The S-Cross Alpha variant’s headlight poor performance has been a much discussed matter. Not only are they useless on highways, they are totally useless in rainy conditions. I drive at nights and the poor performance of the headlights was always a problem for me. I was thinking of many possibilities such as opening up the headlights and installing Morimoto D2S or upgrading the fog lamps with better bulbs, none of which were easy options.
Not so long ago, a brave doctor and proud owner of a 1.6 Alpha, Dr. Naren, made the first move to install 2.5 inch Micros from XenonPlanet. His report was like a life saver and I was immediately sure that Micros would be the solution to my car’s lighting problems.
Thanks, Naren! The only fly in the ointment, the fit was not flush. Due to popular demand, XenonPlanet came out with a 3.0 inch ones which were perfect fit and also OEM look alike. This is a short report of my experience considering & installing Micros
Likes- Very good light output.
- Water proof clear lens projectors.
- Excellent support from XenonPlanet
- Many positive feedbacks from many users on many forums
I am not going into the details of the product since Anurag has already covered it in this beautiful thread. Thanks mate!
Installation Contact @ Evo – ShyamSundar Hegde
Kanhiah is the one who installed it on my car. I'd say he certainly knows his work. During the install, one of the 15 Amp fuses blew. he was able to diagnose the fault and fix it immediately.
Install time – 2 Hours 45 minutes in all, 45 minutes for wiring and fixing the projectors, 2 hours for alignment check and testing.
Experience Rating with Xenon Planet (XP) – 5 Stars
Why 5 stars?
Although not a 100% smooth ride with XP, overall I’d give them a very good rating. I was one of the first to sign up for installing the 3.0 Micros. XP was flooded with orders and Rajat from XP was busy fulfilling them. A group of us had ordered in bulk, but a problem with the bulbs set us back.
The great thing about Rajat at XP is that they try and check EVERY shipment to ensure zero errors. Even then there were a couple of mismatched bulbs. But, they didn’t pass it off, rather acknowledged the issue and made arrangements to fix them, unlike many other vendors who wash their hands off once the install is done. Given they had many orders at hand, we ended up waiting for a several weeks. This is the only part I was unhappy with, but that said, the communication from Rajat has been EXCELLENT! He responds via WhatsApp well and I guess it is easy to catch him on WhatsApp. I certainly loved it. If you are not getting the attention you need, ensure you tell them upfront about it. They do care and they will try and to their best to make things work for you.
Broad Steps to Install- Remove the fog covers
- Unscrew the OEM fog lamps. They are held together using three screws
- Mount the Micros on the mounting bracket.
- Prepare the wiring
- Cut out some of the protruding parts in the fog lamp housing to make room for Micros
- Connect the ballast and complete wiring
- Tap the power from headlight wiring.
- Align
I am sharing the work in progress which explains the procedure and end results. Hopefully this is useful for others in DIY themselves or have a good idea when installing it from outside.
What I did not like about the install
The Micro works in low beams by default when the fog light switch is on. High beam is optional and syncs with the headlight high beam. To accomplish this, you need to tap power from the head’s light high beam wire. Evo used the splice connector with insulation tapes.
This isn’t a reliable long term solution in my opinion and not 100% water proof, especially considering that the place where the fog lamps are sitting is very close to the road. The best is to have a proper compatible, water proof wiring harness. As far as I know, there is no such wiring harness available as of today.
The stock fogs are H8 bulbs, 35W 12 V. The connectors of the fogs are not an exact match for the Micro’s. You need a workaround solution which I am not 100% satisfied with. XP is working to try and resolve that – This is why I like them. They don’t install and forget you and I hope it remains this way.
Pictures & videos
Headlight high beam sync wire tap using splice connector. The not so good part. This has been taped up properly with insulation tape for now
3-Inch XP Micros in Action
Sequence:
- Pitch dark
- @ 5 seconds, XP Micros ON (low beam)
- @ 20 seconds, Headlights ON - Low beam. At this point, both lights are in low beam
- @31 seconds, XP micros are switched off. This is what you need to see the difference of XP and Stock HL
- @41 seconds, XP come back on. See the difference it makes!
- @45 seconds, high beam from both. (High beam of HL turns on High beam of XP Micro)
- @58 seconds, both lights Off
PS: Sorry for the shaky video in the beginning.