Hid question..

[Pol Anorl]

was tempted to fit a hid kit to the xj i love to be able to see where im going lol.

don't know much about hid

the xj takes only 1 bulb, do the hid kits only have 1 setting ? or do they have high/low.

how affective are hid lights?

would it be brighter than a standard bulb on high beam on the xj.
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[promufa]

I ve recently been looking into that as well. I guess the xj has H4 bulb sockets, or..? The H4 HIDs i looked at, are all for hi/lo beam so you effectively convert all your lights to HID.

You do get some more range as far as I know - not the 300% that most kits claim though. The cool thing about it is that you dont have the yellowish tint you get from halogens. I would go for something around 4300K or 6000K to get a nice clean white light. I find the higher temperatures a bit too blue.

Unfortunately my conversion is being put on pause for now as I would need 2 kits for the Speed Four's bug eyes, or would a car kit (comes with 2 balasts etc for almost the same price as bike kit with 1 balast) fit just as well, anyone know?
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'02 Triumph Speed Four

[weasley]

The biggest problem with HID conversions is that the source of light from the HID bulb is not from the same point as where the filament is in the halogen bulb. The headlight reflector and lens is set up to focus the light from a specific point, ie where the filament is. As a consequence the beam pattern from a HID is rarely how it should be and often results in worse lighting, even though it is brighter and less yellow.

A friend on another forum had a HID in his Thundercat and it recently failed the MoT on beam pattern and output.

This is why aftermarket HIDs are so effing annoying as they dazzle, and why they are illegal.
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Yamaha XJ600 | Yamaha YZF600R Thundercat | KTM 990 SMT | BMW F900XR TE

[WetSparks]

Just to state one point. Retrofitting HID to a vehicle is illegal as the reflector is not designed to meet the requirements of a HID lamp. Thats got that out of the way

About 5 years ago I fitted HID to me T100. The lamp uses a H4 bulb (dual filament). HID gets round this problem by using a moving reflector controlled by a solenoid coil, so as you select high beam the reflector moves forward (I think) to shift the beam to a high beam position.

Despite the reflector on the T100 not being designed for HID I found the beam to be pretty much spot on. Oh, make sure your front lens is glass not a plastic, the extra UV from the HID will yellow it real quick. Also the heat output is higher too.

Riding with the HID was great, the extra light output on back lanes was just great, just like riding down there in daylight. Not too good for oncoming vehicles but overall I had very few complaints about the dazzle.

Officially the bike should not pass an MOT with the HID fitted but mine did on two occasions. What stopped me in the end was the reliability of the solenoid system, got through two lamps in 16 months due to the reflector stopping shifting

That was as I said a good few years ago and improvements may have been made in the solenoid action by now. If any one wants a picky of the installation on me T100 I may have a couple that I can dig out and post up

[AlexW]

H4 cheap ones suffer from the moving parts as mentioned above failing, So you want a decent kit.

I was lucky enough on my little 125 that the dipped beam light is a projector style, So no issues with beam pattern.

As for a car kit, as long as you dont mind having two of everything and have the space, no issue with that. Its how mine is!

Edit:
I'll post up mine....

This is High beam, normal bulb, Non-projector headlight.
https://i252.photobucket.com/albums/hh30/AW_06/d64b1f6c.jpg

This is Dipped beam, HID kit and projector headlight (Hence why its aimed correctly)
https://i252.photobucket.com/albums/hh30/AW_06/033c37ca.jpg

[defblade]

Aftermarket HIDs are NOT illegal... it's the DoT's belief that requirements for new vehicles should be applied to retro-fits for older ones, but the law doesn't actually say that anywhere.

Interestingly, despite what the DoT says, the new MOT rules don't actually say that aftermarket HIDs are illegal, either... just that, where fitted, washers and levellers must work (note: there are some perfectly legal type-approved cars with OE HIDs but no washers or levellers. They are NOT a requirement in all cases). They (DoT) are trying to make life more dangerous for those of us who have responsibly improved the candles at the front however by suggesting that the regulations stretch further than they do. We may have to suck it up at MOT time and swap back (takes me about 3 minutes...).

You do need to use the right bulb for your lights - the ones for reflector units have a blanking area over one part of the filament to stop the glare. The problem is either use of the wrong bulb, or not adjusting afterwards... and plenty of plain headlights are guilty of not being adjusted correctly, too.

Best setup, however, is when high and low bulbs are seperate (and the low stays on with the high) then low can use HID and high a regular bulb (as HID takes a few seconds to come up to full brightness).

Mine's just passed it's second MOT with low beam HID; no-one flashes me coming the other way. I will continue to use HID so long as I possibly can as the OE lights are lethally poor at night.
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Honda Varadero 125cc => Suzuki Bandit 650 33bhp => 77bhp =>
BMW K1200R Sport 163bhp => Aprilia Shiver GT 750 95bhp

[Teflon-Mike]

[Im-a-Ridah]

The main attraction for me, as Teflon_Mike mentioned in his most recent book, is the lower power requirements, rather than the extra light output which puts them into the "suitable for small 125s" category. The main "problem" I see with separate HID and low beams is that they take time to warm up, so you can't "flash" your headlight as effectively. Therefore, IMO, the ideal setup would be HID low beams, halogen high beams (perhaps overwattage), and HID driving lights. Oh, and the other problem is in fog with HID low beams as the whiter light performs worse than the yellow light.

[Teflon-Mike]

[Noxious89123]

Doesn't anyone else get pissed off by being blinded by these damned aftermarket HIDs? I do lots of mileage in the dark and they piss me off no end!

Although I would fancy some decent HIDs myself, so long as they worked flawlessly and without blinding folk.
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'06 Honda CBR125RW-6 ~ '00 Honda CBR600F-Y ~ '07 Honda CBR600RR-7 ~ Bikeless
'53 Ford Ka 1.3 ~ '03 Vauxhall Astra SRi 1.8 ~ '52 Vauxhall Astra SRi 2.2 ~ '53 Vauxhall Astra GSi

[m1tch]

You need to get the HIDs specifically for reflector headlights which move either a lens or the bulb back and forth to change the beam pattern for the HID bulb.

They can be fitted onto anything legally....as long as the headlight his HID compliant....

[defblade]

[_Iain_]

Would it not be worthwhile trying one of the super bright bulbs?

Made enough difference on the YBR, straight fit.

And if it doesnt prove to give you enough, keep it as a spare and fit the HID's anyway. Would reccomend the Ring bulbs from ebay
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Please be aware that the above post may be full of complete nonsense.
Riding: '07 KTM Duke II, Baotian BT49QT-20 Driving: '88 Volvo 340

[m1tch]

I am planning on upgrading the headlights on my Volvo, I can't use HIDs but I have found that some high performance Halogen bulbs do as good job as HIDs, the main bulbs I have been recomended are Osram nightbreakers and Phillips +50 bulbs, I would have a look at those bulbs before thinking about HIDs as I know those 2 bulbs are 100% road legal.

[WetSparks]

This is some serious HID and LED lighting for a bike (push bike!!).

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/b2/Homebrew_bicycle_hid_light.jpg

Homebrew HID lighting system consisting of two HID lights (a 10 watt light on the right and a 30 watt HID light on the left. The three smaller lights below the HID lights are 1 watt Luxeon LED lights.

[Beez]