Dan's Progress Thread :D

DanOliver · Post by **DanOliver** » Wed Sep 03, 2008 6:27 am

I will ask her if I can have a look next time

Went for a drive last night and the left one seems to be shining quite a lot to the left. can't really work out if they are too high or too low but I kept the electric motors on the setting '3' just in case as I didn't want to blind anyone...

The ballast I said is secure, seems to be in a good place and I felt it after pulling up and the ballast was only slightly warm as it had cool air flowing past it

The other ballast was a little warmer as it did not have this cool air..

If I were to put my car upto a wall 7m away, what is the legal height the lights should be?

Post by **alexperkins** » Wed Sep 03, 2008 7:43 am

I strongly - and i say this firmly - I strongly recommend you get them leveled at an MOT testing bay. Purely for the fact the beam is fairly uncontrollable, and needs to be leveled properly against equipment. They are leveled lower than normal headlights due to the amount of glare they produce.

Again, leahs are perfectly level, so you could always level them against those

Got done on the MOT!

Its not just about the height, but its also about the side to side position of the beam

DanOliver · Post by **DanOliver** » Wed Sep 03, 2008 2:57 pm

Will the MOT station do the side angling too?

Think I better ring up Direct Line and tell them I have fitted the HID's too... Lame

DanOliver · Post by **DanOliver** » Wed Sep 03, 2008 3:15 pm

Weird :S I just rang Direct Line and told them I fitted the HID's and that I had changed my badges to black.. and they told me that things like that I didn't need to ring them about things like that.. only major modifications like exhausts, engines, brakes etc..

Odd as I thought they wanted to know everything!!

Will give the MOT garage a ring in a minute get mine booked in, hopefully they can do it tonight.. don't want to be driving about if the lights are illegal

Tim_GTi · Post by **Tim_GTi** » Thu Sep 04, 2008 5:29 pm

Just for reference mate, passenger's side is nearside, not offside

I mounted my offside (driver's side) ballast on the fuel pump:

And the nearside (passengers side) under the shelf that sits under the headlamp:

DanOliver · Post by **DanOliver** » Thu Sep 04, 2008 5:35 pm

Cheers, will go sort mine out sometime, looking a bit untidy and unsecure..

Also, I don't know where I got driver side from

being an idiot.. must have been tired..

Tim_GTi · Post by **Tim_GTi** » Thu Sep 04, 2008 6:08 pm

If in doubt about any positioning, don't put it there mate. The kits are far too expensive and tempremental to be bodging about with them!

DanOliver · Post by **DanOliver** » Thu Sep 04, 2008 6:12 pm

Will bear it in mind!

Trying to sort out some problems with them at the moment.. according to my local MOT garage they will either not pass an MOT or come up on the advisory. This due to them not emitting a light pattern.

UK lights should angle up at the left to avoid blinding oncoming traffic, but my beam is flat all the way along on the MOT equipment. Yet when I drive along I get a heightened area of light to the left on the pavement and no light shines onto the oncoming.

I think maybe the guy put my car too close to the equipment...

Tim_GTi · Post by **Tim_GTi** » Thu Sep 04, 2008 6:17 pm

Possibly, or your nearside light is pointed higher than your offside

DanOliver · Post by **DanOliver** » Thu Sep 04, 2008 6:21 pm

Well they leveled them at the test station.. cost me a tenner and he showed me the pattern on the test equipment. I need to pull it into the drive and see how level they look..

I don't think the lights have moved as I took some advice from Alex Perkins and disconnected the electric motors and have left them disconnected so that they don't keep leveling themselves etc.

DanOliver · Post by **DanOliver** » Sun Sep 14, 2008 9:48 am

Ok, took Tim's advice and moved the ballast to what I'm told is the fuel pump? seems a bit big, thought it was only small.. also whats the little valve on the bottom? looks as though its to dump fuel

Think it does look a lot neater like this, so I may take a look and see if there is somewhere equally hidden that I can attach the other ballast to

Tim_GTi · Post by **Tim_GTi** » Sun Sep 14, 2008 11:58 am

DanOliver wrote:Ok, took Tim's advice and moved the ballast to what I'm told is the fuel pump? seems a bit big, thought it was only small.. also whats the little valve on the bottom? looks as though its to dump fuel

Nice work mate. I was also only told it was the fuel pump. Have no actual knowledge of whether it is or not.

lolhoward · Post by **lolhoward** » Sun Sep 14, 2008 9:17 pm

Think I may have to go to a MOT garage to correctly level mine. Think i've almost got it after adjusting them for about 3 days but just to make sure. I've seen a lot of people struggle to find an easy spot to mount tthe ballasts. I just mounted them under the plastic infront of the radiator (on thread). Out the way, keep quite dry and easy to get too.

Are yours the 35W or 55W?

lolhoward · Post by **lolhoward** » Sun Sep 14, 2008 9:18 pm

Sorry just seen on a the pic above on the ballast, 35W

DanOliver · Post by **DanOliver** » Sun Sep 14, 2008 9:19 pm

haha.. is there much difference?