Jazzing up the Downtown 300i

[racewalker]

let me know how those bulbs are for heat (H8 PIAA Extra Super White 35w=70w bulbs). The hid bulbs run cooler than the halogen bulbs. I will try them in the hi beam if they are not to hot.

[TANWare]

No problem, I'll be running them both high and low. I was going to hid both high and low if I go hids and keep the low beam 100% all the time on. Figured if I was going to rewire go all the way.

My concern with the hids is the primary light point, with the filament the reflector is designed to focus the beam from that point, not sure if the hids will give this to you so I am intersted in your results as well. let us know how it all works out. if it turns out well for you I may follow suit soon too.

[racewalker]

The bulb is in  the same spot on the hid as on the normal bulbs. Again I have used these for years on my truck and also on my People S 125. Focus is the same with the euro type head light units.

[TANWare]

for those wondering about the LED's this was taken at night with my bloggie, rested on my car windshield behind it so you can see what a drivers impression from behind would be.

[TANWare]

Put in the new lights, oh what fun at 92F. It doesn't take long but it is a pain. I did notice all the wiring is there for the original turn signals. I am not sure if they are dumy lights there or load resistors for the LEDs that are in the mirrors. I may order LED's to put in there and load resistors just in case they are needed.

The PIAA lights are without a doubt whiter but I'll have to wait till later to find out if they appear any brighter.

Edit; Dirving durring the day the lights are more noticable when you get behind another car and look at the reflection. This meand they should be more noticable to on coming traffic. I probably will not get to test them tonight, severe thunder storms and wind..............

[scootinChris]

Talk about messing things up, now they sent me one h8 bulb.

Did the other H8 arrive yet
What is needed to get the Low beams to stay on
And does the HID's need any additional wiring

For now, I'm looking to install HID's in the Low beams only. Never have had them on a car either... So, not sure how much I would use the High beams...

And looking at the hidcountry.com site I see they have a G4 mini balast kit. I presume that would work, since we have double head lights and won't need a motorcycle kit or two, right

[racewalker]

Did the other H8 arrive yet

yes it did.

What is needed to get the Low beams to stay on
And does the HID's need any additional wiring

They come with a wiring kit which you can run from the battery and hook to the ignition on to keep them turned on. I am running mine on the internal wiring form the halogen lights and they are working good. Much faster warm up than I am used to. I put the piaa bulbs in the hi beam and I can see more with the low beams then with the hi.

 
For now, I'm looking to install HID's in the Low beams only. Never have had them on a car either... So, not sure how much I would use the High beams...

And looking at the hidcountry.com site I see they have a G4 mini balast kit. I presume that would work, since we have double head lights and won't need a motorcycle kit or two, right

I used 2 motorcycle kits.

[TANWare]

if you can see more with the HIDs is the beam propper? the low beams should have a cut off preventing the majority of the beam from illuminating above the level of the bulb if aimed propperly. This prevents blinding oncoming traffic and the issues involved in doing so.

If you shine against a wall from say 50 FT with the low beams they should be very bright to almos headlight level then slight illumination above that. High beams should just act as flood lights. If not then the light of the bulb is coming from all over the glass enclosure, regular bulbs the majority comes from the point of the fillament.

Notice in the below video how the cast on the garage door is with the low beams............

[OnTalyn]

Put in the new lights, oh what fun at 92F. It doesn't take long but it is a pain. I did notice all the wiring is there for the original turn signals. I am not sure if they are dumy lights there or load resistors for the LEDs that are in the mirrors. I may order LED's to put in there and load resistors just in case they are needed.

Sorry to resurrect an old thread, I was looking at a 300i in a dealers show room the other day and noticed what looked chromed out bulbs in the original turn-signal location. In your post you mention the wiring is still there inside. Did you ever find out if you can swap out the bulbs and use these?

 He he, I don't even have one yet and am well into planning mods... Would love to be able to use the original turns as LED running lights with a magic blinker installed to turn off when the turn-signal for that side is on.

[bobofgsm]

If you look in the thread in the People GT 300i" Are these thing supposed to work" You should find the answers that you seek.  Hey I sound just like some low budget Kung Fu movie

[wheels]

Dead sockets.
I installed a 45 led tower bulb in this socket.  Its not that hard to trace the wiring.  Kymco cut it and ran it to ground.
I also had some solid state relays that I used to keep them on as DRL's and turn signals.  Also had to change out the blinker to a solid state unit , therefore I don't have any ballast resistors draining power.  I removed the standard lighted mirrors and installed mirrors on the GIVI screen.  I initially tried a 24 led bulb in the front but it was not bright enough (sunshine and city car reflections) and switched to the 45 led bulb.  I then moved the 24 led bulb to the rear taillights.  A slight oops there, the rear tail lights are a different socket so I formed (mangled and sanded) the socket to fit the slightly larger bulb.

[bdrannik]

OnTalyn>> Would love to be able to use the original turns as LED running lights
OnTalyn>> with a magic blinker installed to turn off when the turn-signal for
OnTalyn>> that side is on.

This week I've had my DT300 torn apart doing a number of mods.  My "dummy bulb to running light/signal" mod was done by removing the single contact bayonet socket and replacing it with a dual-contact socket taken from the tail light.  Then by using a V-LED "SwitchBack" dual color LED I am able to have a white running light and a flashing amber turn signal in the headlight housing (excuse my messy storage unit):







And a very bad video:



Originally I had both amber signals flashing at the same time, but then realized that the wig-wag amber were more attention-getting.  Here in Florida with our high number of elderly drivers and folks not paying attention in general I thought anything to get more visibility at an intersection would be a benefit.

I will eventually be making write-ups as to how most of the mods were done so please hold off on too many questions for now.. <grin>

Brent

[jwalz1]

Very nice work, looking forward to see the writeup.

[OnTalyn]

Looks really good, I too look forward to the "how to" write up. That is even better than what I was thinking of doing.

[Cortez]

Impressive!