HID Conversion Kits

That site is interesting reading and what he says is certainly true for many lamps.

However, Lightforce sell a driving light (the XGT I think) which is the same case, lens, reflector etc as their HID lamp but with a halogen.

It is possible to design a lamp to work equally well with halogen and HID. Whether a particular lamp functions well is pure luck unless designed to do so.

I have a set of Narva 175's that I have fitted the H3 HID replacements to.

1) The increase in brightness is amazing.
2) The issues noted on Daniel's website do have an effect on the spot. The spot is not round anymore but a vertical oval. It is still reasonably coherant however and penetrates a LONG way.
3) Fitted to the 'spread' beam appears to have had little to no effect on the beam pattern.

I'm happy with it but then again they are not the main headlights either and glare to other drivers is not an issue as you can't use driving lights with other drivers ahead of you.

Currently in Oz, I believe, all of these fittings are not legal for road use (neither are ANY of the high output halogens with colour temps higher than 4300k either) and the H4 fitments I have seen all seem to have pattern issues etc. While very bright and with a sharp cutoff (Due to the lamp itself no doubt) the light distribution is somewhat uneven.

Interestingly Narva list in their catalog an H4 HID Hi/Lo replacement kit, so some brand names are producing theses kits. I had a look at a kit similar to the Narva which has an HID low beam and a Halogen high beam. The low beam light was bright, reasonably even, and very white. BUT...when you switched to high beam and the HID capsule went dark and the halogen came on...It was like you had switched your headlights off. The high beam halogen was NOWHERE near where it needed to be to form an adequate high beam. The light just scattered everywhere. Yuck.

I guess the bottom line is: If you want your car to be legal don't retrofit HID capsules to ANY original equipment lights on it. Spots/driving lights fitted after manufacture is probably OK but you are taking your chances as to whether you'll get a good result. Stick to lights available with both HID and Halogen versions where the optic of the lamp are similar/identical.

Oh and $650 is way too much to pay.

Peter

Thanks Ozrunner & Peter. Ozrunner I made not have made myself clear enough. These particular conversion kits were for driving lights not headlamps but I know there areothers you can get for headlamps. Hella have some the in their cattle-dog too! Peter re your oval beam that is possibly because the HID globe being longer than the QH globe, the light source may be further forward in relation to the reflector than the original QH bulb. That is how the Lightforce Blitz 240's (identical to XGT's but different housing) vary from a pencil to a spread. They provide the reflector and lens one piece housing mounted on a screw thread on the base mount so you are supposed to be able to adjust it fron pencil to spread and back again by screwing in and out the reflector housing which simply changes the position of the bulb relative to the reflector. In my experience (I have two) this is just a waste of time as it doesn't really work. All it does it reduce the range dramatically and give you a light pattern that is not really any good for anything.

That's true but the oval pattern has its long axis vertically, not horizintally!

Peter

I'm using the XenonOz H4 Hi/Lo HID conversion kit in a 03 GU Patrol, I have down sized the spotties as they aren't required with a HID high beam setup unlike the cheaper Narva one which use halogen high beams, It's like driving in daylight with low or high beam, & I have checked to make sure that the light doesn't blind oncoming drivers as the bulbs have a special light cutout shield fitted on low beam. My reason for changing the headlights & not the spotties to HID were simple really. If your doing 100km/hr on normal high beam halogen headlights with HID spotties as well then have to dip to low beam because of on comming traffic, you can't see squat due to the dull yellow halogen low beam instead of the bright white light your eyes were used to a few seconds ago, not a good time to have poor vision in my books.
I am also not affilited with the company.
Cheers with my 2 c's worth.

I'm also running the Xenon Oz H4 Hi/Lo conversion kit and second the above posts. They are more expensive than others I seen but you get what you pay for. Frank is very open and honest, worth giving him a call to discuss what exactly you are after. I'm not affiliated either, simply a satisfied customer.

Just had a look at the site....gr8 lights, but disappointing to see that they advise their products are NOT street legal and do not meet our ADRs....buggar!!!!!!

Our regs require light washers on any HID light. You will see all vehicles that come with factory HIDS have a light washer. I think it is a stupid regulation, but that is it.

Sky Pilot,

Pardon my ignorance..........but what is a "light washer"......

My thoughts are:

Could be the opposite to a "heavy washer"???
Could be that you have to have those fancy washer set-up like expensive European cars have (like washer and wipers on the headlights)...??

Okay, so those 2 possibilities are being a bit stupid......

What are they???

Your half right. It is a high pressure water spray in the front bumper bar designed to clean the headlight lens. There is no wiper on it though. The Australian Design Rules demand these on HID lights.