Who's fitted hid's to thier 01-05 c5

[jgra1]

hi Martin

yep did the relay on my xant then upgraded to 100w as well.. it was getting there!
(cant remember if I just beefed up the pos wires though)

[reblack68]

I'm thinking of a more drastic solution to the dreadful lights on my C5. I'm planning to remove the entire headlamp unit and put something less useless in the hole. I'm not sure what yet but it will have a patterned glass lens and large reflector- as seen on page 1 of the, sadly out of print since the 1990s, "How to Design a Headlight" book.

seriously 1990's xantias are 90's cars and there headlights are terrable, much rather have something 80's with a massive lamp than theres tiny things on new cars

I know, I was shocked when I got my first Xantia, a Mk1.5, and the lights on the Mk2 I had after that were even worse. The galling thing about the C5 is that the headlamp unit is enormous but only a tiny part of it is functional.

[lurchy666]

Personally for me. The old sealed beams on my old mini were a lot better that anything ive had since. And that is a long list of cars ranging from metros through escorts/mondeos 3 xantias and my huge granadas usually with 100 watt bulbs in them all. and my volvo and frontera with hids. And id still rather have the old sealed beams. Just can see so much more with them compared to modern cars. Or maybe its my eyes.

[Peter.N.]

I find the headlights on my C5s pretty good, streets ahead of the XM although the 2.0 is better than the 2.2 for some reason. You could try running a wire from the battery to one lamp when they are on and see if it makes it brighter.

Peter

[kentc5]

Correct me if I am wrong but this is what I know ...

If the clouding happens from the outside of the lights ... like it happens on my Lexus ie ... it has nothing to do with the light bulbs, but purely to the sun light.
I have cleaned with the machine polisher and some medium grade cream and the lights come up as new ..., it will last for a few months but it is only a process of 10-15mins per light max!

(I know Toyota's suffer with this, I have seen citroen Xsara and C3 have the same problem, Audi A6, VW Passat and a few other makes) All these 9 out of 10 cases is solved with a machine polish, it can be done by hand as well... but will not last as long.

If you put HID's in a Halogen light, it will fail the MOT if not this month ... it will surely do fail in 2013.

[Peter.N.]

I think all cars with plastic lenses suffer with this problem, I had a BMW 5 series with very cloudy headlights but the problem was the outside of the lens, it looked as though a combination of traffic grime and uV light had done the damage, it also looked as though it would polish put with the appropriate equipment.

Strangely though my 11 year old C5s both have nice clear lenses and my 406 has brilliant lights, I thought at first they were glass but they aren't.

Peter

[jgra1]

just checked my 110 voltage.
14.5 at battery (engine on, dipped on)
14.3 " " (including main)
13.8 at main beam + ve

'alf a volt... but I cant be bothered to work out how many watts that is

[reblack68]

Personally for me. The old sealed beams on my old mini were a lot better that anything ive had since. And that is a long list of cars ranging from metros through escorts/mondeos 3 xantias and my huge granadas usually with 100 watt bulbs in them all. and my volvo and frontera with hids. And id still rather have the old sealed beams. Just can see so much more with them compared to modern cars. Or maybe its my eyes.

Conventional wisdom has 7" sealed beams as the worst headlights ever but I'd be inclined to agree with you. If they were getting full power and they were pointing the right way, neither of which you could take for granted on the cars that had them, sealed beams were pretty good- and on 40/45W too. Once lights get too bright they kill your night sight so you can only see what's within the beam.

[uhn113x]

Agree! Best lights I have ever had are on my GSA. Nothing "terrable" [sic] about them at all. It's an 80's car.

The other march of progress has replaced proper glass lenses with plastic (cheaper) and the fact that it probably takes you half a day to replace bulbs, witness all the newish cars with one headlight, others pointing to Betelgeuse or tarmac and some so dim that the light is sort of brown.

[KP]

The lights on my RR are great for night driving BUT they are suffering with dirt and general MUCK ingress due to their poor breathing design. To replace the bulbs on them its easier to take the grille off the car, then the unit. Take about 10mins all in to get off, swap bulb and then back on