Hid Transformation

I have just fitted a HID conversion on my xm, and I can't believe the transformation. The light is so much brighter, and whiter, with a better spread of light. I can't recommend these conversions highly enough. I got mine from a seller from china on ebay called 2flage for £56 all in. It's a quality piece of kit.

This post has been edited by magic carpet on November 17, 2007 12:29 am

is this a proper HID Kit with the box that "ups" the voltage?

Or is it just HID look a like bulbs??

For £56 that is incredibly cheap!!

**Goes to scour ebay**

Have you got a link to your item at all?

EDIT: I have just had a look at the item, and it says that each kit contains 2 H1 style head light bulbs, on the series 1 XM, it has 4 H1 head light bulbs, does this mean that i would need 2 kits?

Regards

David.

This post has been edited by David Hallworth on November 27, 2007 05:07 pm

Hi David

Price is about right £25 plus £25 p&p seems typical. I bought another couple of sets from HK a few months ago for £102. They came within a week no problems. I see if I can find the site.

Regards

XMexc

Mine came from Hong Kong (china) too, I paid around £70.00 but would happily have paid double this if I'd have known how much better the lighting would be !

I bought the 4300k bulbs - closest to natural daylight without the silly blue or yellow or purple effect that the local youfs seem to love in their clapped out japcrap (mumble grumble hope their bass boxes explode grumble...) Worth every penny... Colin.P

Hi All

Last night in the spares heap I found a couple of headlight lenses that were nicely yellowed so I did a few checks. One very interesting feature was that when pure white light was shone through them all evidence of yellowness dissappeared with them not cutting out any light. It would seem that the wavelength of the light source is very important to the effectiveness of XM headlights. Ordinary Quartz halogen bulbs as they age give out a very yellowish light that I suspect is just the wrong wavelength and is heavily filtered by a yellowed lense. Osram Silver Star bulbs seem to produce a whiter light and I suspect the wavelength is just a bit higher so yellowing of the lense has much less effect on the light output. HID lights have a very tight wavelength output band compared to Quartz Halogen bulbs. Also most HID sets also take the wavelength of the light much higher so the yellowing has virtually no effect. From this I would not recommend using the Yellow output 3000K HID bulbs in an XM headlight. Most of us have fitted either 4300K (White light) or 6000K (Bluish White light) HID sets to our XM's and been very pleased with the difference they make.

Regards

XMexc

Hi David,

You'll only need two sets if you intend to change both dip and main beam lights and most people change only the dip lights.

I changed both on my V6 and whilst the light output on main beam is brilliant - I chose that word with care - I wonder at the advisability of continually switching them on and off during dipping sequences.

My estate has just the dip lights changed and I don't intend to do the main beams, Osram silver stars will do for those.

I started off with 6000K bulbs but didn't like the blueish light so they got relegated to main beam, I find the white light of the 4300K bulbs more suitable for my eyes although you should be aware that they are all blueish when first switched on. As you probably know, the main beams can be turned on with the ignition off, whereas the dip lights need ignition on. When demonstrating them to a relative I turned the main beams (6000K) on, discussed them then turned the ignition on and lit up the dip beams (4300K) so I could show the difference in colour temperatures, to my chagrin the newly turned on dip lights were noticeably bluer (is that a word?) than the dips. But as we watched they changed to white.

Derek

That's interesting John, perhaps I had better not throw my lenses away. They dont actually look to bad out of the lights and certainly improve the light distribution.

Also interesting from Derek - nothing like a live comparison. I think MOT testers frown on HIDs on main beam, because of the delay in reaching max brightness.

Peter.N.

Thanks for the input guys.

I have one more question....

What is the difference between the kit that is advertised on eBay that you guys are using when compared with the ones that PTS Developments sell for £205 delivered??

I am 99% sure that i am going to get a set now, just need to see where from.

Regards

David.

Hi David

Probably about £150!! My cheap Chinese HIDs have lasted 12 months without a problem and I'm sure plenty of other members have had similar experiences,

Regards Ken

This post has been edited by kenhall1202 on November 28, 2007 02:50 pm

Hi David,

They probably roll off the end of the production line in the same factory, the only real difference is probably a better translation on the instructions on the expensive ones!!!

John

Do you mean they've broken down now, or that you've have had them for 12 months now?

cheers
George

Apologies if my post was ambiguous - I'll put it another way. My 12 month old Chinese HID conversion has not given me any problems and the lights are still going strong - hows that?

Ken

From my experience they are good quality kit, even the box is well made, and you get an excellent set of Hong Kong stamps. Mine arrived labelled "Birthday present - no value"!

Derek

The kit i got was the 6000k, the light output is very white, with a tinge of blue, but barely noticeable. I work as an electrician and these kits are basically downsized metal halide lights used to light large spaces in factories, railway stations etc. The lifespan of a typical 250 watt metal halide lamp is around 3-4 years of continuous operation. The lifespan of an equivalent 1000 watt filamented halogen lamp is 1000 hours, or similar to a tungsten filament lamp fitted in the home. Similar rules apply for the lifespan of the 30 watt equivalents fitted in the hid kits, to get anywhere near the output you need a 100 watt halogen bulb, but with nowhere near the lifespan of the hid bulb. Gas discharge lamps beat any filamented lamp hands down for light output and efficiency, and have been used in industry for years, it was only a matter of time they filtered through to vehicles.
The use of them on full beam is not required, as you will need to flash people from time to time, this is no good as the bulbs take a few seconds to warm up, redering this feature pretty useless. I intend to fit xenon gas filamented bulbs on full beam to match the colour better.
My friend has just got a kit for his nissan fitted with H4 bulbs, these are the bulbs with dipped and full beam in the same bulb. The way around this problem is for the hid equivalents to have a moving diffuser inside the bulb, when you flash or switch to full beam, the diffuser moves very quickly to allow the light to shine into the full beam area ahead of you. The H1 kits have no such problems to overcome, therefore are a bit cheaper.

After my experiences with Pilot HID (broken ballast - sent for repair but still no return and no refund - 4 months now. I've kinda given up e-mailing them as I get no responses now). I cannot recommend them.

I've just received a cheap Chinese kit for £39. Pay in dollars through paypal as the pound is very strong at present. Quality seems as good as the Pilot kit.

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/HID-XENON-C...12809QQtcZphoto