Lights

[cre8toruk]

Hi All,

so on to my next gripe... Someone at Lotus has put tea lights in my headlights... they are noticeably dim.
Is there anything I can do (as an inexperienced amateur )... Are there brighter lamps I can install ?
How do you install a head lamp, lamp ?

What is HID and how difficult or easy is that to do ?

Picture instructions would be gratefully received....I'm sure this has been asked before so apologies if the horse I'm flogging is still dead.

To put it in to context, I know one end of a spanner from another, but it's been quite a few years since I needed to do any spannering (if that's a word)... :-)

8.

[SeanyD]

Simple bulb upgrade to start with, £15 for a couple of good bulbs, access through the wheel arch liner, takes 5 mins.

[cre8toruk]

SeanyD said:

Simple bulb upgrade to start with, £15 for a couple of good bulbs, access through the wheel arch liner, takes 5 mins.

Cool... wheels off first though right ?

8.

[Thorburn]

cre8toruk said:

Cool... wheels off first though right ?

8.

Don't know about the S2, but you can do the S1 lights just by putting the steering on full lock so that the front of the wheel is facing inwards.

[SeanyD]

Thorburn said:

Don't know about the S2, but you can do the S1 lights just by putting the steering on full lock so that the front of the wheel is facing inwards.

Same for S2, full lock.

[cre8toruk]

cool, best place to buy 'em and which one's ?

[cre8toruk]

incidentally, anyone been here ?

http://www.deroure.com/diagrams.asp?MAK=0&MDL=...

Top place for diagrams really useful.

8.

[cre8toruk]

oooh ooh ooh someone's done it... worth sharing I think;

http://www.midlandslotus.co.uk/wiki/images/2/21/Lo...

[Frimley111R]

TBH I'd pop down to Halfords and get some 120% ones. Once changed it may also be worth getting the alignment checked, mine mostly illuminated the ground 5 ft in front of the car!

[Exige77]

http://www.elise-shop.com/lighting-c-7.html?zenid=...

Everything you need here to improve lighting.

I had HID's which are good but sometimes not worth the hastle.

Now I have the Osram Nightbreakers in and they are cheap and work well.

Ex77

[drac]

I have had the elise shop HID's for the last 5+ years. They have been fit and forget. I tried a few other bulbs before them and none of them were worth the effort.

I havn't tried the Osram Nightbreakers so I can't comment.

Putting in HID's to dip and full beam allowed me to remove the driving lights. Much brighter and better looking too.

[SeanyD]

I had Osrams in my previous Elise, never failed in around 5 years of ownership, 80% the performance of HID's for a tiny % of the cost IMO.

[Paul_M3]

I put Philips X-tremeVision bulbs in my Elise, and the headlights are great.

Certainly good enough that I wouldn't even contemplate paying to upgrade to HID's now.

[Platinum]

SeanyD said:

Simple bulb upgrade to start with, £15 for a couple of good bulbs, access through the wheel arch liner, "takes 5 mins."

[drac]

SeanyD said:

80% the performance of HID's for a tiny % of the cost IMO.

This may be fine for many people but for me 80% of the performance is not enough. Most of my night driving around New Zealand would be on completely unlit roads. These roads wind though the rugged countryside (read as hazards). Its always better to be able to see more not less. I think if i did most of my night driving around built up UK then I would be quite happy with candles too.

[jfk01]

Cibie super Oscar's then!

[cre8toruk]

ok, figure I might go with some Nightbreakers...but there seems to be several to choose from... which should I get for my 2004 111s ?

8.

[cre8toruk]

H7 Osram Nightbreaker 55 Watt Halogen lamp kit

"These lamps are used for Dipped and Main Beam on the Elise S2 with the later headlamps and Main beam only on the Elise S2 with early headlamp units."

"You can recognize these early headlamps by checking if the sidelight bulb is integrated in the main beam reflector. If so, this is the early type."

"If the sidelight is a seperate unit above the Dip beam projector, you will need H7 lamps."

flops lips up and down....

[SeanyD]

I seem to recall you need H1's for the dipped beam on cars up to around 2006/2007 or so, when they then changed to H7's.

Could be wrong though, so read up first, should be in your handbook I'd have thought.

[cre8toruk]

what I really need is LED headlights !!! :-)

8.