I bought a pair of H1 and H7 HIDs from one of the t-bhp members here for my Palio. What I understood that I will have to get a pair of ballast for each pair of bulbs.
I got it done with Eva in cambridge layout, they never worked on Palio and took long time to do the job.
Bonus was while doing the job, the bulb mounting clip on my right side low beam was broken; I guess that took them very long time to do some jugad work using some adhesive to stick the clip on the lamp assembly and all.
We found that there was one H7 which was not working - (I see its flashing a couple times when they were testing and then it goes off) They tested it directly with the battery (via ballast) and confirmed that its not working.
I have a long trip scheduled early morning day after - that guy told me that he will try his best and get me another H7 next day - I went to phraser town to get me a bulb next day when he told me to do so and get got me that H7 fixed on the other side - So, I had now two working H1s (high beams - 4K) and two H7s from different pair on my dipped (low) beam with different color of light. Yes, the new one we got was a bit more white in color while the one that I bought from t-bhp member was little yellowish.
We decided that I will go on trip with this and later Eva will get me another bulb also replaced to match the color (I already paid 1750 for one replacement, I may have to pay some more for this buyback to match the color now) - He shall also help me adjust the focusing of my low beams where right side is focused right into the oncoming traffic while the left side seems to be low on the road.
Also, I would like to prefer yellowish HIDs rather than this much whiter HIDs on my low beams, just to make sure I dont start building my relationship with cops in Bangalore. Overall experience was bad! I was regretting why I didnt go for Philips halogens :(
Now on the trip (I did exact 2K KMs between 24 and 29 Dec), it didnt take much time for me to understand that this right side low beam is really not focused right, I see all the oncoming vehicles flashing crazily, some of the truckers even came right onto me showing their anger, a couple of them were close to a close calls as well. I started using all four bulbs during the night and when the oncoming vehicle approches, I used to just switch off the high beams to ensure the oncoming guy feels good (he still going to be blinded by incorrectly focused right side low beam), but this seems to be working for me most of the time, I continued to do so.
My trip was another adventure, I shall post more details in a diff thread, I used to keep the HIDs off most of the time when I'm passing thru city/town area - was scared if cops in those small town will catch me! Cops at Rameshwaram did stop me and asked me "Are you using Halogen on your car?" I said, "yes sir, but thats for better visibility on low lit areas and I have focused it well" He saw my license and let me go. That was a relief!
Another thing I'm not understanding is the H1 HIDs, they are taking some time to heat up and I dont find them useful for powerful flashing duirng overtaking at night. How do you guys use HIDs on high beam?? I would really like to know about this!!
Guys,
Thanks for reading the loong story here, can you now please suggest me what options I have?
Following is what I'm considering, please suggest and help me choose.
- How are the chances that I'm going to get a yellowish H7 HID 8000Kelvin (just a single bulb and not the pair) that matches with my right side H7? If I'm going to get one, I shall replace only one
- If I can get Eva guy or some other dealer to take back this 2 pairs of ballasts and HIDs back, I guess, I will be happy to go with 85w or 100w philips bulbs with the relay kits