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PiratePete

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  1. Right got back on it this morning, you were correct (of course) as soon as I connected it up the other way the worked fine, luckily the connector is designed in such a way that I could turn it round ok without having to faff around removing terminals. Passenger side went on fine, the drivers side was a bit more of a faff as I could get the bulb in but I was damned if I could turn the damn thing into position. Luckily Mrs P came to the rescue with her thinner hands and managed to do the final fit. Cable tied everything away neat and tidy, with the ballast in the position Stav recommended and its all good. Just used a bit of CILLIT BANG (sorry you have to type it the way its said in the advert) to degrease and clean the area for the adhesive pad. Just a shame about the lenses being on there way out, but I have a plan for that ;) I was gonna take some pics but I didn't have a charged battery for the camera , and am a bit tight for time now so didn't get a chance. Thanks for the advice guys, just can't wait to see them at night now
  2. Well as long as no-one on here thinks its wise to put lamps in the oven at 215°, otherwise it'll be a puddle of plastic rather than a lamp. He shoulda made that clear in the vid.
  3. Well I gotta be honest after putting headlights in test ovens for about 5 years I really don't think 215° for 15mins is wise at all. The melt temp of polyprop is about 120° and plastic headlamps typically come up to temp in 20-25 mins, I must have tested hundreds of lamps over the years, and melted more than a few, so unless he is saying have the oven off then turn it on so it warms over the 15mins, which I also wouldn't recommend with out checking it regularly like evry minute or so be very careful. My method which I used for years on all sorts of headlamps was to heat the oven up to about 100-110°c then turn it off and put the lamp in, leave it for 5-10 mins, and check it. if it is just too hot to touch that is the point you remove the lens. If not put it back in for a couple of minutes as the oven cools down. If you need to much force to remove you need more heat. I wouldn't recommend a heat gun either as you can add too much heat locally. But as with all these things it very much depends on how much care you take :) I mean yes he can remove the lens really easily, but given the inconsistency with oven types and temperature controllers, and where the heating elements are I think his method is too risky. Tho one thing he is correct about is put the lamp in the centre of the oven. I also don't think that the bezel really needs any prep prior to priming. I would just degrease it to remove fingerprints and dust then prime. The metalisation is mincrons thick and the surface has a plasma preparation in the vacuum metalising tank so i think blasting with sand or rubbing with sandpaper will actually make the painted finish worse than just degreasing and priming. What i did like is the fact he wore gloves, essential imo, and the resealing method. If you heat the lamp using my method, but clamp the lens on with mole grips you shouldn't need to worry about fogging as you will have a good reseal. I am seriously tempted to have front and rear cold cathode lighting tho. wow
  4. Fair enough guys thanks. I'll check it out in the morning, and let you know how I got on. Strange how I used to make the damn things but never bothered with how to fit them :) Another weird thing I noticed is that the bulb appears to be hard wired to the cable, Does this mean that it can't be replaced or could I just get a connector for a 9006 HID bulb from a breakers yard and fit that so I could fit, say a set of 6500k bulbs 'For Best'?
  5. Stav, so your ballast is quite a way back in the engine? behind the box you can see the front of in my pic?
  6. even with all that stuff in the way. I couldn't see a place for it, but I was losing lights so I'll check again in the morning. I don't fancy having to remove the headlamps to be honest, not until I get new ones with ok lenses and I fit angel eyes anyway.
  7. I'm ok on the passenger side but don't have any room for the ballast fitting on the drivers side. I could just remove the stuff and chuck it but it may not be wise ;) So I reckon I need to remove the headlamps and fit it underneath somewhere, and from what I have researched I think you need to remove the bumper to remove the headlights or am I wrong?
  8. oh. but i had it so that the black wire went to the negative marked on the car loom, and the red wire to the positive on the loom. It looked correct to me, but are you saying that although it may look correct, it isn't and i need to swap it round? also, how easy is it to remove the bumper, how much time will i need, and what tools will i need? finally how can i legally stop my dughter from crying whenever she comes near me? ok maybe the last question isn't Lex related :)
  9. Ok so i've just been out to do a 'test firing' of the HID kit I bought on Ebay last week. I've connected it up as per the wiring diagram so it looks like this: It looks right to me as there really isn't any other way to do it, and it matches the instructions. The only area of ambiguity was the connector which fits into the ballast, on the connector itself there were no positive and negative marked, however it had one of those little ramp clips so i assumed the plastic connector clip slid up the little ramp to hold the connector in. Now that I have run out of light it has occurred to me you can fit it the other way round, BUT the plastic connector latch would have to fit over a square metal latch which isn't so easily fitted and may in fact be there to stop you fitting it this way round. For that reason I am reluctant to try it. The pic below shows the connector the right way round I believe. The only other thing I can think of is that was it because i only tried it on the passenger headlamp, as the drivers side is pretty hard to get into, it may affect the ballast charging. I tried both units and neither lit making me think it was something I have done rather than a fault with the ballast(s) This is even before I may have to remove the bumper from the car to fit the ballast, whcih quite frankly scares the crap out of me. (Funny how I will take a multi million pound line apart but I am scared to work on the Lex). Pic below shows the area around the drivers side. Any help would be greatly appreciated.
  10. lol no problem mate, its a great idea. I'm saving my bags up now :)
  11. Quite possibly the most gorgeous piece of machinery I have ever seen. :)
  12. I used to get this and it was recommended you alter your driving position slightly every week. This cured it for me.
  13. I was hoping to do this without having to remove the headlamp tbh. I don't have a lot of free time for stuff like this with our new arrival ;) I spotted a likely place for the ballast on the side of the black box by the passenger side headlamp. I'll take the car out and see how hot that area gets, if it stays cool then I'll attach the ballast to that. Ideally though under the headlamps may be best. I've searched forma tutoriasl to remove the headlamps just in case, but can't find it. Can anyone point me to a good tutorial?
  14. I thought you'd been banned from here as well Gord ;)
  15. ok my cheap assed ebay kit arrived from Hong Kong this morning, beautifully packaged (seriously I might get the guy to do my christmas presents), and it all looks the business. So I am gonna have a go at fitting it at the weekend. Having had a look in my IS sport, the problem is going to be access to the passenger side lamp (I really don't want to have to remove it), and also where to sit the ballast on that side as I have two large plastic boxes bolted to the chassis in that position. Any advice from someone with a Sport would be appreciated
  16. erm you don't need to take the headlights apart to fit HIDs, but a standard bulb is a 9600 i think.
  17. If you don't fully reach the destination to the point where it says it says route guidance finished, it will try and take you back their next time you get in the car.
  18. Thats why I thought I would post, it seemed a bit unusual
  19. Coming down the hill on Friday Night. Was It you?
  20. No I learnt about last night, it has a bezel that unclips rather than pull the whole thing ham fistedly off like I tried to do.
  21. yeah other problem I have is that my PC is kaput and is soo old I am gonna buy a new one instead of upgrading everything but the drives. more money (studies empty wallet)
  22. I'm afraid I can't help mate. I think it works differently on the IS. However I just want to say your avatar is positively hypnotic. I've spent far too many seconds staring at it, so thanks for that ;)
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