Tuesday, November 5, 2013

My (original) HID installation with pics

Had this HID kit sitting around for a while, and decided that this was the week for it to go in.

I've said on this forum before that I was not happy with the standard low beam's ability to keep the road lit in front of me when I dipped the spotties and high beam for oncoming traffic.

Enter the HID kit.

I can tell you that it was a relatively easy install for anyone with a moderate knowledge of your ST and electronics. The kit is set up to be just about fool-proof. The hardest 2 parts of this project were getting the tupperware off both sides - 1 hr - and setting the HID electronics in a good spot that didn't interfere with the steering or glove boxes. I'd previously clued myself up on the actual removal of the halogen bulbs and - without this prior knowledge of how to unclip them, it would have been a nightmare.



Anyways - all went well and I had to extend the kit's power lead as it was not long enough to reach the pos battery terminal.


They are magnificent! I haven't tested them on a night ride yet - but the difference is remarkable! I'd allowed all week for this and a couple of other minor maintenance projects - but got it finished in 3 hrs.

The lights were too bright to photograph directly on - but I got these pics to show you the difference. The old/standard halogens were roughly the same colour as the little marker lights above the main array...... now look.......



They are even brighter than the sunlight in the background. These are the 6000k temp lights (sunlight is around 4800k).

In this final shot from the side - you can really see the vast difference in intensity be tween the HIDs and the more standard marker lights....









These are the H4-3 Bi-Xenon HIDs which means they have hi-lo beam, but the arc does not change - the switch moves the arc forward or backward in the reflector to produce a different light pattern (assimilating hi beam).


I also changed the coolant whilst I had STella undressed.


You can also see that the wiring has a lot to be desired here. This is addressed in my wiring upgrade posts.