Xenon HID upgrades.

[buckster]

Hi....

What are people's opinion on this upgrade and which one would you guys recommend?

I read somewhere else on this forum these may cause problems with the display not appearing etc, not sure why?

Also, what would be the correct fitment for a 2003 T350C?

Thanks a lot for any help.

Bucks

[justin220]

I got mine off ebay, for around 70£ and i think they are H1 (Cant remember). I went for 6000K and think they look great!

[TVR Dan]

Might get some myself they hard to fit?

[justin220]

Nah not at all. Front wheel off, then there is a small access panel. Took me about half an hour for the first, then 5 minutes on the second once i knew what I was doing.

[j3gme]

Easy to fit but on some cars they do cause problems with the dash lights, spoke to Martin at RG who explained that the Ballasts cause an electrical noise when switched on and can (not always) effect the dash lights they can be very dim when on, he said they have replaced dash ecus wiring looms wrapped and earthed the ballasts in foil,but this had little or no effect the only thing is to switch the lights on before starting the car. Just to add its not always a problem just now and again.

[stub101]

I also have the HIDS fitted to the dipped beam on my 2004 T350C - They are Great and a huge improvement over the standard bulbs (~1 candle power....)

However, I do sometimes have the intermittent problem of the pod backlight not working sometimes when the HIDs are switched on - there appears to be no reason behind this and it can be annoying but is liveable with.

But, I now also have another problem where sometimes (mainly hot restart) my HIDs do not fire up at all. This hasnt been too bad over summer but now its geting darker on an evening I am worried about being stuck with just my sidelights to drive home with!

I got mine from Aceparts and they are brilliant, and had no problems for the first 8 months but now they are being temperamental. The guy at Ace has sent me a free brand new set to swap which I will try tomorrow to see if they are faulty (excellent service I may add) and hopefully that will solve the latter problem.

BTW I have 6000k on my Blue car and tey look awesome (when they spark.....), but you only really need a step down from this for true white xenon.

HTH

[buckster]

Thanks for the comments...

I bought a set from xenonshop.co.uk rated at 6000.

Cheers...

[need4power]

Can someone please tell me which bulbs a t350 uses cos was thinking of upgrading

[j3gme]

H7 Headlight Bulb

[need4power]

Cheers, thanks for your quick response

[TRP]

Just a warning that the legality of retrofitting HID lights is very suspect at best. Have a look at this link http://hid.moonfruit.com/ I should also probably say your best to keep the colour temperature down if you do for them. This is as anything over 6000k would be illegal in its own and would tend to get the police looking at you.

[nelly1]

TRP said:

Just a warning that the legality of retrofitting HID lights is very suspect at best. Have a look at this link http://hid.moonfruit.com/ I should also probably say your best to keep the colour temperature down if you do for them. This is as anything over 6000k would be illegal in its own and would tend to get the police looking at you.

I think some pertinent questions would be:-

As TVR offered HID bulbs as an option, did they do the necessary R&D to make the reflector design and therefore beam pattern legal?

Did the cars fitted with HID as standard have different reflectors?

Has anyone who has retro-fitted these bulbs had problems passing an MOT for beam pattern?

How did TVR get around the requirement for levellers / washers?

Are the above questions negated by the fact that the HID option was only available on main beam?

[davidLO]

We had a set of 6,000k H4 dual xenons put into my wife's 05 Tamora just after we got it 18 months ago (the H4 is a twin filament bulb - dipped and main in one) - bought them from HIDs Direct, who trade off ebay, who are very helpful.

They're very effective and make main beam virtually unnecessary, not difficult to fit, and the ballasts that run them are now tiny so it should be even easier, plus they're cheaper than when we got them.

Car's shown no related electrical gremlins (well, no more than usual! ) and has been through an MOT since without a problem. The boys in blue have never shown any interest either, BUT I'll be honest and say that I don't know the strict legalities re washers, adjustment and all that malarky. But I did also buy an identical set for my Subaru Forester and that's been through 2 MOTs in the same time at a main dealer - all they've said is how good the headlights were and asked me what I'd had done to them!

If we were doing it again though, we'd probably go for HID only on dipped and leave main as normal bulbs (even easier on T350 & Tuscan with separate units) - main reason being that HID take a few seconds to get up to full brightness - not a problem when you're starting off on a journey, but can be a right royal pain when trying to flash some dozy eejit out of a side road!

Also might be worth going with 4,300k HID as they're even brigher and still look good - fitted a single 4,300 to my KTM SuperDuke and it's fantastic.

Hope that helps