Hi, As this is my first post on this forum, Hi to everyone!!
I took delivery of an 11 reg G on Saturday, 30K miles, dark grey, with the 2.0 JTDm 170 engine, my first ever Alfa after 33 years of driving
Prior to delivery, I decided that the standard lights weren't going to be good enough, after my last car which had Xenons as standard. The week before I took delivery I ordered an H7 kit from HIDs-Direct, the 55W version, which arrived next day.
Today I decided to fit the lights, after initially attempting to fit them yesterday, using the "try and fit a bulb without removing the headlight unit", this was a BIG mistake...........I failed, lost the clip, found it again and spent another 20 mins fitting the original bulb........
After reading a few posts on this forum, I decided removing the front bumper was going to be the easiest approach, the following are the stages to achieve this:
From this point it's plain sailing, there are 2 bolts holding each headlight in place, remove these and the headlight comes away from the car. This makes fitment of the HID bulbs, ballast etc very straight forward, literally a further 10 mins and everything is in place.
When you refit the bumper, make sure the clips underneath are correctly positioned, I didn't and had to remove the screws I'd refitted inside the wheel arch, don't make the same mistake.
Before fitting the kit I marked my garage door, to enable me to see if the beam pattern, or height had changed with the new bulbs; it was exactly the same as with the Halogen bulbs
Took the car for a drive and the difference is stunning, although not at there best yet (they need running in apparently) they are almost as good as my Wife's Volvo, with adaptive Xenons. I went for the 5000K bulbs, so no blue tint, just bright white light, with a clearly defined top edge on the road. There is no scatter of light, like you see on cars with HID upgrades, with reflector lenses not projection, like on the G.
All I can say is that for £55 this is the best upgrade you are likely to make and other users are very unlikely to flash you, as the beam is the same as before, just 3 times as bright.
If anyone needs any further details let me know.
Cheers
Dan
I took delivery of an 11 reg G on Saturday, 30K miles, dark grey, with the 2.0 JTDm 170 engine, my first ever Alfa after 33 years of driving
Prior to delivery, I decided that the standard lights weren't going to be good enough, after my last car which had Xenons as standard. The week before I took delivery I ordered an H7 kit from HIDs-Direct, the 55W version, which arrived next day.
Today I decided to fit the lights, after initially attempting to fit them yesterday, using the "try and fit a bulb without removing the headlight unit", this was a BIG mistake...........I failed, lost the clip, found it again and spent another 20 mins fitting the original bulb........
After reading a few posts on this forum, I decided removing the front bumper was going to be the easiest approach, the following are the stages to achieve this:
- Inside each wheel arch X 2 - Remove 4 Phillips screws and one torx bolt (8 and 2 torx total), holding the wheel arch liner to the bumper
- Remove 4 x Large Torx screws, with the bonnet lifted and they attach the top of the bumper to the car (Infront of the radiator) I didn't have the huge torx driver required, so used a wood chisel, slotted into 2 of the torx slots and removed, very easy.
- Remove 5 torx screws - underneath the bumper, laid on the floor to do this
- Pull each side of the bumper out, to release the clips holding the bumper in place
- Remove the bumper from the car - start at each side, easing it forward a bit and release the clips at the top of the bumper, near the radiator
From this point it's plain sailing, there are 2 bolts holding each headlight in place, remove these and the headlight comes away from the car. This makes fitment of the HID bulbs, ballast etc very straight forward, literally a further 10 mins and everything is in place.
When you refit the bumper, make sure the clips underneath are correctly positioned, I didn't and had to remove the screws I'd refitted inside the wheel arch, don't make the same mistake.
Before fitting the kit I marked my garage door, to enable me to see if the beam pattern, or height had changed with the new bulbs; it was exactly the same as with the Halogen bulbs
Took the car for a drive and the difference is stunning, although not at there best yet (they need running in apparently) they are almost as good as my Wife's Volvo, with adaptive Xenons. I went for the 5000K bulbs, so no blue tint, just bright white light, with a clearly defined top edge on the road. There is no scatter of light, like you see on cars with HID upgrades, with reflector lenses not projection, like on the G.
All I can say is that for £55 this is the best upgrade you are likely to make and other users are very unlikely to flash you, as the beam is the same as before, just 3 times as bright.
If anyone needs any further details let me know.
Cheers
Dan
