In a dry condition i can't see any changes in a reach. Actually if you want a longer reach you should aim headlights up, but that will bling the oncoming traffic.
In a wet conditions the reach remains the same as in a dry. With halogens the reach is lower in a wet condition.
I'm using 4300K HID bulbs. Any higher temp. of the HID (especiall higher than 8000K) and the visibility in a rainy night comes to zero.

 

I respectfully disagree

I believe that reach is a function of focus and scatter control. Hence, the fascination with light patterns.

Light travels in a straight line. If you aim the lamp up, you will end up illuminating the trees at a distance. However, if you aim the lamp level *and* it has reach, you will see way down the road. It is not immediately apparent because the light does not reflect unless there is some obstruction in the road. It takes some time to get accustomed to this because the usual near car flood is not there.

Actually, the near car flood works against the driver. The eyes tend to focus on the near car flood, and the near car flood causes the pupils to contract. When that happens, you actually see less for a given level of illumination.

Instead of aiming against garage walls, I go to large parking lots in the middle of the night. I aim the hotspot at just below the level that would blind the driver of a Miata by walking out 50 yards or so and crouching down. The local police hate this because their "criminal" wandering around the parking lot is just some innocent aiming his headlights. They really can't object when the goal is safety. I just don't tell them that the goal is safety at 80 mph.

 

I DO agree with you, if we are speaking about the halogen lamps. But, even if you level halogen headlamps for a better reach - there's a risk of the blinding. Actually it is possible to aim the passenger side headlamp up, but the driver's side MUST be leveled correctly.
But if it comes to HID, the headlamps MUST be leveled lower, than the halogen. Even if they are lower, the reach remains the same, as with halogens.
I prefer to use a special tool for a headlamps leveling, available at the dealer's station. With that you can see if there's a bright spot in the area of visiblilty of the oncoming driver. That's why i never recive any flashes
The difference between the projector and regual lamps is that the projectors gives the sharp bordering line of the illumination(so you really can aim it a little bit higher to increase the reach), the reflectors gives more bright spots, but, IMO, that's much better, since the sharp bordering line is really boring during the night driving.

 

The halogens can be aimed for better reach without blinding. It's all in the technique. Notice the walk out in front of the car of 50 yards. I trust that more than the margin of error on device improperly clamped onto the globe. The device also operates on parameters which are ... in my opinion ... sub-optimal. They are designed for "x" drop in "y" distance. I use almost zero drop.

Trust me, the hot spot and cutoff is easy to recognise when in front of the car. You get a searing flash when you are in the right spot.

With the X308, projectors are out of scope for most people. But, taking advantage of the cutoff to aim higher explains those idiots in oncoming BMW's. At least in the old rally car I could burn anyone down who refused to dim with any combination of up to 8 beams. If they didn't dim after 2 flashes of regular high beams ... they got the full treatment until they got the message. There was also a pair of flame throwers used as high speed reversing lamps for following drivers.

 

Update since May:

Everything is still working well. I installed HID high-beams as well which are very helpful where I live.

Occasionally one headlamp will go out during engine cranking when the headlamps are in AUTO mode. Quickly flipping the headlamp switch from off back to on restores both headlamps.

Also, I have not had a single driver flash their high beams at me so far...

I am still happy with the mod and would recommend it to others.

 

.. hmm, when it comes to conversions, maybe the globes on the x300/x308 are a special case that makes it work.

 

Your kit still working? I'm hesitant to use DDM do to reviews on a lot of forums.

I'm leaning towards a company who will stand behind the product. Also found a ballast shootout video on youtube showing the better quality ballast actually putting out a different color brighter light with the same bulbs.

 

Yes, still working fine.

 

Here in the UK this kind of conversion is illegal on this kind of lamp but is one I want to do, so my approach was to fit lamps from a later XJ that already have projector style headlights and fit a conversion...... However they are like rocking horse **** to find and the Jaguar prices are horrendous...... So I have gone another direction that seems to work but I will add this to an on going thread I have with my XJ so not go high jack Azcats.

All in all, I do this conversion ALOT to XKs as there lighting is basically, pants,however I have found the XJ in standard not to be that bad, but no where near as good as Xenon or HID (same diff.) and I prefer the more modern look of the projector lamp and the light colour

I would be curious to know if Azcats gets any annoyed fellow road users coming from the opposite direction?

 

I did a very similar install on my 2002, about a year ago. It is a very straight forward and clean installation; in fact, I used the same pick up points as Azcat did and with the same BMW E39 bulb adapter.

The illumination itself is immensely superior and the automatic turn ON works perfect. I was extremely careful with the aim because with the higher intensity it is easier "to offend", especially those who are already biased against it to begin with. The cut-off is pretty sharp, but I did additional tests to confirm operation. Basically, I had my car driven towards me with the headlights ON while I sat in another car observing the approaching car lights, but with nothing offending to report, at all. Same with my car following the car I was driving, close enough with the headlights ON, I didn't see any offending or blinding lights on either of the three rear view mirrors. In fact, I find many SUV's with factory projector HID lights far more offending because of the significantly higher location of the headlights.

Just because headlights are brighter like in the newer cars, it doesn't necessarily make your car look cheaper. Yes, if you put obvious, poor or blue looking beams it reflects bad taste and an offense to our proud marque, but perfectly aimed white and bright headlights in a rather small package do enhance the car (X308 lamps are relatively small in diameter).

I've also converted my XJS to HID headlights. The XJS headlights are (in-)famous for their poor lighting (including the most expensive halogens available) and it is, thus, a much welcome mod on these cars. True that you can do the optional quad lights mod to the facelift cars, but IMO you're going backwards in time-style when you do that.

Curiously, I have enough pics in the gallery, yet, I've never taken pics of the installed HID system. I will do that and post in the near future, both cars.

Cheers,

 

I also have these on all 4 lights for about a year now and remain happy with them. No one has flashed me so I do not think they are blinding anyone. I think I have the 4700k bulbs.

I did have one ballast go bad bug kensun promptly replaced with no hassle.

 

Happy to hear that, as mine are Kensun, as well.

Cheers!

 

I did this upgrade a few weeks back and it's great. I used the Kensun H7 4300k set. You need the BMW E39 bulb adaptors and you do need to slide a piece of foam to stiffen the bracket.

It's a great upgrade with no downsides. The built in cutoffs in my 1998 XJR work just fine. Once you adjust the beam there isn't an offensive amount of spill to oncoming traffic. You definitely won't get a traffic ticket for it here in the USA (I'm a police officer).

Here's a pic of a regular Sylvania H7 halogen bulb (mounted in driver side lamp)



And here's a pic of the HID H7 (mounted on passenger side)



(both shots are 14mm, iso200, F/4, 1/6s)

 

Originally from Azcat in 2013 [/QUOTE] I recently installed HID headlights in my 2003 XJ8. [/QUOTE]


I have been following this thread with interest as I too have always had reservations about the use of HID technology in light units not originally
designed for their use.

After reading Azcats fitting assessment of these lights, I am open
to experimenting with these myself ;o)

At the moment, I have the X308's standard light units fitted with what
I consider to be the best halogen bulbs available today being the Philips
X-treme Vision H7 60W units.
I also removed all light units and cleaned the insides with dish washing liquid to remove the 'bloom' build up on the insides which makes a huge difference to light output.
Without touching the reflectors themselves as they are easily damaged.
The Philips globes give a vast improvement in light output compared to
lesser bulbs and I would be really interested in making a comparison
with HID's.
I am 67 and have no vision in my right eye and driving at night has
become a bit of a chore and it would be interesting to see any change.

Many people have been using a hit or miss approach to beam alignment.
This is the correct set up sequence for any headlight system:

*Place the vehicle on a level surface 25 feet (7.62 Mtrs) from a vertical wall or door.
*Measure the distance from centre of light unit to ground and transfer that measurement to wall....then run a piece of tape horizontally for the width of the car.
*Now, measure the distance centre to centre of two light units (start with outer units) and transfer to the tape.
Do the same for inboard units (in four light system).
*At the centre point of each light unit measurement on the wall, place vertical strips for each light unit.
This gives you the base line for adjustments.

*Begin by setting the 'dipped' low beam units first.
Halogen light units have a very distinct horizontal cut off with a 'finger'
of light either to the right or left depending LHD or RHD.
*There is also a 'hot spot' in the centre top of the beam and the light unit should be adjusted so that the top edge of the hot spot is level or just below the horizontal tape and should be just slightly to the left or right
of the vertical piece.....depending if LHD or RHD.
Basically the same process is performed for all beams.

*Now setting of the High Beam.....you will need to blank off the low beams
on the outer lights....we're talking an X308 here in a four head light system
like the Jaguar which has Low beam outers and High beam inners.
*If your car has four high/low beams in all four light units, you will have to set all four High beams first which will automatically set all four Low beams
as well.....get it ;o)
*Set the High beams with top edge of beam bang on the horizontal tape
and square on to the vertical strips.
This should set your head light system to the standard set up.
*With HID systems being utilized in Halogen light units, you can make slight adjustments but the basics still apply.
This set up will maximize your light output on the road surface.
Really, it's best to perform this with a 3/4 full fuel tank and any normal stuff that usually travels in the car.

*I think with this set up, there is no real reason why HID's can't be used in a conventional system.....and you'll be able to see wildlife (four and two legged variety) well up the road instead of looking for wildlife in the tops of tress ;o))

My apologies for such a lengthy epistle but you need to do it right o]

 

I run 6000k HID's for almost 3 years.

I have to remove those for halogen bulbs for each half-year inspection, as aftermarket HID's are forbidden here.
I am every time shocked to notice how little light those halogens (still super-brights) produce compared with my HID's.

As an other poster, I have checked on any blinding of other motorist, but also concluded there is NO problem, neither did I ever receive a flash or remark.

 

I'm toying with the idea of installing HID in my car, but I'd keep it around the 4-6K to maintain a white output and avoid the "Ricer" look. My Saab 9-3 had factory Xenon headlights which were frankly amazing. Not only did they turn night into day, but when I turned a corner the lights would turn too. Very Clever and very useful.

 

Used HID's in a few halogen cars' and never had anyone flash me. This car need them and I'm happy about your results. Looking forward to installing a kit into my car

 

I ran the Kensun HID's for a while. Mixed results.

At first I was happy with them but found that in rainy weather they were not so great. The bigger issue, as some others have reported, was with ballasts burning out after a few months. Sure, Kensun replaced them but it was a hassle not being able to just swap the bad unit on the spot.

I have since gone to the Osram 65W H7s and actually have been happier with them than the HIDs.

Standard OEM H7 : 55w, 1400 lumen, 3200K, 300 - 450 hours

Osram 65W H7+ : 65w, 2100 lumen, 3200K, 300 - 400 hours

I do like the HID's on my other vehicle but those are factory units rather than a retrofit. Even more amazing are the LED sealed beams but unfortunately Jaguar went with a proprietary lens set up.

 

is there a link to the kit?

 

I don't know if this forum allows links.

Just search on Amazon for "kensun h7 hid conversion" and choose your color. Mine are 4300k and they're at least similar to halogen in color. Still closer to white than yellow so purchase accordingly.

Remember, you'll need a BMW E39 bulb adaptor too.