club.liberty.asn.au

Hey all,
I've just bought a new Gen 3 Liberty in Silver. I would love to get some HID lights in them as 6000K light and silver is quite :drool: and would really set the car off I think.

However, I want to do it properly and not be one of those fucksticks who drives around with unfocused HID light blinding everybody and begging for the cops to defect them. I've had a look around and found a supplier + installer for HIDs called XenonOz who apparently do the installs at MRT near Homebush. I'd prefer to get it done professionally as I'm shithouse at electrics and would rather the piece of mind. Does anyone know how good they are? Anyone done it before? Should I bother getting the parking lights done too or is it not noticeable?

Also, if I were to get it done what is the legality of it? XenonOz clearly state on the site it's not ADR approved but in reality is a cop going to pick on me for it even if it's done professionally with ballasts/washers and properly focused? What about insurance with 'illegal' headlights? How about just getting the Phillips ebay white-lights? Are they actually that white? I just want to avoid the 2300K sort of orange light and get it as white as possible (6000K colour is the most desirable) for cosmetic reasons along with the increased visibility that they provide.

If it's too much hassle with regards to legality I will just not do it however the halogen lights look quite terrible and having to get them replaced every year or less is a pain in the ass.

EDIT: I have searched other threads and read about Tangcla's kits however I couldn't find anything about XenonOz so I thought I'd start a new thread.

Gen III have reflector headlights and so are the WORST type of headlight to convert to HID using existing housings.

Totally illegal. Even with halogen projectors (4th/5th gen) it is still illegal.

Don't do it, you will cause so much glare you will blind all other drivers and possibly cause an accident.

Perhaps look at buying a pair of JDM HID headlights for the Gen III.

I would say do not convert your stock headlights to HID's.

As Tek said, the reflector headlights are the worst ones to do it to. I know I always get really pissed off when I see reflector-HID conversions. They don't aim their light, they just throw it out which makes it extremely bright and glary.

Cops will spot your HID kit from a mile away in a reflective housing.
Worst part is of course the amount you will be blinding people, so you might want to just stick to some of those phillips bulbs if you absolutely must have a whiter than regular bulb.

Hehe... sounds familiar to me. Have a read of Keiran's thread which I accidentally hijacked start from here.

To answer your Q about the "philips ebay white lights", I had the philips diamonvision (5000K) for my old Celica, they do appear whiter than regular halogen bulbs but nowhere comparable to 5000K HID white (and brightness don't even come close) but they were sufficient for me back then.

Like everyone says, don't HID your reflector headlights. That said, I might HID my highbeams eventually just to get the extra brightness, because when the highbeams are on, there'll be no one around to be blinded anyway - except the odd roadkill.

toadcat wrote:Hey all,
I've just bought a new Gen 3 Liberty in Silver. I would love to get some HID lights in them as 6000K light and silver is quite :drool: and would really set the car off I think.

However, I want to do it properly and not be one of those fucksticks who drives around with unfocused HID light blinding everybody and begging for the cops to defect them. I've had a look around and found a supplier + installer for HIDs called XenonOz who apparently do the installs at MRT near Homebush. I'd prefer to get it done professionally as I'm shithouse at electrics and would rather the piece of mind. Does anyone know how good they are? Anyone done it before? Should I bother getting the parking lights done too or is it not noticeable?

Also, if I were to get it done what is the legality of it? XenonOz clearly state on the site it's not ADR approved but in reality is a cop going to pick on me for it even if it's done professionally with ballasts/washers and properly focused? What about insurance with 'illegal' headlights? How about just getting the Phillips ebay white-lights? Are they actually that white? I just want to avoid the 2300K sort of orange light and get it as white as possible (6000K colour is the most desirable) for cosmetic reasons along with the increased visibility that they provide.

If it's too much hassle with regards to legality I will just not do it however the halogen lights look quite terrible and having to get them replaced every year or less is a pain in the ass.

EDIT: I have searched other threads and read about Tangcla's kits however I couldn't find anything about XenonOz so I thought I'd start a new thread.

Firstly congrats on the purchase! Good to have another '02 Gen3 owner on here and in Sydney.

As the others have said - the Gen3 headlights are old school reflectors unlike the newer style projectors you get on most new vehicles today. As a result, when you chuck brigher HID's in there, the distribution of light will be quite poor and light "scatter" will be evident. Its not too bad on the Gen3 to tell you the truth, and if you aim it down appropriately, you should be fine. Cops will be hard pressed to notice if you select a subtle stock looking colour.

Alternatively, you can purchase a generic projector lens kit off ebay and retrofit them into your headlights like I have just had done on '02 Outback. Clean and clear distribution of light...looks as if it were stock.

Haven't heard of XenonOz but if your looking for HID's, there are members here who stock good quality stuff at a good price so have a look around...

On a more constructive note, I can suggest the following:

1. Buy a quality globe. Osram, Hella, Philips, IPF. +50 style globes are good but you get reduced service life so don't run them unnecessarily like during the day. Personally I wouldn't go for blue or "white" style of globes but it's your choice as long as you know they reduce useable light and are purely cosmetic.

2. Check for voltage drop at the globe harness. If there is replace the connector (if it's worn/stuffed), or run a direct relay system from the battery so it gets full voltage. You'd be surprised how much of a difference 0.5V voltage drop makes for brightness.

3. Keep your headlights clean on the outside regularly.

4. Don't use headlight covers

5. Aim your lights properly.

All the above suggestions are legal and will improve your headlights performance.

Okay fair enough then, I was going to do a full kit but if I need to change from reflectors to projectors it's probably going to cost a LOT. There's no way I'd do it with reflectors, a mate of mine had a ghetto-spec ED Falcon with them. It was worse than high-beams EVERYWHERE he went.

Didn't the JDM B4 come with HIDs stock though? Recon I could get them off a wreck or something? It's either that or I'll just keep stock headlights, don't really want the hassle

toadcat wrote:Okay fair enough then, I was going to do a full kit but if I need to change from reflectors to projectors it's probably going to cost a LOT. There's no way I'd do it with reflectors, a mate of mine had a ghetto-spec ED Falcon with them. It was worse than high-beams EVERYWHERE he went.

Didn't the JDM B4 come with HIDs stock though? Recon I could get them off a wreck or something? It's either that or I'll just keep stock headlights, don't really want the hassle

ED Falcon is a lot older than a Gen3 Lib

You can get away with HID's in the Gen3. I know two guys that have them in theirs and they're not blinding at all. This is because they use the 35W kits, not the 55W.

you can also use H7R bulbs which got shield around them to stop the glare ..

just like the difference between D2S and D2R bulbs !

i know few guys running H7R bulbs don't have much problem ..

But Jim got some really good points !!

I would suggest people to either run better halogen bulb with reflector headlight or find a reflector head light thats designed to run HID (for example lots of car came with reflector headlight with factory xenon light ... lots of older Lexus, Forester XT, Legacy . golf etc etc) ..... or if you got time & know what you doing convert your head light with some after market projector ..

Leo

toadcat wrote:
Didn't the JDM B4 come with HIDs stock though? Recon I could get them off a wreck or something? It's either that or I'll just keep stock headlights, don't really want the hassle

Yep see my first post .

Good on you also for doing this properly.

Called around to some local (and some not so much) wreckers. None have any

I'll trawl ebay for a couple of months on the look out.

Has anyone got some pictures of the HIDs that come on the B4s?

http://rpmgarage.com/new/detail/?tid=16737

^There are some. I reckon they look identical to the Aus spec lights.

Identical in colour?

They're really cheap, far cheaper than the quotes I was getting from MRT... Would be good having it an OEM Subaru part in case of police attention as well (very very unlikely given the way I drive however..)

toadcat wrote:Identical in colour?

They're really cheap, far cheaper than the quotes I was getting from MRT... Would be good having it an OEM Subaru part in case of police attention as well (very very unlikely given the way I drive however..)

Being original Subaru means it will be less than 6000K. Probably around 5000K.

It doesn't make it legal though. Still illegal. Doesn't matter though, you'd be very hard done by to get caught.