More light at night...

[ciarank]

..is always a good idea. I'm looking at HID conversion kits on the net (www.hids4u.co.uk (http://www.hids4u.co.uk)) as well as uprated bulbs from www.powerbulbs.com (http://www.powerbulbs.com). Has anyone here experience of uprating their lights, and if so, what would you recommend? (I'm the nocturnal type- always out at night!)

ciarank:beerchug:

[Col]

Quite a few of us have retro-fitted HID kits with great results.

Go for it !

[RickT]

Have a look at our own approved supplier, Have a word with Martin at HID'S-DIRECT for a 10% discount.

See link below

http://www.vwaudiforum.co.uk/forum/showthread.php?t=10323

Also have a look at photos of my kit below.. These photos are comparing the HID to the stock H7 bulb...


http://i148.photobucket.com/albums/s13/RickT_album/06062007378.jpg

http://i148.photobucket.com/albums/s13/RickT_album/06062007377.jpg

http://i148.photobucket.com/albums/s13/RickT_album/06062007376.jpg

And photos of them at night...

http://i148.photobucket.com/albums/s13/RickT_album/LIGHTUPFRONT.jpg

http://i148.photobucket.com/albums/s13/RickT_album/lightup.jpg

http://i148.photobucket.com/albums/s13/RickT_album/HEADLIGHTSFROMFRONT.jpg

http://i148.photobucket.com/albums/s13/RickT_album/HEADLIGHTCLOSEUP.jpg

http://i148.photobucket.com/albums/s13/RickT_album/DIRECTINFRONT.jpg

Your thoughts please...

RickT

RickT

[ini]

I would recommend one of the higher wattage (55W) HID kits, with a bulb colour between 4300-6000k.

[ciarank]

Next question...

I had considered uprating all the H7 bulbs (dipped beam, main beam, foglights) on my A4 S-Line as opposed to a HID kit, but if I were to take up the HID option, has anyone uprated dipped and main beams on their car?

If not, what did you uprate and why? I live in a rural area and main beam performance is important to me.
Thanks for your replies so far.

Ciaran K:beerchug:

[ini]

If you use HID's in the low beam, it is best to use a good uprated halogen or 'offroad' high wattage bulb for the high beam.

The conical shape of the high beam reflector means that even if an H7 bixenon kit was available, it would still blind oncoming traffic.

[Space Cadet]

This might be a little late, but – I’ve always used PIAA bulb in my non-xenon cars, they are fairly expensive but the closest thing to HID from a ‘normal’ bulb. They draw the same 55w as normal bulbs but produce 110w.

The Chrome-Whites (think that’s what their called) are meant to be best, I tried them on my ‘old’ MK5 GTI and they were fantastic but they were quite a bit more expensive than next best in the range which I think were called Extreme-Whites, these again were fantastic and not that noticeably less bright than the Chromes but obviously were less money.

I changed the main and dipped bulbs, if you haven’t yet or aren’t going for the HID kit would definitely recommend the PIAA bulbs.

[Eshrules]

This might be a little late, but – I’ve always used PIAA bulb in my non-xenon cars, they are fairly expensive but the closest thing to HID from a ‘normal’ bulb. They draw the same 55w as normal bulbs but produce 110w.

The Chrome-Whites (think that’s what their called) are meant to be best, I tried them on my ‘old’ MK5 GTI and they were fantastic but they were quite a bit more expensive than next best in the range which I think were called Extreme-Whites, these again were fantastic and not that noticeably less bright than the Chromes but obviously were less money.

I changed the main and dipped bulbs, if you haven’t yet or aren’t going for the HID kit would definitely recommend the PIAA bulbs.

110W bulbs are not suitable for road use, if you get stopped by the police its an on the spot fine with points, not worth it IMHO :beerchug:

[Space Cadet]

I have never ever heard of anyone getting pulled over for incorrect wattage head-lights, but take your point that that there will be some law on the subject.

Presumably the dipped beam is not going to blind anyone whether its 110w or 210w because it is ‘dipped’, the main gets tuned off when traffic is on-coming so what’s the problem.

But at the end of the day it is/was only my opinion and giving another alternative to HID.

[RickT]

one thing to add.. the 110W burn at a higher temp, a friend of mine installed some in his Mk4 golf and these started to smoke because of the plastic shield around the bulb in the headlight unit..

If you are going to install them... leave them turned on for at least 15 mins amd smell the head light units to make sure they are not too hot..

Rick

[ini]

I ran high wattage 'off road' bulbs in my standard B5 A4 headlights for a couple of years, with no problems.

They do shed a lot of light, but from the front look nowhere near as bright as HID's (which are more point source in a projector)

I would regularly have the low beam on for over 7 hours with no adverse effects. (90W low beam)

Infact even though my HID's do appear whiter & brighter, the offroad bulbs somehow seemed to put more light onto the road, if that makes any sense.

[Space Cadet]

I’ve never had any problems before and have used the PIAA 110w bulbs in numerous cars: Saxo, 306, MK4 GTI, 1970’s Alfa Romeo Spider, MK5 GTI, Landrover and Elise.

Whether or not these are cooler than ‘standard’ 110w bulbs I don’t know.

The thing to do in the old days was to use heavy-duty higher output truck bulbs, may be these would produce higher temps.

I know that older cars might have a problem with ‘standard’ higher output bulbs as it will overload the wiring but the PIAA bulbs don’t actually draw any more current so they are ok in that respect.

[bushman_3]

I had some after market HIDs fitted but the light output was awful due to lack of focus, when I looked closely it appeared the bulbs were not seated properly but after an hour of hand squeezing I had managed to improve things so there was a visible cut off but I'm still not 100% convinced they are fully home - especially looking at your photos above. reading other threads it looks like the bumper has to come off to get the lamp units out to enable me to really see what's going on, is that really the case or does anyone have a better idea?:1zhelp:

[Karl]

after market hid kits arent emarked so arent legal anyways on the road, they only really work with a projector lens that uses a glass dome to make the beam pattern, as with reflector lenses they arent focused enough due to how they make the light (an arc through gas and not a filimant so the arc moves up and down changing the beam pattern)

im fitting some normal bulbs fitted with the same xenon gas to my head lamps next week, ran these in my old mk4 golf with a projector lense and had a brilliant beam pattern with no messing around too.

[bushman_3]

Hi Karl,

The kit I have is e-marked.
I bit the bullet yesterday and took the bumper (Bit of a faff but not as time consuming as I had imagined) & light units out to find that the plastic flange for the HID burners was too thick for the mount clips so would easily dislodge when inserted, 2 minutes with a file later the flange was suitable for the clips and burners were home correctly, haven't managed to confirm whether the beam pattern is restored fully yet but will rip these out and replace with PIAA chrome white bulbs if the HIDs are not right.


Rdgs Bushman