HID on main beam

[stewartbaldwin]

I really need to fit HID lights on main beam, and I bought the Briskoda recommended HID units from ebay. After installing, sure enough, the bulb warning light came on and the main beam would not work with the engine running but worked fine with the engine off. I went across to Mike Holroyd today to plug in the diagnostics and switch on the system via VCDS. Despite Mike trying all the obvious options and spending a lot of his time,He could not find a way to make the main beam work with the engine running. Has anybody else tried putting HID bulbs on the main beam and got them to work, and if so, how? I don't have HID on dip and don't particularly need it, but If that will help, I can get a kit.

While I was there , Mike went right through the menus and we reset a bunch of settings that have improved the car . I am extremely grateful for his time and cups of tea! Great bloke.

[Mysticality]

I had aftermarket HID's on both low and high beam. Worked fantastically.

Just a 35W 6000k eBay kit.

After frying a few Body Control Modules (I'm on my 5th now, in 9 months) I've given up on the HID idea, and have started exploring other options.

Currently waiting for a friend to bring over a huge drill and help me mount a 20" 80W LED light bar behind the bottom honeycomb grille.

[Gizmo]

I've been thinking, and I'm not sure about the feasibility of HID in main beam -- if you need to flash the headlights, this will put a tremendous load on the ballasts as they are not designed for rapid switch on and switch off, and also, if you need to signal to someone via headlight flash, the bulbs would take far too long to fire up to full brightness to be useful. This time delay would surely cause an MOT failure as well if the main beam could not be properly used as a signalling device.

This is my thoughts also, they will be a waste of time.

The Superb gets around all of the above problems by having Bi-xenons (all one bulb) with a shutter for dipped and main beam along with a separate halogen light for main beam when the lights are flashed with the xenon's turned off.

[stewartbaldwin]

Hi, Mike,

I appreciate the concerns over headlight flashing but my previous cars were retrofitted with main beam HID and passed the MOTs with no problems. If I needed to flash another driver, I used the light switch to illuminate the dip lights.

Again, thank you for your help. It looks as though I may be back to non HID bulbs.

[RainbowFire]

There is an alternative, if you desperately *need* HID mainbeam.......a set of driving lights with HID bulbs, relayed off the OEM mainbeam. This would give even more light (which is what you seem to be after) as you'll have 2 sets of mainbeam on at once, plus negate the "light out" warning issue and the potential MOT issue Mike highlighted. Won't solve the potential ballast loading issue though.

[alberg]

I haven´t looked to put H1 HID bulbs on mine, but if I did, one thing I would do is to unplug the cars negative (plug that runs from main beam to high and so on) and plug a wire to the original spot and directly to the chassis.

Meaning that the negative on HID won´t be joined to the negative circuit on headlight instalation.(my main beam is already plugged directly to the chassis)

Hope you understand me.....

Edited 16 September, 2012 by alberg

[Mysticality]

@mikeholroyd-

What I meant by that was, the beam pattern and light output etc was fantastic.

First BCM blow was done by having high beam on, sitting in traffic and holding the accelerator down. (2,500rpm cap with the ESP on) The front right indicator bulb turned on and would stay on 24/7.

Second BCM blow was the same thing, ironically.

Third replacement was because the dealership couldn't get the new one to talk to the computer - so couldn't code the keys.

Sorry - My mistake. Only on my 4th, now.

Not putting HID's back in. Heh.

I'm not sure why mine have blown but nobody else's have.

[nickguzzi]

MY first trip abroad indicatd that something had to be done about the lights. I initially thought of HIDding both beams, but didn't want all the gubbings that went with the HIDs of the day, so settled for a dipped beam, micro ballast set from Hauptmann. This was sufficiently good to put the mainbeam idea on hold. It did demonstrate how dull the nightbreakers were though.

Apart from getting the works bixenon set-up, which I presume you have not explored too far for economic reasons, the are companies selling alternatives.

http://www.theretrofitsource.com/index.php

It obviously means quite a bit of fettling, and would probably be best on an ebay set of spares. Of course it would leave the present mainbeam reflector redundant - place for a pair of HID driving lamps perhaps?

I did cast around for a some aftermarket driving lamp, but where to fit without it looking incredibly gash?

[Mysticality]

I had a go at mounting a 22" 80W LED light bar to the metal bumper brace, so that it shines through the honeycomb on the front, under the numberplate.

Could drill the 6mm holes up through the metal, but the old 12mm bit, a brand new 12mm bit and a mate's 10mm bit would not make any progress whatsoever, so the idea is on hold for now.

Invisible unless kneeling down infront of the car, or on. I figured - why not?

[stewartbaldwin]

I tried earthing the hid bulb to a separate earth and it made no difference.

As nickguzzi says, converting to the full bixenon is too expensive, so the aftermarket kits seemed to be the option.

I may try the canbus friendly ones shown on the other HID thread for FL models.

[stewartbaldwin]

Update on the main beam headlight situation. I called the ebay supplier of the conversion and he was very helpful. He suggested trying the decoder kit that he sells and if it didn't work, he would refund the full cost.The decoder works!I now have main beam HID with no warning lights. I must admit it makes the dip beam look quite pathetic, but as the object was long distance vision,the system works.

[RainbowFire]

Care to share the seller's details?

[nickguzzi]

Pleased you reached a satisfactory solution for you. I found the dipped beam HID to be so superior to std, the time and trouble to install a main beam version was not necessary. My vehicle has reflector main beams anyway, so the alternatives were a shuttered replacement or a full install, involving hacking and bodging the reflector.

My nighttime use is very occasional local trips - in the hedgey nature of our lanes the dips work very well. Predominantly though, the thrash up and down the various motoways between here and Frankfurt. I find the increased sideways illumination works well, especially reassuring in areas where there are deer or wild boar waiting to commit suicide/manslaughter. The only time I really feel the need for massive forward lighting is when a driver with full HID's coming up fast and does not dip, it seems I am driving in to my own shadow, not nice at all, especially when there's heavy traffic about.

[stewartbaldwin]

I got the ebay seller from the recommendations on this site and it is "londoncolour". The present part is 33037933570 and this works with low beam and a VCDS reset. The decoder only seems to be needed for the high beam

[andyvee]

londoncolour are where I got mine from, can't fault them so far (dipped beam, not main)

[Aarosin]

Update on the main beam headlight situation. I called the ebay supplier of the conversion and he was very helpful. He suggested trying the decoder kit that he sells and if it didn't work, he would refund the full cost.The decoder works!I now have main beam HID with no warning lights. I must admit it makes the dip beam look quite pathetic, but as the object was long distance vision,the system works.

Is it still working perfectly?

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[Perc]

This is my thoughts also, they will be a waste of time.

The Superb gets around all of the above problems by having Bi-xenons (all one bulb) with a shutter for dipped and main beam along with a separate halogen light for main beam when the lights are flashed with the xenon's turned off.

If the Superb bi-xenons are anything like the ones on various VW's I've been in, the high beam is terrible. Sure it's wide and bright and evenly lit, but it's so short it's dangerous. Most German cars seem to suffer from this illness nowadays.

I don't remember which car this was, but it's from a finnish car magazine a few months ago. I took a picture of the article thinking it'd come in handy some time in the future. I think it was the new A class, or the new A3 perhaps. Anyways, there's no excuse for a highbeam as bad as this.

Edited 5 January, 2013 by Perc

[stewartbaldwin]

The main beam is still working perfectly. Although there were concerns about dipping the lights frequently, this has not been a problem to date. An example of my main beam usage is that I drove for 25 minutes the other night without needing dip beam. The joys of living in the sticks! Also, if I use dip for less than about 10 seconds, the main beams come straight back on full strength without the pause for heating up. For my particular use, I am very satisfied. I guess time will tell with regard to longevity.

[Aarosin]

The main beam is still working perfectly. Although there were concerns about dipping the lights frequently, this has not been a problem to date. An example of my main beam usage is that I drove for 25 minutes the other night without needing dip beam. The joys of living in the sticks! Also, if I use dip for less than about 10 seconds, the main beams come straight back on full strength without the pause for heating up. For my particular use, I am very satisfied. I guess time will tell with regard to longevity.

How long have you had Them installed now??

Its the 'London color' slim ballast Canbus HID kit you use, right?

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[stewartbaldwin]

I stand to be corrected but I don't think they are Canbus kits. The present ebay ref. is 330379335700. As mentioned previously, this seems to be a really good seller, and he has sold loads of these. I have been using the lights since September, and for maybe 3000 miles - not all on main beam! I think my particular situation makes sense for high beam HID, but over christmas, when I went back to civilization for a week or so, The delay in response when first selecting high beam meant that it was a bit of a pain. Before the high beam had fully illuminated, I had to dip the lights. I suspect this will reduce the life of the upgrade.