I wonder why Cadillac Escalades don't have projectors. Yet they use HIDs..

 

you can have hid in reflectors IF it's designed for hids.. if it's designed for halogens, you will get major glare..

there are two kinds of hids.. D2S and D2R:

http://www.autolamps-online.com/gasd...techcentre.htm



and our fit housing, even if it had a clear cut off for the halogens, does not have a cut off shield for the extra light output from hids

-joe

 

Dunno what you mean by HID or Halogen? Halogen as in regular bulbs? You can see the two ballast I installed. They're HIDs.

When you place an order let them know you want the H4-3. The difference, H4-3 is telescopic. The Single bulb moves forward and backwards for hi/lo beams in the bulb housing. H4-4 is dual bulbs, so one for low beams and one for high beams.

I'm against the dual bulbs because when you hit High beams, by the time the bulb is heated up, the car you flashed at has already passed by. That's if that particular one work that way.

 

the other bulb is halogen, it's not hid, so it doesn't take time to "heat up"



-joe

 

i wonder how safe that is for the HID bulb... considering it burns lower than halogen...... so whenever you're using your high beams you're actually overheating the expensive HID bulb

 

you are not going to run your high beams much, it's reallly there so that it's legal in places where they want distinct high lows..

-joe

 

Actually the link that was provided said their setup (H4-4) is a dual HID setup, which is what I'm looking for. I want HID highlights more than I want them as lowlights.

 

You want HID highlights more than lowlights? I don't get it.

Just get the H4-3 kit and you'll be happy. The H4-4 has dual HID bulbs. Not the one with HID/Halogen bulb. Again, The H4-3 I think will be better since the bulb is always on. It goes in and out of the housing for hi/low.

If you look at the photo I posted, you can see the bulb is just a single bulb. I should have taken a closer picture of the bulb before I installed it.

 

Would be cool to have a camera on a trypod, using a D-SLR or manually adjustable camera and get two Fits and compare the lighting with pictures similar to these. Stock low/high VS HID low/high.

 

That is my point. Not all Factory HID use Projector lights and they have no problems with beam. JDM FIT HID Housing's look very similar to the Export Halogen housings and that not all HID installations require Projectors for a clean cut off.

Bottom line, I have run HID in my Jazz for over 4 months and no other drivers have flashed me to let me know that my headlights glare anymore than other road users. (believe me, here in the UK, if you headlights are dazzling on-coming traffic, they will make it known by flashing their lights at you!)

Al.

 

I guess I shoulda taken pictures of the stock lights first. and dang I want them LED tail lights!

 

why didn't you put the ballast on the right side inside the bumper too since you have it off already, makes a cleaner install, i put mine under the headlights so u cant see anything inside the engine bay

 

Correct, not all Factory HID is projector. However, it is proven that reflector HID is inferior to projector HID. Reflector HID is old school.

By nature, the output of projector HID should be better than reflector HID. Besides a sharper and more brilliant cutoff, projector HID also creates better beam width, beam depth, and beam dispersion.

By the way, I am referring to Projector and Reflector Optics designed SPECIFICALLY FOR HID.

I see what you mean about not being flashed. So by putting HID into your halogen reflectors, you arent creating enough glare to cause others to flash you. I agree with that.

But there are other compromises to your setup. I am confident that the beam your headlights output is nowhere near the output of a stock HID setup.

I guess for me, my main reason to get HID is for superior optical performance. That's why I would go for a retrofit.

 

BTW the first gen TL has halogen lights. What you were referring to the first gen is actually the second gen TL (99-03), which has reflector HID lowbeams (D2R). The third gen TL (04-now) has projector bixenon HID (D2S).

We have a 99 TL at home. There is cutoff; I wouldnt exactly call it "very defined".

 

of course u can't compare aftermarket HID to factory HID, so what if there is little glare and no cutoff, but its still better than regular bulb and it looks better, if you want it so perfect then why not do the whole front end with the JDM factory HID LOL, i know retrofit will give you more light and a nice cutoff, but it looks stupid with a single projector in the middle of the headlight

 

Doing a JDM conversation is cost prohibitive. Anyways, putting in JDM HID would be dumb, considering that the cutoff would be designed for RHD. The cutoff would flare up on the wrong side.

Based on your response, you have HID for a different reason that me. You seem to care more about the HID "look" than the HID performance. Different strokes for different folks.

My comments are based from my experience. I have a DC4 Integra with a HID kit. The Integra actually came stock with halogen projectors. I spent $400 US back in 2004 on a Catz Low Beam 4300 k Hid Kit. Sure, it's better than stock, but pales in comparison to OEM HID. I really wish I had used the money instead on a HID retrofit.

Nowadays, HID retrofits are much more common and HID components are cheaper. The labor to do the retrofit (for those who dont want to do it themselves) is more readily available and cheaper as well. I am just warning people that if you really care about having the best lighting, then a retrofit should be seriously considered.

About your retrofit cosmetics, shrouds can be added to make the headlight look less lonely by itself.

 

let put it this way, let say I spent $300 for hid, would I spend another $300 to get that nice cutoff, no, if I had another set of headlights and some free parts lying around then may be I would do it myself, all I know is the HID does give me more light compare to stock and I would careless about that little glare from the light, and for sure they look better than stock

 

I really didn't think of that. I should've but, I wanted to show my buddies and family how HIDs work.

Man,, This thread is starting to get really technical. I really just wanted to make a installation write up for the HID enthusiasts. Cutoff, no cuttoff, glare, no glare, it's all about the fun.

Not to rain on you technical guys, but my write up was just to help fit owners from a headache figuring out where to put their HID ballast and wires, and how the front end would look without the bumper. I think we have plenty of other threads explaining about HID cuttoff and glares.

I installed the HID so I can see better at night because I travel alot to visit my family and I'm a HID enthusiast. Glad I went through all the trouble to install these to see better at night. Especially when them pack of deers are standing on the sides of the road.

-Tomi

 

you can careless because of selfishness :-P

it only affects other drives, not you :-)

joking :-)

-joe

 

I appreciate the write up. But HID is a relatively new technology, and therefore many are ignorant about the technology.