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The mkiv Supra Owners Club

HID: Group buy!


Ray
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Hi there people…just gauging interest on HID kit group buy. This is the full kit and will be ready to install from the box including bulbs etc

 

Details of the kit itself can be found here:

 

http://www.autobulbsdirect.co.uk/product.php?productid=16386&cat=624&page=1

 

(please take time to check the technical specifications link aswell http://www.autobulbsdirect.co.uk/HID_specs.html )

 

This is a top quality kit and is very similar to the Phillips, not cheap Chinese made rubbish you will find on ebay. The kit will come with 1 year guarantee aswell.

 

Ohh btw you have a choice of either the 6000k or the 8000k …Basically 8000k means its more a blue light rather than the whiter light of the 6000k kit. Il leave that down to your personal preferences just be sure to mention the one you want.

 

Just to clarify the bulbs on this kit have a lifetime of avg. 3000 hrs which equates to approx 10 years driving.

 

Please state model of supra that you have i.e j-spec or uk spec (I may ask you all to clarify and check your bulbs to be 100% sure i.e HB4, H3 etc….)

 

Feel free to ask any questions.

 

Ok enough with the boring stuff! Lets talk about prices!!!

 

If I have more than 10 members the kits will be £195 + postage (approx £12). Kits can be collected from me (in London) if you wish ( which means you pay £0.00 postage :p )

 

1.Ray – 8000k – UK SPEC

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The reason I ask is due to an article on the internet, heres part of it.

 

More at http://faqlight.carpassion.info/hl-hid-kits.htm

 

HID kits for use in halogen headlamp systems:

 

Are HID kits "Plug and Play" as advertising says?

 

Experience has shown that upgrading a light system correct is NOT plug and play as every single HID kit pusher wants you to belive. There are one good reason to ask seller at least 10 questions before purchasing any kit: $500!

 

Who are the producers of HID kits?

 

US Manufacturers has decreased dramatically after DOT (Department of Transportation) started asking for samples summer 2003. Its obvious that any headlamp upgraded with a HID kit would not comply to original lamp specifications, and would therefor be considered illegal. Manufacturering and/or selling HID kits in the US risks civil penalties and obligations to return full purchase price to evry buyer of sold HID kits.

 

Kits are genrally made in everything from basements to half professional facilities. Its a small world:

Suvlights is in the CA, US. They do sell HID kits any more, but they have quite a few parts for doing all kinds of headlight upgrades, even connectors in loose weight.

Phoenix Micro-Lite Inc. (US) has disappeared from the web, but was early HID pioneers in the US. They are just mentioned for historical reasons.

Hid Kits is in TX, USA. Unlike all others, they make their own ballast. Evryone who tries doing that will get a lot of complains. Making ballasts for HID is not for amatures. It took Philips years to get develop a design that would last at least 10 years.

Autolamps are in the UK. They use Philips ballasts and bulbs only. Questions have been raised since 2004 if their kits has been put togther in Taiwan. Some skimping on relay quality has been found.

HANA, makes Vision kits, are in Korea. K2 Kits (10 out of 100 bulbs has been reported defective. After having quality issues with self made ballast and Osram ballast, Matshushita was tried for a while with execellent quality. Appearantly, they are now back a new version of their own ballast.) is a derivative product of Vision.

SIJ in Taiwan. Bulbs have been spotted with SIJ label. SIJ is made by the company Mycarr Auto Acessories Co Ltd., which rebases even Philips HID bulbs.

Xenon Werks is in Asia. Owned by MTC Lighting (Malaysia) SB. MTC Lighting also owns and operate the US based Hidforless. There has been quality issues with some hidforless kits.

PIAA are in Japan. They started up with light bulbs only. They have never been big on HID kits for headlamps. They are more known for their overpriced auxially lights. Wonder if they are going away from ligthing? Other automotive accessories like winshield wipers and storage boxes are now visible on their website.

BellOfHID are in Japan. Ther ballasts are made by Panasonic. Catz HID kits are basically relabled BellOfHID kits.

Xenon Depot is in Thornhill, ON, Canada. They seem to continue selling HID kits regardless of US regulatory changes in summer 2003.

Mtec-GmbH is in Frankfurt, Germany. They cooperate with Autolamps-online.com. They make the "Xenall" kit that are distrubuted around europe and Australia. They also sell highly effcient FF-lamps for LeMans cars. This must not be confused by the Japanese comapy Maruta Technology (also shorted MTEC)

 

Hanabi (unknown manufacturing contry - probably Japan. Hanabi means fireworks!) seems to have quality problems with ballast.

 

Who sells HID kit?

 

During mid 90s not many offered HID kits. At its peak, around 2002/2003, kits were sold in any automtive store. The amount is too big and varies to much to be able to mention them all here. They are sold throug all kinds of channels, through speedshops to ebay.com. Quality does not seem to be connected to how kits are produced. Very few, if any of hid kit companies are OEM suppliers of automotive lighting. Serious OEM suppliers do not sell non street legal hid bulb kits. They make street legal complete hid headlights (Examples: Hella/Sylvania). The volume of the HID kit marked are low. Margins are not as high as when kits was introduced during late 90s, when retail price could be as high as 1500 usd. Even thou price have come down quite a bit, do not expect a HID kit to get as low as filament bulbs. The manufacturing for HID systems will always be considerably more complex.

 

What is the best HID kit?

 

To be general, there is no answer to this question.

 

Different outcome for same application: All halogen housings are different, even if they use the same bulb type. Some housings require shielding, some dont. Some require custom shield. Some housings simlply cannot be retrofitted with HID

Application variance: A kit for lets say H1 from a certain kit manufacturer is excellent, but a 9006 kit can be really bad.

Production and quality variances: Even if you have bought the excact same kit 6 months ago doesnt mean you will get the same parts nor quality if ordered today. Some kits are hand made, some are partially hand made, some are totally automatically made.

 

The best thing to do is to talk to other people that has recently bought HID kit and has the same car as you. Be patient, ask about all the 13 qualities mentioned below. Do not rush into any group buys or auctions on ebay. Hang out on the Philips board, sign up on a car specific list like brickboard.com (Volvo), shotimes.com (Ford SHO) or torontoaccords.com (Honda Accord). Dont gamble away $500 on a HID kit as so many car enthusiasts have done.

How do I recognice that a HID kit is worth buying?

 

The base of the bulb is either custom molded in high temp plastic or rebased using high temp epoxy (not available in your local HW store!) using materials like stainless steel or aluminum.

Has high quality harness with the following specs: 105C degree rated insulation, 12-14AWG wire, relays fed from battery/alternator.

2 versions available, with or without shield - even for 9005/9006 and H7, not only H4.

Full instruction describing install process, where to (not) mount ballast, troubleshoting guide, including overview over experiences with the most popular cars.

Original bulb clip will still fit.

HID bulb does not occupy more space than an halogen bulb.

Purchase option for HID bulb return wire facing up or down. Select: For projector based only: facing down. Reflector headlights only: you should try both directions for best results or follow sellers recommandation.

Money back guarantee within 14 days or more - even if the bulb has been tried into a housing and has received no scrathes.

Splash proof ballast and connectors

 

How do I recognice that a HID kit is NOT worth buying?

 

 

Seller claims 200W light output. Light output is measured in lumens, not watt.

Halogen base glued onto a modified D2* bulb with low temprature (corner HW store) epoxy.

Lack of, too thin, or too low temprature rated, wireing harness.

Lack of relays, or incorrect wiring of relays.

No glare shield on the bulb. (A must for reflector based headlamps)

Vague or no instructions.

Lack of warning that stock clip might not fit.

Lack of warning that stock rear headlight cover does not fit due to lack of space.

Lack of information about how much deeper the HID bulb is compared to Halogen.

Lack of purchase option for HID bulb return wire facing up or down. Projector units only: if return wire faces up, it will create a bad shadow on the ground. Reflector headlights only: you should try both directions for best results.

Lack of return policy.

Insufficient water protection of ballast and connectors.

 

Description on how to approach problem areas described above is described by on this site.

Does Philips make HID conversion kit?

 

No, anyone trying to sell you a kit made by Philips USA is is a scam. Philips International has a world wide reputation to take of and will never make something that can be unsafe or illegal. Bulb and ballast might be made by Philips, but Philips will only be a 3rd party supplier of parts to the person or company that puts the kit together. As you can see in the "How do I recognice that a HID kit is worth buying?" section, there are more parts and ingenuety going into a high quality conversion kit. In early 2000's there were PHilips HID kits offered in Asia. Asia has a lot less laws and restrictions in the automtive sector than North America/Europe.

 

Does Hella make HID conversion kit?

 

No - for the same reason as above. See what Hella has to say about illegal retrofit kit.

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Guys,

As somebody who has aftermarket HID lights already I would seriously advise you to reconsider going for anything higher than 6000K.

The 6000K ones I have are a weird blue colour but any more coloured would look silly and very "max power". The higher up the K scale you go the less illumination they actually produce. Around 4200K is the brightest you can get.

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Are these their own make? Be interesting to see if anyone has used the kit already?

Maybe not related but I had a set of their own make H3 bulbs a while back (extreme white) and they were utter shite! Meant to give a brighter/whiter light but worse than the osram stock/originals.

 

Paul

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look at previous threads where most of these topics have been discussed already.....

Have we got a "hand bag" smiley?

 

INTERPOWER has not been mentioned before according to the search bar. Interestingly they measure their in Watts - which is bad according the bumf above.

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I wish someone had the kit so we could compare. The information i have realyed onto you is the information from the supplier himself and from what is advertised on the site.

 

The fact that this is a uk supplier and offers one year gaurantee surely gives some peace of mind.

 

Apparently he has sold over 600 off these kits and there hasnt been any problems with them so far.

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