HIDs, Who knows what they're talking about Options

[lil_lissa]

alright... i did do a search for HID's but it seems there are completely different views on the subject

i'm thinking of getting some for my fogs and/or my lowbeams (the kit thats for sale in the B/S Forum)... now I thought everything was just put them in and go. I have stock headlights, and have recently been told that putting HID's in there will cause glare, blind other drivers, etc etc and that i have to retrofit another housing into the lights to make it proper. Is this the case?

Now the other alternative, which i dream of every night before i go to sleep, is getting projectors.. but how much would those be just for the lowbeams? and do you put in the HID bulbs with those, or do they come with bulbs when you get them (from toyotaworld was where i thought most people were getting them from right?)

anyways.. i'm just really confused because one person will say they're fine in stock headlights, and the next person says theyre no good... someone let me know pleaaaaaaaaaaaase!

[elvasoshexai]

yea.. there will be a lot of glare if you just plug them into your existing headlamps... take a look at http://www.hidplanet.com/forums/ if you wanna read up on it...

the JDM projectors are halogen projectors and are not made for HIDs either... but from the pics i've seen, they still produce glare.

to see how much glare there is, park the car about 20m or so away from a wall, if you notice a lot of light is going above the cutoff, that all bcomes glare.

but the jdm proejctors are nowhere as bad as putting them in your stock headlamps...

but from the pics i've seen there are very obvious 'hotspots' either way, which means the light beam isn't spread evenly, and that some areas are more concentrated than others.

Even if you can retrofit HID projectors into our headlamps, because our headlamps are made of glass it's not as easy to clear the lenses. And i've never seen any aftermarket lenses for sale... this causes a problem... since the fluted lenses disperse the light....

most people don't care if they blind people... from the pictures i've seen, the jdm headlamps do alright... i'd say they are decent to use with HIDs

o yea, it's also best to get 4300k bulbs because that is closest to the colour of the sun and lights up things more... um......... 'realistically?'... all OEM applications use 4300k. a lot of people w/o stock HIDs see how BMWs and stuff have a blueish/purple colour and like how it looks sothey buy higher kelvin bulbs (or blue coated bulbs) only to find out they don't light up the road as good. (the light might be bright, but it won't light up the road... kinda like how LEDs are bright but can't really light things up)... the reason for HID lights to flicker blue/purple is because of the projectors. not the bulbs themselves. (if you aim the lights of a car with OEM HIDs against a wall, you'll notice that only the cutoff area is kind of bluish/purplelish...) but i think 6k would the the highest...

here are some examples of kits that caused glare in stock houseings:



here are how they SHOULD look like:



here's another comparison pic:


i've seen proper retrofitting done forconsiderably less than 1000... (like 300-700 depending on quality of equipment/install etc) so this should be doable on a celica as well

one problem with the JDM headlamps (assuming your country drives on the left side) is that the slant goes like this: \ instead of : /

having the slant go \ blinds incoming cars yet at the same time makes it harder for you to see signs on your right... if you aim them high enough to see signs, chances are you're blinding the people in front of you... same as having a large truck behind you while driving a low car like a celica...

you don't have to have OEM retrofit... i mean most people aren't rich... i would aim to get clear lenses with hid projectors whether they be aftermarket or oem

it's also important to aim the light not too high... you have to remember you're trying to light up the ground, you're not trying to light up the whole car in front of you

This post has been edited by elvasoshexai: Feb 4, 2006 - 8:52 PM