HID Aftermaket kit - Help for definitive how to

[billywhiz040480]

I'm assuming the black and red wires in my hand from the HID kit plug into the original black connector of the light unit? I'm meeting with a fellow Briskodian today to get in coded but need to fit it all first ahh!

Edited 28 November, 2013 by billywhiz040480

[billywhiz040480]

I'm assuming the black and red wires in my hand from the HID kit plug into the original black connector of the light unit? I'm meeting with a fellow Briskodian today to get in coded but need to fit it all first ahh!

All sorted and working superbly, thank you so much for your assistance Adamal your a top Briskodian!

Edited 28 November, 2013 by billywhiz040480

[paddypaws]

Actually yes, I have fitted a London colour kit last week. All fine for a few nights  and then last night I got a bulb error. Switched off/on the ignition and it went away. Lights all work fine except I noticed the left head light was yellower than the right. Im going to clean all the connections carefully and see if that cures it.

It didn't fix it I've got a faulty bulb I think, or maybe a ballast but swapping the bulbs and now the other one is yellower.

[Will Campbell]

Just had a reply email from London colour, and they recon it is the battery that is to blame (power condition). 

 

i.e. if there is insufficient power in the battery to power the HIDs and main beam, then the power will be taken from the ballasts to power the main beam causing them to flicker and fail as they are digital and display the error on the dash.

 

As I have explained in my reply, the battery is only 8 months old and is giving me no other problems what so ever. Had it been an old battery, I might be a little more inclined to agree with them.

 

I did upgrade my main beam bulbs to xenon gas filled from the standard ones fitted,(slightly brighter) but like I say, I have had no problems until just lately.

 

When the car returns from the dealer today,(after getting the faulty GPS base unit replaced) I will put the standard bulbs back in to see if that cures the problem. But I am pretty sure they use the same amount of power and it is the gas that makes them burn that bit brighter.

[Will Campbell]

Good luck with London colour if you have a problem, the not so helpful person there(not sure of origin as their English is hard to read/make sense of)reckons it cant be a problem with the ballasts or bulbs and has not once even remotely hinted that they me be faulty or offered me a replacement set.

[paddypaws]

I rang London Colour about my problem. I explained the problem as above and we both decided the bulb was faulty. He said he would send a new bulb in the post lets hope it arrives hopefully its not the ballast I'll soon find out.

Edited 28 November, 2013 by paddypaws

[Will Campbell]

I will try exhaust all possible causes tomorrow in the daylight and if it still plays up, I will be ringing London colour for a replacement set. As I am not getting much joy out of them using email. 

[mmafreak]

As I have explained in my reply, the battery is only 8 months old and is giving me no other problems what so ever. Had it been an old battery, I might be a little more inclined to agree with them.

 

I will try exhaust all possible causes tomorrow in the daylight and if it still plays up, I will be ringing London colour for a replacement set. As I am not getting much joy out of them using email. 

 

As part of your diagnosis, please check the voltage of your battery using a voltmeter, even though it is new. It should be between 12.4- 13.6 V. Do you have access to a VCDS? It is very useful in pointing out the exact nature of the bulb error. 

[paddypaws]

I will try exhaust all possible causes tomorrow in the daylight and if it still plays up, I will be ringing London colour for a replacement set. As I am not getting much joy out of them using email. 

From your description of the fault both lights are doing the same thing. Its very unlikely that both lights would develop the same fault at the same time independently as they are of course completely separate ballasts and bulbs. A voltage drop is certainly a possibility, (faulty battery or alternator) unless both ballasts had water ingress at the same time. Do the lids come off for you to look inside for damp?

[Gti Jazz Blue]

Earth issue could cause that sort of thing, it would be worth checking if both clusters use the same Earth connection. The additional load may cause a resistance issue with the earth connection dropping the voltage seen by the HID electronics.

[Metblackrat]

This thread has digressed somewhat. Can one of the mods pull the relevant bits showing how to fit HIDs to the two models, lock the thread and then sticky it.

It would save every third post on the forum being the same!

[paddypaws]

Ok, I have 2 different ballasts to test with other than my own. One is an old genuine Hella ballast, and the other looks similar to Vectra1's but different colour.

I tried both ballasts and both give the same error message in maxidot of bulb failure.

I cleared all fault codes, coded the car first, then fitted both ballasts and tried them.................... before i even started the car (ignition on, lights off) maxidot reported bulb errors immediately. I believe (my opinion only) that like mine, the ones that Vectra1 has whilst not being labeled 'canbus' the car is happy with should that box be ticked or not as it appears to have no affect. I ticked bi-xenon without additional high beam. (none of which is true, were looking for xenon with additional high beam)

HOWEVER............ WHILST PLAYING I MAY HAVE FOUND A SOLUTION :-)

In byte 14 there is an option for bi-xenon (with shutter) installed - bit 3.

When ticked the car reports no bulb failure of any kind :sun: with the old ballasts installed.

Unfortunately, whilst this works, gives no errors and the headlights work perfectly it renders the LED DRL / SIDE LIGHT unit on the vRS inoperative for DRL or side light function

BUT.... if you manually change bit 4 from off to on (from a 0 to 1) instead, then the LED DRL / SIDE returns to normal operation and the car does not show a bulb error at all!!!!!!!

With this coding i have tested operation of all lights and all is good, old ballasts that showed up an error instantly without the need to be switched on work perfectly with no bulb failure.

 

Thought I should mention this bit 4 manual change seems to have worked in my 2013 FL Scout and was coded by Gizmo68 who is a top bloke!

[seanantenbring]

Same for me as the post above. Changed bit 4 and bingo!

[Jonny5ive]

Good news....I have reset the 09 central electronics back to how it came from the factory, with the HID kit in & get a bulb warning on the dash, so definitely no resistors in sight & not canbus friendly ballasts.

So to the testing:

Firstly, I have tried the Byte 17 bit 2 on it's own & this lost me the high beam, but kept my LED DRLs.

Secondly, I have tried the Byte 14 Bit 3 on it's own which has worked, but lost my LED DRLs.

Which leaves the Mysterious Byte 14 Bit 4 - so set this to 1 in the binary (on it's own) & all appears to be working fine, no bulb warnings - still have main beam, plus all other lights appear to be working - could this be a masked Xenon without shutters??

This is my actual screenshot from VCDS - as setup & working:

All on a 2012 VRS, with non-canbus HID kit from London Colour on ebay - incidentally the 4300 are very close to original.

Now just need some spare bulbs & some LEDs for the number plates

Thanks to vectra1 & powerx

Result.

 

Coded a 2012 vRS this evening using the BYTE14 Bit 4 as above.

[xpower]

Glad I could help :-)

[Chester]

Another 4300K kit from LondonColor fitted to a MY2012 vRS.

 

Huge difference in night driving. Much cleaner light.

 

Many thanks to Jonny5ive for doing the coding on a wet Sunday afternoon.

[Welsh_kai_boy]

Another 4300K kit from LondonColor fitted to my VRs Blackline. Simple kit for less than £25.

Coded as above with the hidden bit.

[Kaj]

I had a 4300K kit fitted to my 2011 vRS but heard of a few people being pulled and prosecuted by our gestapo, so I reluctantly removed them. It's also now part of the MOT check so they are clamping down on these. Anyone had experience of this?

 

The lights were a vast improvement over the poor std ones and I was never flashed by oncoming traffic once, but sadly I don't want the fine (and points?) that could result.

[silver1011]

The legality of HID kits is a senstivie subject and discussed in depth on many, many other threads (try a search).

 

This one is largely free from the HID police so please let us keep it that way as right now it is an extremely useful source of information.

[Chester]

Hi

 

In my other post http://www.briskoda.net/forums/topic/299325-front-off-side-indicator/ I'm having all sorts of problems with my HIDs.

 

One issue I see mentioned quite a bit is that if you fit a CAN bus HID kit it could fry the CCM - exactly my issue.

 

This is the kit I've got http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/270591725356 which numerous other people have fitted to a MY12 vRS without any issues.

 

I'm wondering if LondonColor have somehow sent me the wrong kit.

 

Is there a way to confirm that I have the non-CAN bus kit?

 

Mark

[vectra1]

I would be certain that those are non canbus

 

Non canbus kit has one "Black box" on the connecting wires

 

 

Canbus has 2 "Black Boxes"

 

[Chester]

Thanks - only have the 1 black box so must have the non CANBUS kit.

 

Mark

[silver1011]

When the dealer has changed over the control module to fix the dodgy indicator they have changed the coding.

 

Despite them telling you they programmed it to the same as the old one what they meant to say was we've programmed it to your VIN which means a car 'without factory fitted xenon's'.

 

You need to fix the coding using VCDS to tell the car it now has xenon's fitted as detailed earlier in this thread.

[Chester]

If the car was not coded for Zenons and I fitted them what would happen?

 

I understood that I would get a bulb out warning light?

 

Afer they changed the J519 the HIDs worked with no bulb warning for a couple of days.

[silver1011]

Umm, my guess would be that they would work for a couple of days then break!

 

It is advised not to fit the HID kit (or at least turn on the headlights) until they are correctly coded.

 

The reason behind this is that standard non-xenon headlight bulbs pull approximately 55W whereas the HID kit pulls only 35W.

 

If you use them without the correct coding then you may have been feeding the xenon's more power than they need?

 

This may have been OK for a few days but now they've stopped working may be they've had enough?

 

The best thing to do is get the car correctly coded. Then see if the lights work as expected again. If not then you may need a new HID kit.

Edited 6 January, 2014 by silver1011