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Author Headlight upgrades?
Graham88
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Registered: 16th Apr 07
Location: South East Kent Drives: E46 M3
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10th Dec 12 at 16:49   View User's Profile U2U Member Reply With Quote

Go for 4300K brightness, they look factory.
Jambo
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Registered: 8th Sep 01
Location: Maidenhead, Drives: VXR Arctic
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10th Dec 12 at 17:09   View User's Profile U2U Member Reply With Quote

quote:
Originally posted by Graham88
Go for 4300K brightness, they look factory.




That's because that's what the factory spec is for everyone apart from Lexus! (5000k)
Graham88
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Registered: 16th Apr 07
Location: South East Kent Drives: E46 M3
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10th Dec 12 at 17:11   View User's Profile U2U Member Reply With Quote

That's some xenon geekness right there
Jambo
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Registered: 8th Sep 01
Location: Maidenhead, Drives: VXR Arctic
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10th Dec 12 at 17:13   View User's Profile U2U Member Reply With Quote

quote:
Originally posted by 3CorsaMeal
So if i bought them projectors off you i would still need bulbs/ballast and wiring etc.

Am starting to understand this

One thing i've been told is Corrado doesn't have CANBUS wiring, whatever that means?


Yeah, you would need bulbs to light them. I got the kit off MJ from here. Good quality and have only probably seen 20hrs use all in since May. I can include them in the bundle as my new setup has bulbs/ballasts so I wont need them. Toying with the idea of putting them in the fogs, but might just be a waste of time.

You will need:

Xenon projector
H1 rebased HID bulbs 4300k
Ballast/igniter
Relay harness is ideal (This is to ensure the voltage is regulated and you get no flicker or weird issues)
Headlamps with clear glass
Hi beam splitters are optional.

Its a fair bit to take it, but its simple once you know the lingo.
Nick-S
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Registered: 3rd Mar 04
Location: Leigh. Drives: RS Megane 230 F1 Team R26
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10th Dec 12 at 17:58   View User's Profile U2U Member Reply With Quote

quote:
Originally posted by Balling
quote:
Originally posted by Nick-S
Surely that just down to the design of the bulb holder being the glass lense. eg how far from the lense the bulbs sits.
I don't understand. The bulb holder being the glass?
sorry. Being behind*
Nick-S
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Registered: 3rd Mar 04
Location: Leigh. Drives: RS Megane 230 F1 Team R26
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10th Dec 12 at 18:28   View User's Profile U2U Member Reply With Quote

quote:
Originally posted by Jambo
The bows are an entirely different shape, the lenses are thicker and not as clear.

Surely that's down to how cheaply the lenses are made rather than "being designed" for gas discharge bulbs. I certainly dint have any problems with the 3 sets (main, dipped and front fog) 4.3k hids I had in my old corsa in "halogen projectors"
Jambo
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Registered: 8th Sep 01
Location: Maidenhead, Drives: VXR Arctic
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10th Dec 12 at 18:55   View User's Profile U2U Member Reply With Quote

But they weren't an HiD head pattern so in effect all you got was whiter light in a halogen beam pattern. So whilst they may not have been a problem, theat doesn't mean it's any good.

It's not always down to cheapness of manafacture, unsurprisingly it's how it focus' the light coming though it.
Nick-S
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Registered: 3rd Mar 04
Location: Leigh. Drives: RS Megane 230 F1 Team R26
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10th Dec 12 at 20:51   View User's Profile U2U Member Reply With Quote

What makes them good though? They lit up the road better than any incandescent bulb without dazzling others and past 3 MOTs (before aftermarket was a failure).
Jambo
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Registered: 8th Sep 01
Location: Maidenhead, Drives: VXR Arctic
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10th Dec 12 at 21:29   View User's Profile U2U Member Reply With Quote

passing an MOT means nothing

The light distribution?

The colour you would have seen is brighter yes, but it throws the light all over the place so its not uniform, you get hot spotting and stray concentration of light. Making it pretty pointless as it usually works out at actually being worse than halogen standard setup.

This is a halogen setup:



All of the light is concentrated to the cut off, so 80% of the light is concentrated in the middle, which is a waste and not effective whatsoever. Then you have glarte above the cutoff (as there is in standard halogens but the intensity of light means this isnt an issue)
another example from earlier in the thread showing "hotspots"




Then you have the road lighting:



Foreground lighting is awful (i.e infront of the car immeditely) The light is concentrated in different spots and generally a mish mash of intesities and not uniform and the beam pattern is very narrow. You are probably at this point thinking that looks good?

Well there here is an OEM or factory spec HID/Xenon setup using proper projectors, lens decent cutoff etc:

First off here is the comparison to the first image:


As you can see light intesity stays uniform across the wide coverage area meaning it actually properly illuminates the area infornt of you, be it near or far wide or low/hi. Then you will notice the razor sharp cutoff. This is down to the increased lumen count of the HID bulbs meaning you cant use a standard halogen beam pattern as it would just blind everyone. This keeps all the light pointed correctly and not blinding on coming traffic.

Here is another example from earlier in the thread:


Then there is the road shots:

As you can see here, no shadowy bits, no random blobsd of bright lights and all illuminated uniformly and providing a very wide image in natural close to sunlioght white light!



Range they have:



You simply cannot acheive good effects with a HID rebased bulb in a halogen projector. They are two different technologies which are not compatible in the same usage.

[Edited on 10-12-2012 by Jambo]
3CorsaMeal
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Registered: 11th Apr 02
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10th Dec 12 at 22:22   View User's Profile U2U Member Reply With Quote

My headlights just stopped working. Had to drive home with foglights. Bloody car lol.

Am going to have to leave work before it gets dark tomorrow. Am sure it's the wiring in dashboard again.
Nick-S
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Registered: 3rd Mar 04
Location: Leigh. Drives: RS Megane 230 F1 Team R26
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11th Dec 12 at 13:13   View User's Profile U2U Member Reply With Quote

I think your making a mountain out of a mole hill. My corsa projectors had nothing like the distribution of like as those top pictures.
And I'm pritty sure even the factor xenons in the R26 don't have such a sharp cut off as the lower pictures.
John
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Registered: 30th Jun 03
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11th Dec 12 at 13:17   View User's Profile U2U Member Reply With Quote

Xenons are never the way they should be in a light designed for Halogen's, projectors or not.

Different light units are better or worse to varying degrees.
Nick-S
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Registered: 3rd Mar 04
Location: Leigh. Drives: RS Megane 230 F1 Team R26
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11th Dec 12 at 13:24   View User's Profile U2U Member Reply With Quote

But a set of aftermarket Hids that are well aimed will always be better than incandescent bulbs.
John
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Registered: 30th Jun 03
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11th Dec 12 at 13:26   View User's Profile U2U Member Reply With Quote

If they are aimed high enough to be better for the driver, 90% of the time there will be enough scatter to annoy other cars. If aimed low enough to avoid that, they'll be a bit whiter and maybe a bit brighter.
Ben G
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Registered: 12th Jan 07
Location: Essex
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11th Dec 12 at 13:27   View User's Profile U2U Member Reply With Quote

quote:
Originally posted by Jambo
The bows are an entirely different shape, the lenses are thicker and not as clear.

Matt- that is entirely possible, cheaper the projector the worse the output.


I dont get why people are arguing this, its not a matter of opinion, rebasing a bulb and placing it in the WRONG style of projector will NEVER gain the same or effective results as a projector that was DESIGNED to take a gas discharge bulb.

There will be some that are better than others, granted but they will still be cack. See the pictures in the thread before.

The two command a completely different beam pattern design, neither is interchangable due to the type of light and colour intensity.

Ill post some links later for better explanation.


You will all next be saying buy 10000k bulbs


I never said they were perfect, I said they were fine.

You've obviously.spent a lot of time researching this (to a point where it's become an obsession by the looks of it, so obviously you'll have a different opinion to me.

All I know is I had a ford puma with halogen projectors and halogen bulbs. I removed.the halogen bulbs and put some ebay HID bulbs in and it was a huge improvement.

I'm not saying they were just as good as a factory xenon set-up (i had bi-xenons in my focus) but they were fine with regards to light output.
John
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Registered: 30th Jun 03
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11th Dec 12 at 13:28   View User's Profile U2U Member Reply With Quote

As far as on your own car, aftermarket xenons are brilliant, they light the road for miles. It's basically whether you care about other road users being blinded or not, which I didn't when I had mine in various cars. I don't think I would have them again now.
Kyle T
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Registered: 11th Sep 04
Location: Selby, North Yorkshire
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11th Dec 12 at 13:29   View Garage View User's Profile U2U Member Reply With Quote

quote:
Originally posted by Jambo
quote:
Originally posted by 3CorsaMeal
So if i bought them projectors off you i would still need bulbs/ballast and wiring etc.

Am starting to understand this

One thing i've been told is Corrado doesn't have CANBUS wiring, whatever that means?


Yeah, you would need bulbs to light them. I got the kit off MJ from here. Good quality and have only probably seen 20hrs use all in since May. I can include them in the bundle as my new setup has bulbs/ballasts so I wont need them. Toying with the idea of putting them in the fogs, but might just be a waste of time.

You will need:

Xenon projector
H1 rebased HID bulbs 4300k
Ballast/igniter
Relay harness is ideal (This is to ensure the voltage is regulated and you get no flicker or weird issues)
Headlamps with clear glass
Hi beam splitters are optional.

Its a fair bit to take it, but its simple once you know the lingo.


How much would that lot cost?

Those before/after pics are quite convincing.


Lotus Elise 111R

Impreza WRX STi
3CorsaMeal
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Registered: 11th Apr 02
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11th Dec 12 at 13:38   View User's Profile U2U Member Reply With Quote

I want to do it all properly and i think Jambo is on the same level, so i'll be following his advice.

Corrado headlamps are known for being crap, think they are about 9-10volts at the actual lamp, due to the power being routed through the dash switch (which is also why the dash wiring catches fire)
3CorsaMeal
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Registered: 11th Apr 02
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11th Dec 12 at 13:39   View User's Profile U2U Member Reply With Quote

This might sound gay, but i plan to use the HID lights i build as winter lights and keep the originals for most of the year round
Kyle T
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Registered: 11th Sep 04
Location: Selby, North Yorkshire
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11th Dec 12 at 13:59   View Garage View User's Profile U2U Member Reply With Quote

Winter lights


Lotus Elise 111R

Impreza WRX STi
3CorsaMeal
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Registered: 11th Apr 02
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11th Dec 12 at 14:03   View User's Profile U2U Member Reply With Quote

Got a winter front grill as well, no kidding, they made them with all but one of the slatted blocked up to stop overcooling.
John
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Registered: 30th Jun 03
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11th Dec 12 at 15:23   View User's Profile U2U Member Reply With Quote

Why did you not replace the dodgy power routing with a relay when you had the car apart?
3CorsaMeal
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Registered: 11th Apr 02
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11th Dec 12 at 15:24   View User's Profile U2U Member Reply With Quote

I do have the uprated loom to fit, but not keen on the way they fit and leave plugs hanging off with a spade connector pushed into it.
Jambo
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Registered: 8th Sep 01
Location: Maidenhead, Drives: VXR Arctic
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11th Dec 12 at 18:23   View User's Profile U2U Member Reply With Quote

Ben, not sure how educating myself on a subject is an obsession.


Jim bob, I wouldnt put HID's in the car if you are having dodgy voltage issues. You will need to sort that first as best case is they wont have the power to light them, but could mean you have endless weird electrical issues or worse, fire!

If the connection looks dodgy, im sure you can make a better one

I forgot to mention you will need shrouds as well

[Edited on 11-12-2012 by Jambo]
3CorsaMeal
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Registered: 11th Apr 02
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16th Jan 13 at 16:17   View User's Profile U2U Member Reply With Quote

Got another standard headlight to modify.



as you can see the standard corrado reflector is split into two sides, the right hand side only comes on with full beam, the left hand side is an H4 dual bulb so also does full beam and dipped beam.

Not sure whether i touch the right hand side or just mount an HID bulb/projector in the Left hand side.

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