How To: HID Headlight Upgrade

[Pedro]

[With many thanks to Mr. J. Waddington, esq.]

OK, so this is how to fit them to a Carlton............

You need a pair of dis-packs, D2S bulbs, a couple of 10A fused relays and a pair of bulb "buckets" to fit the H4 mounting in the headlight. (Check for the correct bulb fitment for your model), some wire of the correct guage, spade terminals, cable ties.

You can use the gubbins from a dead Meega facelift or Vectra, but you can get kits from Demon Tweeks, apparently.

1 - Find a suitable place to mount the dis packs, out of the way of water ingress, and safe from moving parts. (My dis-packs and relays are mounted on the radiator tinwork, adjacent to the headlights).

2 - Make up a suitable loom, so that current is drawn from the battery and switched to the dis-packs by using the dip beam power.

3 - You will need to keep the dip beam on when the main beam is activated, so this means connecting the circuits together (I did this at the dip/main switch). Problem is that the bulb check will always show a fault (on a Carlton, anyway), I'm not sure on other models. As I have the totally gay digital dash, I've elected to leave as is, cos trying to get into the dash is a bloody nightmare!!


I know this sounds dead easy, but I do have more info regarding colour of wires etc, and will post some pics when I get round to it!

The whole job took me about two hours to do.

UPDATE

So first and most importantly - DISCONNECT THE BATTERY! The dis packs kick out summat like 25kv, which could well be LETHAL!

WIRING THE RELAYS
PIN 30 - Positive (+) from battery - I used a red wire to ease ID
PIN 87 - Positive from dis pack (mine is yellow)
PIN 86 - Yellow wire from headlamp loom
PIN 85 - Brown wire from headlamp loom (earth)

The positioning of the dis packs is limited to the lenght ot the cable that supplies the bulb with power from the dis pack. as mentioned, I put mine on the radiator mountings..........

Left hand side dis pack - right hand similar


Left hand relay




All done!



You can see from the above pic that the yellowish light from the driving lamp on the left hand side is the full beam. Although not as bright as the HID dip beam, you do need it! I'm gonna try some of the "HID LOOK" bulbs for my main beam and sidelights, as they look crap compared to the HID's!






 
 

[Pedro]

Now with HID's on main beam - BEWARE: THIS IS NOT ROAD LEGAL AND THE BEAM PATTERN IS RUBBISH.

[Ferret]

With lights like that you will be scraping the insect off of the lenses. Be a bit like that scene from Bugs where he flies into the fly catcher

I cant help it, its too beatiful. Ha Ha Ha

[blippi]

thought i'd bump this up 

[supercub]

ahh cheers for that mate  (and the p.m on retrorides)

Pedro.. If your seeing this.    By the pattern being crap do you mean on dipped or on main?  Or both?  How did you mount them in the lights?

[Pedro]

ahh cheers for that mate  (and the p.m on retrorides)

Pedro.. If your seeing this.    By the pattern being crap do you mean on dipped or on main?  Or both?  How did you mount them in the lights?

Dip beam ain't bad, main beam is crap. Plus, HID's take a second or two to fully light up and do not like being switched on and off too much (that's why factory-fit HID is dip beam only and on permanently), so the spotlight beam will probably be coming off, just leaving the Bi-Xenons.
The bi-Xenons is one bulb (in each headlight) with a moveable hood that simply redirects the light from dip to main - and main isn't great to be honest.
Thing is with HID lighting is that it works better in projective lamps (like Calibra, Vectra C) and not too well in reflective lamps (like Carlton, Senator, Cavalier), as the glass is cut to create the light beam where the original halogen bulbs sit - some HID bulbs (burners) throw light from a slightly different place within the light unit - if you get my drift - and I think that's th emain reason that the high beams are poor.
But I am working on fitting Calibra light units into a Carlton housing.................just need to find clear flat glass lenses!

There's talk of making retro-fit kits illegal, but I can't see people suddenly removing them overnight.................. unless the MOT is due!

[von-opel]

Basically, all Xenon headlights are illegal as the 1989 Construction & Use Regs don't provide for them, its just vehicle manufacturers get EU Type Approval for them so the Govt. has to accept them. Regarding MOT testing, if the beam pattern is correct when tested on the beam tester, then the examiner is obliged to pass it, BUT this does not make legal.

A few Police Forces do have a policy of issuing a Vehicle Defect Rectification Notice to aftermarket xenon conversions & requiring the vehicle to be presented a MOT centre to check the item on the notice for a nominal fee.

For more info see http://www.dft.gov.uk/pgr/roadsafety/drs/hidheadlamps

[carlton_mad]

A few Police Forces do have a policy of issuing a Vehicle Defect Rectification Notice to aftermarket xenon conversions & requiring the vehicle to be presented a MOT centre to check the item on the notice for a nominal fee.

i have NO trouble getting this sorted!!

[Pedro]

Retro-fitting HID's is a very grey area, but I had to have some on my PFL Vectra C, cos the standard efforts were bloody useless, ergo, downright bloody dangerous.
Seriously, the front foglights gave almost as good a beam as the dip.

50W 8000K retro-fitted now, and I can see the light!