Upgrade your S40/V50 headlights to Bi-Xenon for £45

[LizardOfBodom]

Looks a bit odd now, but a bit more aggressive so not bad.
Would the new lens fit with plastic rings or not, and thats why you got rid of it?

I have just fitted mine (pics & details to follow another day as its not fully finished yet) and they fit perfectly with plastic rings on their place.

Can I ask you BTW:
- where did you place the ballasts&igniters? Those new projectors are more bulky and I cant fit all cabling inside the lamp anymore :/
- Did you deliberately left your driver side lamp a tad bit lower than p/s one? was reading about headlamp adjustment (as I have never had car with -__-__ pattern before) and proper allignment is to have them in same level. Lots of people choose to lower the d/s one, but even new cars with Xenons and LEDs are alligned in 1 line. Any experience from your side regarding this? (will be alligning mine soon so gathering all possible info

[Tannaton]

Originally Posted by LizardOfBodom

Looks a bit odd now, but a bit more aggressive so not bad.
Would the new lens fit with plastic rings or not, and thats why you got rid of it?

I have just fitted mine (pics & details to follow another day as its not fully finished yet) and they fit perfectly with plastic rings on their place.

Can I ask you BTW:
- where did you place the ballasts&igniters? Those new projectors are more bulky and I cant fit all cabling inside the lamp anymore :/
- Did you deliberately left your driver side lamp a tad bit lower than p/s one? was reading about headlamp adjustment (as I have never had car with -__-__ pattern before) and proper allignment is to have them in same level. Lots of people choose to lower the d/s one, but even new cars with Xenons and LEDs are alligned in 1 line. Any experience from your side regarding this? (will be alligning mine soon so gathering all possible info

The new projectors would not fit through the plastic bezels but there as only about a millimeter in it. I'm sure they could be carefully modified and retained.

The new projectors are no more bulky - as they sit inside of the original bowls there is no impact on space in the rear of the headlamp. I chose to mount the ballasts outside of the headlamp to keep the heat down, they do get slightly warm. At the moment they are just cable tied to something solid but I will do a more permanent job in due course.

As said in the post I marked my garage door with the old pattern and adjust the new ones to match. As the pattern is sort of ---\___ the LH is always lower than the RH as it is ---\___ ----\___ . It's the same on my XC60 with factory bi-xenons. I'm not saying this is exactly how it should be - but it got through the MOT beam test.

[LizardOfBodom]

Originally Posted by Tannaton

..
As said in the post I marked my garage door with the old pattern and adjust the new ones to match. As the pattern is sort of ---\___ the LH is always lower than the RH as it is ---\___ ----\___ . It's the same on my XC60 with factory bi-xenons. I'm not saying this is exactly how it should be - but it got through the MOT beam test.

gotcha, thanks for info.
Spent good 3 hrs yesterday fiddling with mine, not very happy cant get the beam right, even though projectors were perfect plug&play swap. Also couldnt figure out where to mount ballasts - will probably do same as you, just cabletie to something.
much more hassle than I thought :/

[mikester]

When I first got my V50 I put in HIDs which worked great initially but one bulb burnt out in a matter of weeks. I'd used the same kit on a previous vehicle and although I couldn't say for sure the issue was a manufacturing defect or similar I was more convinced the problem came from the 'always on'/daylight running design. More over the fact the bulbs are on before the engine is started, thus turning over the engine somehow diverts or surges power through the ballasts, you can tell because the bulb brightness changes as it did with halogen bulbs through the stating process before returning to normal when the engine has started running.

Anyway I asked the local dealer to disable the daylight running function, ie so you'd have to turn your headlights on and off like in a non Volvo environment but it was £80 for the privilege so I left it and went back to normal bulbs.

Have you made any exceptions for this? I'm interested to see how you get on as I quite fancy going back to xenon...

[LizardOfBodom]

Originally Posted by mikester

Have you made any exceptions for this? I'm interested to see how you get on as I quite fancy going back to xenon...

ah yeah, have this all in the small finger now, have read so much about this issue that I feel like wikiHID :P

I have DRLs off, but that doesnt really do much - you may as well leave it on position "dip beam on" and result is the same - you still will have problems.
You need anti-flicker module (or something similar that is basically a capacitor) and external mass wired to HID kit INSTEAD of mass cable from your headlamps. That minimalise risk of problems/blowing up the wiper module but apparently still does not reduce the risk to zero.
Have been driving with such setup since May, only problem so far was 1 ballast gone - no sure if faulty or really "didnt make it".

[Tannaton]

Originally Posted by mikester

When I first got my V50 I put in HIDs which worked great initially but one bulb burnt out in a matter of weeks. I'd used the same kit on a previous vehicle and although I couldn't say for sure the issue was a manufacturing defect or similar I was more convinced the problem came from the 'always on'/daylight running design. More over the fact the bulbs are on before the engine is started, thus turning over the engine somehow diverts or surges power through the ballasts, you can tell because the bulb brightness changes as it did with halogen bulbs through the stating process before returning to normal when the engine has started running.

Anyway I asked the local dealer to disable the daylight running function, ie so you'd have to turn your headlights on and off like in a non Volvo environment but it was £80 for the privilege so I left it and went back to normal bulbs.

Have you made any exceptions for this? I'm interested to see how you get on as I quite fancy going back to xenon...

Nope I just did the swap and they've been okay for the two weeks since. I thought that the lights were switched of whilst the engine was cranking, and knowing how the ballasts work it is most unlikely that a power surge caused your lamp to fail I think.

[btjtaylor]

Is it possible you could fix the images? Sorry to be a pain