Re: HID Kits
Posted: April 2nd, 2003, 1:47 am
PLEASE READ:
Dear people, this discussion is going off hand. Please do not falme Aiden as he does know what he is talking about.<p>HID kit or whatever in out DOT standard North American headlights is an absolutely worst possible option that you could do. Few reasons: DOT has mandated US-spec headlights to light up overhead signs on the highway. That means that there is light that bleeds off above the cut off line (low beams)(9004 hardly has any cut-off line). This means glare. E-spec or J-spec have a very sharp cut off on the other hand.<p>So place HID capsule in your DOT headlights and you get three times the glare. Well, you may say: But I can see so well! (See lower). Sure, you can, but so can drivers in the oncoming lane. Do you like being blinded? Beides the legality of the retrofit, you piss everyone else on the road, and it is because of bad HID users like this that the rest of the population hates HID and begs NHTSA to ban them, even in OEM cars.<p>The question of being able to see so well is questionable. Here is why. MX-3 US-spec lights are a bad design. Not that Koito designed them bad, but simply because they are 9004 bulb requirement. 9004, transverse filament bulb with 700 lm output in low beam. Who can see with theirs (no matter the bulb brand - the bluer the worse)in the dark in the rain? NO too many. Ok, 9004 transverse, HID longitudal. Can't have filament positioned differently in the housing that is designed otherwise. Now, HID glow area is fatter than tungsten filament (very straight and squarish). Again different housing designed for a precise filament area, not fat three times brighter glow.<p>So, what do you 9004 to HID converted users end up with. Your lights sure will be bright, blinding everyone in their way. The beam pattern will be horrible (compare to OEM HID against a white wall) with a definite hot-spot (means not distributed well).<p>What that hot-spot will do to you in the dark is as follows. Your eyes will focus on it, because it is brighter, and you will miss anything that is not in the hotspot (deer about to jump from the bushes) at high speed. Also that hot-spot (way brighter that any OEM HID lights will procuce) besided being way over legal brightness allowed for OEM HID will reflect back to your eyes in the rain. So, you will blind yourself. Go ahead. <p>Also, with so much glare from your 9004 HID lights you probably had to adjust your lights low and to the right. Well, that means too much foreground lighting. Sucks at high speed. Poor you and that deer that you will not see, even with three times brightness. Duh? Remember the eyes will focus on what they can see better, that is in front of you nose, and not far down the road. <p>The issue of not requiring hi-beams should be obvious by now. Your lights lack a cut-off, so they are your hi-beams with HID in there, just three times brighter. Why do Mercedes and BMW and Audi (list goes on) that come factory with HID have a Halogen Hi-beam? Well, beacuse they need it. Hi-beam provides down the road lighting, kinda essential when you go very fast. Fact: OEM cars fitted with bi-xenon (ML 55, A6 2002+, Porsche Turbo, E46 and 7 series)also have Halogen hi-beam. Same issue - down the road lighting. HID even with Bi-xenon option are still too wide to have far reach. Summary: HID - wide with a definite sharp cut off. Hi-beams - narrow beam that reaches far.<p>7000K, great. Do you think it is bright? "K" is for Kelvin, as in temperature of the colour. Lm is lumens or Cd, candela for brightness or light output. Just so you know OEM HID bulbs are 4100 to 4300 K colour temperature. 25000K is ultraviolet. The higher you go the bluer it will get. Bluer is better? Read here:<p>H7 Bulb comparo<p>H1 Bulb comparo<p>Blue Bulb Write-up<p>Oh, the answer to the quest for both low and hi-beam HID is this: Hella and Bosch both make HID projectors for OEM cars.<p>NOw,
If you took time to read the above. Thank you, and please do not buy those cheap kits with Korean made bulbs. Good luck buying a replacement. The bulbs will not last forever. Philips or Osram genuine bulbs usually get replaced after 2000 hours because they loose their intensity and become bluer. Korean cheap bulbs, who knows. If they do not blow up, they may fail. If they do blow up, you will need a new housing.<p>PLEASE HANDLE HID WITH CARE, ESPECIALLY AT START UP.<p>ps: the opinions represented above are just that. They are not meant to be relied and are not necessarily correct. They are just a collection of thoughts gathered from learning a lot from other knowledgeable people.<p>pss: Yes, I have seen Mx-3 with HID in stock headlights myself. Yes, they suck....
Dear people, this discussion is going off hand. Please do not falme Aiden as he does know what he is talking about.<p>HID kit or whatever in out DOT standard North American headlights is an absolutely worst possible option that you could do. Few reasons: DOT has mandated US-spec headlights to light up overhead signs on the highway. That means that there is light that bleeds off above the cut off line (low beams)(9004 hardly has any cut-off line). This means glare. E-spec or J-spec have a very sharp cut off on the other hand.<p>So place HID capsule in your DOT headlights and you get three times the glare. Well, you may say: But I can see so well! (See lower). Sure, you can, but so can drivers in the oncoming lane. Do you like being blinded? Beides the legality of the retrofit, you piss everyone else on the road, and it is because of bad HID users like this that the rest of the population hates HID and begs NHTSA to ban them, even in OEM cars.<p>The question of being able to see so well is questionable. Here is why. MX-3 US-spec lights are a bad design. Not that Koito designed them bad, but simply because they are 9004 bulb requirement. 9004, transverse filament bulb with 700 lm output in low beam. Who can see with theirs (no matter the bulb brand - the bluer the worse)in the dark in the rain? NO too many. Ok, 9004 transverse, HID longitudal. Can't have filament positioned differently in the housing that is designed otherwise. Now, HID glow area is fatter than tungsten filament (very straight and squarish). Again different housing designed for a precise filament area, not fat three times brighter glow.<p>So, what do you 9004 to HID converted users end up with. Your lights sure will be bright, blinding everyone in their way. The beam pattern will be horrible (compare to OEM HID against a white wall) with a definite hot-spot (means not distributed well).<p>What that hot-spot will do to you in the dark is as follows. Your eyes will focus on it, because it is brighter, and you will miss anything that is not in the hotspot (deer about to jump from the bushes) at high speed. Also that hot-spot (way brighter that any OEM HID lights will procuce) besided being way over legal brightness allowed for OEM HID will reflect back to your eyes in the rain. So, you will blind yourself. Go ahead. <p>Also, with so much glare from your 9004 HID lights you probably had to adjust your lights low and to the right. Well, that means too much foreground lighting. Sucks at high speed. Poor you and that deer that you will not see, even with three times brightness. Duh? Remember the eyes will focus on what they can see better, that is in front of you nose, and not far down the road. <p>The issue of not requiring hi-beams should be obvious by now. Your lights lack a cut-off, so they are your hi-beams with HID in there, just three times brighter. Why do Mercedes and BMW and Audi (list goes on) that come factory with HID have a Halogen Hi-beam? Well, beacuse they need it. Hi-beam provides down the road lighting, kinda essential when you go very fast. Fact: OEM cars fitted with bi-xenon (ML 55, A6 2002+, Porsche Turbo, E46 and 7 series)also have Halogen hi-beam. Same issue - down the road lighting. HID even with Bi-xenon option are still too wide to have far reach. Summary: HID - wide with a definite sharp cut off. Hi-beams - narrow beam that reaches far.<p>7000K, great. Do you think it is bright? "K" is for Kelvin, as in temperature of the colour. Lm is lumens or Cd, candela for brightness or light output. Just so you know OEM HID bulbs are 4100 to 4300 K colour temperature. 25000K is ultraviolet. The higher you go the bluer it will get. Bluer is better? Read here:<p>H7 Bulb comparo<p>H1 Bulb comparo<p>Blue Bulb Write-up<p>Oh, the answer to the quest for both low and hi-beam HID is this: Hella and Bosch both make HID projectors for OEM cars.<p>NOw,
If you took time to read the above. Thank you, and please do not buy those cheap kits with Korean made bulbs. Good luck buying a replacement. The bulbs will not last forever. Philips or Osram genuine bulbs usually get replaced after 2000 hours because they loose their intensity and become bluer. Korean cheap bulbs, who knows. If they do not blow up, they may fail. If they do blow up, you will need a new housing.<p>PLEASE HANDLE HID WITH CARE, ESPECIALLY AT START UP.<p>ps: the opinions represented above are just that. They are not meant to be relied and are not necessarily correct. They are just a collection of thoughts gathered from learning a lot from other knowledgeable people.<p>pss: Yes, I have seen Mx-3 with HID in stock headlights myself. Yes, they suck....