HID ~Replacement - quick question on Ballasts?

[Tizzy]

Happy New Year All. ! (At least I hope it will be at some point!!??)

As mentioned before in December I fitted the HIDS4U HID upgrade on my 996. I used the 35w ballast version and it is a significant improvement over the Halogen dipped beam, though a long way short of the LED’s on my daily driver Range Rover. However HIDS have confirmed that the Xenon bulbs are the same regardless of the ballast used and for a ”mere” £29 I could change to 55w ballasts which are according to them significantly brighter. The question to you all is has anyone any experience with 55’s and did they cause any issues or fault lights as I believe they take an initially higher voltage than the 35’s on start-up? Also if you have 55 experience are they actually a lot brighter than the 35’s? Is it worth it I guess is my question?

Many thanks and much appreciated as always!

Chris

 

[Rodney Naghar]

Can you get a Lumens output figure from them to be able to compare the 35w vs 55w? That's an easy way to tell numerically how much brighter the light will be.

 

[PhilKent]

I bought and fitted a HID kit from D911 a couple of years ago. I'm not entirely sure, but I think they were 55w bulbs. Whatever, I was very disappointed with the result and ended up ripping it all out again and fitted some cheap LED bulbs. Much better (but still not a patch on modern projection LEDS).

 

[Tizzy]

Thanks Phil - I tried the LED option first and found them terrible - no Depth to the beam so you could barely see more than a few feet in front of you and that was trying several different bulbs including the more expensive Philips fan cooled ones. I’m really happy with the HID upgrade, just am used to very bright lights in our other cars I guess! Cheers Chris

 

[Jon_Dakeyne]

Following this post, is this upgrade road legal? Have you been through any MOT's with them fitted? Do you have headlight washers fitted?

 

[PhilKent]

Thanks Phil - I tried the LED option first and found them terrible - no Depth to the beam so you could barely see more than a few feet in front of you and that was trying several different bulbs including the more expensive Philips fan cooled ones. I’m really happy with the HID upgrade, just am used to very bright lights in our other cars I guess! Cheers Chris

Thinking back Tizzy, I do recall an intermitent error with the HIDS. in that occasionally they would fail to 'ignite' and be very dim. a quick off and on would sort the problem. I'm sure they were 55w units. But as I say they were never that bright in my opinion, the first set of LEDs I tried were at least as good and a better 'white' i.e. not blue! and because they still go through the projector lens the beam cut-off seems good I had no dash light errors though as I think they come with a canbus something or other...?
Passed two MOT's with them fitted now too...

 

[Tizzy]

Thanks Phil. I have had to replace the light switch, which is a common fault I believe, as the main beam often wasn’t coming on.


As for MOT’s I think it may be a little dependant on where you go. few new cars with LED lights now have headlight wash, the main issue is the self-levelling which you don’t have on a retrofit. I don’t think my MOT guy even noticed they were Xenon’s, he was just looking to see that the lights worked and weren’t shining high. I’ve not heard of anyone having MOT failures because of HID or LED retrofits.