Fitting a HID kit
Discussion
I'll be fitting a HID kit on Saturday and wondered from those who'd already done it (Verysideways?) where the best place is for the ballasts.
Is it behind the headlamp units (partly exposed to the elements) or under the carpet to the sides of the luggage compartment? Is drilling any holes in the bodywork a bad idea because of potential rust and to be avoided at all costs?
Is it behind the headlamp units (partly exposed to the elements) or under the carpet to the sides of the luggage compartment? Is drilling any holes in the bodywork a bad idea because of potential rust and to be avoided at all costs?
Thanks for the replies guys. The kit does include some double sided "stickybackplastic" cut to the same dimensions as the ballasts so I'll have a play about tomorrow to see where they fit best.
If people want a HID kit without spending OPC money, I bought mine from eBay for £69.99 from Xenon Lights Direct plus £20 for shipping so £90 all in. I was a bit dubious of the quality of such a cheap kit at first but decided to risk it and if it turned up and was shite I'd stick it straight back on eBay.
I'm aware that Hids4u have had a mention a few times on here so once it arrived I had a quick look on their website to see if there were any major differences between the two and this is what I saw....
Hids4u kit £209.99
Xenon Lights Direct kit £69.99
....and going by the pictures, I have to say that £140 is a lot to pay for a different box!
The ballasts in the kit supplied look slightly different, with just some German writing on them instead of a fancy sticker, plus there are also a pair of brackets to hold the ballasts and the previously mentioned sticky pads. All in all it looks good for the money.
To be fair, I haven't fitted the kit yet so will let you all know whether it was money well spent or money down the drain after the weekend.
If people want a HID kit without spending OPC money, I bought mine from eBay for £69.99 from Xenon Lights Direct plus £20 for shipping so £90 all in. I was a bit dubious of the quality of such a cheap kit at first but decided to risk it and if it turned up and was shite I'd stick it straight back on eBay.
I'm aware that Hids4u have had a mention a few times on here so once it arrived I had a quick look on their website to see if there were any major differences between the two and this is what I saw....
Hids4u kit £209.99
Xenon Lights Direct kit £69.99
....and going by the pictures, I have to say that £140 is a lot to pay for a different box!
The ballasts in the kit supplied look slightly different, with just some German writing on them instead of a fancy sticker, plus there are also a pair of brackets to hold the ballasts and the previously mentioned sticky pads. All in all it looks good for the money.
To be fair, I haven't fitted the kit yet so will let you all know whether it was money well spent or money down the drain after the weekend.
The £70 kit on eBay is just a pair of HID bulbs, ballasts & wiring, no shutter or anything like that and if you only buy one kit you'll only be able to do dipped beam. I guess if you want to do both dipped & main beam you could buy two kits and could fit two ballasts at a push but it'd be very tight in the left-hand wing due to all the extra pipework on that side (in a 993). The time for them to light up is negligible, less than half a second I'd say, but not "instant" like a normal halogen bulb.
It's dead simple to fit, you just pull the 2 wires off the back, unclip and remove your existing halogen bulbs, put the HID bulbs in their place using the existing clips, attach the two wires that previously fed your bulb to the thinner wires attached to the ballast and attach the thicker wires from the ballast to the connectors on the back of the HID bulbs. Everything is plug & play, with all connectors being different to each other so you can't get it wrong even if you wanted to! The kit is supplied with brackets and screws for the ballasts or huge double sided sticky pads. I just cleaned up the area where I wanted to attach the ballasts and used the pads to attach them inside the wings and they feel rock solid. The only thing that needs doing that isn't just plugging / sticking things together was drilling a hole in the back of lamp unit using a 23mm hole cutter to get the rubber grommet into that holds the 4 wires from the ballast.
The difference they make is incredible. I had my brother with me in the car last night and his comment was that it was like "driving in daylight"!
Here's a pic taken half way through the job so you can see the difference. (Admittedly it was taken with my phone which was all I had at the time so the quality is a bit shite.)
It's dead simple to fit, you just pull the 2 wires off the back, unclip and remove your existing halogen bulbs, put the HID bulbs in their place using the existing clips, attach the two wires that previously fed your bulb to the thinner wires attached to the ballast and attach the thicker wires from the ballast to the connectors on the back of the HID bulbs. Everything is plug & play, with all connectors being different to each other so you can't get it wrong even if you wanted to! The kit is supplied with brackets and screws for the ballasts or huge double sided sticky pads. I just cleaned up the area where I wanted to attach the ballasts and used the pads to attach them inside the wings and they feel rock solid. The only thing that needs doing that isn't just plugging / sticking things together was drilling a hole in the back of lamp unit using a 23mm hole cutter to get the rubber grommet into that holds the 4 wires from the ballast.
The difference they make is incredible. I had my brother with me in the car last night and his comment was that it was like "driving in daylight"!
Here's a pic taken half way through the job so you can see the difference. (Admittedly it was taken with my phone which was all I had at the time so the quality is a bit shite.)
wildoliver said:
Right, so is the halogen bulb that only last 5% of the time of the hid replacable? or is it part of the HID bulb?
I'm not sure of the set up on a 964 but on a 993 there are two separate H1 halogen bulbs, one for dipped that remains on all time provided your lights are switched on, and another for high beam that can be turned on or off as and when required or "flashed". If a 964 also uses a similar set up with 2 bulbs then you can replace the dipped beam with HID bulbs while leaving the main beam bulbs as standard halogens. So given that they're just a bog standard bulb that do blow from time to time then you can just replace it as normal. HID bulbs should last many thousands of hours as opposed to several hundered for the halogen, hence the "only lasting 5%". It is completely independent of the HID kit.
wildoliver said:
I can get my head around the idea of fitting 2 kits, but how precisely would you set one bulb up for dipped and another for main beam? not talking about wiring talking about how it mounts so doesn't blind traffic + will pass an mot when on dip.
Remove the old bulbs, put the HIDs in their place. They aren't free to rotate or move up & down as the base of the HID bulb is the same shape & size as the base of the halogen so there shouldn't be any need for an adjustment. Probably best get them checked though, just to be on the safe side.
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