Thread: Disco 4 Aftermarket Xenon Lights installation

Originally Posted by garrycol

The cutoff for low beam is the same as for Halogen and HID,

I also put them in my Hi beam but the issue is that HIDs take from 5 to 10 secs to light up to full brilliance so when you need Hi beam urgently you will not get it. Not such an issue when you turn on your low beams and leave them on.

HIDs are far better than Halogens in the hi beam light but I have gone back to halogens as I want these lights to come on when I want them.

Garry

Interesting, I had aftermarket bi xenon/ HID's in a previous car & when the light was switched to hi beam a shutter opened allowing it operate instantly & when switched back to low beam, the shutter closed over the hi beam element.

So effectively hi beam was on all the time meaning no warm up delay but the shutter controlled it.

tiddy

Originally Posted by tiddy

Interesting, I had aftermarket bi xenon/ HID's in a previous car & when the light was switched to hi beam a shutter opened allowing it operate instantly & when switched back to low beam, the shutter closed over the hi beam element.

So effectively hi beam was on all the time meaning no warm up delay but the shutter controlled it.

tiddy

If they were aftermarket then they were H4 globes - the D3/D4/RRS uses H7 globes and there is no aftermarket shutter arrangement for these. The OEM Bi-xenon the the landies have this shutter arrangement and a Halogen fill in high beam - this the Hi beam on halogen fitted vehicles.

Garry

Originally Posted by pwillo

Thanks Garry, I had HID spotlights on my previous car and experienced 3-4 sec delay, which I had forgotten about.
This time I have LED spotlights and I rarely turn them off, if I want high beam I want the lot. LED is instant on, a HID delay would mean nothing.

My old HID spots were converted IPF's and I found them great for distance but a little bright (6000k) and not so great up close. That's why I went for LED this time, much better closer, not so good at distance.

Thinking about HID high beam to get the distance.

Regards

I went to a dealer for Xeon HID lights, they advised that you need to mix your beams. that is you get one as a wide beam and another as a focused beam, this way you get an extremely well lit area in front and to the distance. It seems he knew what he was talking about, anyone lese tried this configuration ?

Tor

Hi Tor
On the old D3 I had 2 ipf 900 extremes halogen, kerb side a flood, outside a spot and this worked really well (2009 when hid's were very xy) on present D4
As I have a 40" light bar on the roof I went the ipf's again in Hid both spots and they are brilliant. Light bar is a combo flood spot but more flood really so they compliment each other well. Regardless of what the manufacturers say the spot in a light bar do'snt seem as good as a dedicated conventional spot.

Originally Posted by Torero22

I went to a dealer for Xeon HID lights, they advised that you need to mix your beams. that is you get one as a wide beam and another as a focused beam, this way you get an extremely well lit area in front and to the distance. It seems he knew what he was talking about, anyone lese tried this configuration ?

Tor

There's no one right answer here. You need to think about what your usage will be. What follows is purely my opinion, based on my night driving which is mostly on country roads in hilly areas or in the bush on firetrails (often at high speed).

Personally I am not a fan of spot beams at all. If you are doing a lot of travelling out west on long, straight and flat roads then they have their place. On twisty or hilly roads I find them distracting as they end up as a small spot of light moving all over the road and scenery. To me this tends to make you focus on the moving spot and reduces your peripheral vision. HID makes this worse as it tends to be brighter and more focussed. Also an HID spot reflecting off a road sign hurts - spreads are bad enough.

I also think halogen still has its place. For me the best combination is a set of halogen cornering lamps for up close and a set of HID driving beams for distance. This gives good close up spread to the front sides of the vehicle that isn't too dazzling and also cuts through fog and dust, plus a brighter spread further out in front for a reasonable distance, without being focused on a single point. After testing several different combinations, this is what we now run on the rally car. Unfortunately its a bit hard to fit 4 Hella 4000s across the front of a Disco.

The headlights on the D3 were pretty good like this, but with the D4 they took a backwards step with the possum spotters. On the D3 I ran a few different lights and ended up with the Hella 4000 compact driving beams converted to HID. Not the greatest lights around, but I was happy with them. They were a good compromise between size and performance, without breaking the budget. When I finally get around to fitting lights to the D4 I will probably do something similar, but whatever I get will both be driving beams. To me this is the best combination - a broad even spread of light without any bright spots.

One very important point though - If you do go HID, stick with 4300k. Anything higher, including the popular 6000k, is too blue. You actually get less light output and lose contrast, making things harder to see. I can't emphasise this point enough, the difference is huge.

Cheers,
Jon

Thanks Jon, you do put an interesting point.

I like my D4's lights with its re-aligned no-longer-possum 4300K HID-converted fill-in lights.

Hi guys, I am new to the group. I am on my third Disco and have just purchased my first new one (Disco 4 se) I swapped over Rhino roof rack from my last disco 3. I have just fitted a 120w Korr light bar under the roof rack. Very bright (bit of wind noise) To my question....I am considering fitting HID bulbs and ballasts to the low beam. I am concerned about the Canbus and I am wondering if any members have used a product they could recommend and perhaps cost and where to source. Thanks in advance
Bill