Xenon Lights

I was interested in the HIDS4U stand at Brooklands because they offer a solution to the E24 problem of poor power from dipped beam. I have an image of the Soul Brother's car with one installed on nearside. The result in bright sunlight is good. Any body with any experience?

They can be contacted at http://www.hids4u.co.uk/default.asp and it was James Booth at the meeting.

 

Just found this post and thought i would now add to it as i have now fitted the lights.

Quite frankly they are amazing. They are brighter than full beam, but don't dazzle on comming cars. Took it for an MOT the day afterwards and the car passed no problems. Was a bit of a pig to fit as i had to modify the aluminium unit at the back of the lights to get the HID unit through, but well worth the effort.

James

Simon,

I bought the most espensive kit Ian does using the Hella Ballasts. I also specifies the 4100kelvin bulbs as these are the original equipment BMW colour of bulb which is pure white. The higher the number the more blue and then purple the lights become which actually gives you less light. I had the kit for about 2 months from the Brooklands day and then i attempted to fit it myself. Having never done this sort of work it took me a long time 5 hours to fit. However don't let this put you off. Doing anything with lights on a six series is difficult and usually involves cutting your hands, disslocating fingers etc due to the difficulty of access.

On the six there are aluminium backing plates that screw an 8th of a turn onto the back of the reflector unit. inside these units there is a plastic adapter that allows the wires from the lamp and bulbs to be plugged into the loom and plugs into the back of the aluminium backing plate. Outside of this aluminium backing plate is a rubber water proof cover that goes over the top.

To fit the zenons i did away with the plastic conector and hard wired each wire individually which is a bit messier, but was needed as i had to drill a hole in the aluminium backing plate so that the xenon lighting unit cable and bulb could go to the the headlight. This was the hardest job and took me about 3 hours to do one side. The other side was done in 30 mins as by now i actually knew what i was doing. I also had to cut a larger hole in the rubber cover for the zenon wiring. Once this is done and i advice that it is done first then you have to decide on a location for the Ballast unit. I looked for a location that had the smallest chance of getting wet. On the drivers side that was the inner wing, and on the passengers side it was underneath the headlight unit next to the battery. Once all conected the battery was reconected to check that i had wired things up correctly. The next day the car had it's MOT and passed no problems.

I hope this helps.

 

James

No problems.

Lights are fantastic. You won't regret getting them. Every car i get from now on i will ensure has Xenon's. They are that good.

James

pm9575 wrote: Sorry to ask a stupid question, but I thought HID's were a legal no - no unless you had permanent headlight washer and means of self levelling? Have I missed some vital text in the previous posts? (Reading was never a strong point of mine Regards, pm9575

I thought this was the case and did a fair amount of research to verify. I contacted the DVLA who could not give me an answer and suggested i contacted the Vehicle Licensing agency. Again they could not give me an answer so i then was sent to contact VOSA. Again they could not give me an answer so i went to my local MOT tester and he said that lights are only tested to check they work and that they don't dazzle. The police will only pull a car over if it feels it's lights are miss aligned.

So in a nutshell i could not find any written documentation on the legal requirements of HID lights and my car passed it's MOT first time. If you are unsure you can go through the same question process as i have and i am sure you will get similar replies. Anyway it satisfied my questions.

James 

Good arn't they. I still feel nervous when i turn them on that i will blind people, but have not been flashed once and have asked people to drive in front of me and tell me if they dazzle and not one has found them any brighter in that sence then any of the new cars with xenons.