406oc.co.uk

I work shifts and drive mostly late at night or in the early hours of the morning. Although the lights on the D8 are good I decided to have a look at the upgrades. Halfrauds and various other companies wanted £20 for bulbs yet on ebay I could get a proper set of HID's for £39 inc postage.

I was dubious about the quality at that price but when the kit arrived i was really impressed. Good quality instructions, Good quality components and a 2 year warranty. It took half an hour to fit and the results were amazing, I now have my own personal floodlights and they don't dazzle anybody. I went for the 8000K bulbs which is a slightly off white called Iceberry. You can get any colour from ice white to cool purple depending on heat rating.

Ok they'll never be road legal due to the D8 not having self adjusting lights, washers and the D8 lens is not E marked for Zenon use but as long as they don't dazzle anyone who cares.

6 months on and still working perfectly being used every day!

Unfortunately it is illegal to fit these into reflector lenses and they do alter the beam pattern drastically often resultng in unwanted glare to oncoming cars. I researched into these a while back and learned that they usually result in a high concentration of light immediately in front of the car giving the impression they are "brighter" or whatever but this foreground light is unwanted and makes your pupils close down when driving resulting in less long distance vision so in many cases they are worse than standard.

The 8000K ones are at the blue end of the spectrum and emit much less effective light than the recommended 4500K to 6000K max. In fact 8000K is often marketed for "show use only".

Still if you're happy with them that's good - I'm only repeating what I found out

All I can say is that in 6 months nobody has flashed me and i drive mostly in the wee hours. The bulbs have exactly the same shielding on as a standard H7 bulb and have passed a beam pattern check so I assume that the pattern is ok. We all get dazzled by the new BMW's and Merc's anyway and these are legal!!

The temp colour i suppose is down to personal preference and on country roads i find these far better than normal headlights with long distance coverage over the road with a 'daylight' type light which i find less tiring. I may get the 4500 or 6000 bulbs when these go to try out as they are only 14 quid a set.

All I can say is that in 6 months nobody has flashed me and i drive mostly in the wee hours. The bulbs have exactly the same shielding on as a standard H7 bulb and have passed a beam pattern check so I assume that the pattern is ok. We all get dazzled by the new BMW's and Merc's anyway and these are legal!!

The temp colour i suppose is down to personal preference and on country roads i find these far better than normal headlights with long distance coverage over the road with a 'daylight' type light which i find less tiring. I may get the 4500 or 6000 bulbs when these go to try out as they are only 14 quid a set.