HID headlights

[chickenwafer]

So I just got my pair of Xenon HID headlamps for my Zed. I'm excited! Got 'em on E-Bay for $10.95 plus shipping, which was like $10 bucks because they're fragile. It looks like they have built-in foglights of somesort- there is a small 12 volt blue light bulb on the bottom part of the light. Interesting.....

Anyways, I went out to the Z to see how they install and I am guessing you have to remove the front fender to access the headlight unit? So much time. Is there an easier way to do this?? Thanks.

I'll post pictures of the light assemblies sometime soon. They are sealed high/low beam units with Xenon/Krypton charged HID lightbulbs that burn something like 60% cooler than incondensent lights, plus they illuminate like 50% better with twice as much coverage area. After they're installed I'll shoot a pic of the results

Dave

[MikeW]

Anyways, I went out to the Z to see how they install and I am guessing you have to remove the front fender to access the headlight unit? So much time. Is there an easier way to do this?? Thanks.

Just turn the wheels all the way in each direction. It's very easy to remove the headlight assembly through the wheel well. It's only three screws per side.

[chickenwafer]

thanks mike, much appreciated!

[GregP]

Dave,

I have been thinking of doing the same thing. Let us know if the Xenon HID headlamps made that much difference. Seems to be a lot of them on EBAY.

Greg

[MikeW]

Be aware that the stock wiring in a 240Z is barely adequate for the stock headlight wattage. You should definitely consider adding relays to your system if going with higher wattage lights. One of our fellow members made an excellent relay upgrade harness that plugs right in using the existing connectors. No wire cutting is required. It's well worth it. I hope Dave still is making them:

http://www.classiczcars.com/forums/showthread.php?t=14897

[Chino 240Z]

You might want to spray those screws on the back of the light buckets up in the fender wells to get them ready to bust loose. They maybe little dirty, rusty and you may even break them if you try to bust them loose dry? Couple squirts of that PB rust spray, or WD40 a head of time should help.

[ChrisA]

Mike brings up a very important issue with the headlights. A couple years ago I bought this harness pre-made by Painless Wiring. Plug's in, no cutting. Made the stock headlights brighter and allowed me to switch to composite housings with 9007 bulbs. Which are a kind of HID look a like system.

http://www.painlessperformance.com/webcatalog/catlarge/30815.jpg

Chris

[EricB]

The kit you're referring to isn't HID. It's HID-look a like. It's an aftermarket 7" headlight housing with a brighter (probably bluer too) than stock H4 bulb inside.

A true HID kit made by the likes of Hella and Phillips will include a ballast and igniter and special bespoke xenon gas filled bulbs. The dis-advantage with an HID kit is that the bulbs supplied will be a single filament design meaning that you will only have low-beams. You can't get a dual filament HID bulb for low and high beams because the Xenon takes a moment to heat up to produce maximum light. Look at a car with factory HID (Porsche, Audi, MB, Cadillac, etc) and notice that when they first turn their lights on they initially aren't that bright and take about 30sec to a minute to come up to full strength. The technology behind it is the same thing as your fluorescent office lights at your work.

The few modern cars that say they have HID low and high beams actually operate the following way, when you trip the high-beam there's actually a motorized mirror inside the headlight housing that re-orients the low-beam light to point more up and out giving you a wider illumination path.

Expect to pay between $400 and $600 for a true HID kit.

-e

[GregP]

Does the "HID-look a like" make much of a difference compared to the stock lights?

[ChrisA]

Does the "HID-look a like" make much of a difference compared to the stock lights?

Greg, yes, big difference. I was running 9007's though not H4's.

Chris

[Zrush]

The dis-advantage with an HID kit is that the bulbs supplied will be a single filament design meaning that you will only have low-beams. You can't get a dual filament HID bulb for low and high beams because the Xenon takes a moment to heat up to produce maximum light.

-e

True. We installed the "Cool Blues" on the 77 and now we have no high beams. Doesn't make much difference as we never use high beams here in the big city. The car has driving lights mounted in the aero kit to offset the loss of high beams so no big deal really. Noticed a big difference in the Cool Blues as opposed to the previous H4's that we had purchased. I like the look on an old Z.

FWIW

Vicky

[Fun_in_my_z]

Chris what did you put in the brown Z? They look after market to me. But the are way to dim. Cant see with lows on and highs are lower then reg low beems on any other car...