HID'S

racerx

racerx

Autoxer
Has anyone ever trid an Hid kit on there X like this one?
hidddm.jpg

I have a set of Hella 7" round headlights that are made to thake an H4 bulb so I was thinking of tring a set of DDM tunging brand HID kits my only concern is can the Hella take the heat.

I purchased a set of DDM Tuning HID kits for my 95 Dodge Neon for $55 shipped. I had a set of SYLVANIA Sliver stare bulb and toke them out and put in the HID's and all I can say is WOW it's like day light in front of me now before I couldn't even tell if my head light wear on or not. I can get right next to any brand new car and other than one's with HID my head light's are brighter. and they draw less amps from my electrical too.
 
Bad idea...

A reflector designed for an H4 won't work well with an HID retrofit kit, the light source will be in the wrong place for the pattern. Glare for driver and others will be the result, creating a hazard that could lead to liability in an accident.

It may seem like it's better, because the light's brighter, bluer and there's more of it, but it's not aimed or refracted correctly. Also illegal in most if not all states, if that sort of thing matters to you. Bluer light is also harder on your eyes and degrades your night vision.

Don't take my word for it, read the following and the links within:
http://www.danielsternlighting.com/tech/lights/light_color/light_color.html
 
If you haven't done the headlight mod, DO THIS FIRST! I agree that most HID's don't belong in cars UNLESS they were designed for that headlight housing. I have regular H4's in mine with the headlight mod and OH MY GOSH does it make a difference.
My 2 cents..

John
 
depends on the way you do it. i converted several older cars to HID's successively, and do not have anyone "flashing me off". do the lower wattage kits and not the high wattage ones. stay with a 5000K color temp bulb, and use a better quality housing like a Hella or Cibie, and aim the headlights correctly. they work fine, and draw less amps than quartz bulbs do. i like the new style that have a servo for the high beams that changes the aim to a higher high beam distance using the same bulb..
 
HID

Andy I need you to come by with your HID kit you mentioned and install it in my X and we can do a write up for the group :)..You might end up doing what Bob is doing with the headlight wiring kit :)
 
Another way for HID

There are quite a number of newer cars with HID as stock. There are many car folks who are using these HID units as conversion on to the target car. They basically transplant the entire HID system and make the mods required to get them to work well.

This delivers HID performance and OE reliability while keeping the lights legal. Much work involved, but do-able for the motivated.


Bernice
 
Reinvent the wheel

I was hoping not to reinvent the wheel and relying on what brand was use :) and Andys expertise :)
 
I don't find the white 5000K daylight bulbs any harder on my eyes than driving during the day under sun light. Those ridiculous totally blue 8000K ones you see on some Hondas would be annoying for sure.

you still need to have a good clean 12V signal to the headlights, so if on an older car that is not the case, some rewiring and relays are not a bad idea.
 
Andy,
If you have a H4 conversion that works, please take pictures in the dark of the light pattern against a wall to show the light pattern and cutoff line. I haven't seen one yet that maintains the pattern and cutoff. Also take pictures of the stock H4 bulb under the same conditions for a comparison.

Thanks
 
bpimm said:
Andy,
If you have a H4 conversion that works, please take pictures in the dark of the light pattern against a wall to show the light pattern and cutoff line. I haven't seen one yet that maintains the pattern and cutoff. Also take pictures of the stock H4 bulb under the same conditions for a comparison.

Thanks
Click to expand...

The cut off is not as sharp as with the tungsten bulbs, and there is a much softer transition. to me, this is not a detrimental thing at all though. i find the razor sharp cut off of the original euro H4 headlights annoying. I will try to get a photo of the ones from my MR2 to demonstrate.

The thing is, I have been driving my Mk1 MR2 with this set up for nearly 3 years here in the highly populated SF Bay Area. I have not been flashed off by an oncoming driver even once. as far as being illegal, so were the Euro headlights we all bought and used for many years until they changed the rules and made them legal. when I am next to a new Mercedes or Audi on the freeway, the output of my lights are very similar to the ones on the current upscale cars as far as brightness, color, and actual spill pattern on the road.

After driving a car with HID conversion, I couldn't go back to the old style bulbs. I can see so much better with these, and my 50 year old eyes need a bit more help at night. I also like the lower draw on the electrical system. i used to run high watt bulbs in my H4 housing that probably used up half the output of my alternator on my old Fiat 128.
 
I'd love to see the pics, HID conversions are on my to do list, but I'm looking at using oem projectors to do it. I can spot the HID kits coming at me for miles at night and they hurt the eyes. Maybe there are kits out there that are better and I don't notice them, hard to tell.

The softer transition wouldn't bother me as long as the light above the cut off is not greater than the light above the line on the stock H4.

The HID kits I drive against here in the PNW are so bad I have to go to high beams just so I can see the fog line to stay on the road. I have developed the habit of leaving the high beams on when I have a HID kit coming at me. this in itself is dangerous but it's the only way I can see the road because my eyes are dilated so far down from the oncoming headlights.

My other question that no one seems to answer is how the high beams compare to high wattage halogen's. most of the kits don't have high beams which is a non starter for me.
 
Yeppers...

This is the glare I was referring too. 20 years ago this kind of retrofit would have gotten you pulled over. Today, sadly, poorly aimed headlights are the norm and most drivers don't know their headlights are aimed poorly. And police seem to have other things to worry about.

The other night I was passed by an SUV in a big fat hurry who had this problem. Their lowbeam headlights were aimed like highbeams, and I could see this by following them down the road and observing their headlights' pattern on the treed lane. The headlights appeared to be factory equipement; the horizontal cutoff was sharp, they were just aimed wrong. In WA we don't have any system in place to ensure this kind of stuff is done right.

The reason most HID "conversions" don't have a high beam is there's only one arc in the "bulb" and no easy way to change the beam pattern. Many HID lights have HID lowbeams, but halogen highbeams, since the need for highbeams is intermittent and usually immediate, and HIDs take time to reach full intensity. The arc also moves slightly as it warms up.

The bluish light is particularly bad for the common rainy weather in the PNW, the blue is readily reflected back by suspended water droplets (rain, fog) where the yellower light of halogens less so. It's funny to describe halogens as yellowish, since 20 years ago they were so much whiter than standard incandescent sealed beams when they first came out.

When I tried the LED headlights out on my X, I found the blue tint to the light headache-inducing. Another side effect is the reflective road signs were hard to read.
 
The DDM kits have a small servo in the bulb housing that actually changes the angle of the bulb and aims it upwards to the high beam position when you turn on the high beams. works great. cool little feature. otherwise, if you have a seperate high beam HID bulb, you need two ballasts, etc, and then it takes 10 seconds or so for the light to reach full brightness. not good for high beams.

people try to run the 55W kits instead of the 35watt ones, and those are very obnoxious. they way overpower whatever focusing system was there in the original housings, the typical "bigger is better" way of looking at things.

I run the 35 watt kits, carefully aim the headlights, and even turn the left side one inwards and downwards a small amount as to not be annoying. plus my MR2 is a foot or so lower than most cars, and the headlight are about only 30 inches from the ground. X19 would be about the same. the 5000K kits are a pleasant color with no blue cast to it at all.
 
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I use HID kits for lo, hi & fogs. I could drive with just the fogs, actually. mine are all 4300K.

IMG_5025a.jpg


IMG_9128.jpg


I hadn't thought of putting them in the X - in the wagon, the hi/lo are separate units entirely, so it's no big deal.
 
just got back from driving on the San Pablo Dam road at night in my 87 MR2 withe HID conversion. this is a curvy, very dark (no street lights) high speed two lane undevided highway between Walnut Creek and El Sobrante in the East Bay of the SF Bay Area. its basically a worst case scenario for car lighting and night driving. The 5000K HID's turn it into a relaxing drive. I noticed again how the spill pattern from my lights looks just like the newer cars that were along side of me on the regular freeway portion of my drive tonight. I can't recommend these kits more highly, and I think its funny how there is so much resistance to them on many of the web forums. I blame it on the few inconsiderate / un-knowledgeable people who run the 7000 or 9000K 55 Watt kits, misaligned and all.
 
Pictures of the two setups would likely help those of us who are skeptics to see the difference.

Most OE low beam setups have a shutter that creates the sharp cutoff needed to not blind on coming drivers. To me this is the issue, not what you are seeing from the drivers seat.
 
Yep...

Good point.
I think its funny how there is so much resistance to them on many of the web forums. I blame it on the few inconsiderate / un-knowledgeable people who run the 7000 or 9000K 55 Watt kits, misaligned and all.
Click to expand...

It's not usually enthusiasts but just plain folks without the knowledge to determine the problem.
 
Unless I missed a post I haven't seen anyone discuss the difficulty of doing an HID conversion. I have never even looked at a conversion that has been done so I don't know whether it would be a simple plug and play or something more in depth.
 
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