H.i.d conversion

[Edd]

As standard Nova headlights are crap I want to improve them somehow,

Not sure what to do, i have brand new headlights to go on but either just fit some decent bulbs ? or fit a h.i.d kit ?

As they will go on my Sport i dont want them looking chav style BRIGHT
bluelol. Are all h.i.d's like this ?

Just looking for some advice what to do really, I know nothing about the h.i.d kits only that there seems to be lots of cheap kits.

Are they hard to fit and worth the effort ?

Been told that 6000k to 8000k are the ones to get ?
Can any recommend a good kit that would suit my Sport ?

Just want to improve them so i could drive at night and actually see the road lol.

Thanks in advance Edd.

[mowgli]

can't you just get some uprated h4 bulbs, please.......... i beg you...... or even fit some nice hella comets or similar, they will look cool & you will still see properly.. and if you make up some funky brackets that fit to the bumper bar mounts, then you can remove them without any marks..

[Edd]

The cheaper and maybe the better option is to get some decent bulbs in there,

There is NO WAY of me fitting a h.i.d kit to the Sport if they look chav.

Just trying to get peoples options and recommendations on what to do.

[Rich]

better bulbs, although they still wont be great.

HID are amazing difference, but you wont get a very good beam pattern on a nova, doubt it would pass an mot and you would be blinding everyone else on the road lol

[Mieran]

HIDs in Nova reflectors = chav
Blue 'wana be xenon' bulbs = chav

Just get some decent H4s

[johnkirk87]

ill tell you what you need to do i did it to my nova take the glass off the headlights and put angel eye neons in there they look very gd trust me



oh while im here how do you start a thread
cos i want to find my old nova j598 tav burgandy red wide arch it had twin 40s on
last sold with 20 ltr engine

[bazil]

A small bit of info on HID "colours"

The K (Kelvin) Temperature range is a basic unit of thermodynamic temperature (colour temperature) used to measure the whiteness of the light output. The higher the number is, the whiter the light is. When over 5000K the light begins to turn to blue as daylight.

There are only really 4 colours of HID available, despite the claim of sellers and manufacturers to the contrary. These are Standard factory 4300K (yellowish white), 5000K crystal white with no blue tint, 6000 crisp white light with delicate to moderate blue tint, and 8000K strong blue light. The highest light output is 4300K and the lowest 8000K.

We have been driving with HID Xenons now for many years and as you may have guessed, have tested every combination of Kit, bulb and colour. The following is a summary of our findings (objective as we bought light meters to measure the actual light outputs) and recommendations (both objective and subjective), which most customers agree with:

OEM is 4300K and without a question gives the most amount of light. I have tested dozens of bulbs and compared them all to a Philips D2S bulb as a reference point. The difference between colours and manufacturers is really quite shocking. The best 6000K bulb produced 15% less light than the Philips 4300K - while the worst 6000K bulb was a dreadful 70% less.

That said, our bulbs being the best ones with 15% less light in measurable terms, actually produce a very white light with a slight blue tint when you look at them. For every day driving this really is a more pleasant light than the yellower 4300K. as its whiter light is more pleasant and in most driving conditions appears brighter. The reflection from signs and white lines is far better with the 6000K.

If your after the coolest looking Xenons with amazing performance then 6000K is my recommendation.

If you are after the most amount of light on the road then I recommend the 5000K - which is a little whiter than the 4300K whilst having NO blue and very similar light output to the 4300K with our ballasts. For the purists we do have some 4300K bulbs also.

If you are wanting the look of the OEM factory fit Xenons then please remember that the blue is not produced by the bulb, but by the reflector/projector lense. Refraction spilts the colour of the light like a Prism if you remember that experiment from Physics. When you get up close the bulb is actually 4300K with a yellow tinge.

8000K bulbs or higher are not the answer - they produce very little light – up to 70% less than the 4300K and the Police do not like them. Also the blue light is tiring on your eyes and will turn rear number plates Green! We generally recommend these for show purposes or for those that really want to stand out from the crowd.

One last thing as proved in our testing, not all manufacturers colour ratings are the same, so please dont try to compare! Some claim 12000K is sky blue!! Wrong - should be purple!!

[Jack]

As they will go on my Sport i dont want them looking chav style BRIGHT
bluelol. Are all h.i.d's like this ?
No. Its all down to the temperature - if you want to avoid a blue light, go for 6000K or less. 5300K is a decent white-yellow light. Also note the higher the temperature, the less light they emit (so 8000K are "darker" than 50000K)


Just looking for some advice what to do really, I know nothing about the h.i.d kits only that there seems to be lots of cheap kits.
90% of the kits are all the same - a £150 kit will essentially be the same as a £30 ebay kit. The only difference I've found is the quality of installation instructions (its quite easy but bad instructions make it more confusing for a first timer).


Are they hard to fit and worth the effort ?
Dead easy to fit. Effort is minimal :)


Been told that 6000k to 8000k are the ones to get ?
Can any recommend a good kit that would suit my Sport ?
As above, avoid 8000K if you don't want the blue look.

Having said all that, I'd not recommend them in a Nova headlamp. Of the ones I've seen, the beam pattern is all over the shop. Not only would it probably fail an MOT, but you'll be blinding all and sundry on the road.


ill tell you what you need to do i did it to my nova take the glass off the headlights and put angel eye neons in there they look very gd trust me
Yeah Edd, do this. It'll look wikkidy bo :cool:

[Benn]

Believe me, HID's will piss you off, i binned mine.

Just get some good uprated bulbs.

[Edd]

Nice one for the info guys, if there going to fail a mot i will not be fitting them at all.

Think I'll look into getting some decent bulbs.

[Jack]

Here's a few pics for colour/brightness reference btw

On my Nova (note this is with BMW lamps NOT std Nova headlamps), 6000K dipped and Halfords +50% halogens on main beam.
http://i13.photobucket.com/albums/a266/razorjack/Cars/Project%20Ghey/15112008811.jpg

http://i13.photobucket.com/albums/a266/razorjack/Cars/Project%20Ghey/15112008813.jpg

Example of the colour difference; again, Halfords +50% halogen on inner lamp, 6000K HID on outer:
http://i13.photobucket.com/albums/a266/razorjack/Cars/Project%20Ghey/15112008815.jpg

On the Celica, supposedly both 6000K but I suspect the main is actually 8000K. Compare to standard halogens on the N/S:
http://i13.photobucket.com/albums/a266/razorjack/CCUK/2008_03030066.jpg

http://i13.photobucket.com/albums/a266/razorjack/CCUK/2008_03030081.jpg

http://i13.photobucket.com/albums/a266/razorjack/CCUK/2008_03030074.jpg

http://i13.photobucket.com/albums/a266/razorjack/CCUK/2008_03030072.jpg

^ you can see on that last pic the inner lamp is considerably more blue than the outer.

HIDs in general are great - I couldn't live without them - but unfortunately the Nova lamps are shocking. Never had any issues with blinding people either, but mine are in suitable lamps and always kept properly aligned (in fact, I find HIDs easier on the eye than halogens when driving at night)


Edd, not sure what your budget is but if you can stretch to big £££ then PIAA bulbs are very good quality and the best halogens I've ever used. Second to that would be Halfords +50% bulbs, a bit yellow but again excellent light output.

[Nova_Tek]

Not tired in the Nova but my bro fitted some £70 UK seller eBay H.I.D's to his MK3 Cav.

Beam pattern was surprisingly good and actually had a pattern after we took it to a mates garage which had the beam checking aparatus (ok not precise like the factory H4's but still very good), I had driven with them and loved them, so much more visibility, no one and I mean no one had flashed for dodgey high beam adjustment and it came out of the MOT station with no problem (we were expecting something to be said).

His one is a 6000K (a very nice bright white light with a very very slight hint of blue, hardly noticable) Bi-Xenon kit (solenoid to pop out the main beam and retracts to dipped beam). My bro isn't very good with electrics but he and his mate fitted them with no problems into a very crowded Cav bay.

I too am not a fan of modern mods/enhacements that don't suit the car but I will be deffo putting in H.I.D's in my Nova. Just make sure you go get the headlamps checked and adjusted to get the best out of them.

Oh and here's a quick pic I took to show the beam pattern
http://img41.imageshack.us/img41/5739/25012010288.jpg

[Jack]

I don't think on a Nova you can do anything to check/adjust them, its just the grading on the lens that throws the light out. The only pics I've seen of HIDs on Novas either have a massive blast of light with no definition, or swirly big 66's - I have yet to see a pic of the beam pattern thats "straight".

Which is odd, as in both my applications the light output has been fine compared to halogens, and thats in headlamps with a grading designed for halogens.

[Nova_Tek]

The Nova headlamp has two long adjusting adjusting screws. I once failed tryna adjust it at home, when I took it to the MOT station it was waaay out and we used the two adjusting screws to get it back.

The SR we have at home running halogens seems to have a well defined light beam. I'd say about as good as the Cav's. Going on that it should come out pretty much the same as above. I'm gonna go ahead and get a kit for my Nova and if it turns out utterly sh*t the I'll cut my losses.

[craig green]

If you are sticking to H4's you could run seperate relays & thicker gauge +ve wires to the bulbs directly avoiding the voltage drop in the puny OE wiring.

I have to say LED sidelight bulbs are awesome.. They wont help when mains are on but they are so useful & use next to zero current compared with traditional bulbs.

[Adam]

HIDs give a shocking beam pattern in a nova headlamp, it does pretty much shine everywhere!!!!

[Nova_Tek]

Yep, can't fault LED bulbs mate. I've got LED rear fog, stop and tail, reverse and sidelights.

I used to stick on the side lights and see a voltage drop on the dials but now it doesn't move at all, saves so much power.

Only way to know if HIDs are good in a Nova is to try it yourself

[Nova_Tek]

HIDs give a shocking beam pattern in a nova headlamp, it does pretty much shine everywhere!!!!

But I've seen this with more modenr cars and cheap HID kits. I was expecting really crap lighting in the Cav but thy've turned out miles better than my expectationsç

[Adam]

IVe got the same kit on my Mk4 as i had in the nova.
The nova failed mot for having hid's fitted because they give no beam pattern.

Astra is fine.

Its down to the design of the headlamp

[16v Nova Kev]

i had 80wdipped and 110w main beam h4's and were pretty good imo