Started installing the Osram Xenarc lights...

[dotorg]

Yeah, I looked at those, but neither Sears, Home Depot or Lowes had them in sizes that went up to an inch.

[scottb]

More and more I'm thinking I'll pass on this one.

[rennch]

Man, for $300 I won't! That's really cheap for modern HID's. I'm excited about doing the project. Thanks for the link to Sylvania.

mto

[reed930]

I ordered a set last night for my 4Runner. At $300 I just couldn't pass it up. I figure I'll practice on the Toyota and then maybe try the Porsche. I downloaded the installation instructions and they seem pretty straightforward, but I'm sure the devil is in trying to get all the harware to fit in limited spaces.

[scottb]

C2 Rower: I just noticed in your post that you said you cut the harnesses. Dotorg didn't want to do that on his.

If you cut the harnesses, why did you have to enlarge the holes?

[dotorg]

scottb: he was talking about a different part of the harness. The Xenarc system has a simple harness that goes from the battery to the relay, and from the relay to the ballast. There's a separate high-voltage ballast line that goes from the ballast to the bulb. Thats the one I didn't want to cut.

At least on my car, there's no way the ballast cable will fit through the hole in the bucket or the trunk into the conduit pipe, so I could see how widening them to just under an inch would let you fit the connector through, although I can't imagine how he made it fit without pulling the stock wiring out of there. Maybe the later cars get power to the turn signals differently than the early cars? I could've pulled the headlight wiring out, but I'd still have parking light and turn signal wires that had to run through there to get into the corner housing.

[dotorg]

Okay, finally drove the car tonight and was able to get a feel for the Xenarcs in there.

The first thing I discovered is that the manual is quite correct, you can't adjust headlights by eye, and especially so to a wall 3' away. Boy I had them aligned badly.

That aside, I'm extremely pleased with this upgrade. The lights give a lot more light to the side than the xenons in my Audi, although at first glance they look like they give less because each bulb definitely has a "hot spot" in the middle. Having adjusted the light so the two hot spots merge into one about 75ft in front of the car leaves the road immediate in front very well lit a sigificant distance down the road (night and day better than the stock lights), but leaves enough illumination to the side to see close up without problems.

The biggets downside I noticed is the highbeam performance, its well below what I would've expected. I'm not entirely sure if thats because I really need to relay the highs, if thats just the way the housings are, or if I'm just used to the blinding highbeams on my Audi. I suspect part of it is how bright the "hot spots" are -- the high beams may be brighter than I give them credit for.

I'm very happy with these lights. While I'm sure you can get the same or better lighting performance out of running very high wattage bulbs in euro housings, these are DOT legal as-is, draw only 3 amps each, and won't glare for oncoming drivers the way 130w H4 bulbs would. I think they'd look funny on a later-model 911, though... they won't work with euro trim rings, I assume, and I think the painted US rings look kinda funny. They're a very nice upgrade for those of us with US chrome trim rings.

[5speed]

The install looks great, but I did have a question on the HID sealed beams. I know the bulbs are supposed to last a long time, but are the bulbs replaceable or do I have to buy a whole new sealed beam assembly. That was one of the reasons I went to H4 beams. I did not have to replace the whole assembly just the h4 bulb.

[Wayne 962]

We're planning on carrying these soon. I do like the original, stock look way better than the H4 Euro assemblies...

-Wayne

[dotorg]

5speed: It looks to me that the bulb is replacable, but HID bulbs tend to last a long time... 3-5000 hours, or something.

Wayne: thats cool, glad I'm not alone in that

[Dbelleperc]

The humming noise will reduce over time, it is the ballast "breaking in."
And just for clarification the bulbs are
Sylvania D1R rated at 4000K
The High beams are 55W H3's.
If you want to see more pictures Click Here

The difference between the D1 and D2 systems, is the D1 has the ignitor build on the bulb for "less voltage through the wires," where as the D2 system has a separate ignitor connected to the ballast, a thicker main wire, and more voltage through that wire.

As for the different types of bulbs i.e. D1/2R and D1/2S.
The "R" is for a reflector type lens, and the "S" is for a projector type lens, i.e. Porsche "litronic", BMW, and Audi.

The color temp. and luminious are as followed.
D1/2R Temp. 4000K @ 2800lm +/- 450lm
D1/2S Temp. 4100K @ 3200lm +/- 450lm

And the only problem that I have had with the X6024 is when it rained the housing fogged up, but it was covered under warranty, and I got to keep the old lenses and bulbs which cleared up after a week.

[derkpitt]

Instead of drilling holes, try using a chassis punch.

[ChrisBennet]

Sometimes you can remove the pins from a connector in order to get it through a smaller hole. The pins on some connectors slide into the connector body and can be released with the right tool.
-Chris

[dotorg]

Yeah I futzed with that. This cable appeared to have a sealed connector on the end, and it was unclear how the interor of the cable was structured. It almost felt like the wires were molded directly into it.

This was easier, and didn't risk breaking my new setup.

[rwest]

Spammer reported.