Guys, looking at getting myself a HID kit for my car :D - just wondering which kit do i need?

Are Magna's HB4's?

i can get German made ones if you want them. Their cheap prices too.

U got para's or normal headlightS?

Yeesh - there is a lot of interest in HID kits at the moment - might have to make a FAQ for these on Magnas!

Parabolics (H7) or standard textured glass (H4)? HB4 are a completely different bulb.

I posted this in reply to someone who was looking at fitting HID's into parabolics... I have done this, and found all of the ways that you camn (and cannot) fit HID's onto 3rd gen magnas :P With varying degrees of success...

"... sorry to dissapoint you, but you won't fit HID's onto a VRX with parabolics - not without modification - two reasons... Even though you can get a H7 HID retrofit kit, the bulb holders will need to be modified to hold the HID bulb (due to the spacer that normally holds the H7 bulb being 'taller' than a plain H7 bulb, and secondly, the glare box on the parabolics fouls on the return wire - which requires a minimum of 5mm clearance from any metal as it is at up to 30,000V potential.

The first problem can be solved with some creative use of a metal paperclip wire, the second requires that the glare-box be modified - when I was messing around with this sort of conversion, I found that it was possible to do this without dissasembling the headlamp, using a hacksaw blade and carefully cutting out the middle of the glare box that fouls on the wire. Messy, and you do have to vacuum up the metal shavings from the inside, but doable.

If you do go this route, you need a HID conversion kit with the tip of the bulb painted with black heatproof paint, so as to not dazzle oncoming drivers with the hotspot (tip) of the bulb. It must have this, as without it it is completely unacceptable - been there, done that.

I have some shots of beam patterns - not too shabby, as a D2S in a properly mounted H7 application is almost identical, but brighter.

Even with the HID's though, you end up with the same crappy parabolic beam pattern, just brighter - no ecode step, and tons of hotspots. Another problem is that the glare that you normally get with a parabolic is now three times brighter - ouch.

If you want any more info on this, I can sort you out, with beamshots, etc. as I have tried just about every route to get HID onto a Magna easily - ended up retrofitting Audi TT projectors, and have *never* been pulled up for it - actually, no-one even gives it a second glance, it looks stock, and doesn't glare, is properly aimed, and isn't green or that horrible fake blue you see with the 'rice lights'.

I know I won't be popular here when I say that if you are serious about decent lighting, use the standard hella (non-parabolic) lights, with overwatt bulbs, and relays, and keep them properly aimed, and *clean*!"

The textured glass headlights can be fitted with HID's easier than the parabolics - I am working on this this week (just wanted to see how well they work, I am fitting some to my wife's car and have them lying around at the moment) should have some beamshots tomorrow (if I get the time)

Cheers
Heath Young

Heath, do you have any photos of the retro-fitted Audi projector lamps on your car?

i have currently the standard normal headlights,

So H4's i need eh?
Thats sh*t, i had a friend who was going to sell me a HB4 HID kit really cheap

Hmm, whats your price choonga?

PM me, if the price is right, i may be interested!

also, most kits are not legal, unless you get them approved by an engineer like heath did...

beware of this as i looked for a while and no one (sales people) told me that they were :roll:

Not much on my car is that legal anyways.... i think they would get me for my exhaust, stereo and neons way before they even think about a canary for HID lights

TecoDan - Yes, but not on my work computer at the moment :P Will post them when I get a chance... They turned out really well.

IL Domino - I attached a picture of a H4, and a drawing of a HB4 - also known as a P22 base - usually used on jap cars, phenolic plastic base, rubber seals on connectors.

If you are going to fit a H4 kit, there are worlds of differences in both quality (the cheapies use crappy korean made bases rather than Hella ballasts, and insufficient shielding. Just about ALL of the H4 kits that are around have not nearly enough shielding, and you end up blinding people...

Don't bother with the 'bi-xenon/high-low' H4 kits - you have separate highbeams, and the solenoids stick and burn out anyways.

I have a pair of "Casper's" H4 HID adaptors at home that I will hook up in the magna headlights and take some beamshots this week to give you an idea of what you can get with the *best* HID sheild bar none for H4.

The Caspers sheilds are CNC turned billet aluminium, and allow you to use OEM bulbs and OEM ballasts - meaning that if you blow a bulb, you can just go down to your local BMW dealer and purchase one - the kits use electrical terminals that are not really rated to the voltages, tend to get wet etc. A lot of the kits also use plastics that don't survive the heat.

I will post some photos this week - hopefully tomorrow... The H4 headlamps are far more suited for a HID Kit retrofit than the H7.

Take a look at this link - it is a great source of information as to why you can/cannot retrofit HIDs in various headlamps...

http://faq.auto.light.tripod.com/special-topics.htm

Cheers
Heath Young

Heath i'd be interested in seeing some pictures if you don't mind . They sound good but need vision

Heath i'd be interested in seeing some pictures if you don't mind . They sound good but need vision
http://www.aussiemagna.com/phpbbforum/viewtopic.php?t=6342&highlight=

Wow,

Very impressed Heath, it seems someone has gone to a lot of trouble to document all this.

So guys, will it take more than just purchasing an appropriate kit to match the existing bulbs, or will it require for me to actually provide an ounce of effort into creating some sort of custom shielding?

Please say no, i'm not the kind of person who likes things that require effort lol. :cool:

Being a H4 headlight, you can use the Caspers sheilds, rather than having to make a sheild - I was going to pick up the shields from the post office yesterday but I didn't get there till 5:59, and the ba$tards closed before I could cross the road :rant: ...

I will try to pick them up TODAY and get some beam shots tomorrow...

BTW - I posted some photos of the finished article (The TT modified headlamps)

Cheers
Heath Young

I've noticed that your parabolics have quite a lot of "refractors" on the lens itself, although I have seen ones which have very few refractors, does that mean there are a couple of different versions of the parabolics itself, besides the one-piece/two-piece varieties?

Another thing, what was your main reason of using the projectors from the TT? Why didn't you go for the ones used....say in the locally built Monaro?

I've noticed that your parabolics have quite a lot of "refractors" on the lens itself, although I have seen ones which have very few refractors, does that mean there are a couple of different versions of the parabolics itself, besides the one-piece/two-piece varieties?

There are probably year-to-year differences in these, the primary purposes of these fresnesl lines (refractors) is to transform the light into a straight line. The light from the projectors passes through the clear portion of the lens, and is not affected by these - unfortunatly the glass is not universally thick, so there is some distortion - I would love to fit these into the one-piece parabolics, but didn't have the $$$ at the time. I was also worried about the higher intensity UV decomposing the plastics as well (going yellow over time)



Another thing, what was your main reason of using the projectors from the TT? Why didn't you go for the ones used....say in the locally built Monaro?

Easy - the size of the projector (Audi TT projectors are very small) as the headlights are an *extremely* tight squeeze to get anything into, anything larger would not have fit, or would have fit, but could not be adjusted left/right/upwards/downwards. There is stuff all room behind the headlights for the rear of the projectors as well!

Another reason why is that they are properly designed for a HID bulb, with the correct focal distance and legal light levels - a monaro projector would not have fit, the bulb would produce a crap beam pattern etc etc...

Cheers
Heath Young

Being a H4 headlight, you can use the Caspers sheilds, rather than having to make a sheild - I was going to pick up the shields from the post office yesterday but I didn't get there till 5:59, and the ba$tards closed before I could cross the road :rant: ...


Cheers
Heath Young



I saw your car there, thought you must of been in the pub

I saw your car there, thought you must of been in the pub

Narp - would be nice to be able to make it to the pub at 5:00, but hmmm...

I take it that you are an 'Edgie' local then? I think I have seen your car around as well.

Cheers
Heath Young

E-tronic in Sydney have the HID kits for Magnas, they did some work for me on Saturday and discussed these with me.

If you are interested, give them a call and tell them Dan with the Ralliart sent you for a good price.

I have attached some beamshot photos of a H4 caspers HID versus a H4 Halogen bulb - as you can see, it is pretty much the same, but has a slightly less sharp cutoff and three times the brightness (roughly).

The caspers adaptor is seen modified (with an end cap for the hotspot) - from this you can see the amount of sheilding required to get a beam pattern that good! If you see a H4 kit with less sheilding, the beam pattern will really, really suck... I attached a picture of a 'cheap' H4 HID hit installed on a Honda Civic - it has *poor* sheilding. The beam pattern is absolutely horrendous. Would you like to be driving towards this car? That is LOW BEAM!!

I say 'cheap' because the costs of fitting more shielding, or buying another kit far outweigh the initial cost benefits, not to mention questionable quality of bulbs and ballasts with aftermarket kits... Also, if you do get stuck with a kit like that, you cannot return it, because all of the aftermarket kits come with the bulbs in little plastic cases, if you open them (to fit them to the headlight) - no returnee...

Just speaking from experience here, I had a mate go through all of this :(

Cheers
Heath Young

Sorry guys - First picture is H4 HID, Second picture is Halogen HID.

Cheers
Heath Young