Hi SIM,
Have you installed the kit?
If so, you know the drill. I need Good Pics. Just look at the list I posted earlier.
The kit look OK, and easy to install.
Let’s see how the combo of your reflectors and these bulb are going to work.

You should have kept the Kelvins bellow 6000.
The lens is a bit dark, the colour of the 8000K bulbs are more bluish and a bit darker than 4300-6000K bulbs, so as you can guess the result of this combination will be a bit darker than a standard HID system.

But, be happy, You are now a junior member of Camp Lucas
(Lucas: The man who invented Darkness also known as The Prince of Darkness.)

Please note, 6000K is the brightest bulb. Higher colour temperatures just means that bulbs look more blue.
BUT, Light output is actually reduced!
For the most distance, MAX 6000K is recommended.

Well, in life, we are thought that it is an obvious fact that the higher you go in the scale of numbers the better or stronger it is or at least it should be.

When choosing headlight bulbs, the most common mistake people make is that they fall for all the sales hype around High Kelvin rated bulbs.
They think and are told that the higher Kelvin rated bulbs are better and stronger.

In the case of Light this is absolutely WRONG.

The higher you go in Kelvin, the less light and lumens you'll have.
Practically anything over 6000K is a waste of time and money.
This applies to both Halogen and HID Xenon bulbs.

Here is how Mr. Kelvin works:

Yellow:
1500 k Candlelight
2700-2900 k Yellow painted fog halogen bulbs
-------------------------------
Yellowish white:
3200 k Sunrise/sunset
3200 k Premium H7 non painted halogen bulb
3400 k 1 hour from dusk/dawn
-------------------------------
White:
4100 k Philips/Osram OEM HID D2S. Daylight.
5500 k Bright sunny daylight around noon
----------------
Bluish white
5500-5600 k Electronic photo flash
6000 k Philips Ultinon HID D2S
6500-7500 k Overcast sky
-----------------
Blue:
9000-12000 k Blue sky
-----------------
Purple:
28000 Northern sky
12000-30000 k Ultra Violet light (black light)
-----------------------------------------------------------
Kelvin- Measure of colour temperature (K)
Lumen- Measure of light brightness (lu)

So, let’s see all the pics of your set up.

Im hoping to retro fit 2 sets of 6000 k Philips Ultinon HID D2S in the next couple months will see how she goes (to an EF XR6)

What do you mean by retrofit?
Are you planning to retrofit projectors or just a HID kit?

I bought a Xenon depot 8000k kit.Havent fitted it yet.But i assume it will b ok for beam spread with standard reflector.

Hi get EFd,

Getting an aftermarket kit (does not matter if you got 4000 or 14000 Kelvin) to work properly and manage to get a sort of OK beam spread is the trick we are trying to fix and solve on this thread.

Many of braver soles have made numerous attempts to fix this problem but looking at the decaying bodies and skeletons on this path, one can only realise that it is probably a task beyond most of us mortals.
That is why the ones who survived, gave up this crusade and have now resorted to the simpler task of retrofitting Xenon and Bi-Xenon HID Projectors.
Which is, The ONLY method to obtain an acceptable beam pattern without the damned Glare associated with fitting an Aftermarket HID kit to a Standard Halogen Reflector.

So in reply to your statement: “But i assume it will b ok for beam spread with standard reflector.â€￾.
Unless you are prepared to invest a lot of hours fiddling with designing and re-designing, building and re-building several bulb shields that may or may not work. You could easily be one of the decaying corpses on the path to the glory and the honour of having been able to create an acceptable beam pattern from the marriage of a HID kit and a Standard Halogen Reflector.

Said: Shakespeare.

Once you have installed the kit, take the required pictures and post them and we will see what we can do for you.

As I have mentioned earlier, some reflectors will NEVER work and some fit like a glove.

Well so far the project is gonna be a bitta work and some careful experimenting - having the EF XR front splitter and the s**t light dispersion they provide ive wanted to go hid for a while now...but i want all 4 running together......issues to over come there ignoring legalities is the really bad high beam glare other drivers would cop and i dont wanna be a prick soo plans are to make up a custom mount with an (dont know how to explain this on here-might need to draw a pic) automated runner i guess so that when on low beam the lights are aimed lower than normal so night driving is still fine but being hid wont bother other road users too much...then when flickin to high beam this will act like a lever and tilt the lights care fll a few degrees higher...sounds like some whacked out unachievable idea but i reckon i can pull if off just gonna cost a bit and gonna have to be done right.....only problem with this setup...because these are fragile and the level movement will be slow....changing back from high to low beam wont be quick so some drivers might get briefly blinded from time to time hopefully not tho.....the base and mount for the light will be shock asorbed with rubber rings and very small coils for dampening....since the light wont be mounted normally dont want uneven road conditions to mess this up.

blast me or what ever but mavs let me know your thoughts much appreciated cheers

Hi Big Kev,
The set up you are describing is a bit too hard to imagine and sounds very elaborate. Soundz like you are trying to teach your foot and toes to do the job of your hand and fingers.
The more moving bits the more things go wrong.
You have the best headlight set up on XR.
4 separate and round reflectors. Ideal for retrofitting projectors.
The simplest set up there is on any Ford.

By the way have you installed your HID kit yet and seen if it works or not with your reflectors? Before starting to redesign your XR?

You see the dreaded glare happens mainly in funny shaped reflectors. The worst one is BA, Futura or any other assy with all that extra and unnecessary chrome between the reflectors.

Fist of all let me tell you few things about HID systems.
A Xenon bulb should NEVER be turned on/off i.e. when flashing Hi/Lo beams.

To make it easy and not too technical here is what happens:
In the first few milliseconds the ballast / igniter uses around 20-21 Amps. Then it drops down to between 2-4 Amps which is less than what a 55W Halogen bulb uses.
The ballast converts DC to AC.
12Volt or so that you got in the system is converted to 20000 or so.
So, if you use a Xenon bulb to flash with as a Hi/Lo bulb you will shorten it's life considerably and will burn it in a very short space of time.
At a cost of say, $75-125 each. You must either be related to Mr. Philips or if wasting money is not your thing, you automatically become a Senior Member of Club Lucas.

If you look at all the aftermarket HID Xenon H4 (Hi/Lo) bulbs sold today, you will see that for Lo beam they use a HID Xenon bulb and for Hi beam they use a standard Halogen bulb, always sitting on the same base.
OEM guys used to have 2 reflectors or 1 Xenon projector and 1 reflector or 2 separate projectors for Hi/Lo. Until they manufactured Bi-Xenon Projectors. But still need to have a separate reflector to compensate for Hi beam from a Bi-Xenon Projector.

In your case I would suggest that you take a good and close look at the set up used on the new VW Touareg and replicate it.
It has a Dual Xenon headlight system.
One Xenon projector for Lo and one Xenon projector for Hi .
The projectors Valeo use do not have the usual spherical lens anymore.
This is the BEST headlight system in the market today.
Much better than Bi-Xenon projectors that use a solenoid and a shield that move up and down to mimic Hi/Lo beam with only one HID Xenon bulb. In Bi-Xenon projectors the Xenon bulb is on ALL the time.
Go to a VW dealer and take a good look at the Dual Xenon Headlight assy used on Touareg made by Valeo.See Pic.

All you need to do is find any 4 Xenon (single, not Bi-Xenon) projectors . Very easy and cheap to find on eBay or at wreckers. Then retrofit them in your reflectors.
In your case you can do it one at a time.
In the Lo beam projectors you use HID Xenon bulbs with igniter and ballasts.
In the Hi beam projectors you can use Real Xenon filled bulb without the ballast or igniter. The real stuff used by VW etc.

If you are using a Lo beam projectors for Hi beam, make sure that you remove the beam pattern shield inside the projector to obtain Hi beam.

Not only is this going to be MUCH cheaper than what you presently got in mind, but it is going to be safer, faster and better.
It is also going to look far better.
You will not have to kick yourself, when you see that after endless hours wasted on fiddling with the reflectors, bulbs shields gizmos and gadgets etc. you still have not managed to get rid of the glare and you beams are just pointing few metres in front of your vehicle. Noe will you cry when you realise that you have spent all this time and money and have less visibility in front of your XR than you had before.

Think about it.

 

 

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Cheers for te reply mavs...um i dont know where i may have confused you about having a high and low system. I was aware doing the low-->high switch severly reduces the life of a xenon hid....what i aim to do is no longer use a high beam circuit as such.

The aim is when lights are turned on they are on the low beam setting and aimed slightly more downard so as not to blind other drivers becuase the HIDs are so much brighter than the standard halogens...i thought this was y i think HIDs arent supposed to be used in low beam fitaments as such.....then wehn flicking to high beam...no change to amperage or anything all that will happen is the elctric arm will change the angled down angle to a more positive or normal level...this way light dispersion would be the same as a normal HID fitted as a high beam in an XR.

Do you follow that or still bit hazey...your right tho more mechanics means more things to go wrong thats why i want this planned out....and no havent purcahsed the philps HID kit yet.

I need to look into projectors abit more and re-read this thread since its doubled in size and i know nothing about projectors

Thanks
Kev

Big Kev,

I understood your wild idea the first time.

But to understand the reason for the problems everyone is facing when installing an aftermarket HID kit, there are few issues that needs to be carefully looked at.
The only way one learns these issues or better said problems is when you are faced with them.
One of the issues is the design of your reflector.
The other is the location of the Xenon arc vs. Halogen filament intended for the reflector in question.
Another is the focal point of your reflector when it was paired with a specific Halogen bulb.
Then there is the design of the headlight housing and the material used in it's design.
And…….. several other issues that has a direct or indirect effect on how the beam pattern emitted from that specific combination will be.

It is a well known fact, that NO Halogen reflector was ever designed for use with a HID Xenon bulb.
This combination hardly ever works
ONLY a handful of people have succeeded to get this combination work properly.
There are, however, few OEM reflectors in the market specifically designed for use with HID Xenon bulbs. Lexus...

Unless you install the HID kit that you are going to buy and turned it on, there is no way to predict what may or may not happen.

You could be one of the very few that will have no problem with either glare or cold/hot spots. On the other hand you could be one of the tens of thousands that will NEVER EVER get it working.

So, what I would suggest is first buy the kit. Install it and see what happens. Take pictures and post them.
We will then try to fix (if need be) the problem/s as much as possible.
If everything we did failed, then you can resort to your idea.
Your idea is workable but you need to do a lot of thinking, planning, calculating, testing and fiddling around to get it work properly.
About 3 years ago there was someone overseas that did an attempt to do what you have described, but at end of the day he chose to retrofit Xenon Projectors.
It was far easier to retrofit projectors and he got FAR FAR FAR better results and an almost perfect beam pattern with a 98% perfect cuttoff.

That is why I suggested to retrofit 4 Single Xenon Projectors.

To retrofit projectors you need to remove the headlight assy. Then separate the lens from the housing (I have describe how to earlier on this thread and I believe that after that Hyena did it and put up some pics etc.)
Then remove and cut the reflector to fit the portion of the projector that is going to be visible between the reflector and the lens.
Drill some holes and fit the projector in centre of the circle you cut in the reflector. Aim it so it is horizontal.
If need be paint the rest of the reflector and inside of the housing and if need be use something like a shroud around the portion of the projector that is visible between the reflector and the lens to hide the openings in the lend holder of the projector.
Glue back the lens.
Re-assemble the headlight assy., insert the bulbs, connect the wiring.
Turn the lights on, adjust the hight of the bean cutoff to as high as possible.
You should now have a perfect daylight beam pattern for approx. 100-175 m in front of you with NO hot/cold spots AND NO GLARE. Yeeeeeha.

By the way everyone that uses a HID kit with only 2 HID bulbs is having this much problem with glare etc.
Using 4 bulbs as you have mentioned will probably burn a nice hole in the neck of the driver in the vehicle, say a couple of miles in front of you.
If you use 4 HID bulbs you can register your XR for the next Australia Rally.
You will have 10 times more headache to fix and deal with.

So, start with buying your kit.

Alright will take you up on the get th kit first...will have to do some more research and studying this thread regarding the projects and pulling apart my head light assay dont wanna have to buy a new one

The reason for 4 was like alot of guys Id like all four headlights on when driving around and night without having to have high beams on.

I couldnt just run xenon hid in the high beam and a whatever in the low beam like a philips crystal vision because you can see the light colour saturations are different. But yeah i know im being a tad fussy.

Really i could just drive around with 4 xenon hids on but im not an a**hole.

Be assured that once you have installed the HIDs in your Lo beam reflectors, you won't be needing or using your Hi beams much more.
If adjusted properly, 2 HID Xenon bulbs are more than enough.

A piece of advise. Buy good stuff from the start.
A proper ballast and igniter in one unit is easier to work with.
A proper Xenon bulb manufactured by either Philips or Osram.
Keep to OEM temperature of 4300Kelvin to MAX 5000K and not more.

A ballast will supply HID bulb with monitored and continuously regulated voltage. So it is important you get a good one to last you long.
What determines a good quality ballast is if it is used by OEM or not.
Examples would be Philips, Hella or Matsushiita.(it is spelled with 1 i but this HTML thinks I am swering and changes it all the time to s**t).

Some ballasts have igniter function built in, others don't.
The ones that have igniter function built in need D2S,D2R, or the New D4S and D4R Xenon bulbs.
Those who don’t only will function with D1S or D1R Xenon bulbs.
The D1 series is an upgraded version of D2 series with the igniter built as one unit at the end of the bulb, making it easier to connect with simpler wiring. Etc.
An igniter will supply HID bulb with temporary high voltage (23kV) until arc is created inside HID bulb.

has anyone had experience fitting HID to ef/el xr projectors?

Yeah Clampy someone did earlier in the thread Dont think theres any pics tho.

Mav's Should be getting the kit on Monday which is good cause im on hollidays so lots of time to play around with it and get it working well (if need be).

Im scared, taking a bit step.. How will these HID's go compared to me putting my Hi's on?

The HID's will still stay on then i switch to Hi wont they?

well ill say this. when i put my high beams on with the HIDs on i notice no difference in light

sweeeeet! thats wot i like to hear..