Xenon or Halogen Lights..

[SymonsO]

Anyone got these on their mini? If so, how did you do it, buy the lights as a pack or change the bulbs? I havent got a clue how the units work so excuse my naive approach!

[FWDRacer]

Halogen Headlights - Replaces the sealed beam units (candles!) with a pair of headlights that take industry standard H4 Halogen bulbs. They consist of new buckets (bits behind headlight) complete with bulb holder and headlight glass. They slot straight into the Mini headlight adjuster set-up.
Simply unbolt the sealed beams, and put the halogens in and hook up the headlight connectors (including the sidelight lamp). Job done

I think Wipac sell them under the title "Quadoptic" and they are around £25 a pair. They are the best upgrade you make on a standard Mini's lighting system.

Genuine gas discharge Xenon headlights....errrrr, mmmmmmmmmmm. I don't think it can be done? I'm sure somebody will be along soon to tell me that it is a Mini... therefore it can be done, and I'm not up with the current "scene"...

Edited by FWDRacer on Wednesday 11th July 12:25

[Cara Jynwyth]

Get a set of 90/130W H4 bulbs. I haven't fitted mine yet but they are no frills megabulbs. About £12 for two. I'd consider your wiring also. Try em and if it gets hot, it might be an idea to fit relays.

I can't remember what bulbs I did have on the car before but they weren't standard and were the brightest headlights I've ever had on a car. Very white light.

I hear the 90/130's are amazing and the way to go. Illegal though on more recent cars (Post 79?)

[Cooperman]

I have to say that the Quadoptic headlights I tried were really not very good, even with 100w bulbs. True, they threw out lots of light, but not much of it down the road to see with!
The best headlights, IMHO, are the Cibie H4 conversion with the small sidelight holes in. On my '64 historic rally car I actually have the Hella H4 headlight units and they are also great. For spots I have 2 off Cibie Super Oscars, again with 100w bulbs. I have tried the blue Xenon bulbs, but they are inferior to the white ones and in some conditions (like snow) you lose definition with the blue. The ultimate spotlights I have used are the PIAA 8" with 130w bulbs - it's like "who turned the darkness off". Unfortunately I broke both of them when I had an 'incident' on a rally a while back and the Super Oscars were 'on the shelf' in my storeroom, so I fitted them instead. The best of the cheap headlight replacement units I have found are the 'Autopal' ones made in India. With 100w bulbs they are great, but the reflectors do go a bit yellowish after a few years. However, they are still much better in performance terms that the Quadoptics which I removed immediately after first fitting them - that's how bad they are.

[Fatboy]

FWDRacer said:

Halogen Headlights - Replaces the sealed beam units (candles!) with a pair of headlights that take industry standard H4 Halogen bulbs. They consist of new buckets (bits behind headlight) complete with bulb holder and headlight glass. They slot straight into the Mini headlight adjuster set-up.
Simply unbolt the sealed beams, and put the halogens in and hook up the headlight connectors (including the sidelight lamp). Job done

I think Wipac sell them under the title "Quadoptic" and they are around £25 a pair. They are the best upgrade you make on a standard Mini's lighting system.

Genuine gas discharge Xenon headlights....errrrr, mmmmmmmmmmm. I don't think it can be done? I'm sure somebody will be along soon to tell me that it is a Mini... therefore it can be done, and I'm not up with the current "scene"...

If you can get a Xenon kit for a MkII Golf, you could adapt it to fit a Mini (IIRC the lights are roughly the same size, and therefore would fit in the wings with some brackets knocked up from a breaker golf - though it has been a few years sinc I sat a MkII golf next to a Mini).



Bloody expensive though - you'd probably be better with a shitload of spotlights (Having said that, I like the idea of Xenons on a Mini... )

Edited by Fatboy on Wednesday 11th July 16:49

[Plotloss]

I like the idea of Xenons in a Mini however I'm not sure that the loom is up to it.

Mind you, nothing is impossible with equal parts lunacy and determination.

[Cooperman]

I have to say that with a 65 A/Hr alternator, Hella heads with 100W heads, plus two PIAA or Cibie Super-Oscars with 130W bulbs, it is just not possible to get a Mini to drive beyond the range of the lights, even though I've tried.
Remember to up-rate the wiring and fit one relay per light if going to really powerful bulbs, after all, you don't want to burn out the loom!

[Cara Jynwyth]

So, what are the brightest bulbs you can get, illegal or otherwise?

There seems to be a lot of hyperbole about bulb types. I just went for the biggest wattage possible.

[Fatboy]

Plotloss said:

I like the idea of Xenons in a Mini however I'm not sure that the loom is up to it.

Mind you, nothing is impossible with equal parts lunacy and determination.

I'm pretty sure the loom isn't up to the standard 1980's lights on my Mini

Wiring in a new section of loom via relays (if really lazy, just use the exisiting headlamp supplies to switch the new relays with a couple of well ventilated resistors and a couple of inline fuses for the new lights) would be easy enough, and given the laughable bodge job that is standard Mini wiring, it wouldn't look too non-factory

I've just found a MkII golf xenon conversion for £140, (http://www.awesome-gti.co.uk/vw%20golfmk2/lighting.html) looks like a good way forward

I probably need to give it some more thought though

[Cooperman]

What about the side lights?

[Fatboy]

Cooperman said:

What about the side lights?

I hadn't forgotten about those. Honestly

Erm, good question - IRRC the MkII Golf's sidelights were in the bumpers. Bugger. Could just fit a second indicator with a clear lens to activate on the sidelight switch?

[tomkidd]

Check out what this guy has done

http://www.minifinity.com/index.php?name=PNphpBB2&...

[Skyedriver]

Cooperman said:

What about the side lights?

Fit a Clubman type front.......should only take weekend or so

[Toady1]

you could fit an aftermarket HID kit that has balasts etc included. I did it to my mk4 golf, and they area awesome! Am considering doing it to the mini too! There is no need to uprate the std loom to fit them, as they draw less current than a halogen bulb as the balasts up the voltage to something silly iirc...

Sidelights use the separate bulb still.

[OrangeD]

Here's a Hid conversion kit from ebay, There's a number of other ones as well I just pick these as they were the first ones I found, just order a kit with H4 bulbs and there you have Xenon's for a mini and as above the side light is independant and there all legal,
some people will say you need headlight washers with HID
but you don't if there retro fitted, its only required if there a factory fitted opion
Cheer Marcus.

click here

[Mr2Mike]

The cheap H4 HID lamps for retrofitting into standard head lamps are really not very good. They throw out huge quantities of light, but the differing shape of the light source means that it is not possible to focus them perfectly so you tend to get a lot of stray light which dazzles other drivers. Many of the cheapo chinese ignitors tend to fail early as well.

[Cooper1999]

Put it into google. HID kots are available, to fit most (all?) cars and motorcycles too, and if the necessary boxes are small enough to be fitted to a bike they must be able to slot into a mini.

[love machine]

If the point is having headlights which burn paint of other people's cars, you may as well just fit relays and mega bulbs.

I can't see the point of this firkyfoodling which we are talking about.

I had some 100W bulbs and they were lovely for driving at night. Really lit everything right up. Nice white light too.

I have some of these

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/RING-H4-Rallysport-130W-Whit...

No buggering about with the 20% extra light from 65W, our new iodine metal reabsorption spectra inducing hyperconducting filaments..... These things just take 130W of electrical power and turn a lot of it into visible photons. You can cook with them

Edited by love machine on Monday 1st October 14:33

[Cooperman]

love machine said:

If the point is having headlights which burn paint of other people's cars, you may as well just fit relays and mega bulbs.

I can't see the point of this firkyfoodling which we are talking about.

I had some 100W bulbs and they were lovely for driving at night. Really lit everything right up. Nice white light too.

I have some of these

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/RING-H4-Rallysport-130W-Whit...

No buggering about with the 20% extra light from 65W, our new iodine metal reabsorption spectra inducing hyperconducting filaments..... These things just take 130W of electrical power and turn a lot of it into visible photons. You can cook with them

Edited by love machine on Monday 1st October 14:33

Agree absolutely. With 130W main beam bulbs plus a decent pair of spotlights (Cibie or PIAA), again with 100w or 130 w bulbs you'll never be short of light at night. Just up-grade the wiring and make sure you use one relay per 130w bulb. It's really very easy to wire up - takes just a morning.
Just don't get those 'orrible 'Quadoptics' though.