G'day fellow cruiser drivers,

I know im bringing up a issue that has been discussed plenty of times before, but i feel i had to do it..

Im looking at up dating the headlights in my '93 gxl cruiser, im leaning towards HID as i enjoy my night runs and dont use the car that often in busy traffic to annoy other driver with them.

As i dont use the car everyday i dont want to spend big dollers on the kits, im looking at updating H4 outers and H1 inners as well as two lightforce 170 strikers and roof lights in due time.

Has anyone had anyone had issue's with HID kits at all? ie, water damage, vibrations?
Also is it as simple as plug and play with the cruisers as i have heard conflicting stories, people having issues with them not switching relays for driving lights and high beam dashlight not working?

Any info would be great,

G'Day mate,

I have replaced my inners with 55W HIDs. Very easy to do, took me about 15 mins. per side. Most of the time spend getting the old bulbs out with all the stuff I have behind them. You will need to cut the rubber on the dust boot because of the wiring on the ballast. Other than that, all is good. I haven't done the outers or spot lights so I can't help there. Only issue I can see with the spotties is where to put the ballast where it will be safe.

Have fun,

I have just done all high/low beam and too be honest looking at them now I wouldn't do it again
I have a plug and play ( I can get the brand if u want) but for the cost
I wouldn't do it again put itinto a good led bar light and but good hi/low globes
The high beam (blue dash light) is an easy fix buy the the load
Relay off eBay if you plug in a globe and put high beam on and
It works u need the load relay ( I think that's what it's called)
Anyway its because it doesn't draw enough power anyway save
Your cash buy better globes and buy some more spotties.

Rusty, I like your idea of just changing globes might even buy new reflectors to assist them in showing me the way at night. I like my 170's they have kept me seein in the dark for a few years now. Also I like the idea of when I blow a globe I can find one at any servo I stop at. I guess it comes down to finding a globe I would be happy with.

Do I really need to spend the cash on some thing I drive maybe twice a month now? Hmmm who knows. Looks and technolagy over tried and proven is always a hard one. Maybe just I just HID my roof lights.

What brand did you use? I sent a email to hidrus to get a full price but have heard they don't come cheap

Cheers

Hey Rusty, it sounds like you had a few issues with yours. The results I got from he high beams only (the inner light) are fantastic. I'm very happy with the results. I even took my spotties off because they were less effective than the hids. That's even with the original wiring and old reflectors. I would replace the outside low beam bulbs for a higher wattage but keep them as normal bulbs so there are no issues. I just got mine from eBay for $90 about a year ago.

.

You can get clear lenses and flat reflectors Hamo. For inners and outers. Thats why I never persued true projector lenses.

We did an enquiry into hid's ages ago. Got higher rated globes and harness's for standard, Got local aussie hid's vs american vs chinese. They are all made in china, so ebay is fine. A 55w kit costs about $80 and for the 100w kit it was $119. Ive still got about 5 wiring harness's and 6 H4 low/high globes in 4300/6000k laying around. 55w hid wins hands down. But not to everyones taste.

I've still got my HID lights in i'm doing the gibb river road in july and will give them until after that if i dont like any better then, out they come i will have alook at the brand tomorrow and let you guys know but the better quality globes at this stage are better imo.
I still love my L.E.D lights they light up everything.

Heres a million dollar question... Has anyone legally designed LED's for use in High/Low beams applications?

Im looking to upgrade my lighting system, and i agree with LED's being the bomb-diggity, ie low power consumption, brilliant light output considering the size and power consumption, so i wouldnt mind using LED's for actual high/low beam on-road use...

Has anyone looked into this?

Casper

Yep, I have a bag full of led replacement headlight bulbs. All different brands/claims/sizes. Not worth a pinch. Only good for stop tail and indicator lights. 1 day it will happen though.

I have 2 x 10" light bars i think they work better up high as in the roof rack, but if you are going to do alot of night driving there is another issue the reflection of the 2 way aerial. i have fitted mine below the normal spotties they throw a great light but not to my full liking as they are a bit low, colour wise i would rather both as LED and the incandescent have their own light spectrum's, my next upgrade will be the HID inners to remove the now 10yo ralley 1000's(very impressed on what they have done for me).

My original plan was to fit the 10" directly below the existing lights in front of the indicators hence the 10", the larger LED bars look a bit goofy to me and i think they do look better compared to one long bar everyone to there own,

Now the misses found out how much i paid we have a lot of night driving to do now to make them viable

I'll give ya a run down on what I went through, but everyone is going to give you differing stories.
From when I bought my first 80 in '96, I have disliked the 80's lights, initially, I went through and did the IPF upgrade with the bulbs and lenses, I still wasn't satisfied, so I put the Piranha loom in, I still wasn't happy, and had issues with relays and gremlins in it. I had a set of IPF spotties, I converted them to HID using an aftermarket kit (I mounted the ballast inside the front guards gaining access by removing the parker light and using the factory nutserts with a bracket), I had issues with one working not the other, then they would both work, then the other wouldn't. I tried a set of HID converted IPF's that I bought of someone on a forum, had similar experiences.
I got sick of this so I bought a set of Genesis Lightforce 55w HID spotties, plugged them straight into the original loom that was there, never had an issue since, except that this made the factory headlights even worse.
I then put a set of the Halo (fake) projector lights in, to see differing comments on these I'll let you search the forum, there's heaps there. This was the second best thing I did for lighting next to the Genesis spotties. These things are relatively cheap, around the $250-$300 for the pair, took 30mins to fit (with a couple of rums in there). I've contemplated converting these over to HID to see how they go, but honestly, I don't think I need to at this stage.
On our toy/comp car, I run factory lights but we’re gunna change em over to the Halo’s, and we’re going to go for a 50 Inch light bar on the roof, a couple of sets of Genesis would be nice, but there’s nowhere to mount them. Problem with the light bars, there’s no distance with them, but for off-roading only, the light bars are fine. It is hard to spend alot of money on your off-roader that isn't driven on a daily basis, but when you're out using it, you don't regret anything.
Good luck with your choices, hopefully you don’t waste a bucket load of money along the way like I have.

Cheers
Corry

Corry, thanks for all your advice, seems you have had time to trial all set ups over the years, at this stage im just thinking ill up date my globes and give my old lens a good clean, then see where i go.

I dont drive the car to much now days due to work and home duties so i dont think ill go spending all the cash yet, i might just buy some cheap HID's and do my roof lights, as i use them more on night runs than my lightforce's on the front, as they give you plenty of light down infront of the car where you want it for those times.

Hey mate,

Is there any particular reason you did not do this? I heard the idea a while back and thought it great, as any extra airflow up the middle is worth pursuing I reckon. And if the indicators were blanked out, i think they'd pass as legal. Did you find out otherwise?

I put 55w hids in my work ute (8000k) and wasnt that impressed with them , then changed the globes back to 6000k and the light was heaps better. In my opinion the light was heaps better in foggy conditions with the light penetrating further.