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Originally Posted by RM955I
Let's get this one out of the way please...I am not looking for a lecture on the legality of retro fit kits although I am sure someone will be unable to contain themself, ramming their view of legality, construction and use regs, and their view of people who use them, down my throat. I am a big boy and know the ins and outs of this.
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I'd be one of those, but respect you enough to abide by this.
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Normally I would just opt for some Xtreme Vision or Nightbreaker bulbs but these have a reduced lifespan and can prove costly.
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Yes. I personally find that dropping down to the Osram Silverstar II gives a useful increase in lifetime over the nightbreaker, at a much lower cost and only a small drop in useful light output. Cost/benefit is in favour of the silverstar.
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MY V70 seems to have an appetite for H7s, particularly the n/s lamp - all of the connectors seem fine and I can't understand why this is: I'm now on my 3rd bulb in 8 months!
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Use as daytime running lights means that the bulbs reach their life limit much quicker. However, there's also aspects of lamp design - a friend's Toyota Avensis also goes through H7s for fun.
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IF I fit a kit it will be an H7R kit, 4300 or 5000k canbus kit specifically designed for reflector lenses.
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May I offer an alternative? Your issue seems more to do with lifetime than output, and that's understandable. I think that the issue is, as I said above, the use of the lights as DRLs results in short lifetime (bear in mind that the specification of bulbs like nightbreaker is for about 100 hours of lifetime - that goes quick when they're on all the time).
So, if you move the DRL function away from the lights so they are only used as actual headlights, would that not fulfill your brief?
No, I'm not about to suggest some of those crappy LED DRLs off fleabay. There's a much neater alternative. You can swap out the utterly useless V70 foglights:
For the XC70 facelift LED DRL:
They are pretty much a drop-in replacement. Not my idea, but thanks to Itwontstopsnowin on swedespeed:
http://forums.swedespeed.com/showthr...Running-Lights
These are the parts you need:
https://www.wikingerparts.com/shop/v...light-31383204
https://www.wikingerparts.com/shop/v...light-31383205
Then there is a software update available which will move the DRL function to the foglights.
Yes, this is a little more expensive than an HID kit.... but I think it's a way better solution.