On 18/10/2019 at 08:35, IJWS15 said:

 

Ah but - I believe for type approval of Xenons they must have washers and self levelling so the car will have them fitted at new hence the UK MOT rules.  You won't find a new car with Xenons but no wipers/levelling.

In the same article it talks about some cars (Honda Civics, Renault Meganes etc) that have factory fitted Xenons without levelling/washers.

It mentions that these will pass an MOT, but I agree - no cars these days will be like that. So retrofitting I guess is just an instant MOT fail

*not*  legal advice ;o)

Source : https://www.driving.co.uk/car-clinic/car-clinic-areenon-headlight-conversions-legal/

So bottom line  you can't simply drop in a HID conversion into a housing /reflector designed for halogen.

Makes sense 

High-intensity discharge (HID) headlights, better known as xenon lights, offer more pure white light on the road than standard halogen bulbs while drawing less power. However, installing xenon bulbs as an aftermarket upgrade, as opposed to having them fitted on the production line as standard, is not legal in the eyes of the transport department. It says you must change the whole headlamp unit, because the lens and reflector for a halogen bulb will give the wrong beam pattern if used with an HID bulb.


However it would seem likely that you can drop in a complete replacement unit, Sounds like the biggest headache my abe ensuring the dipped beams remain on with the high beams (but that happens with the halogen equipped Superbs anyway doesn't it??)

Washer jets would I think be a relatively simple farkle, a Y splitter from the existing windscreen feed and a couple of jet nozzles fitted into the bumpers.


The Driver and Vehicle Standards Agency, for its part, publishes a raft of safety regulations that all gas-discharge headlights must adhere to. For instance, they must be fitted with a washing system (unless the output is less than 2,000 lumens) and an automatic self-levelling system (unless it can be proved that the dipped beam is aimed correctly, as tested in the MoT). They must also be set up so that the dipped beam stays on when the main beam is activated.