Jump to content
The mkiv Supra Owners Club

HID Lights


merckx
 Share

Recommended Posts

Just fitted my 5000K HID system that I received earlier in the week.

 

The bulbs are fitted with two "O" rings, you have to remove the outer one when fitting to the facelift car.

 

I found the "O" ring was just too thick and the fit would have been far too tight , best to take the "O" ring off the original bulbs and fit to the HID units.

 

Everything else was okay and was easy enough to install.

 

I went out for a drive last night along a particularly bad lit road, I must admit I was very disappointed with the performance. The colour of the HID units makes the view clearer but they don't penetrate into the darkness any further than the original lights.

 

I think this is down to the bad design of the dipped beam lense and not the HID kit.

 

I had the car parked on the drive with the headlights on and the beam of light is absolutely pathetic, maybe 4" wide .

 

Thinking about putting them in the main beam lenses instead and adjusting the beam if I need too. :cry:

Link to comment
Share on other sites

It might be the alignment of my lights, like to hear from anyone else who's fitted the kit.

 

I cannot take any pics at the moment as someones borrowed the camera.

 

I should have taken the before and after shots. :mad:

 

When I said the light beam was pathetic, It's just the same as before which you would expect as the reflector in the lamp is just the same.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Sorry, I have got the 5000K version.

 

I'm sure the kit will be okay, I've just done a search and someone else fitted these and their alignment was way out.

 

I'm going to try and adjust them later on.

 

For the facelift lights it's best to remove both "O" rings and fit the one from the original bulb. :)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Mine is the 5000k version - you've said 4k above...which do you have?

 

If I have time I'll fit it today...however I will now change my priorities for today to stuff I know will benefit the car

 

 

 

Mine are 5500K and the beam pattern, depth of field and overall visibility are far superior. I fitted mine one at a time so I could tell if any perceived changes were subjective and related to the cost effect on judgement.

 

 

 

The other night my son drove the car in the rain and he commented on how amazing they were . He wants a set now:(

 

 

 

I have some 100/130 watt bulbs on one of my other cars, and up until my HID install on the MKIV, were the best lamps I had seen. My HID give better dipped illumination

 

 

 

When I fitted mine I did make a mistake the first time and did not get the bulb fully home and the beam looked pathetic and very narrow. Are you sure these bulbs are the correct fit. It sounds a bit odd that you had to swap the O rings. A good kit should a straight swap for the JDM bulbs and be a simple plug and play.

 

 

 

Which HID kit do you have? There are some cheap kits about that are not as good the top kits?

 

 

Edit - sorry I see you have face lift lights.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

When I fitted mine I did make a mistake the first time and did not get the bulb fully home and the beam looked pathetic and very narrow. Are you sure these bulbs are the correct fit. It sounds a bit odd that you had to swap the O rings. A good kit should a straight swap for the JDM bulbs and be a simple plug and play.[/color]

 

 

Which HID kit do you have? There are some cheap kits about that are not as good the top kits?

 

 

Edit - sorry I see you have face lift lights.

 

The bulbs came with two "0" rings fitted so they'll fit the facelift lights aswell which have a smaller aperture in the headlamp housing , you just remove one of the "0" rings. The remaining "0" ring was a little fat so I replaced it with one off the original bulb. They aren't quite as snug a fit but they are okay.

 

The kit was part of the recent group buy, all the components are Philips.

 

I can only put it down to the allignment, everything else appears to be okay.

 

Hope I can get them setup and working good like yours. ;)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I had it installed in less than 1 hour, without taking the headlights out of the car. I didn't make a permenant fix yet as I don't want to drill into the car or the light case.

 

The Light is better then the orginal normal bubs and I can see the road much better then the normal. In terms of how far you can see in the dar then yes, the new kit is not much futher but I have to say it is because I fitted it in the dipped beam and it is not pointed high enough.

 

I can see a lot more on the road now, I start to see stuff like cig butts and chewing gum on the road at 30mph!!! I am impressed with the HID. However I do want to try and play with the allignment can anybody tell me how?

 

The beam should not be wider then the orginal bulb I would have think? Why should it be if it is a straight swap and using the same toyota lense in the headlight.

 

here are some photo, they are taken in bright daylight so bare that in mind when thinking about the intensity

 

image

 

image

 

image

 

image

 

China

Link to comment
Share on other sites

 

The beam should not be wider then the orginal bulb I would have think? Why should it be if it is a straight swap and using the same toyota lense in the headlight.

 

China

 

I know, the light design isn't very good though for your main driving lights.

 

I couldn't find much on the adjustment:

 

http://www.mkivsupra.net/vbb/showthread.php?t=15631&highlight=headlamp+alignment

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Ooh, I was looking at getting some of these!

Surely the lens/reflector can't be that much of an issue as Termi has the same setup with HID and has better results?

Are they actually Philips parts, even if marked up as such some far east factories will mark things up regardless?

 

If you ain't happy then didn't this GB have a money back guarantee?

 

Paul

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Ooh, I was looking at getting some of these!

Are they actually Philips parts, even if marked up as such some far east factories will mark things up regardless?

 

Paul

 

The only part I'm not sure about is the bulb, they came in a plastic box with a sticker on the front. There were no markings on the bulb at all which doesn't look right for genuine Philips parts.

 

I'll try adjusting them when it gets dark.

 

Here are some pics I took the other day. :eek2:

 

 

http://img54.exs.cx/img54/5503/bulbcase2wb.jpg

 

http://img54.exs.cx/img54/8482/bulbjpg5bn.jpg

 

http://img54.exs.cx/img54/7828/ballastjpg1qs.jpg

Link to comment
Share on other sites

A lot of JDM cars have lights adjusted too low. After SVA mine was at the low end of the limit on MOT, it is now at the high end. HID kits give a much sharper beam cut off so if your lamps are too low you will notice it a lot more.

 

 

I think quite afew of us have HID and have very good results. The kit I got on GB is the same as that sold by Dtwits for £590 per pair. We looked into quite a few HID kits some costing half of the price of kits we finally went for and you could see the difference between the low cost and high cost kits. Some did not give any better results and 50% brigher bulb kits from Halfrauds. I guess aftermarket HID is a huge market so the inevetable low end product will swamp the market. As always you get what you pay for.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

You will prob find that the bulbs in reality are all the same make...on whichever unit you buy and infact the ballest units are the unique componant...though some ballest boxes are cloned and have been labled up for different companies where as the componants all come from a subsidery of Panasonic in most cases...but asembled on different assembly lines, from what I understand.

 

The ballest Box on the Phillips looks a bit more watertight then the manufacture that made mine...mine failed and had to be replaced by Paul Whiffen....which took us a year to battle out...then he replaces them and gives me two that dont work...so I only have one set that work....but these are working at the mo...so cant be arsed to stand outside his big wooden gate again pleading for him to let me in and no offer of a nice cup of tea either lol.

 

Have to say there is a huge difference in light on the ones I have, so bulbs are certainly upto the job...not sure how long the ballest boxes will last this time!

 

No point in the full beam really...just more to go wrong IMHO.

 

You Live And Learn aye!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

When I fitted my HIDs I noticed the same "ok-ish performance. Luckily my friend has been an automotive electrician and showed me that the resistance of the car's wiring was reducing their effectiveness.

 

So instead of just clipping them into the usual lamp loom, we made another wire direct from the battery and added a few relays that sync'd with the orignal toyota switching mechanism (Which is a negative relay btw).

 

What this meant was that instead of the HIDs looking ok, they were a dazzling pale blue.

 

I suppose it makes sense when you think about it, the inferior electrical cabling (thin wires) and the sheer length of the existing wiring (battery, cockpit, engine) all added up to little perfomance increase when originally fitted.

 

I was more than happy with the result, night driving was so much easier and with the UK headlamps (bought direct from toyota) the car looked like it had received a facelift.

 

Then I sold it :(

 

But the new one will get the same treatment. ;)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Oh dear - I have also got a set of these waiting to go into face lift headlights - so I don't have any old bulbs or 'o' rings. So a little worried now - although Matt 'McGuyver' Harwood is gonna be doing the fitting so if theres a way to get em to work well...

 

Keep us posted guys - when you fit em.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

You will prob find that the bulbs in reality are all the same make...on whichever unit you buy

 

I've done a lot of research into the different HID kits on the market and found that there is a big difference between the bulbs used and the build quality of the ballast, wiring and connectors.

 

Terminator and I looked at lots of different makes and I tested them all in my car and there is a significant difference between them. In the end we went for the ones that gave the best results. The photo's that Terminator posted a few weeks ago show just how good they are.

 

The HID kit that Terminator and I got were purchased from the tuner I use in Hong Kong and are a fraction of the equivalent UK prices.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

middle of the engine bay

 

Not the middle of the engine where is hot, somewhere at the side where the inlet for the windscreen wash is.

 

Possible to meet up and compare the HIDs we got? I don't really have anything to compare to. If it is really crap then we can swap bulb and see if there is a way to solve the problem?

 

China

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I was just thinking (dangerous I know) but why not just get the UK glass headlights then they will fit plus they are glass and you get more light.

 

I have to say mine (From Paul Whiffen) are ok, they give off a slight blue light, i have no idea what tempeture they are though If i point a light meter at them i guess it will tell me, might try that tommorow...but i have to say they are a very good improvement.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.
Note: Your post will require moderator approval before it will be visible.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Restore formatting

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

 Share

×
×
  • Create New...

Important Information

We have placed cookies on your device to help make this website better. You can adjust your cookie settings, otherwise we'll assume you're okay to continue. You might also be interested in our Guidelines, Privacy Policy and Terms of Use.