Tamora headlight replacement and HIDS

[nightSpirit]

You'll no doubt be hearing lots more questions from me until I get up to speed with the cars!

The stock headlights on the Tamora are supposed to be poor I've heard. Ebay traders sell 6k kits with ballast etc for £100 shipped. I'm handy with the electrics and other bits on a car so fitting should be ok...is this a worthwhile purchase? anyone bought from elsewhere?

The headlight plexi/glass seems to be held on with sealant? is it easy to pop these off, clean them up and refit with some decent tigerseal or similar to stop flies/condensation getting in there (I've seen 4 Tam's now and ALL have grotty old sealant on the headlight covers)

New front badges, are these simply popout (or wriggle off) the old and stick the new one in place?

[dvs_dave]

The headlamps on the Tamora are not projector types so fitting aftermarket HID's is a bad idea. There'll be so much light scatter that you'll not only not pass an MOT with them, you'll annoy every oncoming driver and rain/fog/snow will reflect badly back at you.

Best bet for reflector type lamps are those Osram "Night Breaker +90%" bulbs and the like.

[shep1001]

Sorry to contradict you Dave but HID’s will work fine on the Tamora without the associated problem you mention & pass MOT (mine passed in Jan).

I would keep it sensible and go for a 35w 5000k set giving a nice white light that lights the road well. Higher wattage and k value sets look st and do blind on coming drivers.

Regarding the light covers, they are quite fragile and don’t normally come off without a fight. Take your time and they will come off. If you crack them they are a sod to replace as the spares need to be ground to fit and the black band painting on them.

I use Sikaflex to bond the covers down and ambersil sealant to seal the gap between the cover and the body.

Nose badge is a stick on jobbie but you might be able to get meta badges but not sure. Racing Green stock them IIRC

Edited by shep1001 on Thursday 20th May 16:03

[dvs_dave]

shep1001 said:

Sorry to contradict you Dave but HID’s will work fine on the Tamora without the associated problem you mention & pass MOT (mine passed in Jan).

I would keep it sensible and go for a 35w 5000k set giving a nice white light that lights the road well. Higher wattage and k value sets look st and do blind on coming drivers.

Regarding the light covers, they are quite fragile and don’t normally come off without a fight. Take your time and they will come off. If you crack them they are a sod to replace as the spares need to be ground to fit and the black band painting on them.

I use Sikaflex to bond the covers down and ambersil sealant to seal the gap between the cover and the body.

Nose badge is a stick on jobbie but you might be able to get meta badges but not sure. Racing Green stock them IIRC

Edited by shep1001 on Thursday 20th May 16:03

Ok, I know they will "work" but don't say you weren't warned. As I'm sure you know aftermarket HID's are illegal, and having them in reflector/diffuser lamps is the worst combo as they don't have a sharp beam cut-off and control, so "may" attract unwanted attention.

Don't let that put you off though.

[mycroft]

Don't know if my lights are standard but they seem fine to me , get your car first then worry about upgrades . Don't fret there will be plenty of things you can spend your hard earned cash on .

[Robertjp]

There is also a thread running in general TVR stuff for new badges if you are interested

[nightSpirit]

True,

Having driven one last night I didn't notice the headlights lacking..if it's a pain in the ass to remove the covers and get to the units to work on them then I may just go for better bulbs.

Am I right in that you are saying the front perspex light covers have to come off to get to the glass units behind? surely you can just get to the lamps themselves from the back?

[Madmatt V8]

I did my hid convertion the end of last year and the difference is amazing. No need to take out the plexi on the front, take of the front wheel and access the light from behind by removing the panel in the wheel arch. The whole thing took me about an hour but I did have mine up on a ramp. The only thing I will say is you get what you pay for with these kits so I went for a good quality one costing £200

[Targarama]

A lot of people have reported strange electrical problems (dash display for one) after installing a HID upgrade. Some seem to have no problems at all.

[Laser Sag]

Recently fitted HIDs to the Sag, relatively easy job, all plug and play. Then found funny things with the dash, it would dim the digital display each time I went to high beam until I couldnt see the display and then started to get warning messages on dash but no problem actually happening. Spoke to a few specialists and it seems that the power to the headlights goes through the electronics on the dash, with some cars no problem with others it can burn out components within the dash, £350 + repair.
Apparantly to make sure of no problems the wiring needs to be altered so that the main feeds and earths are taken directly from the battery and the existing wiring is only used to switch relays operating on the new feeds.
So that sorts out the next job to be done on the Sag.

[nightSpirit]

great,

thanks chaps!