HIDs replacement

[Dragonheart]

My bulbs arrived during the week, so I wanted to get them fitted asap, as its been 2 years since I had my HIDs fully working properly, due to the fact I had nowhere to take the bumper off and being away. Ordered 2 bulbs to keep the brightness the same and the second bulb was just starting to flicker so I didn't want to be taking the bumper off in a months time again so said I'd get the whole lot done now while its off.

01 - Before shot of the headlights as they are. One bulb is gone and the one on the passenger side was starting to go.


02 - Bumper off. Very handy jacking point for lifting the whole front just to the right of center underneath as you face the car, there are 2 bolts viewable when you look underneath, use a small piece of 2"x1" timber just under the bolts to provide a nice flat surface for the jack. We had to jack the car up slightly on one side to give room to get the trolley jack under there.


03 - Close up off the in place light unit, notice the location of the factory ballast, for reference if anyone is thinking of a place to put their ballast maybe the same thing can be done as here.


04 - Headlight units out.


05 - New bulbs in and first test run turns out highly successful!


06 - Bumper back on, HIDs sorted at last.


07 - Same shot from further back. It looks as though one is brighter than the other, but bear in mind that the headlights are aligned to shine towards the centre of the road so trying to get the 2 of them to look the same brightness on camera was something I wasn't thinking of when taking the photo.


Its nice to have them all working again, but something that I wanted to do was put bright LEDs into the parking lights and the spots, only thing is, Bernard and I parked our cars alongside each other and his are so much more brighter than mine, I don't think the bright blue colour will go with my HIDs, if I was to do it I think it would just be the parking lights as the spots are very close to the HID colour anyway, but even then I'd have to find a colour that would go with the rest of the front lights. Or maybe change them all to a more blue colour, if I could find a set of Osrams that would fit the factory units, in time obviously, for now I'm just happy to have my HIDs back working.

[gt94]

nice one will be able to do mine now in about 2 weeks
one for the sticky me thinks

[Danny Kierans]

[quote="gt94"]nice one :smt023 will be able to do mine now in about 2 weeks
one for the sticky me thinks[/quote]
i guess ill fix them now gt94 :)

[goz_83]

Why is it necessary to remove the entire bumper to replace the bulbs? Is this the case with the regular lights too?

[StewyD32]

The version r is different than a GR which is what you have.
You can change them and cable tie the ballast somewhere, whereas the version r has a set place for a HID ballast as they come standard for version r's unlike other FTO models

[Bernard]

HIDs were an optional extra like fitted to Martin's GPX above.
As Stewy says with aftermarket HIDs you can fit the ballast wherever you like but it's also a matter of getting at the bulbs.
The back of a standard light unit is different to the factory fitted HID unit, the HID equipped one extends further back making it impossible to change the bulb without taking the bumper off.

Standard bulbs (non HID) are easily changed with the bumper in place.

[goz_83]

Thanks. I haven't really had much of a chance to look around either of the ftos I have much. I just swapped the smoked rear lights onto the 94 model i plan to keep. It's just the first step. after I get a security bollard in the drive way, I will get the windows tinted medium grade and get a dvd player installed. Don't want another car gettin nicked on me from the garden.

[Dragonheart]

The version r is different than a GR which is what you have.
You can change them and cable tie the ballast somewhere, whereas the version r has a set place for a HID ballast as they come standard for version r's unlike other FTO models

Mine ain't no Version R though Stewy, they were also optional on GPX's. Honestly, the factory ones are a pain, aftermarket would be much less hassle.