Thoughts on HIDS/Xenons?

[FearoftheNight]

Hey guys. Just wanted to collect some input regarding Xenon headlights. Are they really safer or let you drive faster at night? I think they look friggin awesome!

 

[phucheneh]

If you like $120 headlight bulbs, plus the often-faulty ballast...sure, they're okay.

And if you're talking aftermarket...well, I hate you. So tired of thinking a cop is behind me...oh wait, that's just some guy's flickering blue headlights.

You're looking for projector housing + halogens.

 

[FearoftheNight]

Hey man I'm not talking about swapping HID lights into a halogen housing. I just wanted general opinions of halogen vs xenon lighting.

If you like $120 headlight bulbs, plus the often-faulty ballast...sure, they're okay.

And if you're talking aftermarket...well, I hate you. So tired of thinking a cop is behind me...oh wait, that's just some guy's flickering blue headlights.

You're looking for projector housing + halogens.

 

[iamwiz82]

I prefer them. I'd have a hard time convincing myself to buy a new car that didn't offer them.

 

[Zivic]

If you like $120 headlight bulbs, plus the often-faulty ballast...sure, they're okay.

And if you're talking aftermarket...well, I hate you. So tired of thinking a cop is behind me...oh wait, that's just some guy's flickering blue headlights.

You're looking for projector housing + halogens.

that $120 capsule will likely last 10 yrs or more, vs the 1-2 yrs I find myself replace halogen bulbs at.

I have owned a few cars now with HID's. as long as they are oem phillips or osram, I have never had a problem with ballasts.

and your aftermarket rant is BS.... if they are conversion kits, they won't be "flickering" blue. flickering blue implies the cutoff is flickering as the car travels down the road. which means they have a controlled cutoff... they likely have oem projectors. If they are constantly blue glaring at you, then they would be aftermarket

 

[DVad3r]

My car came with stock xenon's and I still have the same bulbs since 2001. I bought a set of OEM Philips bulbs off Amazon for 54 $ a pop just in case one day they do burn out. You definitely get more visitbility, as for driving faster, not sure what your reasoning behind that is

 

[NutBucket]

Love 'em! And I've had great results with using aftermarket HIDs in OEM halogen projectors.

 

[soccerballtux]

blue is a contrast destroying color which is why they're harder to see with, even though they appear "brighter". They certainly do look cooler, but I'd prefer seeing the road better.
It's why skiers, surfers, etc wear pink/yellow shades not blue ones. Filters out the blue, accentuates the yellows/reds (red in particular provides contrast to brain), improving your vision of waves, moguls, and other important obstacles.

YMMV with this one. The women in my extended family have no problem with them, the guys agree it's harder to see. Other guys I have spoken to swear it's not harder to see.
Women have slightly more sensitive eyes to blue/violet colors (something genetic if I recall), which may be why they don't have a problem with them.

 

[JCH13]

HIDs make light with plasma-state gases. That's way cooler than halogen lights.

 

[rsutoratosu]

They have them in 4100k 4300k 5000k 6000k

I think the 5-6k one are the bluer one that harder to see.. my stock 4100k is perfect..

BTW, they're sort of illegal to retrofit, but if you dont get caught, thats another story

http://voices.yahoo.com/hid-conversion-kits-dot-restrictions-5116875.html

 

[imagoon]

My factory ones work fine. Same bulbs since the day it drove off the lot. Mine start "bluish" but with 10-15 seconds that color fills out to near halogen looking color. The idiots running around with the blue / purple drive me nuts because I can drive behind them and see a shadow of their car in front of them from my factory lights but the stupid blue lights they have are bright enough annoy my eyes. That and it seems to be a rule that you need aim them in to space.

Basically if you do it right (replace the projectors, right color, non cheap $5 ballast etc) they can be a nice upgrade to your view at night.

 

[Howard]

IMO 4500K-5000K is the perfect colour.

 

[Fenixgoon]

www.theretrofitsource.com

morimoto kits are EXCELLENT. very high quality. would not hesitate recommending them. just make sure you have the proper projector housings and whatnot.

 

[vi edit]

My night vision sucks, so I'm very sensitive to the light output and "throw" of the cars I drive.

I've had HID's in the past but truely feel that some of the newer projector style lenses are nearly as good. The light is very "white", the cutoff is excellent and they can throw light quite far. Significant improvement over the old reflector style.

The headlights on my recent model year Camry and Sienna are excellent. The Sienna in particular has some absolute light cannons for low/high beam and combined with some incredibly bright fog lights it produces a wall of light at night.

 

[Capt Caveman]

I had them on my last car and have them on my current. I'll always have them. Whiter and brighter make things more visible and driving safer.

And my last car, I had for over ten years. The bulbs never needed replacing and never got dimmer.

 

[vshah]

i did a retrofit with s2k projectors onto my civic since I was doing a lot of night driving. i'll never own another car without HIDs and good projectors. i can light up a 6 lane highway side to side with my headlights, and the light level stays well under other cars' windows. probably do more than 6 lane, since if i'm on a six lane all the way to one side i'll still reach the opposite side.

one thing to note is that with higher quality projectors, the cutoff is super sharp. so it really goes from a ton of light to no light in a straight line a certain distance ahead of you. some people don't like this, i don't mind it since it's far enough ahead.

 

[Eureka]

If you are going to do it, make sure you have projectors, and make sure that you get 4300k-4500k bulbs.

It is absolutely worth it when it is done right. You see much farther and much clearer in dark roads, especially if you do a lot of backroads driving.

 

[phucheneh]

Hey man I'm not talking about swapping HID lights into a halogen housing. I just wanted general opinions of halogen vs xenon lighting.

Sorry, I just kind of assumed you were talking aftermarket. While there are good kits out there, there's just a ton of trash, and that's what I always see.

Zivic - the factory lights I've worked with never flickered unless the ballast was bad. Though in many cases I can't say whether those I see on the road are factory or aftermarket in some cases.

But I definitely have seen flickering aftermarkets (e.g. I don't think 90's Civics had an HID option), which, again, I assume is because of cheap, unstable ballast unit.

I still prefer projector housings and regular old H4 or similar halogen bulbs. I'm not a big fan of the bluish-tinged light (the REALLY blue lights are just bad), and halogen projectors still give the nice cut-off. The light is more focused and does not light up the whole area as well, though; many HID's do offer better low-beams (some others notsomuch).

I'm not a fan of the motorized single-bulb setups, though (low/high is same bulb). My highs will eat that shit for lunch. Perhaps someone else with a recent-ish Mazda will confirm that I'm not nuts...my 3's highbeams on a winding back road are like freaking daylight. I think it's just a second H4 bulb with a crazy-broad reflector (and the lows stay on).

I guess the point is- it's all in the design. There are good halogens and bad halogens; good HID's and bad HID's. If you're looking for a new car, it's a good time of year to be able to do nighttime test-drives (most dealer sales departments are open until 8 or 9 around here).

 

[Ferzerp]

OEM is fine.

Aftermarket makes me curse you with a passion when you blind me.

 

[Zivic]

Sorry, I just kind of assumed you were talking aftermarket. While there are good kits out there, there's just a ton of trash, and that's what I always see.

Zivic - the factory lights I've worked with never flickered unless the ballast was bad. Though in many cases I can't say whether those I see on the road are factory or aftermarket in some cases.

But I definitely have seen flickering aftermarkets (e.g. I don't think 90's Civics had an HID option), which, again, I assume is because of cheap, unstable ballast unit.

I still prefer projector housings and regular old H4 or similar halogen bulbs. I'm not a big fan of the bluish-tinged light (the REALLY blue lights are just bad), and halogen projectors still give the nice cut-off. The light is more focused and does not light up the whole area as well, though; many HID's do offer better low-beams (some others notsomuch).

I'm not a fan of the motorized single-bulb setups, though (low/high is same bulb). My highs will eat that shit for lunch. Perhaps someone else with a recent-ish Mazda will confirm that I'm not nuts...my 3's highbeams on a winding back road are like freaking daylight. I think it's just a second H4 bulb with a crazy-broad reflector (and the lows stay on).

I guess the point is- it's all in the design. There are good halogens and bad halogens; good HID's and bad HID's. If you're looking for a new car, it's a good time of year to be able to do nighttime test-drives (most dealer sales departments are open until 8 or 9 around here).

if the light you see is flickering, the light is coming in and out of your vision and the color is the refracted light coming from the cutoff. a failing ballast doesn't look the same.

and if you are complaining about "bluish" light, HIDs are designed around 4500k (give or take) which is white light, not blue like the crappy aftermarket bulbs, and not yellow tinged like halogen.

I have had 4 cars with HIDs...
reflector based housings, with halogen highs (orginal lights in my Z)
projector based housings, with halogen highs (my 06 evo)
projector based housings with movable shield for highs (06+ Z headlights I have now, and a set of retrofited mercedes projectors for a car that never had hids)

the projector housings with movable shields have the overall best output. My brother in law has a 3 with HIDs, I am fairly confident his HIDs are an upgrade in output from your halogens

 

[hans007]

i hate aftermarket people. have had this long running argument with a friend since he thinks they are just as good and never blind people. he just is cheap and never pays for them then buys $20 bulbs and sticks them in whatever car he has.

i happen to be partially colorblind so that makes me have excellent night vision. that said i can tell they make a huge difference compared to normal halogens at night especially at high speed you need to be able to see things down the road if you are approaching them quickly to stop.

i'd rather not pay say $800-900 for them or have them bundled into some absurd option package so i understand why people often dont get them. that said my current car they came in some package and i bought them anyway and also got those LED eyelashes.

next car, at least it was a la carte so it was only $850 or so. and they came with cool angel eyes and are autoleveling / adaptive for turns etc. so thats kind of cool too

 

[phucheneh]

IIRC blue light is supposed to disturb your night vision the least...or maybe that's just impact your sleep the least...

If the former is true, I can see an argument for the bluish light (sorry, it just doesn't LOOK white to me...and since we're talking about being able to see, I think how it is visually perceived is relevant). But I still feel like I can see better with the relative contrast of more 'yellow' light...which, again, looks closer to white to me, especially with modern lights and clean (not yellowed dull plastic) housings.

 

[BassBomb]

Keep in mind many aftermarket lights are in fact actually blue, whereas OEM lighting typically looks blue from a distance because of the cutoff where the light bends over. The light itself is actually white but the edge band is blue.

I personally have a retrofitted projector (TSX) in my Accord. The bulbs color shifted to a slightly blue color, but not bad.

Projectors allow light to go as far and wide compared to a halogen which is more centralized with a hot spot. I do feel like the spread though is hurt in the rain where it feels like you sometimes have no lighting. The forward distance is a benefit if you are aimed properly. If aimed low you significantly lose forward distance and it can be a huge distraction as you sit there staring at the cutoff.

HID in Halogen housing < Halogen < OEM HID Reflector (ie first gen G35, Maxima, 3.2 TL) < Halogen Projector (ie RX8, Solara) < OEM HID

 

[NutBucket]

I somewhat disagree with your ranking. HID in Halogen projector works out pretty well. HID in halogen reflectors, not so much. There's a clear distinction between the two.

 

[phucheneh]

I somewhat disagree with your ranking. HID in Halogen projector works out pretty well. HID in halogen reflectors, not so much. There's a clear distinction between the two.

If I'm interpreting you both right, I think you're agreeing. As do I.

His lowest ranking is HID in a halogen housing that ISN'T projector- so it's not made for HID's, nor is it the optimal style of halogen housing to use for a cheap conversion.

OEM HID's should be projectors in most all cases. Some older OEM's did not use projectors, and they work okay, not great; but much better than if they were in a 'reflector' (non-projector) housing meant for halogens.

Im aware of the blue (...ricer) halogens, as well as the supposedly white halogens. However, I did not know the bit about factory HID's looking more blue from a distance...is that related to what Zivic was getting at with the bit about flickering?