WM Caprice High Beam Light Upgrade

[smitheyes]

After searching the net and not finding any information on this decided to go it alone.
Have read several threads on the poor quality headlights on the latest statesman & caprice models and was not happy myself with the high beam on my 2007 WM Caprice.
Just to set things straight Holdens state that they are "Bi-Xenon HID" this refers to the outer projector lights which are twin filament xenon HID's and work on both Low and High beam. the inner lights are H7 Halogens and High beam only, these are the light I am not happy with and upgrade in this how to.

These are the globes i picked for the job


I raised the whole car on stands and removed the wheels & inner guards (9 plastic clips 2 self tapper screws). probably could have just removed the front clips holding the inner guard to the front bumper but this way made sure the inner guard wasnt in my way and plenty of room to work with no wheels on.


Remove the 2 M6x20 bolts securing the front bumper to the front guard, remove the nutsert inserts pressed through the guard into the bumper. The nutserts are made to be pushed forward and pulled down and out of the teardrop type hole in the front guard despite this i found it easier to remove them.
Note: upon reassembly i used gutter washers over the nutserts to reinforce where they go through the front guard as i wasnt happy with the original design I found it to be flimsy and the nutserts pulled easily through this area on the guard.


Remove the 4 screws securing the front bumper to the lower radiator cowl

Remove the front bumper unplug the front bumper harness


Remove the 2 screws securing the front bumper brackets, and pull the bracket out of the way. carefull this is clipped to a wiring harness

Remove the 2 screws from the top of each headlight

Remove the 2 screws from the bottom of each headlight

Remove the headlight, unplug the wiring harness and the light washer hose


Remove the 6 T20 torx bit screws securing the backing plate to the light assembly

Remove the T20 torx screw securing the globe holder

Pry the globe and intermediate holder from the globe holder and replace with new globe


Now do the other side and put it all back together

[Troy711]

Good write up

Did you happen to notice if it is possible to change the factory fitted HID bulbs?

[rjp]

Mate,
Awesome write up.

I was going to give this ago a few months back, but chickened out when I realised the size of the job.

I'm now going to give it ago in the near future.

Cheers

[smitheyes]

Hi troy
I cant see that the HID bulbs would be to hard to change but probably not much point as the ballasts are 35W so to get any real benefit you'd probably want to upgrade these to the 55w HID ballasts and globes, the problem i see with that is whether or not youd get ballasts to fit back in the light assembly where the originals are mounted. if you do go down this path let me know would be interested to follow suit if you had success

[mikebr]

Thanks for the write-up. This has answered my questions about the inner light being QH not HID.
Do you think there would be enough space to fit 55w HID globes + ballasts for the inside High beam lights into the housing or would you need to fit the ballasts externally?
What type of globe is fitted to the inner lights? H1 or what?
TIA

[Troy711]

Hi troy
I cant see that the HID bulbs would be to hard to change but probably not much point as the ballasts are 35W so to get any real benefit you'd probably want to upgrade these to the 55w HID ballasts and globes, the problem i see with that is whether or not youd get ballasts to fit back in the light assembly where the originals are mounted. if you do go down this path let me know would be interested to follow suit if you had success

I've already got HIDs in mine, I put after market ones in (Statesmans don't have HIDs at all ). I was just asking as I know the manual says that you need to take a Caprice back to Holden to get them replaced which I imagine would cost a fortune.

[rjp]

I asked the friendly northside dealer for a quote. They said that they've never had to change one yet.

They still haven't got back to me yet.....

I'll let you know when they do.

[smitheyes]

Thanks for the write-up. This has answered my questions about the inner light being QH not HID.
Do you think there would be enough space to fit 55w HID globes + ballasts for the inside High beam lights into the housing or would you need to fit the ballasts externally?
What type of globe is fitted to the inner lights? H1 or what?
TIA

H7's for the internal high beam QH's. I was thinking myself you could probably change these to a HID 55w setup. I reckon the ballast would fit inside the light housing theres a fair bit of room in there

[Verynice]

lol so much work to replace a bloody globe

[mikebr]

Got the Caprice at last. Swapped the inner high beam globes for Philips 35W 4200K kit. Ballast etc fitted inside the headlight units. Dealer fitted them, $175 = 2 1/2 hours labour charge. $470 for the Philips kit. I must admit the original lights were not that bad but the HID inners give noticeably more spread.

[evoke06]

Sick write up and pics! Pic 12/screwdriver goes here is great. Are we able to access and replace the daytime driving lights after that? cuz i seen this 2xHOLDEN STATESMAN V6 CX8 DAYTIME RUNNING 8LED LIGHTS | eBay . Thanks again mate.