this kinda thing will help with voltage drop?

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Xenon-HID-Conversion-Kit-Relay-Wiring-Harness-H1-H7-H8-H9-H11-9005-9006-5202-/290651527294?pt=UK_CarsParts_Vehicles_CarParts_SM&hash=item43ac2e587e

That loom is to save damaging standard light switches when having an after market xenon kit.

Has anyone finished their LED running lights yet? If so can you upload some pictures, i'm looking into doing this and would like to see your results.

Also, i'm pondering the HID conversion, would you guys recommend the loom to protect the switch or is that overkill?

Cheers.

After changing my main beam for the Osram night breakers and being very impressed by them (and also finding that the car was fitted with Osrams already) I opened my wallet and brought some replacment bulbs for my HID's, which have been in since I've owned the car. I got them from a ebay seller £112.50, click the the above picture for link.

So today with the good weather I got outside, took the bumpe off and pulled the headlights out and changed the DS2 bulbs. As I say I'm not sure how old they are but both the ones I took out have a cloudy mid section on them. All fitted now I wonder if I will be as impressed as by the main beams?

The 'cloud' in the middle is made of vapourised salts that produce most of the HID light, xenon discharge produces only a small part of light, the rest is the metal vapour glowing. Unused bulbs will be clear only for first few seconds of operation, after that they will also cloud up on every switch-off.

Changing burners produces noticeable improvement after 1000hrs of operation or so, or if previous ones have been frequently switched on/off. Let us know if the lighting improved.

Note you can get more improvement from higher power (50W-75W) HID retrofits on halogen equipped cars, that's why I decided not to get factor HIDs on Mk1 Superb (had them on Mk1 Octavia). But if your car has factory HIDs then I guess new burners are the only easy way to go.

Nackuk, what is coulor of Osram Night Brakers?

I plan to replace lights on my Sup, but I dont like blue or cold white colour.

I like warm white-yellow, and actually all I want to do is to improve light quality and quantity, and not look.

Zdravo Milane

I installed Night breakers into my main beams recently and they are white, closer to yellow than blue really, but whiter than normal H3 bulbs if that makes sense. I changed my dipped to D2S Osram Cool Blue Intense bulbs, which are not cheap but massive improvement over standard ageing D2S Philips.

These are very slightly blue (rated at 5000 Kelvin) - I can't actually see it as blue, all I see is the road is nice white and bright, main improvement has been when its raining now visibility is better. The only hint of the lights not being standard is when cars are coming from the other direction I can see a slight blue tint to their front number plates!

Nackuk, what is coulor of Osram Night Brakers?

I plan to replace lights on my Sup, but I dont like blue or cold white colour.

I like warm white-yellow, and actually all I want to do is to improve light quality and quantity, and not look.

They look like stock colour to look at on the car ie the yellow white. The main beam night breakers were a big improvment over the Osrams that were already in there on mine.

Well tnx for answer guys.

If I have understood you, when you are say main beam, you actually think high beam?

Im actually pleased with my high(main) beam because I dont use it very much.

I hate when people drive with high beam on, and I dont do that.

I have hm...problem(well it isnt actualy problem because I have used to it) with my low beam.

They are so weak, that I cant express with words.

And from the minut I have bought car, they were weak.

Do you recomended me to replace and put in the low beam?

I have find out this link:

http://am_applicatio...h/index_en.html

Hopefully it will help someone...

They sugest me that for low beam choose one from this: Night Braker Plus/ Ultralife/ Silverstar 2.0.

Now I want to ask you guys how long have you Nigh braker?

Im hearing that they doesnt last long...is that tru?

Do in mind that in my country it must be turn on low beam even on day.(stupid regulation :( )

So to conclude what can you advice me to put in low beam?

It wont edit, I dont know why...sooo

I want nice yellow white light and to last well deacent time(like apx minimum 6 months).

And I have forgot to ask you and that bother me a long time ago...I saw one taxi(Fiat Punto) with no white, no yellow, but orange light!

It has light like bulbs wich we have in front direction indicator.

Do you accidently know wich bulbs he had used?

For low beam halogen lights, H7 Osram Nightbreaker+ or H7 Philips Extreme are best, as they are quite durable on top of being bright. Note old Osram Nightbreaker had much shorter lifetime than Philips Extreme, but currently the NB Plus version is comparable. The "Plus" is for extra lifetime, not extra brightness.

For low beam factory HID old burner replacement, Osram, Philips and even GEC all have latest design D2S burners that will give about 10% on top what stock burners gave when new (6-10 years ago), and can double the light output of old, worn out burners.

Though when it comes to amount of light while preserving good beam quality/cutoff, nothing beats a HID low beam retrofit. You can readily get 75W HID kits that bring Superb's low beam to about the same performance level as some Asian 35W HID reflector designs.

Is there a specific HID kit that you guys recommend or would it be any with the spec's stated from 'The Auction Site'?

For low beams, anything HID 4300K-5000K colour with 50W+ actual power to the burners is OK and suffcient light on the road, quality varies but not too much given prices. Make sure aftermarket burners are not fouled up with epoxy, though, as this would mess up the reflector over time. Even ballast size does not matter much, there's a perfect space for ballasts under front bumper cover, and igniters fit under the headlamps.

For high beams, I use overloaded stock bulbs, but it's more complicated story, read this thread if you want to know more. If you really want HID in high beams, then search for "rapid start" HID kits that have acceptable <2s to full intensity and allow the "flash" function to work as well as with halogens in. The HIDs will be brighter in high beam, but will not have much more range/throw than the halogens, on account of HID burner's discharge area being larger than halogen bulb's filament and less focusing as a result.

Looking round at HID kits, and there are 35w / 50w / 75w. I take it from what you say that the 35w won't be adequate enough? Or is it simply that the 50w are better? I'm not going to go round blinding everyone if i put the 50w kit in am I?? :think:

On low beam in the Mk1 Superb specifically, 35W is not enough IMHO, 50W is adequate, and 75W is very good. Keep in mind I often drive dusk/night/dawn and frequently at autobahn speeds.

As long as the headlamps are positioned corectly, you will not be blinding anyone. Thanks to projector design and the fact that H7 bulb is similar enough in shape to equivalent HID retrofit, cutoff still will be razor sharp.

For high beam, you're not supposed to use it in the face of anyone anyway, so do whatever you fancy, keeping flash function in mind (rapid start kit would be better, relays provide most bang for buck when it comes to range/throw). The EU light intensity limit for high beams recently got raised, so the only thing worth remembering is that at most you can have 2+2 high beams, and that your alternator/battery have finite current capacity.

You can also go back to post #6 and links quoted there for detailed discussion.

Edited 29 January, 201313 yr by dieselV6

I looked on ebay and i'm unable to find any 75W within EU. Perhaps you know a place dieselV6?

Haven't looked recently, but in Nordic countries you may want to translate "xenon king" into Swedish

I got a couple of kits from them several years back, I think my 2nd and 3rd HID kit to play with, so a long time ago

Theirs were good kits but pricey though, it would be better to find someone on Ebay as recently prices there were much better and quality was OK. Perhaps German Ebay? Or ask a manufacturer directly on Alibaba and related sites, some will sell a single kit. It is more risk though.

Edited 29 January, 201313 yr by dieselV6

Thanks to projector design and the fact that H7 bulb is similar enough in shape to equivalent HID retrofit, cutoff still will be razor sharp.

Are they actually projector units though? Because if not it doesn't matter about the design, a retrofit H7/H4(etc) type HID kit will still be illegal, and I would doubt any razor sharp cutoff line too. Happy to be proved wrong by someone who has a kit fitted in stock lamps who can drive up to a wall and show the beam pattern.

I know on fabia its truly awful - been there, done that, went back to halogen inside 48 hours, and eventually got projector headlights.

Cown, There are 75w kits listed on Amazon UK. Don't profess to know the quality though.

Edited 29 January, 201313 yr by MarkTB

Are they actually projector units though? Because if not it doesn't matter about the design, a retrofit H7/H4(etc) type HID kit will still be illegal, and I would doubt any razor sharp cutoff line too.

I agree retrofitting HID in low beam reflector type headlamp is madness, I have seen countless reflector conversions and none worked. Glare, glare, and more glare.

At the same time, projector HID conversion worked every time for non-transverse bulbs (H1, H7 etc). Transverse H3s give out problem from time to time, usually in smaller lens size housings, sometimes it is enough to get a different set of burners.

But even the worst H3->HID projector glare is nothing compared to the best H7->HID reflector glare. So stick to projectors only when doing low beam / fog light conversions.

Yes, Mk1 Superb low beams (at least in 2006) are large H7 projectors, ellipsoidal reflector+screen+lens design, in fact it is the very same housing as is used for factory HIDs. Factory HIDs just get permanent rear caps,different bulb collar, and a different levelling motor (for auto operation).

Cutoff is razor sharp, and has been from every longitudinal filament (H1, H7) projector I played with. It's the H3 bulb that gives most problems, in projectors HID H3 is not so sharp anymore

Re legal/illegal, as long as they pass UK MOT test and do not dazzle it is a moot point. The better road lighting does improve road safety. Post #6 has link to more detail of my experience so far and some discussion re practicalities. There is a picture there posted in fmohly's zip file, I can only state that in Mk1 Superb's low beams the cutoff is sharper (no doubt on account of the Superb's low beam projector having permanent screen compared to that Roomie's dual beam light).

Edited 29 January, 201313 yr by dieselV6

Totally agree with dieselV6 on above

Thanks for the advice dieselV6. I was only really looking into the HID kit for the headlights and not the Main Beams. Is upgrading the main beams something you would recommend to do as well?

Least work, but more cost is HID kit in high beams. If you really want HID there, get a "rapid start" HID kit, these go to 90% brightness in under 1s nowadays. Used to be on Ebay, not sure where to get them from now. HID kit in high beams gives more light than stock, but not much more range. Best to stick to either 35W kit, or 50W kit with 35W burners, as discharge area is smaller than with larger power burners, so focusing is better (not as good as stock H3 though). Discharge area affects range/throw, E.g. 50W kit with 35W burners will have more range than 50W kit with 50W burners as the (moderately overloaded) 35W burners will be brighter.

IMHO relays to high beams are best bang for buck/work option if you are happy with the amount of light on high beams now but not happy with max range/throw (amount of light at a distance). Though it does mean a hole/grommet in the firewall as battery is on top of engine.

More work, but similarly low cost and no holes in firewall is boosting voltage for high beams (but it's a bit of electronics to buy/put in a box/connect). This gives longest throw out of stock lights. I discussed it in the other thread.

All options quoted are durable enough, on account of main beams not being used anywhere near as often as low beams