Hella Spotlights

[Fourbyfour]

The guy who usually does my warrants explained to me that with HID conversion it is illegal to retrofit to a car with a single light dual beam set up and that seems to be about 80% of cars on the road. If your car has a dual headlight system, ie separate light for high beam and low beam operation you can legally fit HID to the high beam lights but not to the low beam. Spot and driving lights are legal to be HID converted.

[Landynut]

maybe we should start a WOF thread?

Ha, dont even go there !

^ your a mechanic arent you!! ^

[Landynut]

that sucks.. i was going to try and get "sealed beam" type replacement HID's for my landrover, the old lucas lamps leave much to be desired....

[Fourbyfour]

that sucks.. i was going to try and get "sealed beam" type replacement HID's for my landrover, the old lucas lamps leave much to be desired....

It may pay to do some more research on sealed beams as the reflector is part of the light it is not like you are modifying an existing light but just fitting a completely new light. Problems seem to arrise or for VTNZ ploblems seem to arrise when HID bulbs are put put in an old reflector designed for Halogen on low beam. Might be worth a call to VTNZ or LTSA to get a ruling on it. Our rules pretty much follow Aussie word for word and with sealed beams you would be okay over there.

[Landynut]

that sucks.. i was going to try and get "sealed beam" type replacement HID's for my landrover, the old lucas lamps leave much to be desired....

It may pay to do some more research on sealed beams as the reflector is part of the light it is not like you are modifying an existing light but just fitting a completely new light. Problems seem to arrise or for VTNZ ploblems seem to arrise when HID bulbs are put put in an old reflector designed for Halogen on low beam. Might be worth a call to VTNZ or LTSA to get a ruling on it. Our rules pretty much follow Aussie word for word and with sealed beams you would be okay over there.

thats cool, im not really gonna be using it on the road much (well dont plan to) so shouldnt be a problem to put sealed HIDS in it... if they were compliant for future rego however that would be good since its only 2 years away from cheap rego

[lincooln]

If you fit dedicated HID lenses its legal, you just cant modify the original lenses to run HID's, not sure about spotlights though, cant see why that would be different,

oh and I have at least 80% of my tyre showing at the rear and in the wet big rooster tails of water, never had a problem with WOF or Cops. some people are just anal I guess.

[Landynut]

If you fit dedicated HID lenses its legal, you just cant modify the original lenses to run HID's, not sure about spotlights though, cant see why that would be different,

oh and I have at least 80% of my tyre showing at the rear and in the wet big rooster tails of water, never had a problem with WOF or Cops. some people are just anal I guess.

yep.... I had an anal local mechanic in hamilton who failed wof EVERY 6 months because it needed new wipers, EVERY TIME without fail !!
i only replaced them the first time, then every 6 months for a number of years i would take it home after a fail, clean the wipers up with a solventy cloth so they look new, clean the windscreen take it back and get a pass

I think laziness comes into it too, there might have been a fine dust on the windscreen every time i took it there for a wof, because i saw him doing it once, all he did was squirt the window with a sprayer bottle once or twice, and then turn on the wipers - if it smudged it got a fail.........

I also got a pass once, no issues at all and got home just before my gf, she pulled up the driveway behind me, and she says hey u know two of the four brake lights arent working eh ?
im like no its just had a wof 15 minutes ago ffs !
one indicator, one sidelight, two brake lights and one tail light were not working, and it passed a wof without issue..........



I pulled over a cop the other week to tell him NONE of his brake lights were working, was a station wagon with 4 tail lights/brake lights, all of them not working... i didnt realise it was a cop until i recognised him as the local constabull

[Fourbyfour]

[quote="lincooln"]If you fit dedicated HID lenses its legal, you just cant modify the original lenses to run HID's, not sure about spotlights though, cant see why that would be different,

With spotlights there is no restrictions and the same goes with high beam in a dual lamp configuration. Where the problem arrises as far as LTSA is concerned is when HID is used in a low beam situation in lights that are not designed for HID. This is pretty much the same stance that the Australian authorities have taken on it to. The logic is that you don't drive towards on coming traffic with either driving lights or high beams going but you would be with low beams.

[Landynut]

If you fit dedicated HID lenses its legal, you just cant modify the original lenses to run HID's, not sure about spotlights though, cant see why that would be different,

With spotlights there is no restrictions and the same goes with high beam in a dual lamp configuration. Where the problem arrises as far as LTSA is concerned is when HID is used in a low beam situation in lights that are not designed for HID. This is pretty much the same stance that the Australian authorities have taken on it to. The logic is that you don't drive towards on coming traffic with either driving lights or high beams going but you would be with low beams.

yeah but your not allowed spotlights mounted on the roof. you are allowed ONE spotlight above the windscreen, and it has to be "hand operable" ...
dont ask why, thems the rules...

[Taz]

yeah but your not allowed spotlights mounted on the roof. you are allowed ONE spotlight above the windscreen, and it has to be "hand operable" ...
dont ask why, thems the rules...

That may be true but did you know the first ring donuts were produced in 1847 by a 15 year old baker’s apprentice, Hanson Gregory, who knocked the soggy center out of a fried doughnut.

[Landynut]

yeah but your not allowed spotlights mounted on the roof. you are allowed ONE spotlight above the windscreen, and it has to be "hand operable" ...
dont ask why, thems the rules...

That may be true but did you know the first ring donuts were produced in 1847 by a 15 year old baker’s apprentice, Hanson Gregory, who knocked the soggy center out of a fried doughnut.

actually he inadvertantly created the ring doughnut by having sex with a regular doughnut

[Fourbyfour]

Getting back onto the subject, there are alternatives to fitting hid dual beam bulbs to existing lights that were designed for Quartz Halogen. One is just to fit higher wattage Halogen bulbs but this could also involve doing some wiring work with relays. The voltage drop on my 99 Surf was just over half a volt.
The following link is to some bulbs Iimported http://www.autobulbsdirect.co.uk/h4-rin ... arger.html
These +100 type bulbs have the same current draw as a standard 60/55watt bulb but are supposed to produce 100% more light. 100% more light does not mean 100% more range but effectively they give you another 50 metres over standard lights The fog lights are also being upgraded to +90's and on top of this have the IPF driving lights for high beam.

[Fourbyfour]

I guess most people who take there car to a private garage for their WOF will get away with an illegal HID conversion, but there is always a danger of being randomly pulled over by constable plod because he found your lights were dazzling him. Most garages only check lights to see they are working and don't bother with alignment checks or to see if the lights are indeed compliant. Of course there is always the danger that your super bright lights may bring the vehicle under closer examination and who knows what other things on the vehicle may not be compliant or legal.

[Fourbyfour]

I just fitted some Philips Extreme Vision +100 bulbs to my Surf.
These are Xenon bulbs but not to be confused with HID which in my case would have been illegal. The bulbs are standard 60/55 wattage but produce 100% more light than a standard wattage halogen bulb. These bulbs only produce the same heat as a standard bulb so no danger of heat distorting the polycarbonate light or reflector. Even on low beam the exta volume of light and range is noticeable but high beam is even better giving perhaps another 60 metres more range than the +80 versions of the same bulb that I had been using and the light pattern compares very favourably with my old Terrano when it was running 90/100 watt halogens. Installing these is easy as there is no ballasts or extra wiring just a simple bulb change.
Because my electrical system only had .5 of a volt of voltage drop between the battery and the lights it made using relays a low priority but I may fit them at a later date.
The best thing of all is that these lights are street legal and will not get you into trouble with the law.

[snork]

where did you get these bulbs from and how much?

[Fourbyfour]

Hi Snork,
Sorry for the late reply. The xenon bulbs were purchased in the UK online, just google Autobulbsdirect and they were about 30 pounds for a set of two bulbs so not cheap but excellent quality.
They are also marketing bulbs by another company called Ring who have just released a +120 bulb. These bulbs are street legal so no issues at warrant time. Because they are not HID there is no need for ballasts and other complications or legal issues.
The Philips +100 and Ring +120 offer a very cheap sizable jump in lighting performance but are still a 55/60 watt bulb meaning your alternator is not going to be working its arse off to keep up, but also giving lighting performance better than a 80/100 watt Quartz Halogen bulb in the same light.
As my vehicle only had about half a volt difference between power at the battery and power at the lights, relays were unnecessary.

[Fourbyfour]

Just arrived back from Aus with A 100 watt HID kit to use on the IPF Super Rally driving lights Should be plenty or light there, maybe enough to melt holes in other peoples plastic bumpers. Just have to fit relays and rest of the wiring is pretty straight forward. These lights have no problem taking the heat from 170watt quartz halogens so there should be less heat from the HID.