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Complete newbie. Want to upgrade lights on my 62 plate Insignia. Please help?

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  • #16
    As far as I can tell from looking at the site, HIDs Direct appear to be out of stock on these H7R bulbs.

    I've also seen that they and other sites sell 35w and 55w variants. What is the difference? What should I be looking at getting?

    Will there be any side affects I should know about before upgrading / purchasing these? Other than that they take a few seconds to come on and will technically need removing for MOT.

    I wasn't planning on changing my main beam bulbs actually. Now this might seem like a silly question, but would putting these H7Rs into my dipped beams, negate the use of full beams because they're so much brighter and are using separate bulbs whereby the main beams are probably halogens?

    And yes, I've read about this metal sheath and beam pattern problems. That's fine, if this is all I can go with, that's all I can go with! Heck, even the most expensive ones are cheaper than I was thinking I was going to have to buy just a day or two ago!

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    • #17
      35w are fine and much brighter than the halogens so no need for 55w. 55w are brighter but can be a bit much in reflectors (some may argue with me on that). Most members buy 35w. They work independently of the main beam bulbs so main beam will be unaffected.

      As long as you get canbus kit so you don't get bulb out errors on the dash you should be fine. In fact the only side affect I had when I had my HID and then later, LEDs was a silly grin on my face because they looked good and I could see where I was going.

      One more thing. The best colour temprature for the builds are 5000k or 6000k. Higher the number the bluer they look. 5k an 6k are a nicer bright white.
      Last edited by marko301; 14-03-2019, 12:09 PM.
      2017 Vauxhall Insignia Grand Sport Sri Nav 1.5 (165ps) Turbo petrol in Lava Red - Keyless entry and start - 18” five spoke alloy wheels - Front fog lights - Tinted rear windows - Aluminium sports pedals - Ambient interior led lighting - Front and rear parking assist - Active emergency braking - Forward collision assist - Front pedestrian alert - Traffic sign recognition - Lane keep assist - Cruise control - Speed warning and limiter - Voice recognition - Bluetooth - Duel zone climate control - Front and rear electric windows - High beam assist - Auto lights - Auto wipers - Wifi hotspot - 8” colour touchscreen Navi 900 with Android Auto, Apple Car Play and DAB

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      • #18
        35w is fine

        5k - whiter than white, 6K - icy white, maybe a slight tinge of blue, but lovely and bright at night.

        You need a H7R kit

        Ive had previous experience with HIDs DIRECT and I found them to be crap kits, expensive and an incompetent aftersales service who basically didn't want to know.

        ive bought from eBay since and its always been cheap kits....never had an issue with them.
        infact the kit I have in mine cost me £15 and its been in over a year....no issues.

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        • #19
          Btw I think it's hilarious that your user name includes the word visual.......when your first post is all about changing your bulbs in your head lights coz you canny see...... brilliant.

          I know it won't be to do with that ( I.T lingo I know ).

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          • #20
            Originally posted by marko301 View Post
            35w are fine and much brighter than the halogens so no need for 55w. 55w are brighter but can be a bit much in reflectors (some may argue with me on that). Most members buy 35w. They work independently of the main beam bulbs so main beam will be unaffected.

            As long as you get canbus kit so you don't get bulb out errors on the dash you should be fine. In fact the only side affect I had when I had my HID and then later, LEDs was a silly grin on my face because they looked good and I could see where I was going.

            One more thing. The best colour temprature for the builds are 5000k or 6000k. Higher the number the bluer they look. 5k an 6k are a nicer bright white.
            Okay great, well I'll look into getting me some H7Rs. I am tempted to go with the 55w ones, just because they're brighter, but if you say they're a bit much... I'm gonna have to think.

            And yes, the colour temperature info is one thing I did gain from my previous now-useless research! haha. But thanks for pointing it out!

            Because I've got one halogne out at the moment. Do you reckon it is worth buying a halogen bulb to put in there for when it comes to my MOT? As in, removing these HID's and temporarily switching them out with the halogens just to pass my test?

            Originally posted by RBH View Post
            35w is fine

            5k - whiter than white, 6K - icy white, maybe a slight tinge of blue, but lovely and bright at night.

            You need a H7R kit

            Ive had previous experience with HIDs DIRECT and I found them to be crap kits, expensive and an incompetent aftersales service who basically didn't want to know.

            ive bought from eBay since and its always been cheap kits....never had an issue with them.
            infact the kit I have in mine cost me £15 and its been in over a year....no issues.
            Thanks as well for your input!

            I was actually leaning away from HIDs Direct just because of how much more expensive they are than the others even though afaik they're all the same basic bulbs. So yeah, I think I'm going to look at one of the other retailers. Anyone in particular you would recommend, other than eBay or anyone in particular on eBay?

            Originally posted by RBH View Post
            Btw I think it's hilarious that your user name includes the word visual.......when your first post is all about changing your bulbs in your head lights coz you canny see...... brilliant.

            I know it won't be to do with that ( I.T lingo I know ).
            Haha well actually the name came from a Burnout (as in the old racing game) related name generator years and years ago. So it is actually more closely related to cars than anything else. Nothing to do with IT! haha

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            • #21
              Originally posted by Visual Hudson View Post
              Okay great, well I'll look into getting me some H7Rs. I am tempted to go with the 55w ones, just because they're brighter, but if you say they're a bit much... I'm gonna have to think.

              And yes, the colour temperature info is one thing I did gain from my previous now-useless research! haha. But thanks for pointing it out!

              Because I've got one halogne out at the moment. Do you reckon it is worth buying a halogen bulb to put in there for when it comes to my MOT? As in, removing these HID's and temporarily switching them out with the halogens just to pass my test?



              Thanks as well for your input!

              I was actually leaning away from HIDs Direct just because of how much more expensive they are than the others even though afaik they're all the same basic bulbs. So yeah, I think I'm going to look at one of the other retailers. Anyone in particular you would recommend, other than eBay or anyone in particular on eBay?



              Haha well actually the name came from a Burnout (as in the old racing game) related name generator years and years ago. So it is actually more closely related to cars than anything else. Nothing to do with IT! haha
              Find many great new & used options and get the best deals for H7r 6000k White AC Canbus Metal Based Bulb Error Xenon HID Conversion Kit at the best online prices at eBay! Free delivery for many products!


              Something like this buddy

              And yep.....I don't blame you about HIDS DIRECT.

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              • #22
                Sorry if this rains on you parade, but I've already been down the H7r route and though they were pants in my headlights. The headlights throw a surprisingly large amount of light straight vertically up, evident in tunnels etc.

                I saw little different between h7 and h7r on the same ballasts.

                I also tried a few different LED drop in replacements and wasn't happy with any of them.

                The pre facelift halogens just don't seem to get on well with hid or LED drop in sadly.

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                • #23
                  Okay so an update...

                  I've ordered a H7R 55w 6000k HID kit, due to come next week.

                  In the mean time, I remembered I had a spare bulb set from driving down to France a few months ago. Thought I would get some practice in changing the bulb, so I know what I'm doing when the HID kit comes.

                  I've figured out how to get the bulb out of the headlamp, but for the life of me I can't get the bulb loose from the wiring or figure out how to swap the bulb over. I've been at it for about an hour now. Tried looking on YouTube and Google, even in the Owner's Manual but no look. Now I've dropped a bloody screwdriver bit somewhere in my engine too that I'm worried about.

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                  This is what the owners manual says.

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                  This is what the bulb looks like.

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                  This is what the screwdriver bit looks like that I've dropped in the engine bay, except it was slightly bigger. I was trying to use it along with this exact bit (inside of a screwdriver) to unclick the clips. But I slipped, the loose bit fell and now is no where to be found. Which now I'm especially worried that it's fallen somewhere that's going to cause big problems. I'm meant to be at work in two hours!

                  I've tried pulling the two metal clip parts apart, but that doesn't seem to work. I've tried pushing in on the little black bit in the middle of the metal clips, that doesn't seem to work either. I've seen people say to pull them apart, or wriggle them, or whatever but I just can't figure it out.

                  Also I have just found out that the screwdriver bits are magnetic, and I'm trying to use my flashlight (that has a magnet on it, for sticking it to the car) to find it but no luck with that so far either.

                  What on earth do I do? What am I doing wrong? Please help!

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                  • #24
                    So further update. I was not able to find the screwdriver bit. I decided to just drive to work, and all seems fine as far as I can tell anyway.

                    I decided to go to a Kwik Fit this afternoon as that is my closest garage. I explained I felt like an idiot because I couldn't do it myself and asked if they could help me. They swapped the light bulb over in like two minutes, apparently I just needed a bit more brute force to pull them apart. They also put the car up on a ramp and had a quick look and tapped / gently banged the undertray thing, but couldn't see or hear anything. It was like 3:45 and they closed at 4, said I could bring it back in during the week to have the tray removed and properly check, but it's probably / hopefully fallen out by now or will have by then which is what I thought anyway. Good lads didn't even charge me a penny too, so that was great.

                    Now here's hoping that I don't struggle as much when my HID kit comes later in the week...

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                    • #25
                      So another update for anyone that's interested. It's been a few weeks now, I think?

                      First of all, the screwdriver bit was never recovered.

                      Now the HID kit arrived, and well, I ended up getting a family friend to help us install it and we were having a nightmare to get them in especially on the passenger side with the incredibly small amount of space behind the light fitting. But after maybe an hour and a half, maybe two hours, we got them in and it seemed as though they were working fine. Except that we installed them at 10am in the morning, so couldn't really test them until night time.

                      Night time came and the passenger light was visibly lower than the driver's side. I ended up going to a Halfords Autocentre on my way home from work to see if they could quickly check them and sort them out, thinking that they weren't seated properly as one was at a slight angle and they could do it much quicker than I could. They looked, but then said they wouldn't touch it because they're illegal and I need to take them out.

                      I subseqently went to a small local garage near me and asked them if they could have a look. They similarly said that they didn't think I'd should have them because they need to have headlight washers or else they're illegal, but then said that "but it depends how obvious they are". So I booked it in for a few days later for them to have a look at. I left it with them after work at 8am. I went to go pick it up at 5pm and it seems like they hadn't touched it. The guy goes to look at it then, but also struggles with the space behind the passenger light, so he says that the bumper will need to come off to take off the light fitting so there's more access. I said that I had read online that the bumper had to come off to get to the light, so okay I'll bring it back the next day. So I do, leave it with them, pick it up in the evening and they say that it's in and all sorted and charged me £45! Which I thought was ridiculously over-charged, but I was just glad that it was sorted, and when I asked if they'd pass my MOT if I brought it back when it's due in a month's time, they basically said that they would pass them. So I paid them, and waited until it went dark to try them out.

                      So I drive around Friday night and over the weekend, and I notice that the passenger side light whilst is now seated correctly it is visibly wayyyy lower on the road than the driver's side. It was causing a very bright patch on the kerbs of the road not too far in front of my car. It was especially noticable when facing a wall. I take it back to the garage yesterday morning and say it's not right, will they look and it and sort it out. I leave it with them. Pick it up yesterday evening, this time they quite rightly don't charge me anything and they said that the problem was that driver's side light was too high or not set right or something (I don't really remember), but when I get home I notice that the light itself is completely loose in the fitting. But I can get to it, set it right, tighten it up with the Torx set I bought specificially for installing this kit, so I do that & then I wait for it to go dark before driving it again. As I'm driving it around town last night, I notice that it's not any better than it was when I took it to them that morning.

                      Now over the weekend I had been looking online about adjusting them myself and found that there are like little plastic torx dials, or whatever they're called, which you can turn to adjust the headlamp. So when it's gone dark, I found a solid wall and used my torx set to adjust them level and to approximately what looked right. And after all this time, that was all I needed to do! Yeah the passenger's side light needed to be set in properly, but the main issue was just that the headlamps weren't level, and I've paid £45 for someone to make a mountain out of a molehill just to install a light!

                      For reference this is what the lights looked like after I had installed them before I took them to the garage:
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                      This is what they looked like after I took them to the garage:
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                      I should have taken a picture after I had adjusted them, but I didn't. If I remember, when I next get a chance, I will and update the post. But basically I raised up the passenger side light and lowered the driver's side a little bit. I do need to properly measure it all out and do it precisely when I get chance, but for now it's a million times better than it was.
                      ------------
                      (Edit: I realised that my dashcam was recording today, so here's what they look like now)

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                      However just to top it all off, I forgot that it was daylight savings just a few days after ordering these so..... yeah they're practically useless for the next 6 months! Wonderful haha

                      But now I'm just not sure what to do when it comes to my MOT. I reeaaallllyyyy don't want to have to go to the hassle of removing these lights. This garage has basically said that they would overlook them, but given the problems I've had, I'm not much confident in their ability or pricing for that matter. I don't want to take it to another garage and them fail because of the lights, and then that's on the database, and so I'm just debating what on earth to do in a few weeks time.....

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                      • #26
                        Look better after you adjusted them but in the first pics it looks like a lot of spread there. Any flashes from oncoming drivers? I find if you're around 3 car lengths behind a preceding car the cut off is around half way up their tailgate door just above the bumper.
                        2017 Vauxhall Insignia Grand Sport Sri Nav 1.5 (165ps) Turbo petrol in Lava Red - Keyless entry and start - 18” five spoke alloy wheels - Front fog lights - Tinted rear windows - Aluminium sports pedals - Ambient interior led lighting - Front and rear parking assist - Active emergency braking - Forward collision assist - Front pedestrian alert - Traffic sign recognition - Lane keep assist - Cruise control - Speed warning and limiter - Voice recognition - Bluetooth - Duel zone climate control - Front and rear electric windows - High beam assist - Auto lights - Auto wipers - Wifi hotspot - 8” colour touchscreen Navi 900 with Android Auto, Apple Car Play and DAB

                        Comment


                        • #27
                          I assume you removed the washer bottle neck? Just checking. Shouldn't need to take the front bumper off.

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