Team-BHP (https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/)

-   Modifications & Accessories (https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/modifications-accessories/)

-   -   Best Xenon HID conversion kit (https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/modifications-accessories/13385-best-xenon-hid-conversion-kit-21.html)

A proper bill with VAT would come with warranty I think. If there is a warranty card, ensure that the dealer puts his stamp and signature on it.

The place from where I will be getting P8 is an authorised dealer for that brand, and I am pretty sure that I will get 1 year warranty also. Some dealers will provide you a bill even with a fake product, but if the product is not genuine, they will not put a stamp on the warranty card. It is better if you get these things from authorised stores of Osram/P8 as they will provide bill and warranty at the same full price you will pay at other shops.

If you are savvy, I will buy/import Hylux (prefer the CAN enabled) and CN lamps. Many people have China/HK warehouses, so supply is pretty quick. Due to shipment costs the same supplier for both may work out cheaper. If you need projectors, Morimoto are available from AVN and their Direct Importers. Also, many people stock decent projectors.

Advantage with Morimoto is no cutting of the back side of the housing is involved. You remove the front cover (now mostly plastic), put in the projector, align and bolt it, and seal back the cover. The lamp (mostly DS1 or 2) has enough space to go in from the narrow opening left.

Sir, if your projectors in your car are aligned properly, you won't be blinding anyone with HID's.

As far as my knowledge, halogen bulbs run at 3100K-3500K, hence the yellowish tint. HID's start off with 4300K which is bright white light with a slight tint of yellow. It would be perfect if you're looking for great improvement from your halogens, works in all weather conditions beautifully.

Audi/BMW/Merc and other high end cars use OE HID lights with 4800K hence the pure crystal white tinge, also I think the optics in the projectors play a role in the colour output. I might be wrong here. Experts can correct me.

As far as 5000K, I have used the same in my cousin's Verna with OEM Projectors and believe me, 5000K has the best balance between bling and performance. They are pure white in colour and being HIDs light up the road beautifully. Never had to use High Beams at all on our drives to Mangaluru. I haven't had any problems whatsoever in the rains too (I'm talking Thirthahalli rains here).

In my experience, The difference between OEM Halogen Projectors and 5000K HID's is night and day. Go ahead with them, you won't regret the decision. Make sure you get original equipment especially since there's a lot of fakes with Philips and Osram around.

Cheers,
Aniketh


Sent from my iPhone 6 using Team-BHP

Hello Members so as per the useful inputs given by you all I went to the market today for sourcing HID conversion kit for Verna 4s Headlamps. It has Sylvania HB3 9005 12v 60w Halogen bulbs as stock. I am attaching the picture of the same here with this post. But I could not find the Philips, Osram or Even P8 HID Conversion kit in my city but they promised to source P8 kit as advised by @swift_guy so sourced the distributor contact number from their site and he pitched me P8 6000k 55w HB3 9005 for 8k. And here in my city all they have is Chinese HID conversion kits which they sell for Rs/-2300 for the same spec mentioned above. so kindly enlighten me how does these Chinese kits function as compared to P8 or Osram kits, are they safe enough for the car and for the record local guys say the difference in performance, reliability, durability is negligible.
Regards

I would avoid Chinese kits due to questionable reliability. I am using OSRAM H7 kit in XUV projector setup and compared to some high wattage rated Chinese kits in my friends XUV OSRAMS are far better in light output. You may purpose it online and get it shipped to your city. I am using this kit: http://www.amazon.in/Osram-HID-Headl...ords=osram+hid

I come from a city where we can have complete HID kit for 450 bucks and 2.5" Projector (Bixenon, HID, ballast, wiring et al) for as low as 950 bucks. I have used many types of lighting on my 2 wheelers (I used to change the setup every 2 or 3 months as it was dirt cheap), I believe I would be able to answer your queries very well. All these products are chinese (or Taiwanese) and I have good experience with them.

Chinese HIDs have very poor construction, if you compare them with a genuine Osram or P8, you will see that the arc is poorly formed which makes day and night difference in performance.

Performance - For about an year or so, they will function properly and light up fast. After that the colour starts to fade off (diamond white becomes off/milky white) and warm up time increases considerably. Light, even when new, is uniform and smooth. Some spots will be extremely bright while some will be dim, this is due to the improper arc and body construction which results in bright spots at some places and dim spots at other. The rainbow effect that we get in Mercs and Audis (when the cutoff part goes past our line of sight, a blue->green->voilet change) is missing. This effect may not be in P8 also but still the lighting looks brilliant, smooth and uniform.

Reliability and Durability - Any setup takes a good beating on Indian roads, to be true. All shocks, bumps, water splashes, etc. are transferred to the kit, especially the ballast. The chinese ballasts are not properly sealed from water, which have high chances of failure in rains. Wiring quality is also not upto the mark as these chinese kits are built to cost. I had observed wires (from Ballast to HID) of an Osram kit and a Chinese kit and Osram one had a lot more thicker sleeve, better insulation material. The person who had that Osram kit had used it for 6 years.

Durability is where Chinese kits take the biggest hit. They do not come with warranty, and the maximum you will get is a 3/6 month seller warranty. Nothing happens in the initial period as the bulbs are new and light up brilliantly, but after 12 months of good use, you will actually see how these kits suffer in terms of quality and performance. Just ask your seller if he will give a 1 year warranty on the Chinese kit. At 2300 bucks, then it might a worthy consideration (if budget is tight). Otherwise, 8k for a genuine P8 kit is like a one-time investment.

The price is fine for P8 kit. Check pictures (or download them to your phone) of original product to ensure that you get an original when in the market. But as you are getting from distributor and P8 have mostly genuine products in market, chances of fakes are minimal. Go get them!

There is the good Chinese and the bad Chinese stuff. I hear Hylux (I am sticking with the name used on their units) are also OEs to some European brands. Similarly, as per the Guru's CN bulbs are excellent. You pay your money and take your choice.

I do not see what wiring & kit are involved. In my fog (installed by me) the original lead comes into the Ballast (connector is slightly different - different pitch) which then connects to the bulb (lead built into the Ballast)!! Forget what they say, with proper grounding a kit is not required. Remember your halogen is 55/60W so 35 or even 55W is a lower power level,

As for the comment about colour, the HIDs essentially have different phosphors, with the original discharge in the UV. I have 3000K bulbs in my fogs, and 2700K are also available. I did see some advts of 3900K lamps from a major supplier (was it P8?).

One problem in the market is the number of fakes!

Thanks @hotchillypepper, Swift_guy, and sgiitk for valuable inputs. And for information I would like to know @hotchillypepper that does the HID kits by Osram available online as cited by you can be trusted I mean in terms of genuinanity . I appreciate you have also given a link to the Amazon India website, so I was thinking if I cannot get osram in the local market I should get it online.
Kindly provide some inputs as I think Osram seems much better as compared to P8 kits. But then the availability of osram is not easy and I am a bit apprehensive about online sellers.

While 35W of an HID ballast may be lower than the 55W of a halogen, the wiring kit with relay protects the vehicle's wiring from the initial surge of current when the ballast (through the igniter) makes the arc jump for the first time. As you know, the initial ignition voltage across the discharge tube is a few kilovolts and after the arc is established it settles to 85 volts. In that fraction of a second when the igniter generates those high voltage pulses, current draw of the ballast goes up to 15 to 20 Amps. It may only be for a fraction of a second but when you have such complex semiconductor electronics in a vehicle's wiring you run the risk of damaging them over an extended duration. At the very least you wear out the switch sooner than with stock lighting. I do not have the numbers but this is why a relay and direct wiring is recommended.

The high voltage surge is on the bulb side, and does no necessarily reflect on the LT side. 15-20 amps for a few ms (max) hurts nobody. Even a halogen when cold draws many times the steady state current. I think the electronics of my Civic is complex enough, neither the supplier, nor the Honda ASS had any issues with the HID installation. Have you ever put a scope on the alternator output, else you will never have asked. The Fogs (55W in place of 35 standard) are in use for a few years now. Remember the fuse will not blow, why it is a thermal device with i^2T fusing so it operates well within the envelope.

I have been using the morimoto Elite H7 HID kit in the Low beams of my passat for about 6 months now.

I had issue with left side light misfiring occasionally. I took it up with TRS and they sent me a whole new kit. I replaced both sides and still the left side light misfires. Once they turn on, they work well without troubles, I have to just turn my lights on and off a couple of time to make it fire up. What can be the reason.

Also, another observation is that when the HIDs turn on, the left side turns on first and then the right hand side. There is practically a 0.2 second gap.

I have enabled the Xenon option in VCDS but it doesn't seem to work.

1. Must be a wiring problem. Very tough to track down. One way (very tough in practice) can be to try and twiddle with the wires when it is misbehaving. It is the starting surge which is creating the problem. Just a quick idea, try to remove and reinsert the fuse.

2. Not unusual, maybe 1 above has a role in it.

3. What is that. I do not comprehend.

Might be a wiring issue. Redo the wiring and see if the problem still exists. If not, you can exchange the HID bulbs and ballasts of left and right side. If the problem continues with right side now, bulb and ballast are the culprit. If problem continues on left side, wiring is the culprit. To check if bulb or ballast are the cause of problem, change the HID bulb which is misfiring with the other side's bulb. If problem continues replace the ballast, else the bulb.

If your car is old, battery might be on its last stage. Do you find other electronic problems like horn losing power after continuous use or cranks taking longer?

If you are not getting any error codes in instrument cluster, then Xenon option in vcds would have been working correctly.

Thank you sir for the quick response. Before we start discussing HIDs, I feel honored to be on this forum and talking to you. I myself graduated from IIT KGP and have huge respect for enthusiasts and visionaries like you. :D

1. I have replaced the complete wiring and the only piece that was not replaced was the HID bulb and the associated wire. I am using a canbus kit. I feel the bulb connector might be faulty. I have ordered H7 CNlight bulbs from Aliexpress and will replace the morimoto ones. Lets see if that solves the problem.

2. Ok, this should be normal.

3. My car originally came with Halogens, so after installing the HIDs, its a way to tell the car that the lights are HIDs. Not working, and also my DRLs stopped. Will revert to the original setting.


I have an option to set the input voltage for the HIDs through VCDS. It was by default set at 13 V. Do you think this might be the reason? But then this should impact both and not just the Left light.

Yes, the high voltage is on the bulb side but it does translate into that high current spike on the ballast's input side. I have never used an oscilloscope but I can assume that the alternator's output is generally filtered by a regulator unit else the ECU would not be able to function properly nor would the various sensors a fuel infected engine uses. I suppose since the fuse doesn't blow, the wiring would be OK and on that circuit you probably have only lights. For how many years have you had this setup?