Those cheap Chinese HIDlights

Are rather nice.[1]

Until they decide to flame out whilst making progress home in the teeing
rain.

[1]Before you jump in WUN, my SO B6 has a glow worm for a headlight. The
HID makes it quite a lot better, and it's definitely set low, not to dazzle.

 

Using the patented Mavis Beacon "Hunt&Peck" Technique, Simon Wilson

<closes mouth>

 

I have wondered if the bulbs wear out and if it is practical to carry spares

 

This one's brand new, so I don't know what's up. I certainly don't trust
it at the moment.

On the ST1100 I've got one HID and one incandescant so it's not too bad
if one fails.

On the B6 that's it. I'm at least going to carry a spare H4.

 

Using the patented Mavis Beacon "Hunt&Peck" Technique, Simon Wilson

<realigns sights>

 

They do eventually, but should do about 2000 hours. You *could* carry a
spare. They are a bit more fiddly to swap than normal bulbs [1], and you
probably wouldn't want to try at the road side, simply cos of the chance
of getting something on the 'glass'.

[1] Depending, of course on the install. SWMBO GTV you can't even
*think* about changing bulbs without a screwdriver. My Sprint ST is much
the same.

--
Catman MIB#14 SKoGA#6 TEAR#4 BOTAFOF#38 Apostle#21 COSOC#3
Tyger, Tyger Burning Bright (Remove rust to reply)
116 Giulietta 3.0l Sprint 1.7 GTV TS 156 V6 2.5 S2
Triumph Sprint ST 1050: It's blue, see.
www.cuore-sportivo.co.uk

 

Flame out?

--
Catman MIB#14 SKoGA#6 TEAR#4 BOTAFOF#38 Apostle#21 COSOC#3
Tyger, Tyger Burning Bright (Remove rust to reply)
116 Giulietta 3.0l Sprint 1.7 GTV TS 156 V6 2.5 S2
Triumph Sprint ST 1050: It's blue, see.
www.cuore-sportivo.co.uk

 

Flame out?[/QUOTE]

Arc extinguishes.

 

Arc extinguishes.[/QUOTE]

*ding*

 

My money will be on the ballast unit.

Have you got a pair, Simon?

--
Catman MIB#14 SKoGA#6 TEAR#4 BOTAFOF#38 Apostle#21 COSOC#3
Tyger, Tyger Burning Bright (Remove rust to reply)
116 Giulietta 3.0l Sprint 1.7 GTV TS 156 V6 2.5 S2 GT 3.2 V6
Triumph Sprint ST 1050: It's blue, see.
www.cuore-sportivo.co.uk

 

I've got three different ones now. I don't know if the ballasts are
interchangeable.

 

All the ones I've had have been, but it's a simple check IYSWIM

--
Catman MIB#14 SKoGA#6 TEAR#4 BOTAFOF#38 Apostle#21 COSOC#3
Tyger, Tyger Burning Bright (Remove rust to reply)
116 Giulietta 3.0l Sprint 1.7 GTV TS 156 V6 2.5 S2 GT 3.2 V6
Triumph Sprint ST 1050: It's blue, see.
www.cuore-sportivo.co.uk

 

Was there a pun in there somewhere or do I just have a dirty mind?

 

The latter, sorry.

*Mrs* Simon, OTOH......

--
Catman MIB#14 SKoGA#6 TEAR#4 BOTAFOF#38 Apostle#21 COSOC#3
Tyger, Tyger Burning Bright (Remove rust to reply)
116 Giulietta 3.0l Sprint 1.7 GTV TS 156 V6 2.5 S2 GT 3.2 V6
Triumph Sprint ST 1050: It's blue, see.
www.cuore-sportivo.co.uk

 

took a blunt brush and painted...

There is a cure to most of these dazzling HID lights (and not the one's WUN
is thinking of).

If you look at an H3/4/7 bulb the end is painted black to prevent any direct
light shining out.

The HID bulbs don't have this, hence they chuck light everywhere.

Simple solution is to get some high temp black paint and dip the end of the
HID bulb in it.

Reduces dazzle down to "slightly mucky halogen headlight" levels, much much
better.

I suppose a better solution would be to use silver paint followed by black
paint to make sure the light is reflected rather than absorbed by the black
paint and heating the bulb glass up.

 

Worth reading.

http://www.danielsternlighting.com/tech/bulbs/Hid/disadvantages/disadvantages.html

 

took a blunt brush and painted...

I wish that was a wiki. There are so many "if"s, "but"s, "maybe"s, "in
general"s in there, and so many half truths it's rather funny to read it.

Anyway, I've just finished fitting them to my M3 after completely removing,
dismantling and cleaning the headlights.

Luckily the headlights are the projector type so swapping from halogen to HID
doesn't affect the beam shape.

Chucked the bulbs in to start with and there was far too much light being
thrown outside the beam. After pulling them to bits the lenses had a thin
covering of white sort of powdery stuff on them. Wierd. Possibly come from
bulbs that had blown and broken their glass.

All sorted now though.

 

We did this last time, to general cries of 'peer review?'


--
Catman MIB#14 SKoGA#6 TEAR#4 BOTAFOF#38 Apostle#21 COSOC#3
Tyger, Tyger Burning Bright (Remove rust to reply)
116 Giulietta 3.0l Sprint 1.7 GTV TS 156 V6 2.5 S2 GT 3.2 V6
Triumph Sprint ST 1050: It's blue, see.
www.cuore-sportivo.co.uk