Which HID Kit?

[FunkyMelon]

Originally Posted by andy_d

mine has new reflectors in

Where did you get the reflectors from out of interest?

As far as I was aware you could only buy the entire headlight assembly at around £500 per side?

[phutyle]

Originally Posted by andy_d

and turn "DRL=OFF" at a main dealer, save wear on the reflectors,,as , if you cant see a car in good light Unless it has its lights on, what is your guide dog doing driving ? ,, the highway code Covers all the times and conditions where you Need to use lights on the car, !

Probably time the Highway Code was updated so. Plenty of countries require DRLs, and the evidence points to them being effective in reducing daytime crashes. Also, it's not just other drivers they benefit. Maybe they are of help to pedestrians with visual impairments, whether they have guide dogs or not.

[x DTR x]

Originally Posted by Clan

These are now illegal and will be checked and failed on the MOT from Last May 20th ...

I have had HIDs fitted for a few years now and my mot is due in a few weeks. Has anyone on here with HIDs fitted failed the mot with them since the changes last may? Just interested as may have to swap mine out before it goes in.

[andy_d]

Originally Posted by FunkyMelon

Where did you get the reflectors from out of interest?

As far as I was aware you could only buy the entire headlight assembly at around £500 per side?

you got it ,, OWch time but needs must

[Clan]

Originally Posted by x DTR x

I have had HIDs fitted for a few years now and my mot is due in a few weeks. Has anyone on here with HIDs fitted failed the mot with them since the changes last may? Just interested as may have to swap mine out before it goes in.

I've done that already , got some 80/100 w bulbs .(H4) Checking is now a testable item and with the complex training procedure now for MOT testers they will be on the ball . It takes 5 days to do the MOT tester's course now , + an assessment in work before you can start tests so very comprehensive ..

[Tannaton]

The MOT issue is there is now a check for fitting a light source not compatible with the headlight - and the MOT test manual now describes what markings to look for on the headlight to identify what sort of bulb to expect.

I agree it's not the best rule as many S40/V50's have been improved by fitting new projectors and HID bulbs (including my wife's) but these should fail now under the new rules - even if the projectors have been changed - as the outer headlamp marking is for Halogen.

However something needed to be done as there are now a number of cars out there with bluntly dangerous HID retrofits - especially the twin filament H4 conversions which where never going to work. I've seen loads of older Golfs, Fabias, Mundano's and Transits with them now which just shouldn't be on the road.

On another tack..... my mother has a 10 year old C30 with only 30k miles on it and I drove it in the dark recently - the headlights are quite good so I think with new Volvo spec headlights (not the pattern crap from e-bay) they should be okay.

If you are capable of fitting a HID kit then why not just swap back to halogen for the MOT? Whilst they are technically not legal, they always have been, and I have never heard of anyone being specifically prosecuted for HID conversions (given a defect notice - yes, but prosecuted - no).

[T5R92011]

Everybody is driving jacked up SUVs/Crossovers with Super Bright matrix LED headlamps now...

These are going to blind you far more than any HID kit fitted to an S40 with flakey silvering.. MOT fail or not.

HID's are old tech now. Super bright LED headlamps are here to stay.

[Tannaton]

Originally Posted by T5R92011

Everybody is driving jacked up SUVs/Crossovers with Super Bright matrix LED headlamps now...

These are going to blind you far more than any HID kit fitted to an S40 with flakey silvering.. MOT fail or not.

HID's are old tech now. Super bright LED headlamps are here to stay.

In new cars - yes

As a retrofit for halogen - not yet, probably never...

[Thorn]

Originally Posted by Clan

For some reason a lot of new cars like this were delivered with the headlamps too low , if you have perfect reflectors and raise the beam as much as you can get away with it does make a difference ..

I did, and it didn't, to any appreciable degree.

[LizardOfBodom]

Originally Posted by FunkyMelon

Where did you get the reflectors from out of interest?

As far as I was aware you could only buy the entire headlight assembly at around £500 per side?

You can easily get a replacement projectors of any flavour - used, new, OEM, aftermarket, H7 or D2s. Thats the beauty of our "open design" headlamp.
Have a look at my retrofit thread . I used brand new but aftermarket projectors that I bought for 120e/set if I remember correctly. Firstly I did it with H7, then the same but with D2S. But you can as easily source any Bosch AL projector from any car that uses it (A4 for example) - mounts are identical. Problem ofcourse is that OEM projectors will be D2S only so once you fit it, there is no way back to H7 before MOT (hence I have 2 set of headlamps). But that retrofitlab site sells H7 projectors aswell, and you can choose whether you want to use them with H7 halogen or H7 HID then. You are also gaining bi-xenon shutter so if you wire it, you will further improve your long beam, regardless of light source.
All in all - if your reflectors are worn or you fancy a nice-crisp cutoff instead of our fresnel lens old type projectors, that is a good way to approach this.
And it also,. btw, brings you as close as possible to "fully legal" and properly done retro (if going d2s option), as you are using purpose-built xenon projectors with quality bulb (Osram Xenarc in my case) and perfect razor-sharp cutoff with no light leaks. Just make sure your lamps are clean (I clean it every other day, hate dirty lamps, and lets face it - washers are useless and are only a MOT requirement) and lights are levelled properly.
oh, and to any "OMG you need self-levelling!" activists you may just reply that OEM xenons on our cars were not active anyway - meaning it just self-level itself on the start of the journey and wont react on jumps/potholes etc so if you use your brain and light-levelling stalk, you are as good as you can be with no harm to other users.