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Recommended HID upgrade kits?

Johnny C

Johnny C

New member
As the winter is getting closer I've decided to upgrade to HIDs, the motorways get a bit hairy in the wet where there's no streetlights with the standard bulbs.

Can anyone recommend a good kit?

The best I've seen in a quick snoot round the web seems to be http://www.hids4u.co.uk/ as they do a 55W version. Has anyone any experience with them?
 
Alan of aceparts.com

Has a 993turbo himself. I got my first set from HIDS4U had issues that took time to resolve, bought my second set from Alan
 
I can second the customer service from Alan at Aceparts (though not gone the HID route yet).
 
I fitted a set from HIDS4U and have had no problems. I wrote some notes about what I did. T these are in the 993 technical section if you are interested.

Like everyone says I can now see where I am going, a brilliant improvement. I also fitted a pair of led side lights bulbs from Ace Parts and these are much brighter than the original.

Michael
 
I fitted the HIDS4U set and haven't had any problems. If you go that way then don't worry about bolting the ballasts anywhere in the front wing (I spent some time looking for places to drill and affix beforye posting a "help" message on the forum), simply wrap them in bubblewrap and allow them to hang behind.

Mine have been fine for nearly 3 years now.

And they made an earth shattering difference

Michael
 
Try aceparts Tom... spoke to Alan yesterday, he gave me a £50 discount for getting his name from here (so £125 for the kit, which is as cheap as you'll get on eBay even from the US) and is sending instructions via email. he reckons it takes 15mins max per headlight to install (I suspect the bubblewrap method above)

I rang HIDS4U and the bloke on the phone knew nothing, just reading the text from the website. Perhaps he just packs the boxes and aswers the phones so it's unfair to ask him for help but he should have put me onto someone who knew what they were doing.
 
Another vote for Alan at Aceparts...fitted them into my '98 996 C2, just moved them across to mk2 GT3. Like posted above, I wouldnt say, on a 996, they're earth shatteringly better- maybe the design of the assy on the 996 is more efficient than the 993 to start with?
 
Just had my car MOT'd today via OPC Colchester and had no problems. It has HIDs4U and led sidelights fitted. So would seem that they are not a problem. However I can appreciate that the interpretation of the rules by some testing stations is not always the same. There have been a number of threads concerning rust/corossion on brake discs.

Also had the 48,000 mile service so the shock will come tomorrow when I collect the car.

Michael
 
If you get your car tested by a garage that the MOT place knows, they have been known to turn a blind eye to small things or things which the garage are about to fix... got mine MOT's last year with totally worn brakes and warning light on the panel on but as the garage had a pair of new pads on the seat and had a word with the MOT person it passed
 
Jonny C - thanks for the info about the Aceparts discount, which seems extremely generous ... but to be fair, its still not in the price bracket of that ebay link ($60 +$60p&p = £60), unless I've missed something??

 
That is cheap Tom. What wattage are the bulbs?

Here's the instructions from Alan:

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Read it a couple of times, it will make sense :O)

OK, take the bulb, pull the low voltage red and black wires from the grommet. Cut the remainder of the grommet off.

Install the bulb (most 993's require a minor amount of filing of the hole to remove any 'flashing' left behind when casting)

Now take a small file and make two 'notches' at the top of the light where the cover fits on. The cover has a gasket on it so there's no chance of it leaking even if water could find its way in there.

Go to Halfords, pick up 2 x velcro patches. Velcro the ballasts on the inner wing under the carpet so that all the wires face the LARGE grommet that goes through the wing.

Now find something hard and finger size and lubricate well with lubricant of your choice - open up the grommet and feed both the HIGH and low voltage wires through to under the wing.

We're going to wire the ballast directly into the 12v feed for the headlights. This means that when the headlight is removed you only have to undo the high voltage wires and should you ever need to put a normal bulb back in, the power is still in the headlamp for you to do this.

Twist the multi plug socket that the headlamp plugs in to 90 degrees and pull out. The bottom right pin and the one above it have a yellow and brown wire in them - this is where you connect the red and black wires for the power.

Connect the HID bulb wires to the ballast (under the wing) and turn the lights on to test (you don't need to re-install the headlamp to test it.
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Guess "taking a punt" was what I was trying to avoid!! :)

I saw those lights from HK - but the ballasts are too big to fit inside the light housing as the Rennlist guys have suggested doing with the other lower profile parts.

Has anyone else used/tried some of the cheaper HID options available, or am I the only "tight git" on here???!

Ta

TOm
 
Well they all probably stop come from the same factory! When I said taking a punt, the thing that stopped me was a) no support and I'm not that technically minded, and b) if they don't work you have to pay the return postage.

Have a look at Alan's instructions - just pop them into the boot compartment under the carpet with the wiring through the large grommet. I'll add some foam on top to stop them getting damaged if something from the boot bangs into them.
 
Jonny,

Thanks for your feedback - I'll give my OH a few ideas for Christmas, and let you know how I get on!

Ta

TOm
 
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