GE HID Installation

[bryanfor311]

obviously the glare in the photo is deceiving, are you overall pleased you made the switch, and how much difference do you think it really made?

[reako]

Originally Posted by bryanfor311

obviously the glare in the photo is deceiving, are you overall pleased you made the switch, and how much difference do you think it really made?

I'll try and dig up some info on how best to adjust them, just to be sure they are focused right where they should be. Anyone have a link to this?



Answered my own question...some great instructions for this: http://www.coolbulbs.com/HID-VISUAL-...-PROCEDURE.pdf

*Note - You'll need Adobe pdf reader to view the instructions. (Adobe - Adobe Reader)

[JDM_DOHC_SiR]

Looks really good and bright!.. just imagine what the car would be like with HID Fogs too!!

[reako]

Originally Posted by JDM_DOHC_SiR

Looks really good and bright!.. just imagine what the car would be like with HID Fogs too!!

I know!! That's the first thing I noticed once I fired up the HID's...makes me not want to even use them until I can get em' swapped out!

[n2oinferno]

Originally Posted by bryanfor311

obviously the glare in the photo is deceiving

No it's not. Putting HID in a halogen housing is going to give a terrible beam pattern. I bet the cutoff (or lack thereof) sucks and you're blinding oncoming traffic. There's a reason it's illegal to do so. If you're going to do HID, do it right and retrofit projectors. Still illegal but at least you'll have a normal beam pattern.

But hey, if you like it and don't care about others on the road headed in your direction, sure, why not. Just don't complain about the guy in the lifted truck whose headlights shine right in your eyes, because that's exactly what a stock housing + HID setup will look like.

[strmslvrfit]

Originally Posted by n2oinferno

No it's not. Putting HID in a halogen housing is going to give a terrible beam pattern. I bet the cutoff (or lack thereof) sucks and you're blinding oncoming traffic. There's a reason it's illegal to do so. If you're going to do HID, do it right and retrofit projectors. Still illegal but at least you'll have a normal beam pattern.

But hey, if you like it and don't care about others on the road headed in your direction, sure, why not. Just don't complain about the guy in the lifted truck whose headlights shine right in your eyes, because that's exactly what a stock housing + HID setup will look like.

actually the cutoff on my HID isnt blinding anyone, had my friend drive in front of me on level ground and he said there was no glare at all, hid kits would be fine on stock housings as long as you aim it right.

[n2oinferno]

Originally Posted by strmslvrfit

actually the cutoff on my HID isnt blinding anyone, had my friend drive in front of me on level ground and he said there was no glare at all, hid kits would be fine on stock housings as long as you aim it right.

So it looks about like this, right?



Because I'm willing to bet it doesn't.. And if it doesn't, and you have any leakage above that sharp cutoff line, then yes contrary to what anyone tells you you're blinding people. I understand that people spend money on these HID kits and want to justify their purchases because not all of them are inexpensive, and don't want to think of them as a modification that really wasn't something good in the end. I'm just spreading the truth.

If you've aimed them down to the point where you're actually not glaring people, then that's great, but then what you're doing is using the non-focused part of the beam to actually project out onto the road a shorter distance in front of you, thus eliminating the benefit you got from HID in the first place, unless you're just going for color temp. and don't care that you've not really made an "upgrade" overall anyway.

[tobey457]

Originally Posted by n2oinferno

So it looks about like this, right?



Because I'm willing to bet it doesn't.. And if it doesn't, and you have any leakage above that sharp cutoff line, then yes contrary to what anyone tells you you're blinding people. I understand that people spend money on these HID kits and want to justify their purchases because not all of them are inexpensive, and don't want to think of them as a modification that really wasn't something good in the end. I'm just spreading the truth.

If you've aimed them down to the point where you're actually not glaring people, then that's great, but then what you're doing is using the non-focused part of the beam to actually project out onto the road a shorter distance in front of you, thus eliminating the benefit you got from HID in the first place, unless you're just going for color temp. and don't care that you've not really made an "upgrade" overall anyway.

This man speaks the truth - but I'm sure someone will jump on his back and tell us how the glare 'isn't that bad'. But consider this, if you want to upgrade your lighting for safety reasons, by adding HIDs to a non-HID housing you're actually making the situation worse. Granted, some halogen housings accept HID lighting better than others, and produce less glare, but glare is glare, and HID lighting is intense, so even in the best case scenario, you're still going to be affecting oncoming traffic. Also remember that the glare problem is just front-facing, there's light leaking out towards the sides as well.



What I don't understand it this - look at the picture above, there is a cap over the bulb. Why can't someone engineer a suitable cap, specifically to be used with HIDs, so that HIDs can be used in a non-HID housing without the glare. I'm guessing the reason is that the cap would have to be made application specific, to work with the specific reflector portion of the headlight. But still, seems like something that could be attainable.

I really want HIDs, but I live in an area where a lot of people have HIDs in the wrong housings, and it's really annoying... you haven't lived until you have a jacked up F150 behind you with HIDs pointed over your roofline...

[txmatt]

Originally Posted by tobey457

What I don't understand it this - look at the picture above, there is a cap over the bulb. Why can't someone engineer a suitable cap, specifically to be used with HIDs, so that HIDs can be used in a non-HID housing without the glare. I'm guessing the reason is that the cap would have to be made application specific, to work with the specific reflector portion of the headlight. But still, seems like something that could be attainable

Most HID kits do have a glare shield that goes over the capsule, but that's only a small part of the equation. Even if the halogen reflector and lens assembly creates a good beam pattern with sharp cutoff using the halogen bulb, the light radiation pattern of an HID capsule is different from that of a halogen filament. In addition, halogen bulbs have to meet pretty strict alignment specs for the various Hx, 900x, etc bulb standards. There's no guarantee that an HID capsule that fits a given halogen assembly will actually place the light source at the same spot the halogen filament would be at.

The result is that the output of an HID kit in a halogen assembly is a crap shoot. Some combinations of kits and assemblies may be pretty good. More likely they'll be deficient in some areas (glare, proper light distribution, etc).

[XenithXenons]

Thanks for posting this up with pics and such OP

Lights look great on your car. Let me know if you have any further questions/concerns, thanks again.

[skytanker2003]

I beg to differ on the "blinding people" issue. I pointed mine at my garage prior to install, then after install and the pattern was the same: low on the left side, higher on the right side. Granted, they will be brighter so they will blind people anyway, but the projectors do the same.

reako: How did you get around the "DRL" (Daylight Running Lights) warning light staying on with the headlights off? The "DRL" light goes out when I flip the light switch to either "running light" or "headlight" setting, but otherwise as soon as I put it into gear, it comes on!

[reako]

Originally Posted by skytanker2003

reako: How did you get around the "DRL" (Daylight Running Lights) warning light staying on with the headlights off? The "DRL" light goes out when I flip the light switch to either "running light" or "headlight" setting, but otherwise as soon as I put it into gear, it comes on!

I pulled fuse 15 to disable DRL's as I'm sure you have, however I have yet to see a DRL warning light come on...I'm just lucky??

Anyway I believe one way to "solve" your issue at hand is to pull the e-brake a bit (it needs to stay a bit engaged) while the key is in the "OFF" position, then start the car and drive normally. Can't say I would do this with MY car but who knows, the e-brake probably doesn't engage at all until you really tug on it. Let me know if this works, never tried it myself.

[skytanker2003]

Yeah, I guess I'm just slow...didn't realize I'd lose my DRLs when I put my HIDs in...never had DRLs before! Oh well...I'll figure out something. Thanks for the quick response!

[713_fit]

pull fuse 15 to disable DRL
no lights will come on

[Fusiform]

I just installed... ok tried to install HID headlights from Zenith Xenons. My main question is that I wired and mounted everything. Went to try the lights and only the driver side light worked, both the high and low worked. I switched the ballasts and still the same thing. I plan on switching the bulbs in the morning but other then that, does anyone have any ideas?

Also, did anyone get the rubber gasket back on the HID bulbs? And last question, when you put the high beams on do your fog lights go out?

[reako]

Originally Posted by Fusiform

I plan on switching the bulbs in the morning but other then that, does anyone have any ideas?

From my limited experience I would say you may have a bad bulb, but definitely switch it with the passenger side tomorrow to confirm. Either way I'm sure the vendor would be happy to make it right ASAP.

Originally Posted by Fusiform

Also, did anyone get the rubber gasket back on the HID bulbs?

I'm not sure it can go back on with the new bulbs installed....I didn't install them and haven't had an issue..

Originally Posted by Fusiform

And last question, when you put the high beams on do your fog lights go out?

This is normal, the fogs go out whenever the high beams are activated, regardless of what type of bulb you have in there....unless you perform a mod like the one found here...Manual Fog light Operation

[strmslvrfit]

i did put the gasket on mine, i just cut up the hole bigger so it fit the bigger bulb base

Originally Posted by Fusiform

I just installed... ok tried to install HID headlights from Zenith Xenons. My main question is that I wired and mounted everything. Went to try the lights and only the driver side light worked, both the high and low worked. I switched the ballasts and still the same thing. I plan on switching the bulbs in the morning but other then that, does anyone have any ideas?

Also, did anyone get the rubber gasket back on the HID bulbs? And last question, when you put the high beams on do your fog lights go out?

[skytanker2003]

I got the rubber gasket back on w/o cutting...Dunno how effective it is now though...You know how when you take it off, it's all scrunched up to sit on the OEM bulb? I just stretched out all the folds so it's kind of like a cone-shape...slips right back on the assembly.

[niko3257]

also try to plug the bulb in back wards. sometimes the polarity
might be wrong.
i had this happen to me before.

[Fusiform]

It ended up being that I had a bad ground on my one light. Fixed that and everything is great except, when I have the lights on 75% of my radio stations are static. Anyone else experience this?