club.liberty.asn.au

hi guys,

will a kit of these do the trick if I want to replace my front low beams?
just unsure on the bulb size..

thanks

Yes it's a H7 bulb. That kit will be fine.

The "Slim Ballast" is a bit of a con, as you end up with an extra pack on one of the cables; I guess to compensate for the smaller ballast. So it's kind of pointless. Makes positioning and securing a little awkward, but still easy enough. I suggest if they have a normal sized ballast then grab that one. (Just had a look on their site and it doesn't look like they stock regular ones anymore..?)

That's what you need. I did the Jaycar kit in mine too (H4 kit but replaced the H4's with H7 globes). Pics of the install you can use as a guide are here.

thanks.

only issue I ran into was the power connector (red) didn't "lock" into the place in the factory headlight connector, the ground cable (black) was fine. did my best with some electrical tape but I don't know if that will suffice when the car hits a few bumps...

also, how tricky are the high beams/fog lights? at some point I'd like to replace them too, more that fog lights than the high beams at this point.

smok0 wrote:only issue I ran into was the power connector (red) didn't "lock" into the place in the factory headlight connector, the ground cable (black) was fine. did my best with some electrical tape but I don't know if that will suffice when the car hits a few bumps...

Get a pair of pliers and put a deliberate slight bend in the red shoe connector so that it creates a tighter fit into the socket while still being removable later.

smok0 wrote:also, how tricky are the high beams/fog lights? at some point I'd like to replace them too, more that fog lights than the high beams at this point.

Same process as before - new globes plus ballasts. But honestly how often do you use them to need to upgrade them too?

Apologies to smok0, slight hijack coming here but could be useful to anyone reading this topic..

Jeff - thanks for the pics relating to the HID install. Found them before I bought the kit, much appreciated. You changed the supplied bulbs for H7's - My H7 kit looks like the bulbs are part of the whole kit..? i.e. Cannot be removed or swapped? I guess this means when they eventually die I'll have to replace the whole setup, ballasts and all.

Also getting a little worried with the new laws here in QLD. Being that these are a retrofit and not ADR approved, technically it's an illegal modification. These new laws are a fine on first offence ("Type 2 Offence - Driving an illegally modified vehicle"), but lead to 7, then 90 days impoundment followed by forfeiture of the car for the 2nd, 3rd & 4th offence. Maybe HID's won't bother them too much, but maybe they will. Not keen to take the risk though, so I'm seriously questioning if it's worth having them installed...

On another note, I'm also wondering if insurance is still valid with such an "Illegal" modification... I'm sure I won't have any drama day to day, but I'd hate to need to make a claim only to find out I'd been paying full comprehensive for no protection!!

tony_m wrote:My H7 kit looks like the bulbs are part of the whole kit..? i.e. Cannot be removed or swapped? I guess this means when they eventually die I'll have to replace the whole setup, ballasts and all.

The lights should have 2 short cables which connect to the system, you replace that section only not all the ballasts.

As pictured.

tony_m wrote:Jeff - thanks for the pics relating to the HID install. Found them before I bought the kit, much appreciated. You changed the supplied bulbs for H7's - My H7 kit looks like the bulbs are part of the whole kit..? i.e. Cannot be removed or swapped? I guess this means when they eventually die I'll have to replace the whole setup, ballasts and all.

As already mentioned, the globes themselves are always replaceable. You don't have to replace the entire kit when a globe finally dies. From my kit, I have two H4's sitting in the garage gathering dust.

tony_m wrote:Also getting a little worried with the new laws here in QLD. Being that these are a retrofit and not ADR approved, technically it's an illegal modification. These new laws are a fine on first offence ("Type 2 Offence - Driving an illegally modified vehicle"), but lead to 7, then 90 days impoundment followed by forfeiture of the car for the 2nd, 3rd & 4th offence. Maybe HID's won't bother them too much, but maybe they will. Not keen to take the risk though, so I'm seriously questioning if it's worth having them installed...

First up, you're installing them in a projector housing. It's the idiots who install them in older cars that have reflector housings that stand out, so yours will look factory unless you chose a colour temp that is obviously too blue or purple. Secondly, the ADR's simply require you to have washers and levelers fitted to legally use HID. The levelers are predominantly intended for caravan and trailer towers where the weight forces the nose of the car up, so the levelers compensate by dipping the lights down so oncoming drivers are not dazzled. If you don't tow anything, the odds of you been caught on that alone are virtually nil. The washers are needed to wash off any dead bug splatter that is said to be able to refract light enough that it could dazzle oncoming drivers. I find this notion to be ludicrous and the vast majority of us don't drive on country roads to worry about bug splatter, so again the chances of being busted on this alone is virtually nil. Finally, you're driving a Liberty. It's hardly a hoon-mobile and unless you've got garish colours, crazy body kit bits and tyres that stick out half a metre from the body, no officer is ever going to take a second look at you, and for those P-Platers with the garishly colourd body kits and whacky wheels, they're going to be busted for all of that first before any consideration is given to the headlights.

It would take a technically-familiar officer to look over your car, recognise that you don't have washers installed, or one who knows that your model Subaru did not come with factory HID's, to be able to bust you for anything.

tony_m wrote:On another note, I'm also wondering if insurance is still valid with such an "Illegal" modification... I'm sure I won't have any drama day to day, but I'd hate to need to make a claim only to find out I'd been paying full comprehensive for no protection!!

Again, the answer to this would be technically "no", but I've never heard of anyone having their insurance cancelled because they had illegal headlights. The closest you might get to that is if someone tried to pin the fault of an accident on you because he got dazzled by your headlights, causing him to veer and crash into you but even then they're more likely to assume that you probably had your highbeams on in such an accusation. No-one is going to forensically examine the car to check its headlights to prove you at fault - they're going to concentrate on more obvious elements like who's side of the road were you on, etc.

Thanks for the replies guys. I will definitely check the kit out next time I'm under the bonnet. Didn't bother me too much- I just thought it was a little wasteful! Good to know though.

As far as the legalities go, that's the response I had kinda hoped for haha. It's just been that little thought at the back of my mind, constantly doubting. Weighing up my options and I do value a licence, car and insurance over HID's and lightly tinted tails. I know what you're saying, I am 100% with you, so fingers crossed I never have to deal with any repercussions! I'll keep them in. I have the halogens in the glovebox just incase haha.

I remember years back hearing about guys that had an accident and weren't covered by insurance due to the fact their window tint was darker than legal. Totally ridiculous but also easily believable! I understand if a modification was a contributing factor in the incident then fair enough, but I can't imagine these would ever.

Just having a panic due to scaremongering I guess.

Yes hardly a hoon's car! I enjoy it, subtle and classy lol. Haven't been pulled over for any reason yet, even got waved right through an RBT the other night.. Happy days!

just quickly too, my radio lights / dash lights seem to dim heavily when I have my low beams turned on now .. I can only see it being a bettery problem and that the HIDs are sucking too much current while turned on not providing enough for on board lights ... I mean they do still work, they're just extremely low in brightness.

HID consumes less energy than halogen globes when running except for initial startup (assuming a standard 35w kit). When the car is running, it's the alternator that is running the lights, not the battery. I would check your connections and verify that none of the wiring is getting hot. Disconnect one of the ballasts on each side in turn to test.

Also double check your lighting dimmer control, next to the power mirror controls. If it's set to low, your odometer and radio will be bright with the lights off, i.e. during the day, but when you turn headlights on, the dimmer kicks in and changes the brightness to whatever it's set at.

haha yeah it turns out I just had to adjust the dimmer, didn't even know it was there .. goes to show how much I know ...

anyway, just out of curiosity, why wasn't I having any issues with this with my stock low beams?

anyway, really appreciate the help