[Patricko]

I have ordered it and yes it is on track but you have to place your order by the end of the year.

I am 95% sure that it has NOT been tested on a federal car but these guys know the Elise and I have confidence in them.

 

[pianomaniac]

Patrick,

Why not go with the dual kit?

Ron

 

[Ground Loop]

Which group buy?

I have ordered it and yes it is on track but you have to place your order by the end of the year.

I am 95% sure that it has NOT been tested on a federal car but these guys know the Elise and I have confidence in them.

Which group buy is this one?

The thread started with Derek setting up a Xenon Factory group buy for this kit:
http://www.xenondepot.com/product.php?product_id=1

I spoke to the Xenon Factory guy. He said $400 for the group buy. He said his kit comes with a three year warranty.

Looks great! Real Philips (name brand I recognize) ballast and bulbs. No Elise installations yet?

Then YvoTuk said he was putting together some complicated multi-bulb switcher:

On thing they are doing, which is very interesting IMHO is the
developement of a twin kit for the price of 1 1/2 standard kit. The
trick is that you will get a separate H1 and H7 bulb for dipped and
main beam, but you will only get one ballast with a special switch
unit (all from the same factory, no tricky stuff with putting together
kits or so). What will happen is that when you normally drive, you
will have the normal lo-beam, but if you switch to main beam, lo-beam will be switched off, but main beam will be HID as well

This confuses me because I think of the Main Beam as the "Low Beam", the one that's on 95% of the time. I don't know what the dipped beam is, but I assume it's the low beam.

I'm fine with my existing High Beam.. it's great -- lights up the horizon and blinds oncoming traffic. It's the low beam I want to replace ASAP.

There was talk of an elise-shop.com group buy, but I didn't like the unconfident email response Derek quoted:

For legal reasons, we are only delivering HID conversion kits for show use. By buying a kit, you agree to let a professional mechanic, who's able to deal with these high voltage units, do the installation.

Using these lamps on public roads might be illegal (depending on local laws)

The kit we're currently doing contains of Hella ballasts. I'm not completely sure about the bulbs, I think they are also Hella. (6000K)

So they have a kit but don't even know where the bulbs come from, and it's for show car use only. The Xenon Factory kit sounds nicer.

Which did you hook up with Patricko?

 

[Patricko]

Re: Which group buy?

Which group buy is this one?

It is this one. 250 Euro...

http://forums.seloc.org/viewthread.php?tid=36847

These guys are Elise experts and that sealed the deal for me:clap:

 

[Patricko]

Patrick,

Why not go with the dual kit?

Ron

Hello Ron,

I did not think that it was necessary to have the high beams also. It costs twice as much and makes things much more complex for something that I don't think I would use.

Patrick

 

[Steve]

OK...fair enough, the ballast is probably the easiest to "get right" and the least important aspect of the kit(assuming it works properly) but what about the bulbs???...are they coated blue?...what is the color scale rating?...are they either Philips or Osram???...Osram makes either 4300K or 5400K only...Philips makes 4300K and 6000K bulbs only....while my personal opinion, I would only buy bulbs made by Philips or Osram...if your bulbs are equivalent to Philips or Osrams and you guarantee them, then I think everyone should just buy from you but if they are coated blue, then personally I wouldnt touch them myself.

Mact, you seem to be the most knowledgable person here on lighting ... where do you come down on this kit? Good deal? Good quality?

I was thinkng about the H1 single kit also ...

Steve

 

[mact3333]

Mact, you seem to be the most knowledgable person here on lighting ... where do you come down on this kit? Good deal? Good quality?

I was thinkng about the H1 single kit also ...

Steve

Steve, his kit is your garden variety after mkt kit that he buys from a kit manufactorer that prob. rebases the bulbs from outside source...doesnt seem special to me in anyway...hard to say unless I persoanlly look at it which I cannot..while I personally would only buy Osram or Philips bulbs, I cant say if his bulbs are good quality or not since I have not personally seen them but he did say they were not philips or osrams...he is offering a 1 yr warranty...other places offer a 3yr warranty...one thing you have to remember is he is a elise pt seller and not a lighting expert(sorry Yvo...)...but odds are, if you bought from him, Im sure things would work out fine...autolamps-online.com and xenondepot.com offer genuine philips bulbs and ballast for decent price...and I wouldnt buy a dual kit cause movement within the housing is something I wouldnt want...too much that can go wrong...go 4300K if you want white/yellowish look with max light output or go 6000K ultinon system if you want white with bluish tint...key is to never buy coated buobs or anything above 6000K in color scale.

 

[Steve]

Thanks Mact!

For some reason probably dating back to early childhood trauma, I can't for the life of me follow techinical discussion on lighting ... For Christmas, I want someone to come to my house and install headlights in my Elise that illuminate like my BMW Zenons

Any takers?

 

[Ground Loop]

I wouldnt buy a dual kit cause movement within the housing is something I wouldnt want...too much that can go wrong...

Makes sense -- I wouldn't add it to a housing that didn't already support it. So this means removing and losing the high beam altogether, right? Any way to keep the existing halogen high beam with a new HID? I haven't poked around in there, so I don't know if that's a stupid question.

go 4300K if you want white/yellowish look with max light output or go 6000K ultinon system if you want white with bluish tint...key is to never buy coated buobs or anything above 6000K in color scale.

I'm really happy with the color of my other OE HID lights on Toyota & Infiniti. What color do they use? It doesn't feel blue, doesn't feel yellow, and it makes signs sparkle nicely. Good clean light. I'd like that on the Elise. 4300k?

 

[Vantage]

I thought OE xenon lamps were 4300k? Mine don't show any yellow and have some blue in them, whatever they are...

Say GL, does anyone make xenon shop lamps?

 

[fitfan]

Yes, you can get h.i.d. lighting for a shop (that basically what i do during the day) so if you want, i can come up with a design and spec some products for you. basically you would want metal halid bulbs, and you can get smaller fixtures that you can mound flush, or surface to the ceiling. (look up more often when you go into stores, shops, you will see alot of h.i.d. lighting indoors - most dealer show rooms are h.i.d., basically the same just smaller that outdoor parking lot lighting)

 

[Ground Loop]

Say GL, does anyone make xenon shop lamps?

I think I saw them in Griott's catalog -- "HID Garage Lights" or somesuch.

I have no shame.

I set out three 500W Halogen worklights. Four fluorescent worklights on the floor, two torchiere lights, three ceiling-mounted fluoro floods and the standard garage lights.

Then I wear my ARC HID Bicycle light (helmet mounted) while I detail. It puts a nice hotspot right where I'm looking.

For reasons I don't understand, haze and scratches show up *better* under fluorescent light or HID light. Incandescent just doesn't do it.

I even have a handheld UV light that I use sometimes.. it really makes the dust and surface smear (forgotten wax) light up.

Sure, my garage looks like something from Poltergeist, but hey that way, there are no surprises in daylight.

Agck... Don't let me derail this very interesting thread on the HID kits, though.. I want one and I'm still confused as to what to get. I just want something that's known to work well in the Fed Elise, has good quality parts so I'm not tearing it out next year, and a whole lot of light.

 

[jac]

You can get hid metal halide kits at home depot for your garage. Any local electrician that does commercial work will be familliar with these. I have a wharehouse full of metal halide (blue) and high pressure sodium lamps (orange yellow). The big factor for me is running cost they are more efficient than other types of lighting.


Lets keep this thread going I am very interested in upgrading to hid when my car comes in.

 

[mact3333]

Makes sense -- I wouldn't add it to a housing that didn't already support it. So this means removing and losing the high beam altogether, right? Any way to keep the existing halogen high beam with a new HID? I haven't poked around in there, so I don't know if that's a stupid question.



I'm really happy with the color of my other OE HID lights on Toyota & Infiniti. What color do they use? It doesn't feel blue, doesn't feel yellow, and it makes signs sparkle nicely. Good clean light. I'd like that on the Elise. 4300k?

Yes, then you would want the 4300K kit...all 4300K kits have some yellow in them if you look closely against a white background...this is something you will not see though if you were facing the lights from a distance...you wont lose the high beam at all cause the high beam bulbs you are not touching at all...on the elise, the bulb/lens on headlight assembly is low beam and thats where HID bulb will go in and the reflector part of housing is for high beam, which is untouched...if I didnt live a trillion miles from you, I would help ya!......btw, I swapped out the regular light bulbs with white fluorescent lights in garage and it is so much better now.

 

[fitfan]

Mee Too -

I am planning on going with the HID low beam kit, of course I was planning on having the car months ago by now also....

some one needs to talk "stan" into putting in HID, hahaha - that will be the ultimate HID install post, guide, photo explanation!

 

[Ground Loop]

"Rebased"

Another question..

Are there any "H1" HID bulbs, 4100/4300K that are Philips or Osram factory-made and not "rebased"?

How good are the Rebased D2 bulbs? How do you know who's doing a good OE-quality job of it, and who's doing it in their basement between innings?

EDIT: This page answered my question in full:
http://faq.auto.light.tripod.com/hl-hid-bulbs.htm

And the short answer is no, there are no Philips factory bulbs in any base other than "P32-d". The quality of rebase jobs varies from very poor epoxy to factory-made molded bases. Apparently, this is one of the most important distinctions between different aftermarket kits, and quality does matter.

I need to do more research. Right now, this kit is looking pretty good and well priced:

http://www.xenondepot.com/product.php?product_id=1#

 

[Ground Loop]

Yes, then you would want the 4300K kit...all 4300K kits have some yellow in them if you look closely against a white background...this is something you will not see though if you were facing the lights from a distance...

Cool. Since the 'blue tint' seems to now be associated with Rice and darn-illegal upgrades, I'd like to stick to the everyday headlight color. They're working great on my other cars -- I want some of that.

you wont lose the high beam at all cause the high beam bulbs you are not touching at all...on the elise, the bulb/lens on headlight assembly is low beam and thats where HID bulb will go in and the reflector part of housing is for high beam, which is untouched...

Ah, very good. It must be the S1 they're talking about, then. My high beams are A-OK. I've even thought about aiming them downward and using them in place of the totally worthless low beams until I can get an HID kit in there.

Thanks again for the help! Even from a trillion miles away..

 

[Ground Loop]

I'm puzzled by this statement on elise-shop.com / YvoTuk:

The colourtemperature of the lamps 6000k or pure white; just like you might have noticed from other cars equipped with HID. This nearly white colour helps you to focus in the dark.

http://www.elise-shop.com/en-us/dept_5.html

This page has a wealth of information on HID systems:
http://faq.auto.light.tripod.com/hl-hid-bulbs.htm
and conversion kits:
http://faq.auto.light.tripod.com/hl-hid-kits.htm

And it states that ALL OE HID lighting is 4100K, and none other:

Philips and Osram are the ones widely used in cars in North America/Europe. ... They come with standard 4100K color temperature only. This is the only legal HID bulb color temperatire under DOT/ECE regulations.

I looked up the bulbs in my Infiniti, and they are Philips D2R 35W capsules, 4100K.

It's possible I've never seen 6000K bulbs, then, so I don't know if they're better or not. I do know I was very happy with the D2R bulbs, even in a reflector housing, as Infiniti does them.