Fitting the PIAA driving lamp kit
 

Next weekend I am removing my HID's brought from the GB on here and replacing them with GE bulbs as reomended to by Alcazar:thumb:

Whilst I have my bumper off, Would it be easier to fit part of the PIAA driving lamp kit at this time of wait till the car is all back together?

And how hard is it to fit and wire up the kit?

reason I ask is that It took my dad and I a whole weekend to fit the HID kit to my car, this I am no looking forward to removing it.

Thanks

Darren

The General Electric +60% are very good and I have used them for atleast 3 years.

There is no need to remove the bumper to fit a PIAA Lamp Kit but if you have the bumper off you may as well trial fit the two mounting plates and offer up the complete assembly with the lamps secured to the triangular mounting brackets.
A couple of tips :
It is worth having the mounting brackets powder coated to avoid corrosion after a year of use in the original supplied finish.
Setting the lights up properly can be very fiddly. I set them up and remove them by the three 10mm set screws, tighten the locking nut and then refit. During the set up I do one spot at a time with both headlight connectors removed.

Thanks Harvey.

I have to remove my front bumper to gain access to the balasts see pic

http://i18.photobucket.com/albums/b127/-Darren-/5.jpg

http://i18.photobucket.com/albums/b127/-Darren-/6.jpg

I hope the instrustions are easier - read written in english - thanwhat was supplied with the HID kit.

Alcazar mentioned that you can get the GE bulbs from autolamps-online. This is where I got my upgraded halogen bulbs (Power2Night) before I fitted the HID kit. I had a look on there last night and I could not see these bulbs on their site :wonder: Could you please point me in the right direction, many thanks.

Is this them by anychance...just had another look

http://www.autolamps-online.co.uk/pr...pluscentre.htm

My supplier of these bulbs has always been Andy at Mac's Garage (Ilkley) Ltd., Golden Butts Road, Ilkley, West Yorks. LE29 8HS. Great guy.
01943 816751. Next day delivery.

I don't remember any instructions on any of the PIAA I have fitted but it is straight forward and very much self evident. Do NOT buy any replacement bulbs from PIAA as you will need to take out a second mortguage. Just pop down to Halfords and get their 120W items which perform as well.

What probs did you have with the HID?

See here Harvey
https://www.scoobynet.com/lighting-o...thing-kit.html

Cheers

Thanks for that. Good post by Alcazar. I don't think most people appreciate that it is not the brightness that counts beyond a certain level but the focus.
That is what I have found with "rally" 130/120, 130/100 and 100/90 bulbs even though I uprated the wiring and added relays. Also expensive PIAA had poor focus and from what I can make out that is also with the dip and full beam on HID sets.

Its all about focusing and also good headlights.

Thanks for your help so far Harvey :thumb:

I have just done a search for a wiring diagram on these it looks a little over my head :(

I removed my HID kit today. It actually all went to plan and no problems :)

I fitted the Halfords GE bulbs today... see pic.

http://i18.photobucket.com/albums/b1...n-/GEbulbs.jpg

and still at £14.99 each or 2 for £14.99 (BOGOF)

I will go out tonight and see how they perform.

Wiring PIAA's is actually dead easy, so long as you have some way of finding a live feed, eg: a circuit tester. Mine is a brass bodied pen-sized thing, with a bulb in it, a lead terminating in a crocodile clip coming out of the top, and a sharp point for piercing insulation, on the other end.

Other than that, it's:

Relay terminal 85 FROM headlight main beam live.
Relay terminal 86 TO a suitable earth, eg battery -ve.
Relay terminal 30 FROM battery +ve via fuse if relay doesn't have one.
Relay terminal 87 TO lights,
And finally, lights to a suitable earth.

Battery to relay, relay to lights, and lights to earth via heavier duty cable, it used to be called 28/010. The rest in thinner cable, it used to be called 14/010.

I tend to by my stuff from Vehicle Wiring Products Ltd. Suppliers of auto electrical parts..

Alcazar

Cheers Alcazar. Thats another thing I do not have, a circuit tester :brickwall

...I wonder if Subaru still do these kits and then I could let them fit them...all this wireing sounds heavy :(

Subaru probably still do the kits, they had a choice between PIAA's and Hella. If you really want to go that route, choose the PIAA's. Be ready to pay quite a bit for fitting, and top dollar for the lighting kit:(

Wiring is certainly NOT difficult. Have a look at that website. Buy enough spade connectors and covers, a relay and inline fuse if you don't have one, and some lengths of wire....they sell by the metre. You'd also need a piggyback spade connector and a Scotchlok, plus about four 6mm ring terminals. You can crimp the better spades with long-nosed pliers, but I tend to crimp and then solder. DON'T buy the spades with colour coded rings on the non-spade end. Nice brass female ones are good. You need the 1/4" ones, 6.something mm.

Then take a trip to the local carshop. My circuit tester was about £2. A nice easy morning's work and away you go, save money and feel like you achieved something.

If you want more detailed instructions, PM me.

Alcazar

Hi, I've fitted the Prodrive PIAA kit to my MY2000 5 door. The lamps are easy to fit but difficult to aim. That's the important bit as they're such a good beam.
ISTR the wiring is basically simple but the loom that came with the kit didn't work and the instructions didn't help. I ended up having to change it but can't remember how. It was a fairly simple alteration though.
The other poster's quite right, the finish on the brackets fall off after about a year so get that improved first. The brackets are very simple, just shaped steel plates. The wiring is also simple to make. If I was replacing the lights, I wouldn't buy a kit as it's so easy to make the parts and just buy the lights. That way you save a lot of money.
If you do your own installation, you aren't tied to PIAA lights. You can get HID versions of these lights and Cibie also do HID's in their range. They cost ££££ though.

John

Thanks Jeff and John for your replys. Jeff I will (if you don't mind) be PM'ing you for more detailed instrustions.

You are probably right, that If I let Subaru supply and fit them I am wasting a lot of money, Money that I could use one somthing else.

I had a look on the Demon Tweeks site for prices on a certian HID driving kit and I was shocked to say the least.

I am now completely unsure of what to do.

Before I go and buy anything I want to make sure that it will imporve my night time driving.

IF and its a big if I do decided to to get the morettes, how much of an imporvement are they over OE headlamps?

I really like HIDs and the colours they give off, so if I brought a good quality bi-xenon kit would these work better than they would in my oe lamps

These new bulbs (GE) do fix the 'scattered light' problem that I had with the HID's, but they are poor. The HIDs were brighter. I am in a bit of a deliema :confused:

Also they are not the best of looking lights out there are they?
a quick photoshop
http://i18.photobucket.com/albums/b1...inglights2.jpg

Driving lamps. Obviosuly there are lots of suitable lamps out there that I could use whether I chose the PIAA light kit or spend mega bucks and get a HID type of kit, but at the end of the day I am never going to get the performance that I would from HID porjectors.

I don't fancy retro fitting projectors, so thats out of the question, so that only leaves me to change the car and I don't want to do that just yet.

So what do I do??? please advise me.

I've got Morrettes and the PIAA kit on my MY2000.
Both are a distinct advantage over standard lights. They are rubbish after all. Main beam is now great.
The dip beam still isn't too good though. HID's should be better there.

John

Thanks for that.

I have decided to order the PIAA Driving light kit. And when I have fitted it I will den decide on the morettes.

If the PIAA kit comes with its own wireing, relays bits, why would I need to make up use different cabling/wireing?

I'll be out in mine tonite, down some nice quiet country roads, so will TRY and take some pics of the light output from mine on dip, Morettes and then with the HID's.

Don't order anything until you see the results. IMHO the HIDs are worth the extra bucks..........

Alcazar

The Hella HID are a little out of my price range. Even if they are better and turn night into day, its still rather a lot of dosh to hand over at £413 ea :eek:

Hmmmmmm, they have gone up a bit. I'd have thought the price might have come DOWN a bit, what with everyone doing HID now, but hey, what do I know?

What about the 90mm Hella units as used on the P1?

Alcazar

The P1 small spots look too small. I like big fogs/driving lights, more inkeeping with the rallying theme.

Don't get carried away with size, it's beam quality that matters.
Having said that, a good large lamp will out perform a good small lamp. If you go for a large lamp, get a good one.

John

I understand that.

Some pics of what I've got
 

First, the Morette dip beam: GE Megalight 60% uprated in a Morette outer, two lights lit.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/09...ighting001.jpg

Now, Morette main beam: 2x GE Megalight 60% uprated, and 2x 55w H3 inners:

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/09...ighting002.jpg


And finally, the same as above, with two Hella 1000FF HID driving lights mounted where the fogs were:

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/09...ighting003.jpg

All photos taken tonite with a Nikon D70 on 2 seconds shutter speed at F3.5

Alcazar

Thank you very very much for taking those pictures for me (and anybody else).

Those Morettes do give out more light compared to standard....hmmm. But those Hella's are a tad bright aren't they :notworthy Just they are too expensive for me.

those driving lights are pretty awesome..... probably just what i need for spotting deer attempting to cross the road in front of me :D

what effect if any does putting the mesh fog light covers over the driving lights have?

Dunno, but I'd reckon on those, no difference:D

Alcazar

The two things that make Morettes WORK better, (as against how they LOOK), than OE lights are the focus on dip, which is WAY better than the OE, and the mainbeam, which has 4 lights working, so a minimum of 115W per side. And then those 115W are put where they should be, AND the inners can be adjusted independently of the outers, so YOU decide where you want the light.

My bro in law has a Jag with projector lights, and his aren't as good as mine.

Alcazar