Hid lights

[MRV6]

Has anyone had these fitted? I heard that the slim ballasts fail??

[myers]

I fitted them to the mk3 about 8 month ago but i dont really do much night driving tbh, they probs done about 10hrs in that time. i put the 8k ones on they are very blue.
Mark.

[MRV6]

Have you got the slim ballasts mate?

[bigcw]

I've got them in m mk2. In fact, three out of my five cars have aftermarket HIDs. The Audi has them from the factory and the cabby hasn't run for three years but will be converted as soon I get around to fixing it!

Out of those the MR2 is the only one with slim ballasts which have been fine so far, although it must be noted that it's a fair weather and weekend toy so the headlights don't get used that much. It's worth knowing that the skim ballasts are smaller but don't have the ignitors built in so you end up with another lump along the cable from ignitor to bulb. This is a bit awkward on the MR2 with it's popups. I actually looked at the spare set of full size ballasts I have last night and thought about swapping them over to make the installation neater.

Also mounting the slim ballasts is fiddly especially in the mr2 frunk. Mine are just cable tied.... Botch I know, but I've not figured out a better option. With full size ballasts they come with a mounting bracket that could be bent to shape and possibly make mounting easier.

Finally, my experience previous of discharge bulbs makes me think flashing the HIDs from cold isn't the best idea, which might be why people report ballast failures. I've rewired my switches with a couple of diodes so the flash function flashes the front fogs if the headlights aren't already on for exactly that reason.

Hope that's helpful.

Cheers, Chris

[MRV6]

Nice one mate muchos helpful! Did you get yours off flee-bay and if so any links? I was looking at these.

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=280644874640&ssPageName=STRK:MEWAX:IT

[bigcw]

Yeah, got them off eBay, but from a far east supplier. Cheaper, but take a week to arrive.

You want to get a hi-lo system otherwise you'll loose your main beams. They have a little solenoid in the base that moves the focus point of the bulb to give high or low beam.

Chris