Any advice for twin HID unit upgrade Scoobysport cant import any more units?

Anybody just done a HID upgrade with standard units? Feedback

 

I did a dip and main beam HID conversion on an STi7 using kits from Autolamps on line. The STi7 uses the same bulbs as the 8 but the reflectors are smaller so if anything the 8 should be better.

What were they like on the 7? Fantastic!! Best mod I've ever done to a car bar none. Superb range, superb light, fantastic cut off for the dip beam. No complaints whatsoever. And Nick at Autolamps on line is so helpful and knowledgeable it's (almost) a pleasure spending the money. I don't think I'll ever own a car with conventional lights again.

I've just stripped the kits off for transfer to my next car, so that's another advantage of doing it yourself rather than buying OEM or buying a lens unit.

 

Thanks for that, can you remember how much, what was the fitting like ?

 

About 350 for dip and the same again for main beam. Both dip and main for less than the price of the OEM HID dip on my previous car.

Fitting the bulbs was easy, plug and play swop for the originals. Mounting the ballast is OK, the more time you spend the neater you can do it. I tucked mine away out of sight behind the fog lights in the space between the plastic spoiler floor and the inner wing. Wiring kits come with the lights but had a relay per light, this would have been easy to fit, again plug and play. But for me with 4 lights this would have worked out a bit messy with relays everywhere so I made my own loom with a pair of relays under the dash. I think they've moved to FET's rather than relays so that should make them even neater.

The only potential problem was that the main beam relays in the wiring kit were wired conventionally, ie earth and switched 12V to trigger it. But Subaru use 12V and switched earth for main beam so these needed swopping. I presume Autolamps have fixed this now.

I would think 2 spanners in the Haynes manual for difficulty, all on the wiring, fitting the rest is like changing a conventional bulb, 1 spanner or less.

 

thanks mate...

 

Number silliness again! Do you mean a bugeye (STi7/8/MY01/MY02) or blobeye (STi9/10/MY03/MY04) conversion Hales?

 

First is HID and Xenon the same thing?

I am looking to fit a Xenon upgrade to my Impreza. Dunno if anyone makes one and how much does it cost?

Anyone?

 

greasemonkey, As I am new boy on the block can you tell me ?

Blobeye 04 STi Type UK ? please explain.......what does that make it?

 

Yeah, I know, it is confusing, and it's a bad habit that I've done my best to stamp out recently!

The explanation is that this whole "number" thing is actually a load of bollocks when applied to the new age cars.

The last Impreza STi that officially had a number was the STi6. After that, Subaru stopped using a number in public, but many people naturally tried to carry on describing the STi's by the same scheme.

The problem then was that three or four different "systems" sprung up, and thus it now means nothing unless you know which "system" the person you're talking to uses. To some people your car is an STi8, to others it's an STi9, and to others it's an STi10. Total mess, and totally useless as a means of identifying the car!

The best solution is not to apply a number at all (Subaru don't, so why should you?!), and simply refer to it by the model year and the type, exactly as you did above. If it's an MY04 car (it has a square boot lock), just refer to it as an MY04 STi Type UK and everyone will know what you've got. If your car has a round boot lock, it's an MY03 STi Type UK. Simple!

 

Well I now know, I have a MY04 Sti UK.

 

No, they aren't the same thing at all.
"Xenon" bulbs are just ordinary halogen bulbs, with filament, and have some Xenon gas in the envelope, (the glass bit) which makes the filament burn that bit whiter.

HID systems have no bulb, as such, but a "Discharge Lamp" in which a spark is induced to jump a gap, under low pressure and high voltage. As it does so it releases light energy.

A typical HID unit prodices about 300W of halogen equivalent light, but much whiter, hence people describe it as blue-white.

Expect to pay £30 for Xenon Bulbs, and £300 for ONE Xenon HID unit including ballast, lamp etc.

Alcazar

 

Sapkan - Depends what you mean by Xenon.

There are so called xenon bulbs which are normal filament bulbs with a blue tinge to the light by tinting the glass blue. These cost about 20 quid a pair and are available for any car. In my experience they make absolutely no difference to the light output so are snake oil.

HID's are totally different technology, they use a gas discharge, sort of an arc between two electrodes, rather than a filament to make the light. The "bulbs" are connected to a ballast unit that generates the high voltages needed to strike the arc. These units cost 3 or 400 quid a pair and produce a much bluer appearing light. Light output from these is much better than conventional bulbs. These are variously known as xenon headlights, gas discharge headlights, HID headlight's. I'll call them HID's.

If you mean these then you can get a kit from autolamps on line to fit them to any car using H1, 9005, H7 and no doubt other bulbs. Depending on which Impreza you have this will probably include your car. Oppps just read you have a MY03 WRX - yes you can get kits for this it uses H1 for dip and 9005 for mains. The difficult one is a car using H4 bulbs for dip and main as it's not so easy to use an HID to replace both dip and main filaments, talk to Autolamps and see what the current options are.

 

I meant the xenon that you get as an option for Audis, BMWs etc. not the cheap bulb option

I had a look at the autolamps website but did not see HID listed for the Impreza will try and get in touch with them. Think my car uses H4 but I am not completely sure. Has anyone carried out HID conversion on the latest wrx shape. If you have please post your experiences.

BTW. What is the HID that Litchfield use for the Spec C and Type 25 STIs?

 

Sapkan - I've done the mod on an STi7 (MY02 bugeye STi type UK for the pedants amongst you....) which is virtually the same except the shape of the lens unit. Experience as above.

The MY03 WRX uses H1 and 9005 bulbs as I said. The lens unit has two separate reflectors in it, one for dip and one for main so there's no way it could be an H4 bulb as this is a combined dip/main bulb.

To check open the bonnet and follow the wires, pull the wires off, take the bulb out and read the numbers on the bulb base, it's not rocket science. You'll be able to do this much easier than trying to get it off a website which says Impreza when there are many different Imprezas models all with different bulbs fitted. Ring Autolamps by all means, they are very helpful but they have probably never seen a MY03 WRX let alone pulled it apart.