a small way and not risk getting caught.
Are Xenon/HID good... liked them in my Mazda6 test drive car and will therefore have them before long... they were good. Had them for a few months on a Passat but seemed better a few years later on A roads I tried this time.
|
www.1stautobulbs.com/webimages/HIDDiagram.jpg
I think good quality aftermarket HID kits are great, I have seen lots on the road, and I don't think they look any different to OE ones. In fact, I think many are better, as I think the self-levelling light systems are useless on many cars and make things worse.
A good quality kit will place the arc in the same position as the original filament.
My beam pattern didn't change one iota, when I fitted mine.
Good kits are designed not to trigger bulb blown warnings.
The government says it's illegal, but they make so many mistakes I'll take it with a pinch of salt until they find WMD.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
