Xenon up-grade

[Night Rider]

I have just picked up my Mk1 Tuscan from the boys at the TVR Centre after I had the dip lights up-graded to xenon. They have transformed the car at night, no more squinting or having the old light drowned out by passing cars.....and all for under £200. I will post some pics when I work out how.

[Whitey]

That sounds like the light I need in my life! Must discuss this when next in for a service.

[so called]

Mines in for a service now and I have this on my list.

[supercopa]

I'm going for a Xenon downgrade on mine (Tuscan S) because of french registration who told me to be careful about european laws on xenons. A car with xenons should have a washing system and an electric automatic levelling system both which the Tuscan don't have. So I need to put halogens instead of xenons on my P&J...

[tuscan_al]

Just fit them yourself. Its a half hour job per side, and the kit is now around £70 from HID4U.co.uk, makes such a difference. Im getting them for my Clio now too, as they are as bad as the Tuscan was..

[da_murphster]

tuscan_al said:

Just fit them yourself. Its a half hour job per side, and the kit is now around £70 from HID4U.co.uk, makes such a difference. Im getting them for my Clio now too, as they are as bad as the Tuscan was..

I was considering this but have seen so many price variations was not sure what to go for.

Are these cheaper kits decent? For that price I would propably do the full beam as well for those dark Welsh roads!

I was concerned that cheap kits could burn out/spark etc.

Edit: What kit did you go for? Do you mean £70 per side?

Edited by da_murphster on Wednesday 7th January 11:10

[da_murphster]

Having looked into this further hids4u.co.uk is recommended by quite a few but it aint as cheap as I thought.

There delux version (55w) comes in at £244 and the standard version (35w) at £146.

Is the extra power worth the money? I would probably not be able to justify the extra cost to do both beams - is it a waste not to get teh high beam done (thinking of spirited summer night drives in wales)

[custardkid]

£60 kit from Ebay is currently working fine (touch wood)

Custard

[Curdster]

The following are advertised quite heavily on ebay 310112407634.
Are they worth the small cost? If so, are the bulbs easy to change, and any tips on how to do it. Never tried before.

[da_murphster]

custardkid said:

£60 kit from Ebay is currently working fine (touch wood)

Custard

There is a 50w version on fleabay for £59.99 with 2 year warranty and 99.9% feedback.

I prolly need to look in to this more but it is tempting!

Whats the worst that could happen? Could they get very hot? Can they damage anything?

[PAINTERMAN]

sounds just like what i need in this weather am going to look into it ,thanks

[Whitey]

I only have two concerns with doing this:
1. I think from memory there was some talk of the T350's fitted with xenons played up a little.
2. If it's not a factory fit, there is probably more than just a quick fit to a Tuscan, as the factory will not(probably) have used very good capacity wiring in the first place.

As such I will have a chat with my dealer before I decide to fit it.

My Tuscan is so fast it does not need lights anyway

[custardkid]

the one with the pic of the E-class merc i think. let me know if you need me to dig out the details.

fitting:
lift bonnet
remove wing cover.
unclip old bulb
pull wires through rubber cover.
feed new wires through rubber cover
connect everything
clip bulb in
mount balast some where (bolted to inside of cover)

30 mins work

Custard

[da_murphster]

Custard - are your hids 35w? Do you reckon 55w would be unnecessary/anti-social?

Also is there plenty of room for the ballast - ie no need to get the slimline one?

Also Aceparts seem OK on fleabay and are offering ones that 'move' - ie one buld for high and low beam.

Seems too good to be reliable!

Edited by da_murphster on Wednesday 7th January 23:35

[aquatix]

As per custardkid, fitting is realtively easy. Apart from maybe a small cut on the back of the rubber boot (to feed wires through) there is no modification to the wiring loom, so the original bulbs can be refitted in future if necessary.

I got some for around £35 from fleabay plus £10 P&P, delivered from Hong Kong in 5 days. Exactly the same as the ones sold in UK which probably come from there anyway.

The ballast boxes come with a cradle which I just Sikaflexed onto the inner wheel arch (inside the 'hole'), so again no drill holes or any permanent damage if they ever had to be changed.

They draw a slightly higher current on start up for about a second, then quite a lot less than standard bulbs, so the wiring loom has a much easier load.

Well worth doing. Brighter & clearer, plus road signs flash up over half a mile ahead (along with the flourescent stripes on plod cars - even if tucked behind bushes )

[aquatix]

da_murphster said:

Custard - are your hids 35w? Do you reckon 55w would be unnecessary/anti-social?

Also is there plenty of room for the ballast - ie no need to get the slimline one?

Mine were 35w, and I reckon 55w would be too much as they produce a lot more light (lumens) per watt than normal halogen. Plus the initial start up current may be too high on 55w (but I stand to be corrected).

Loads of space inside for the ballast and wires are long enough to have a choice of mounting locations.

Same kits are now £36 (inclusive) or £44 depending who is selling them on ebay.

[da_murphster]

aquatix said:

Exactly the same as the ones sold in UK which probably come from there anyway.

I did note one respected UK HID company that professes to make its own sets - one of the customer comments on the site was the poorly translated Chinese-English instructions!

Who did you get yours from? Happy with the quality? £40 is a bargain if its OK.

Thought that might be the case with the 50w ones

[aquatix]

da_murphster said:

Also Aceparts seem OK on fleabay and are offering ones that 'move' - ie one buld for high and low beam.

Those dual HID bulbs are no good for the Tuscan (unless you split and upgrade the wiring loom). They are for cars with single headlamp each side (like the Chim) which uses one bulb for both main & dipped.

You just need one basic set for main beam (unless you have an 'S' spec like mine which already has them) and a second set for dipped (if you want to go the whole hog)

[aquatix]

da_murphster said:

aquatix said:

Who did you get yours from? Happy with the quality? £40 is a bargain if its OK.

Thought that might be the case with the 50w ones

I got mine from these (with 18 months warranty): http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/HID-XENON-CONVERSION-KIT-BUL...

although these are a bit cheaper and look the same but only offer 12 months warranty: http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/HID-XENON-CONVERSION-KIT-BUL...

Quality seems fine so far (even good packaging) and all connectors have good waterproof boots. Instructions aren't necessary - just connect the red wire to the +'ve at your existing bulb and black wire to the other. The rest is obvious as the plugs are shaped, and you just have to mount the brackets for the ballast where you think best. I put mine high on the inner arch to avoid water ingress around the lenses.

[davido140]

Whitey said:

I only have two concerns with doing this:
1. I think from memory there was some talk of the T350's fitted with xenons played up a little.
2. If it's not a factory fit, there is probably more than just a quick fit to a Tuscan, as the factory will not(probably) have used very good capacity wiring in the first place.

As such I will have a chat with my dealer before I decide to fit it.

My Tuscan is so fast it does not need lights anyway

I wouldnt worry too much about it, the kits are all designed to work with the standard wiring in any car, I've installed "internet" kits on 3 cars now, including the Tuscan and no problems to report.

I'll be sticking some on the GFs fiesta when I get the time too.

HIDs actually use less power than the standard halogen bulbs, they come with a "ballast" (a bit like the igniter in a strip light) which is to regulate the voltage to the lamp. A typical HID "bulb" is between 10-18 watts, less than half a standard 40-50watt headlight. you certainly wont be frying any wiring. If the wiring is dodgey in any way it will just stop working, standard bulbs or HIDs.