I fitted a HID conversion kit a few weeks ago.
The difference is amazing.
Not only is the immediate environment a lot brighter but the reflective range is fantastic – good for picking out the reflective strips on those pesky cyclists and pedestrians' clothing. Definitely a safety feature!
With no previous experience, I fitted the kit myself which took me around two hours in total.
If I had to do the job again I would probably knock half an hour off now that I know what the job entails.
The key is to buy a good quality kit.
I bought a Kaixen conversion kit made in
Korea
. Of the kits I have considered it looks to be the best quality, certainly better than some kits manufactured in
China
.
The installation is really neat and any DIYer could do it.
The kit comes with H1 35W burners, ballast boxes, replacement 20A fuses, connection cables with quality grommets, sticky pads and cable ties – all neatly packaged. I have included a link to the website but navigating the site is probably more difficult than fitting the damned things!
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This is my guide to fitting them:
I started off by flipping the levers which push out the light units, removed the rear plastic covers and removed the halogen bulb. The next job was to remove the burners from their covers and clip them into the bulb apertures – they have the same fitting as the H1 bulbs. .
So far so good.
The next stage was the trickiest, drilling a 22mm hole in the rear plastic cover.
After much measuring and offering up I drilled a hole using the mould release nib as my centre point.
I used a proper hole cutter for a really neat job. I then fed the connector wires through the hole and fitted the grommet. Then, on the headlight side of the cover, connected the existing power and earth wires to the new coupler wires and refitted the plastic rear cover.
I then wrapped the ballast box in bubble wrap (which conveniently was surplus packaging) and secured it with the cable ties and wedged the box using the sticky pads between the wing and the headlight supporting bracket to achieve a snug, and secure fit. All that remained was to connect the two wires from the ballast box to the connecting cable and change the headlight fuses in the fuse box in the front compartment.
Carefully slide the headlamp assembly back into position and lock off the levers.
Hey presto.
Note, the area behind the nearside headlight is much more restricted as the oil radiator is close by but with a bit of jiggling the ballast box will fit.
The installation is reversible although you will be left with two holes in the back of the plastic covers behind the lights but these can be covered over to ensure protection against water penetration if you do decide to remove the HIDs at a later stage.
My only issue is that on the 993 two H1 kits would be required to convert both high and low beam.
I have converted low beam only and there was a notable difference in the colour between the HID, standard halogen bulbs and the sidelights which both look yellow in comparison.
I have rectified this by fitting Silverstar bulbs and now it looks really good. For a 964 a H4 will do I think.
Hope this is helpful.
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