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HID Do's & Don'ts - The HID Lighting Tutorial

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Yeo
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HID Do's & Don'ts - The HID Lighting Tutorial

Postby Yeo » April 10th, 2007, 12:56 pm

Best HID FAQ I have ever read.

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Postby plex » April 10th, 2007, 3:33 pm

Excellent infor..

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Postby equipped2ripp » April 11th, 2007, 2:05 am

ohhh sweeet man

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Postby TESTED performance » April 20th, 2007, 3:43 pm

*snivle* *sob* ok ok nah allyuh convince me ok? i goin with 6000K bulbs instead :cry:
the 8000K's looked so purdy :(
but alas i cant be inconsiderate to other drivers.

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Postby VK-Sportsman » April 21st, 2007, 12:03 am

another Informative site http://faqlight.carpassion.info

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SR
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Postby SR » April 26th, 2007, 9:42 am

take a bump on this read

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Postby cacasplat3 » May 3rd, 2007, 2:53 pm

good read......but how would i get the true lighting power from the conversion kits?
cuz according to the article it lacks the HID optics...... :?

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SR
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Postby SR » May 14th, 2007, 7:57 am

update

replaced h4 halogens with an hid kit 5000

cost 3k
comes with a "hi beam"
well its not really a high beam but an actuator with a shield over the lens of the bulb that moves from one angle to another to give the appearance on the high and low beam

my kit came with a digital ballast and separate igniter rather than an all in one


installation time
once you have the tools less than an hr

fairly straighforward for anyone with a little electrical background and anyone with common sense

review
due to the digital ballast my hid comes up to color almost immediatly

beam width improved almost 50% over the stock h4 bulbs
beam distance improved almost 80% over the h4's

head lights had to be adjusted to drop the beam height as it was now too high and hitting on coming drivers direct in thier face

i recomend for anyone who does a lot of night driving its a worthwhile investment

my kit came out of germany and not one of those cheaper taiwan/china kits

while i cant compare the german kti quality over the taiwan/china kit quality
i am very pleased with the german kit and the "extra" cost difference as the quality of the connectors and wires used looked good and durable

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Postby VK-Sportsman » May 14th, 2007, 8:52 am

SR, please give a link of yur new product......it seems interesting :)

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Postby *Phoenix* » July 10th, 2007, 2:44 pm

BBBBBump :twisted:

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Postby TESTED performance » July 10th, 2007, 8:15 pm

since Saied bump the thread for no damn reason i'll take the opportunity to comment on what cacasplat3, said.

When i upgraded to HID's i had already read the info that exists in this sticky with respect to optics. i took the entire lamp housing off the car and tried to clean the reflector portion as thoroughly as possible by inserting a piece of cloth into the housing and swishing it around with a long screwdriver (careful if u try this u may scratch the reflective surface with the screw driver)
I also used alot of mothers plastic polish on the lens covers to get it as clean as possible.

THIS MADE A REMARKABLE DIFFERENCE TO THE SUCCESS OF THE UPGRADE.

i had to emphasize that because i think the tutorial doesnt put enough emphasis on how colossal the failure of an HID system can be without paying close attention to the optics. read closely...
on rainy days after i come off the highway just the road spray that dries on the lens of the lamp obstructs the light so much that i wonder if the Kit has malfunctioned. it was after this occurred a few times and the full power of the beam was restored each time the lens was cleaned i realized the importance of having proper optics before going with an HID upgrade.

I HIGHLY RECOMMEND that you change the entire lamp housing along with the installation of of the HID's. if u cant afford to try to thoroughly clean the lens and if possible the reflector as well.

im still contemplating removing the glare shield that caps off the HID bulb seeing that the OE Glare shield is designed quite similarly to the reflector in the lamp itself so that it catches the glare and disperses it back into the reflector at numerous angles which i would like to believe would cause the resulting beam of light to have a smooth very evenly dispersed pattern on the road as it would be reflected (theoretically) off EVERY surface in the reflector.

The HID kit comes with a generic cylindrical shaped glare shield that looks identical to the cap at either end of a barrel fuse like those used in car audio amp fusing installations. this glare shield fails to focus the beam onto the outer parts of the reflector and concentrates it in the center of the parabolic reflector which i believe robs you of some of the potential of the system.
OF COURSE if you're installing it in a car with no OEM glare shield then the one supplied by the HID manufacturer is worth its weight in gold.

i think i may have been lucky to get the kit that i got as it actually out performs an OEM SAE spec projector HID kit that the EVO 7 is equipped with and it does so without producing any glare at all. dunno if the guy still has more of them you could probably give him a call. 492-0000 (yeah even i thought it was fake lol) i think his name is John-Paul

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Postby ~Vēġó~ » July 10th, 2007, 11:30 pm

wow!!!

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Postby VK-Sportsman » July 21st, 2007, 4:57 pm

Illegal HID Convesion Kits Explained

<embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/yVuSSdZNsZw" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" wmode="transparent" width="425" height="350"></embed>

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Postby lallaman » August 23rd, 2007, 6:24 pm

so from these plug-and-play 8000K HID kits can work on most cars then :?: :?: :?: :?:

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Postby eliteauto » August 24th, 2007, 9:54 pm

yeah but a read of the info suggests that your best bet would be in the 4100-5000K range, interesting read, I was considering this upgrade for an SUV with the stock lens but I'll reconsider and see if I can get a kit and optic upgrades

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Postby lallaman » August 27th, 2007, 12:26 pm

thanks.....

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Postby blackNshine » October 4th, 2007, 4:11 pm

nice read........both positive and negative aspects shown

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Postby Samiir_Tuner » October 16th, 2007, 5:43 pm

just thought i would put these up as they may be helpful
Car: 07 honda civic si
kit: extreme kit from xenondepot.com 5000k
before - Sylvania silver stars
Image
after - 5000k hids
Image
im amazed at the light output!

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Terran
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Postby Terran » October 24th, 2007, 10:40 am

If the reflector housing of the headlamp is designed for HID use, sure, this will work. Get someone to drive another vehicle towards you with those lights on and see if there's any glare. Just some advice.

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Postby Samiir_Tuner » October 24th, 2007, 2:28 pm

i did this because i dont have the funds available for my retrofit right now but i did drive towards my car with another and i am surprised at the minimum amount of glare..if it was horrible that kit would be history but since i had the kit on, no one ever flashed me their bright lights as yet so thats a good sign

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Terran
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Postby Terran » October 24th, 2007, 4:38 pm

Well, here's another suggestion. Line the car up facing a wall as straight as possible and take pics of the light output from 25ft., 30ft., and then 50ft.. Post them here, and let's see what your output is like.

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Postby Samiir_Tuner » October 24th, 2007, 5:00 pm

will do as soon as i get my camera..those were my phone pics..but remember it wouldnt look like oem projectors..i plan on doing a retrofit with tsx projectors just not right now.

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Terran
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Postby Terran » October 25th, 2007, 8:22 am

Halogen lamps have cut-offs pretty much like HID projectors. Judging from the pics you posted, you definitely have some improved foreground lighting. With a better camera and wall pics, we'd see the projection and cut off you are getting - that is, if it's not offensive to oncoming drivers. I would suspect that more modern vehicles that are not equipped with HID lights use adaptive optics for a conversion. HID lights do not necessarily demand projector optics, hence there are two HID bulb types - one for projector type housing and the other for HID reflector housing.

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Postby a_hardcore_trini » November 20th, 2007, 11:26 pm

so which would yall reccomend fo a n ad wagon and where will i get it

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Terran
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Postby Terran » November 21st, 2007, 8:11 am

I'm not recommending any kit to anyone, especially with an AD wagon which has headlights that are designed specifically for halogen only.

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Postby Mr. Mag » November 27th, 2007, 8:52 am

I GOTTA CK2....I see they got H1, H2, H3 & H4....which one would I need for my car and I would like to get hi AND low beam....cost and recommended kit? experts??

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Postby Samiir_Tuner » December 4th, 2007, 7:08 pm

read the instruction manual in your car and find out what bulbs they use (high and low)...for eg 9006 , 9005, h4 etc...i highly recommend doing your low beams first and then see if u still want the high beam hids..pleaseee dont go with anything over 6000k

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Postby Michael Knight... » December 10th, 2007, 8:05 pm

Nope, projectors aim light in a controlled manner as opposed to the OEM reflectors that are in our local cars. You can do it if you wish but the light will be scattered causing glare and of course, oncoming drivers flashing you to lower your beams.

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Postby Michael Knight... » December 10th, 2007, 8:09 pm

Oh by the way, I saw a couple people with HIDs flashing people (whether it be to pass or show off etc.) For those who may not know, if you flash HID's you are decreasing the lifespan of the bulb. How? The ballast that powers the bulbs needs time to warm up in order to produce maximum light output, when you flash the HID's the ballast has to power up and down and it was not designed for such fluctuations.

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Postby Michael Knight... » December 15th, 2007, 1:34 am

Not completely. The shield you're speaking of is called a casper shield. It only cups the bulb so the light can bounce off the inside of it, on to your reflector then on to the road. It reduces glare at the bottom of the reflector in your headlamp so the light doesn't scatter upwards, reducing it's output.

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