HID headlights

[alfa147x]

PnP HID kits = Plug in play HID kits:

HID's in general aren't bad. As long as they are installed in the correct housing. Projectors are one type. Projector retrofits cost a lot more than the kit in the image above causing people to install HID bulbs in their reflective housings.

Found this online. Notice the car on the right most closest to the bridge. Their entire cabin in being lit up by the improper use of HID bulbs in the car behind.

Link
In this image notice the HID installed in a projector housing (Right) vs reflective housing (Left)

If anyone is looking to upgrade their headlights here are two very good resources:
http://www.theretrofitsource.com
http://www.hidplanet.com/

Remember:

I want the brightest output, what Kelvin rating for the bulbs should I choose?
4300K -there is an inverse relationship here, so as the K (Kelvin) rating goes up, the Lumen rating goes down. It is a common misconception that K is a measure of intensity/brightness - that is completely false. It is only a measure of the color temperature.

I hope one of these days it will become legal to take baseball bats to any incorrectly installed HID bulbs. :whiste:

Now that said. I'll be installing my projectors sometime next week

 

[Zenmervolt]

You're right about needing housings designed for HID bulbs, but the problem isn't reflector housings in and of themselves. The problem is that reflector housings are precision optics that require a very precise light source location and orientation to generate a proper beam pattern. Because HID bulbs cannot duplicate the position and orientation of a traditional filament bulb's light source (the filament), putting a HID bulb in a housing designed for traditional filament bulbs can never yield a stock beam pattern.

If the reflector housings are designed for HID bulbs, however (as was the case with some early factory HID applications) then you will get perfectly acceptable beam patterns from these installations (provided you use the entire assembly and the original HID bulb type).

The idea that you cannot achieve a sharp cutoff from reflector lenses is a persistent myth. ECE reflectors have been achieving a sharp cutoff for many years and even the US DOT reflectors on my S70 have a strongly designated cutoff in the beam pattern. Admittedly, the cutoff is sharper with projectors, but a good reflector design can still have a very nice cutoff as long as you're using the bulb that the reflector housing was originally designed to use.

Finally, too many people view the horizontal cutoff as the test of a "good" beam pattern. It's not. All the cutoff does is help prevent blinding other drivers. It doesn't ensure that the available light is properly distributed across the road or down the road for good night vision. Many times an aftermarket kit will simply dump a lot of light in the foreground immediately ahead of the car; this makes drivers perceive an "improvement" even though their ability to see at a distance is actually made worse. It's important to be mindful of the entire beam pattern and not just the perceived brightness.

ZV

 

[alfa147x]

If the reflector housings are designed for HID bulbs, however (as was the case with some early factory HID applications) then you will get perfectly acceptable beam patterns from these installations (provided you use the entire assembly and the original HID bulb type).

The idea that you cannot achieve a sharp cutoff from reflector lenses is a persistent myth. ECE reflectors have been achieving a sharp cutoff for many years and even the US DOT reflectors on my S70 have a strongly designated cutoff in the beam pattern. Admittedly, the cutoff is sharper with projectors, but a good reflector design can still have a very nice cutoff as long as you're using the bulb that the reflector housing was originally designed to use.

ZV

Thanks. If anyone is looking for more information on stock HID reflectors see D2R (Anything ending in R) bulb.

Agree on you with the sharp cutoff. Another problem with the bad HID installation is the fact that they seem to have no cut off at all.

 

[herm0016]

zen is correct on all accounts. this is also a sort of pet peve of mine. police should enforce the dot headlight laws.

 

[MotF Bane]

zen is correct on all accounts. this is also a sort of pet peve of mine. police should enforce the dot headlight laws.

I wish they would.

 

[alfa147x]

I wish they would.

With brutal force!

 

[Zenmervolt]

zen is correct on all accounts. this is also a sort of pet peve of mine. police should enforce the dot headlight laws.

Personally, I'd prefer that they enforce ECE headlight regulations.

Seriously, the European-spec beam pattern is so much better. The DOT requirements have improved over time, but ECE still throws a much more useful pattern of light.

ZV

 

[hanoverphist]

With brutal force!

or just a ticket. and a few news stories about people getting tickets for it. usually when you threaten peoples wallets they will think twice about doing things like that.

it doesnt really piss me off when a car with crappy HID comes up behind me, as i have 4% tint on the backside of my truck. even without tint, i can move my mirror so it doesnt blind me. no real need to get angry and/or violent about it. but i have handed my friends shop fliers out to people ive seen with bad HID installs.

 

[herm0016]

when you are driving a low 80s sports car the crappy hids really blind you.