HID conversion of 95 series Headlights

[Benzbaby Lurker Find all posts View Profile Close Benzbaby]

Can anyone recommend a brand eg Philips or random ebay xenon kits to replace my qh headlights.
Also any problems you have had eg dead spots in light output, colour temperature and wattage.
Does this conversion greatly increase your side view of the road?

Looking at this as will be fitting new driving lights and may influence benefits of spread/pencil lamps

[RanJ Avid PP Poster! Find all posts View Profile Close RanJ]

I've been through the whole rigamarole with trying this and nothing is satisfactory. Keep in mind also... illegal at all times.

I have finally settled on some LED bulbs which I love for low beam. High beam is appalling but doesn't stress me as I nearly always have one of my pairs of driving lights on at the same time.

The spread was horrible and the distance was worse. On top of all that, I had to adjust my headlights so low so as not to be nuisance to oncoming cars rendered virtually unusable.

[Early Member Find all posts View Profile Close Early]

Why would you do an HID conversion? Give it a go, however reflector headlights are not made for HID bulbs. Unless you can accurately place the HID bulb's 'hotspot' at the focal point of the reflector like the halogen bulbs it normally uses, your headlights will light up everything in front (including oncoming drivers) with reduced range.
Headlight engineers spend months/years on designing headlight reflectors for a good reason.

[Benzbaby Lurker Find all posts View Profile Close Benzbaby]

What should be illegal is to let a vehicle go to production with such pee poor headlights, you can get away with the low beam...just, on the 95 ser but the H/beam is downright pathetic and verging on dangerous, driving at 110kph on black country roads.

Early says: Headlight engineers spend months/years on designing headlight reflectors for a good reason.

Sorry mate I gotta disagree with ya there, the only decent engineering you will ever get is if you spend a hundred grand or more like my Audi quattro. Anything else and you are buying bits and pieces built for some other engine/drivetrain/chassis/gearbox/vehicle from god knows when and the list goes on.......engineered for the vehicle ..I think not, bolted on from the parts bin ..I think so yep this'll do a celica gearbox from 1980 behind a v6 from 1997......now what other bits do we have we can build an overpriced under engineered pile of old junk. Why else would the first few series of any new commercial vehicle be such piles of snot, yeah maybe after 15 years of production after they have tuned their designs, but we are buying vehicles which are frankensteins until these so called engineers learn how to build a car.
Yoda must have spent as long as it takes me to down a bowl of nutrigrain when they designed the 95 headlights.

[Terry Junior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Terry]

Maybe upgrade your globes in your headlights for around town and get yourself a couple of LED bars and some HID spotties for those black country roads.
Also maybe have your eyes tested (no i'm not being a smart a**e) you would be surprised the amount of people who can see perfectly during daylight and then struggle to see at night, my wife is one.

[juc33_prado Advanced Member Find all posts View Profile Close juc33_prado]

I have the standard Low beam and high beams in use around town, as they are sufficient.

But for the open country roads the LED light bar fills the gap to make for safe driving.

SAMUEL

[RanJ Avid PP Poster! Find all posts View Profile Close RanJ]

Reflector headlights and HID = Fail.

[Early Member Find all posts View Profile Close Early]

Sorry mate I gotta disagree with ya there, the only decent engineering you will ever get is if you spend a hundred grand or more like my Audi quattro.

Now i can see why you want better lights, you already drive a car with awesome headlights. Don't get me wrong, but how long did Audi engineers take to get that right? Hopefully lots of R&D, for your money's sake.
I used to drive around in a Mercedes w163 with projector lenses and a w210 with reflector glass headlights. Both had fantastic headlight aim with any halogen bulbs. With HID's however, just didn't work and only made me kick myself for spending $$ and annoying other drivers + police. Same story with my Mitsubishi ML and a mate's Audi A3.
old audi thread, but same story: http://www.audizine.com/forum/showth...r-Housing-Help

Yes, Toyota is a different brand. It doesn't change that a headlight is designed around the physics of a specific bulb.

As one of the above posters suggested, try upgrading to better halogen bulbs. I recommend halogen bulbs with minimum blue filter because all that does is makes the light whiter and cuts range.

What you do with your car is up to you. There are people out there that have already tried and help others to not make the same mistake.

[Benzbaby Lurker Find all posts View Profile Close Benzbaby]

Thanks guys for your valuable feedback, I am not prone to ignoring experienced advice. I wont go down the hid replacement road. I will try a different replacement globe, the ones I have fitted are a Narva replacement with a higher colour temp, were definitively better than the stock globes but have not driven Snowy for a few years. re my introductory post. Have definitely been spoilt with my Audi.
Thanks to Early for your advice and the link, and colour temp regarding Halogen replacements....appreciate that. Yeah true your comment on HID in standard reflectors engineered for a different purpose, I see also that Philips have modified the XGD globe metal surround to attempt to eliminate the unwanted and mis directed light from the housing, I just want to make the best out of a fairly modest at best H4 lamp on the 95. I am very aware of the safety factor and driver responsibility, I hate the unwanted glare from unaware drivers too so why would I want to inflict the same on my fellow road users, its a shame that every road user is not that responsible, My pet hate is guys getting around with pencil beams that drive far into the 1km plus range and are unaware of the effect it has on the oncoming driver and the time it takes for your eyes to re adjust to darkness again.

Yeah my eyes are 20/20 and must be, I am a safety officer for an Airport and my vision is checked regularly for fitness for work.

Once again thanks for your valued input to all who have replied, off to town now to get some new H4 globes.
Ava safe weekend guys watch your 12 and your 6
Regards.
Ben

[JKAF Junior Member Find all posts View Profile Close JKAF]

Has anyone tried replacment LED globes?

[RanJ Avid PP Poster! Find all posts View Profile Close RanJ]

Has anyone tried replacment LED globes?

Yes. I use them. Low beam is Superb and high beam is dismal... worse than halogen.

I have them in the 90 series so that's a smooth reflector with a Fresnel lens. 95 series has the crystal reflector with clear lens

[JKAF Junior Member Find all posts View Profile Close JKAF]

Yes. I use them. Low beam is Superb and high beam is dismal... worse than halogen.

I have them in the 90 series so that's a smooth reflector with a Fresnel lens. 95 series has the crystal reflector with clear lens

Thanks. I'll give it a try for my low beams. I have the aftermarket lights that has separate globes for high and low. So might play around with different combinations.

[RanJ Avid PP Poster! Find all posts View Profile Close RanJ]

Ok, different animal in that instance. Are yours a projector lens on low beam? I've found that they don't all like LEDs in them as LEDs have a dark spot in the centre of their beam

[JKAF Junior Member Find all posts View Profile Close JKAF]

I've got a 95 with the aftermarket headlights which are still normal reflectors but with separate globes for high and low beams. H1 globes. They call them projector headlights, but they don't have the projector lenses.

I'll get a couple of the LED Replacment globes to have a play. Can't be any worse than the standard globes I have now.

[croozza Avid PP Poster! Find all posts View Profile Close croozza]

How about you remove your headlights, and wash the inside of them with a weak soapy solution, as dust gets inside the light on the lens and reflector and will reduce light output.