Close Topic Options

There is no way anyone can tell me that they are even "OK" to use. Absolutely no way...

The other day I was driving home, and the guy behind me was driving a car with JDM crystals and a 6000K HID kit.

I am happy that I have 20% tint on rear, because his low beam glare still completely illuminated my interior.

I wish cops would get off their donuts and start catching people who really are unsafe, instead of going for the easy cash grab of sitting down with a radar gun. If the glare from the improper HID setupof the guy behind my was so bad for me, imagine what it was for people driving in the other direction.

It is explicitly illegal, yet I have yet to see a car with a HID kit pulled over ( I've seen someone pulled over for lack of DRL though? ).

The other thing is, how come the people who use these kits don't see that they actually get less useful light ( less throw and useless pattern ). I bought a car a while ago that had a kit in it, so I transferred it into my car to see. It didn't stay in there for more than one night, it was atrocious.

Haha, The advertising on this page is for Xeon hid's.

Anyway, I hate them too. I'm a really big fan of selective yellow, hella's and anything else that isn't hid or angel eyes. I'm not really that big a fan of LED's in headlights either, which is weird because I like them just fine everywhere else. I also really dislike Audi's eye-liner crap. What was the matter with regular old halogens inside round glass lights?

HID is whats "In" these days. There will be people doing it for looks rather than function.

Fancy headlights is all marketing, pumping out new ideas in seek of more revenues. Creating a trademark style for the company as well. Did BMW create the angel eyes? Than there's the Audi eye-liner as mentioned.

Everything but BMW's engine division died in the 90's.

im sure AC already know this but, just another fyi for peeps who dont know.

Real HID's in CORRECT housings will not glare. The light cutoff is sharp with trivial light runoff present.

also, IIRC, the correct temperature that HID's should be are 4300k-4800k or so.




the problem occurs when HID kits are used in improper housings or when people just get really bright bulbs and you end up having this:





cars that come with stock HIDs will not glare.


my beef with HIDs are for trucks and SUVs, iirc, they do not have a set headlamp height limit (unlike cars), so when they're equipped with HIDs, that shit will be right in your face.

This post has been edited by Sensation! on Apr 15 2010, 02:59 PM

Yep, the factory HIDs in my Evo are perfectly fine.

The big thing is that people who retrofit them don't do it right, you need to use whatever the plate in there is called, which is what creates the cutoff line.

^well if your car comes with that cutoff plate, then its already HID ready xD the plate in most cases is unremoveable.

people who do HID retrofits will often use projectors from a HID car.

In example, if i ever do a Silvia conversion on my car, the existing projector housings will be retrofitted with ones off an Acura TL or TSX.

that will provide me with a correct cutoff and North american light orientation

And here I thought most HID retrofits work well with a certain housing, let's say, an SVX or a high-end luxury car.

I don't quite get why you guys needed to state the obvious ( HID's in HID housings don't cause glare ), as I've specifically stated in the topic title that it's about using them in halogen reflector housings. I don't think I could have been more specific.

But yes, HID's in housings designed for HID bulbs will produce the proper pattern. That's obvious. However, and not that anyone has advocated towards this, but I feel it needs to be said anyways, HID bulbs in halogen projector housings will not produce the proper pattern either ( they will produce a better one than the same bulbs in halogen reflector housings though ). Also, to take it further, even some HID bulbs will be a problem if they are used in the wrong HID housing ( D2S bulbs in a housing designed for D2R bulbs ).

That is not 100% true. Halogen projector housings, and even some projector foglights will have that plate. It is not the sole variable in producing the proper beam pattern.

Halogen projectors ( while producing a "better" pattern than halogen reflectors ), will still suffer from having the wrong focal point for HID bulbs.

The only proper way to retrofit, and I do stress that it is the only way, is what Sensation posted up, replacing the entire projector assembly with one that was designed to take HID bulbs from the factory. AFAIK there is no projector out there that will take both, it's either halogen or HID. It would be like trying to fit a 9004 halogen into a 9007 halogen housing. Even if you make the bulb fit, the optics are all wrong.

If it came with halogens from the factory it will never be HID ready, read the above reply. If it doesn't take D2S or D1S bulbs from factory, then you will never get the proper pattern out from it. ( Not talking about cmspaz's Evo, just in general ).

I have not seen a single rebase that kept the filament position the same as the halogen bulbs it replaces. I think it is impossible since the HID bulbs are quite a bit longer in length than the halogen bulbs they would be replacing.

That is the proper way to do it. The only proper way, at that. Thank you for posting it up. TSX bi-xenons are the ones to use.

My buddy has an older Outback which he put 6000k HID's in. I kept tellin him it was a bad idea and the proper color for a bulb to use would be a halogen 4000k.

Of course, he didn't listen and after the first rainstorm he called me up and said, "MAN, I CANT SEE SHIT WITH THESE."

All I said was "Told 'ya." and hung up.

I had a lengthy argument with a local Subie guy about something similar, to no effect. The guy is running 6000K HID's in JDM projectors now. >_<

(THIS POST WAS REMOVED BY REQUEST)

zxe's blow, i currently run those.

properly installed HID kits are wonderful..
you get what you pay for.

Wow, I was an angry douche 2 years ago. Having driven some more recent cars, I can safely say they're still making the ultimate driving machine, but they've definitely lost something along the way.

Also, I'll keep using halogens. Not having to dick with ballast and saving money is way better than blinding people with an expensive setup that's only half as good as it should be.

Thoughts on SilverStar zXe?

Any bulb with blue coating is pure garbage.



Best in the halogen range :

Philips X-treme

Best off-the-shelf halogen :

GE Nighthawk

Best off-the-shelf Sylvania halogen :

Xtravision

In terms of the Sylvania lineup :

Silverstar zXe < Silverstar Ultra < Silverstar < Xtravision

Remember folks, whiter is not always brighter.

Also think about how HIDs are slowly becoming obsolete themselves. LED lighting is the way of the future.

Considering the technology has existed in motoring application since the late 90s, I'd say it's about due.

The problem is producing white light, but without the heat which eventually kills the diode.

Best LED flashlight out there puts out ~1K lumens, and the cost is a lot higher than halogen ( it is less expensive than a HID flashlight though ).

In automotive application, the cost/price ratio is just not attractive enough yet.

Not true. Whiter is brighter. Bluer, on the other hand, is definitely not brighter. I think what you meant to say is that 'higher color temperature is not brighter', which would be accurate.

Yup, I tell customers that all the time, the Xtravision is the best headlight they can buy. The blue coating changes the color, but in doing so removes some of the light output.

Then you'll get some of the idiotic kids who are just like "I just want it to look cool." To which I respond with "Yeah, I guess being dead is cool lookin."

This post has been edited by MattW on Apr 16 2012, 05:34 PM

I have 1 phillips xtreme and 1 phillips oem in my car right now lol

Mobius, I can get the Xtremes off of a lot of shelves here.

Going to have to agree with mobius on this one.

"Brightness" and "Color" are separate concepts. Light isnt inherently "white" and then filtered into colors- The color of the light depends on the source emitting the light, the filters it goes through (if any), and what it reflects off (well ignore this one for the explanation however).

Of course were talking about HIDs- Typically speaking, The HIDs with the highest measurable lumens (ie brightest, lumens are what is measured when talking about the actual intensity/brightness of a light source) will be in the 4100k-4300k range (The K represents kelvin, this is the measure of color). Bulbs in this range have a noticeable yellow-tint to them. Pure white HIDs will be in the 5-6k range (though with most companies as you get to/around/above 6k youll start getting blue tints to them).

The only way to get whiter colour out of a halogen bulb is to have a blue coating on the bulb, which robs light output.

I was speaking strictly in terms of halogen bulbs.

Although as Sideways pointed out, in applies in the case of HIDs as well ( 4300K vs. 6000K ).

(THIS POST WAS REMOVED BY REQUEST)

Perception is not necessarily the reality.