diy xenon hid lights from volvo to 406?

[joekellner]

Hi everyone. I got a pair of xenon hid headlights from an older chap who bought them a while back for his volvo v40 2004. He didn't like the colour of the bulb and left it too long to return them so gave them away on freecycle. I was thinking of taking them apart and fitting them to my 406 2.0 hdi. I have the full lights, bulbs ballasts and wires so it should be a matter of dismantling and fitting into mine right? Thanks.

[steve_earwig]

I guess you could do that but, as the 406 has neither self-levelling suspension nor suspension, they won't be legal.

[Welly]

As long as they were a H7 fitment then they would fit.

Trouble is ALL retrofit HID's are for show use/off road use only as they have not got the 'type approval' for road legal use. Some will say "ooh well is passed the MOT with them" but this is meaningless in the eyes of the law. The kits are all sold with a disclaimer (to cover their arses in case of a claim).

I am a pedantic arsehole but imagine if you had an accident, people were injured etc the insurance engineer will see your modded headlights and void your claim.....potentially leaving you with a Civil matter.

Fact is you'd be fitting a light source that wasn't designed to work with the existing reflector, as such the headlights will emit glare to other road users (I'm sure you've seen lads in cars like this? they normally like to have the lights on in the day too just so we know they've fitted HID's).

The 406 standard headlights are very good, benefiting only from the addition of better bulbs like 'Nightbreakers' which are all perfectly legal.

[joekellner]

I don't think the Volvo they came from has self levelling suspension. I was wondering if i could just use the hid bulb and ballast to power it and use the peugeots standard side and high beam bulbs.

[joekellner]

[quote="Welly"]As long as they were a H7 fitment then they would fit.

Trouble is ALL retrofit HID's are for show use/off road use only as they have not got the 'type approval' for road legal use. Some will say "ooh well is passed the MOT with them" but this is meaningless in the eyes of the law. The kits are all sold with a disclaimer (to cover their arses in case of a claim).

these are hids built by Volvo. They are no aftermarket kits that you can get from ebay. Thanks for the replies.

[Welly]

these are hids built by Volvo

Volvo don't make HID kits, they may have been marketed for a Volvo although all that matters is the bulb pattern: (H7 etc). You said this older chap bought them for his Volvo, they must be aftermarket, a Volvo dealer would not sell you retrofit HID's, the only way they would do this is to convert the whole car's systems to HID including lenses, self-levelers, software and headlamp washers.....you'd be looking at about £2,000.00.

The fact that he didn't like the colour means they are not OE standard, I'd hazard a guess that they're 6000K or even 8000K and very blueish.

[KozmoNaut]

I don't think the Volvo they came from has self levelling suspension. I was wondering if i could just use the hid bulb and ballast to power it and use the peugeots standard side and high beam bulbs.

No, it probably doesn't have self-leveling suspension (unless it's a top spec XC90 or something), but all cars equipped with HID headlights are required by the EU to have self-leveling headlights and headlight washers.

[joekellner]

these are hids built by Volvo

Volvo don't make HID kits, they may have been marketed for a Volvo although all that matters is the bulb pattern: (H7 etc). You said this older chap bought them for his Volvo, they must be aftermarket, a Volvo dealer would not sell you retrofit HID's, the only way they would do this is to convert the whole car's systems to HID including lenses, self-levelers, software and headlamp washers.....you'd be looking at about £2,000.00.

The fact that he didn't like the colour means they are not OE standard, I'd hazard a guess that they're 6000K or even 8000K and very blueish.

He purchased a pair of Volvo headlamps and another thing he didn't like is that they couldn't be adjusted up or down. Sorry i said hid, i mean xenon. I thought they were the same difference lol. The ballast etc has Volvo markings on so aren't aftermarket versions. Thanks.

[Welly]

HID means High Intensity Discharge, it is basically an arc of high voltage electricity between two electrodes and encased in a sealed glass tube filled with special gas and metal salts. A basic Xenon gas bulb is just a normal filament bulb filled with 'special' gas but this is normally marketing waffle.

Sounds like this fella bought some headlamps complete with the original "Volvo-marked" ballasts etc.

As long as the bulbs are a H7 pattern you can frig them up to fit but as said it is not correct.

Another thing to note is that although the ballasts stabilise at about 35 watts there is an inrush current and possibly some 'interference' issues. On the Volvo forum people have retrofitted HID's and taken out the Wiper Motor due to the way the earthing works. Some remove the headlamp wiring from the cars' sensitive systems via a relay and independent earths. In this case you don't know how the Volvo's stuff was wired up and how it might affect your car's wiring.