One of my biggest dislikes of my superb are the crap factory h7 headlights, even though i have phillips extreme +130 fitted they are still crap - my question is do i save up for factory xenons & are they easy to retro fit... or do buy a 4300 35 watt non canbus hid kit & code them with vcds.

 

Im interested to hear of peoples experiences but i don't want to hear the do gooders on how illegal hid kits are i know the legal & mot requirements on both hid & xenons.

I have the factory Zenons fitted which move (side cornering or is that the lower fogs?) and all the other bits and bobs. They are fantastic and work very well. I came from a 3.5 Vel Satis which had great lights...but these things are a step up again in terms of clarity and night vision. I do not get flashed by other road users either when using them so they 'adjust' well in their automatic mode to road, light and speed conditions.

Cost of retro fit units? I have no idea. Sorry. If loom etc is up to it then I imagine Fleabay is your friend. But you can get surprises on pricing from a local dealer for comparison - a good place to start.

I think (but don't quote me) that they are a standard fit on the the top range swiss edition Skoda Suberb due to having to have day,time lighting etc. as I can't see them on the 'option list' here (along with pano roof, tow hitch etc.)

Dave

If you can afford it and want to spend the money then by all means fit the factory set-up.

 

A HID kit will be as good in terms of light output. You just loose out on the auto levelling and turning function.

 

I personally would pay £30 and get the HID kit.

 

I helped a member local to me fit and code a londoncolour (ebay) HID kit to his Superb MK2. He was very pleased and no problems at all.

 

I also enabled auto wipers for him which also pleased him greatly!

 

Phil

That was me!

 

Phil fitted and coded my HID kit 45,000 miles ago. They have been on for around 3 hours a day 5 days a week through the last two winters and are still as good now as the day they were fitted.

 

Never been flashed and passed MOT's without issue.

That was me!

 

Phil fitted and coded my HID kit 45,000 miles ago. They have been on for around 3 hours a day 5 days a week through the last two winters and are still as good now as the day they were fitted.

 

Never been flashed and passed MOT's without issue.

Passing the MOT is fairly irrelevant and means very little, how did your insurance company take to it?.

 

If you haven't informed your insurance company and got their approval you could be driving without insurance, and knowingly doing that is not something to be proud of.

 

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/programmes/moneybox/7861184.stm

Go spoil another thread. This has been done to death.

 

Note this in the opening post...

 

Im interested to hear of peoples experiences but i don't want to hear the do gooders on how illegal hid kits are i know the legal & mot requirements on both hid & xenons.

That was me!

 

Phil fitted and coded my HID kit 45,000 miles ago. They have been on for around 3 hours a day 5 days a week through the last two winters and are still as good now as the day they were fitted.

 

Never been flashed and passed MOT's without issue.

 

Cheers for the reply where did you mount the ballasts & are yours the 4300 or 6k as i only want pure white light non of the blue rubbish

Go spoil another thread. This has been done to death.

 

Note this in the opening post...

I just cannot understand why people take the risk of knowingly driving possibly illegally by invalidating their insurance.

 

Do you think it is Ok to drive with bald tyres, or drive while drunk, or drive while uninsured.

 

If you were involved in an accident and the other person was found to not have valid insurance how would you feel?.

 

Personally I make sure I am fully legal at all times and wouldn't take any risks whatsoever.

OK, thanks, point taken, now please keep this thread on-topic.

Cheers for the reply where did you mount the ballasts & are yours the 4300 or 6k as i only want pure white light non of the blue rubbish

 

The great thing about the Superb (and MkII Octavia) is that everything fits inside the back of the headlights, pop off the water tight back plastic cover (to access the bulbs) and it all fits in there.

 

I went for the 35W 4300K H7 non-CANBUS kit from London Colour on eBay, 4300K is the same as OEM xenon's.

I appreciate the Octavia is a different headlight but the set-up and fitment is very similar.

 

You should find this thread interesting, lots of pictures...

 

http://www.briskoda.net/forums/topic/264447-hid-aftermaket-kit-help-for-definitive-how-to/

See here for some comparisons on 4300K vs. 5000K, I don't think there is a lot in it.

 

http://www.briskoda.net/forums/topic/294004-hid-4300k-or-5000k-which-to-go-for/

 

I've never seen a 6000K kit in real life but I am lead to believe that these are quite 'blue', which personally would put me off, I prefer the OEM look.

The reason to this thread is i live by a rual area of birmingham & my current set up is dangerous in so far as i can't see without being on main beam hence ill prob go for the 4300 hid kit & get the lights re aligned after fitting.

Don't expect to get the same performance as you would from a factory bi-xenon kit.  I have factory xenons on my 2003 Audi Allroad which has year old bulbs.  The factory xenons on the Superb are in a different league to the Allroad.  Really very impressive.

 

I've fitted after market kits to a couple of cars over the years and they do improve light output over halogen bulbs.  I find that they work well in projector set ups, but are a nuisance to other drives in reflector lights.

 

In Ireland, the NCT (our version of the MOT) has recently started failing cars with non-factory xenons.  Not sure if they are doing the same in the UK.

After 10 months one of the phillips has died so I've bought the london colour 4300k kit & hopefully fitting it this weekend 

Edited 14 January, 201610 yr by *murph*

Had my londoncolour set in for nearly three years and 30,000 miles with no problems.

 

The seller is also very helpful etc. When my first kit arrived one of the bulbs didn't work so he sent me out a new pair of bulbs without quibble.

 

Hope they last for you too.

 

Phil

Interested to hear your findings murph

Try and keep as close to 4300K as you can. Any higher and the amount of useable light starts to drop off considerably, especially north of 6000K.

 

Retrofitting to factory units will be a PITA. As your superb has projector style lenses, you won't be dazzling anyone - provided you check your beam alignment before and after, which is pretty easy to do. 

 

If they were rear reflector or Fresnel style lenses, there would be lots of beam scatter. I am not sure if the beam cutoff shield is the same in the halogens as it is in the OEM xenon unit. A tweak of the beam alignment might be necessary if they are different. Halogen beam cutoffs tend to 'kick' upwards more than xenons which are pretty flat with a slight rise in cutoff height for the nearside of the road. 

That was me!

 

Phil fitted and coded my HID kit 45,000 miles ago. They have been on for around 3 hours a day 5 days a week through the last two winters and are still as good now as the day they were fitted.

 

Never been flashed and passed MOT's without issue.

 

Just an update from me.

 

The original kit Phil fitted is still in, I'm now on 90,000 miles without issue.

 

I don't think they are quite as bright as the factory xenon's on my wife's Octavia but they are very close - and mine cost £26, the factory ones were close to £1,000!

any tips for the retainer on the build as last time it was a pain getting it back in.

Edited 15 January, 201610 yr by *murph*

Is it necessary to code the car for xenon if you change to a hid kit ? Can you damage anything if you dont code it ?

Edited 15 January, 201610 yr by Steffan

Is it necessary to code the car for xenon if you change to a hid kit ? Can you damage anything if you dont code it ?

yes you will need vcds or you will get bulb errors

Edited 15 January, 201610 yr by *murph*

yes you will need vcds or you will get bulb errors

 

Or if you don't have access to VCDS, you can install load resistors to simulate the presence of halogen bulbs. Some HID kits are 'CAN-BUS friendly' meaning they have the necessary hardware to spoof the bulb failure detection. 

I just read somewhere that you might fry some electric if you dont code... Also that kits which are Can bus ready also could make some magic in your Electronics :-)

I'm not sure what to think :-) i don't want to damaged anything... But the light from the standart H7 are poor ! I also upgraded The bulbs to Philips 130%

Yes the canbus friendly kits or resistors have been know to fry the electrics.

Also some cars (mainly facelift Octavias I think) don't like HIDs at all.

The general advice is to get the normal set and code the car for xenon lights.

Phil

Edited 16 January, 201610 yr by Phil-E