HID troubles again

[Craig1985]

hi i had some HIDs on my car for 8 months, after 2-4 weeks one side failed. I was sent a new one and this was fine. Now 8 months later the other side wont work? i have been sent a new ballast again and this sometimes works-and sometimes turns off? My original working ballast works fine so i have ruled out faulty bulbs/connections?

Any advice? surly i cant have been sent a faulty ballast again?

[_ZS_]

I've given up on HIDs - just got a pair of +90% bulbs and just going to put those in. Fed up farting about with HIDs.

Plus they're illegal....

[Craig1985]

but they are good

[_ZS_]

No dispute there, but there's a big campaign about getting them totally banned.

http://www.autoexpress.co.uk/videos/...enon_test.html
http://www.danielsternlighting.com/t...nversions.html

Interesting reading...

[Dan_BlackSRi]

Thats HiDs in reflector style headlights, not projectors, I agree that they shouldn't be put in reflector style headlights at all, but projector style is no problem (at the moment).

[tyreman]

No dispute there, but there's a big campaign about getting them totally banned.

http://www.autoexpress.co.uk/videos/...enon_test.html
http://www.danielsternlighting.com/t...nversions.html

Interesting reading...

But all these tests have been done on the older style lenses not the projector style as in the vec,so do vx fit a different lens to a xenon h/light compared to a non-xenon h/light,if so fair enough, if not if you keep them clean (one of the biggest causes of dazzling) whats the problem?,the h/light is basically the same.

[_ZS_]

Did either of you actually read the article? He specifically talks about projectors and how HIDs make the driver think the lights are brighter, by projecting too much light just infront of the car, not up the road where it's needed.

I'm not arguing that HIDs aren't a good job, just I'm fed up with ballasts dying, bulbs falling out, hacking holes in the lamp cover, etc...

[tyreman]

Sorry,only looked at the Auto express article

[Dan_BlackSRi]

Did either of you actually read the article? He specifically talks about projectors and how HIDs make the driver think the lights are brighter, by projecting too much light just infront of the car, not up the road where it's needed.

I'm not arguing that HIDs aren't a good job, just I'm fed up with ballasts dying, bulbs falling out, hacking holes in the lamp cover, etc...

Seen these articles before - they are quite old now. Nothings changed since these were done, apart from alot of forum discussions. I quite simply will make my car as safe as I can for me and my family to drive, as HiDs are not illegal at the moment, that includes fitting HiDs to projector lenses.

This is garbage for a start....

"The performance of the headlamp is perceived to be "better" because of the much higher level of foreground lighting (on the road immediately in front of the car). However, the beam patterns produced by this kind of "conversion" virtually always give less distance light, and often an alarming lack of light where there's meant to be a relative maximum in light intensity. The result is the illusion that you can see better than you actually can, and that's not safe."

The difference is light distance is far superior with the HiD kit over the standard (any) Halogen bulb.

I'm not trying to be argumentative, but I personally think HiD kits (decent ones that don't break that is) are a great addition to projector style headlights.

[_ZS_]

Well I'm going back to the "normal" lights for the time being - I know even with the HIDs the Vectra lights are shocking. I'll see how they are with some of the +90% bulbs on a dark night.

I know the last time I was out with the HIDs I ended up putting the fog lights on to see where the heck I was going!

Went out and got a set of Halford's +90% jobs today, been driving about with 1 HID and 1 standard bulb which just looks plain wierd. If they work OK I'll pick up a proper set of Philips X-Tremes, which I've had good results from in the past. No-one in this backwater holds anything decent, even the car parts shop down the road which normally does Osram was out of the Nightbreakers.