Electrics: HIDs in my 850R

[dooby]

Hi folks,

well I finally got around to installing my HIDs. Just a fairly cheap kit from China or Hong Kong but they work well.

Installation was much easier with the headlamp removed, and to be honest getting those 3x 10mm bolts out is probably the hardest part :-)

Once the headlamp was out, I removed the cover for the dipped beam bulb (the dipped beam bulbs are nearer the outside edges of the car).

This needed a 25mm hole drilling in it to push the wires in grommet through. Because our headlamp covers are quite thick, once I'd used a hole saw to drill the 25mm hole I realised the other side of the grommet (engine bay side) wouldn't sit right. I decided I needed to drill the remaining bits of plastic on the engine bay side out to 32mm with another hole saw.

This went better on the other one, and I used a drill press to make things easier.

The other modification needed (and this is important) is the retaining wire clip will need some careful bending so that it can hold the thicker bulb base in place securely. If you don't bend it and just try and force the clip back in with the thicker HID bulb base you run a real risk of snapping the bulb base :-)

For my 1997 MY 850R both bulbs (dipped and main) are H1 by the way.

I found some convenient places to mount the ballast boxes and checked everything was working.

Once it was properly dark I went for a test drive. No warning lights popped up about blown bulbs, and the 6000K bulbs are a crisp white colour - not too blue. I can clearly see the headlamp pattern cutoff on the road ahead looking a bit like this ASCII art:

___
     \ ____

I didn't get a single flash from oncoming traffic so I believe my Nivomat rear suspension is making a good job of keeping the beam level.

All in all, a mod I wish I'd made earlier.

I've left the main beam conventional Halogen (Osram Silver Stars) and they're very yellow by comparison! I think I will leave them, but might invest in some white LED sidelights (which also look very yellow next to the dipped beam).

Anyway, maybe this post will help someone else make the decision to try it :-)

Cheers, Pete

[Geezer]

Got any before and after pics...could be helpful for others thinking about this mod.

[JD.7]

Hi Pete,

one of the local R drivers put 6000`s in his V70 R recently , at our last meet we were parked next to each other. he put his on and i put mine on the same setting. did mine look like they were full of tango or what

glad you have done it as my brother was thinking of putting them on his 850 R

[dooby]

Hiya,

no before photos I'm afraid and I had a little accident with my camera and my car door so it might be a few days till I can get an after photo!

I'll see what I can do though...

Cheers, Pete

[y2blade]

Originally Posted by dooby

Hiya,

no before photos I'm afraid and I had a little accident with my camera and my car door so it might be a few days till I can get an after photo!

I'll see what I can do though...

Cheers, Pete

lol i saw your banana shape camera on saturday,good to meet you good work on the HIDs

[Terminator]

I have recently fitted a cheap ebay kit to my P1 V70R. I managed to source the 55W kit for about £70 delivered from China and was impressed by the quality and ease of fitting. The 55W kits mean that you do not get the bulb out warning message so do not need to fit an in line resistor.

A very worthwhile mod which greatly increases brightness, but do get the beams adjusted at your local MOT centre once fitted.

[Nunchukhamster]

With the application of the hole cutter in a different place (i.e. not on the dustcap), you can actually hide the entire HID install on a P1 car out of the way. There is a 6000K HID install in the light in this picture...

[symonab]

Do you have a price and source of the HID's?

Sy

[dooby]

Hiya,

my kit was a cheap and cheerful one like this:

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.d...m=290255699148

Cheers, Pete