If you are like me, you think the head lamp assembly is a neat part of the xa car. It has 3 lamps insideand looks fixed to the car.

I had replaced the peanut bulb in the lower inside corner with an amber bulb like you see on some fords and others who remove the amber turn signal shield and black out part of the head lamp reflector to make it look cooler.

Well, turns out the housing has a lot of room inside it. The head lamp is adjustible by the two screws on the rear of the housing, good luck reaching them without removing it from the car. I managed to get an amber led bulb stuck inside the peanut bulb housing, so I already had a reason to remove it and get that bulb back.

I was looking at hid, but decided on silverstar bulbs since I like to flash people and the hid would be delayed if they are on and nonexistant if they arent on. I procded to remove the old bulb and found the plug to be rather light weight. Then I removed the rubber collar thing and proceeded to unscrew the philips screw that appeared to hold the bulb in. TUrns out you can just unclip a metal ring to remove the bulb, its not screwed in.

So, I unscrewed the ring I thought was holding it in and the whole metal shield falls inside the lamp housing. Oh, my, god. How am I going to get that back out and fix this? I ended up taking the grill off and part of the front bumper to remove the lamp housing to dump out the end of the shield and rescrew it back on. Turns out there are 4 screws holding the lamp in. One on the lower edge by the side market light. Then 2 on the hood edge and one under the front of the bumper.

So sitting in the parking lot of advance auto with my car apart and lamp in my lap. Got that shield installed, got the screw to mount it. Got my led amber light back. I then proceed to install the silverstar ultras and the Japanise glow right I bought to use was too loose and fell off inside the housing. So, more screwing with it and got that ring back out and reinstalled the lamp. Some how I managed to never touch the bulb.

Anyways, got the bulbs installed, got the lamp back on the car, bumper in place, grill and back home. The light does seem brighter and whiter, but not like hid.

 

nice work!

Yeah.. if you want that blue-ish/white look of HID 6K , you'll have to buy HID's(8K is way blue.. approaching purple in color).
On the flip side, a HID 6K has less lumens then Silverstars 4K lighting.
IMO, in terms of safety, the only thing better then silverstars would be a HID 4300K kit ... but 99/100 when people go HID they want that blue look = 6K.

So.. is it about looks, or safety

 

I swaped my silverstars to a 6K HID kit. and love them.They are more blue! But are also brighter then my silverstars.

 

From all the info. I've read, Silverstars and the 4300K HID kit is the closest to the whitest light (in comparison to the brightness of the sun produces). If you go on different websites that sell HID kits, they all advertise the 6K HID kits as having LESS lumans(about2600-2700) then silverstars(2900 lumans I believe).

 

Sliverstars and 4k HIDs do have around the same color temp, but the halogen only produces 700/1200 lumens on most model bulbs at 50/70 watts (low/high beam). The McCulloch 6k Dual beam kit I have on low beam is 2800lm
(3 times the light output)The 8k are closer to purple and do have less lumens about 2500lm. So even a 1200k HID has almost 2 times the light output of the silverstars at 2100lm.

 

Gotcha!
Your right then!!!!

Yes, for the silverstars I believe they are rated @ 1300 lumans for our 9003 bulb.

Hmmmmmmmm, I may have to check into a HID 6K kit ! Where did you buy your kit from ? Would you recommend getting a kit that enables the user to have a HID low beam, and a halogen high beam ?

I remember talking w/Mod-Express(sponsored classified sales seller) about the HID thing. The recommended to me the 6K @ low beam, but w/the high beam halogen @ $3 extra for the kit.
Advice please.

 

yeah sounds like everthing you run into when you are trying to clear the amber turn signals.....

 

I was not prepared to pull my car apart switching the bulbs, but oh well.

I like my silver stars, its like having white leds for head lights and man, high beams is like day light. I think hid maybe a bit too bright, but then again, where are you going to mount the 4 ballast or make up for the delay in flashing folks?

displatcher, that video is a riot. I have a coworker at the call center I work just like him. He talks to customers like that and co workers, managers, etc. Very successful guy, just has an unusual approach.

 

Yeah you would think you would be able to change all the bulbs without taking everything out but whatever its just a few screws and bolts and what not. But I talked to someone who once said someone posted on here that they could rewire the HID's they they would all come on at once when they high beams are on. Yeah that video is stupid but it always cracks me up...and its about the xA.

 

I use to drive a mercedes 240d 81 model. No turbo, diesel with 4 speed manual, no over drive. It too was the lowest power production car 2.4 L inline 4 cylinder, 54hp for a 4 thousand pound car. I always pretended I was in a nascar race and tried to never lift the gas petal as what speed I built up was quickly bleed off.

When your drive it, always press the gas petal flat to the floor, then lift if it is comming up to speed or to shift. Even as a stop light turned green, I would floor it with other floot on the brake and when I hear it start to rev, release the clutch. It was a real trick to press all 3 petals since I had to wait for it to come off idle to leave with any acceleration. Otherwise at night or early morning I would just idle it off the line if no traffic.